Tim Scullion's Blog, page 3
July 24, 2018
Blog #4: Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows—Edgewood Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia
Lizzy Rowland still waits for her lover to return from the Civil War in the upstairs window where she etched her name, at the Edgewood Plantation, built circa 1849 by her father. An episode of Ghost Hunters was filmed here as they searched for evidence of Lizzie and the Confederate soldiers that used the antebellum home to spy on the Union forces camped at the nearby Berkeley Plantation. Just a stones throw from this historic landmark is the Benjamin Harrison Grist Mill, built over 100 years earlier (1725). One of the reasons the home was not burned during the Civil War is that the owner ground corn for the Union army went it was camped at Berkeley. In a move to spy on, harass, and humiliate the Union forces, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart rode his cavalry around the massive army under General McClellan, and stopped at Edgewood for coffee and to rest for a few hours before completing the final leg of his legendary ride (June 15, 1862)—more famous in the South than the midnight ride of Paul Revere. With so much history in and around Edgewood, there should be no surprise that the grounds are teeming with paranormal activity.
My first night investigating the old plantation home I was tapped on the shoulder by an unseen presence as I waited for someone to answer the door. After going into the backyard fellow investigator Thomas and I crossed a small wooden bridge over a small stream. I photographed a mist with two eyespots gathering near him when he heard a disembodied voice with a heavy Southern drawl, complete with foul-smelling breath on his neck, say, “Let’s ride!”. I immediately thought of J.E.B. Stuart and his men—thinking that one of them, or perhaps even J.E.B. himself, was the one who spoke, reliving a moment in time known as a residual haunting. While guests slept in their rooms at the Edgewood home and several outbuildings, we roamed the grounds on a muggy summer night with the full moon illuminating our way. The encounter at the bridge was the most profound on our senses that evening, with the experience of hearing the voice, both feeling and smelling breath, and my camera being our eyes that enabled us to see what he had experienced with his other three senses. Thomas also saw a Confederate soldier on the roof of the home, holding on to the chimney and looking towards the Berkeley plantation as if there were still Union soldiers there to spy upon—but then again, maybe in his world there were . . . I missed the soldier as he vanished in an instant, as if he did not want us to spy upon him, but I captured more than enough photographic evidence to show that this haunted bed and breakfast has more than the living hanging around each evening.
So here are a few of the faces, some distorted and white, some evanescent and quite recognizable—if only I had a pictorial record of all those that spent some time at the Edgewood Plantation to compare them to. The last photo is from Harrison’s Grist Mill (1725), and any who are brave enough to enter are made sick by the malicious entities that reside there–could this be a photo of them? The most profound photo, and perhaps one that looks more like a typical Halloween ghost is the first one from the bridge—because it actually spoke to us:
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__________________________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
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Part 2 of this book will be released on August 28th, 2018, although it’s available for preorder right now. This book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
July 7, 2018
Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows—Jerome Grand Hotel in Jerome, Arizona, Part 2
The 30,000-square-foot United Verde Hospital lay dormant for 40 years before it became the Jerome Grand Hotel in 1994—and with a legacy of nearly 9,000 people dying within its walls—is it any wonder that guests say it’s filled with ghosts? One of the stories featured on Ghost Adventures was that of maintenance man Claude Harvey, his head crushed by the elevator in the basement in 1935—accident or murder? Claude is now said to be a permanent fixture on the elevator—randomly seen at all hours of the day and night. Guests at the hotel are more than willing to journal their experiences in a guest book in the lobby, and the owner states that a 300-page journal is filled each year with paranormal experiences. One of the owners, managing the front desk, received a phone call from an unoccupied room, and heard a lady say something that he could not comprehend. He called back and there was no answer. He went to the room to check and found the room vacant . . . of people.
Paranormal activity is most prevalent on the third floor, where the operating room was—and the locus of most of the deaths. Guests still hear the sound of a rolling hospital gurney, perhaps the last sound heard by many of the 9,000 before they took their final breath. The owners installed carpet—and yet you can still hear the movement! Room #32 has the most reported activity, purportedly because it was the site of two probable suicides: Businessman of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and a former minor who was looking at a lifetime in a wheelchair decided to cut it short by climbing over the railing and falling to his death.
During my journey up Jerome’s final tier from the Haunted Hamburger, I found a building with the sign Burlwood Furniture, where I captured 2 shadow people casually sitting and observing my journey from a large second-story window (See the photo in my previous blog). It seemed a fitting prelude before I rounded the bend and walked up to Jerome’s most haunted location. What did not seem to go with this whole scene was the traffic going back and forth on this very narrow road, running the gamut from Harleys to 4×4 trucks to luxury SUVs—all going to this dead end road with a haunted hotel. Once I reached the parking lot of Jerome’s Grand Hotel, I could see why: NO VACANCY—the place was sold out, and the dining room of the restaurant was full too. One of the first photos of the front façade of the building immediately showed the head of a classic white, and I just knew I would not walk away from here disappointed.
The front façade of Jerome’s Grand Hotel, with a ghost head right in front:
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I believe I could have gotten a lot more faces in the front of the hotel had it not been for the curtains and blinds at the windows, which make it extremely difficult to capture ghosts on camera. The side of the packed building was no better, but I was able to photograph several faces. The back of the building was much better, and you will see the results of my journey now. As for the strange face that looks like it has goat horns—I of have no explanation—so you will have to work that out in your own mind. I will say that I never fail to be surprised and even shocked with some of the photos that I’ve taken—the paranormal gets even more bizarre at every turn of the road, including the one into Jerome . . .
Other faces in the Jerome Grand Hotel:
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__________________________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Part 2 of this book will be released on August 28th, 2018, although it’s available for preorder right now. This book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
June 22, 2018
Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows—Jerome, Arizona
My third installment of going behind the paranormal television shows takes me to Jerome, Arizona a former copper-mining town once known as the “wickedest town in the West” (In 1903, The New York Sun ran the headline “This Jerome is a bad one. The Arizona copper camp now the wickedest town.”). An episode of Ghost Adventures was filmed here, concentrating on Jerome’s Grand Hotel as well as another commercial building that is nearby. Starting in 1876, Jerome’s population swelled to around 15,000 during the mine’s peak output to as little as 50 during the 1950s; the more recent surge to about 450 is probably due to its reputation as a haunted town. A town that was once full of miners, gamblers, bars, bordellos and prostitutes now houses lots of small shops and restaurants that cater to the tourist trade—with many references in store windows to the haunted character of Jerome to lure them in.
Mining is a dangerous job today, even with all of the federal safety regulations in place. During the mine’s heyday safety was an afterthought, and many a miner was injured and/or killed underneath the town of Jerome. Constructed in 1926, the building that today falls under the moniker Jerome Grand Hotel was once a hospital that treated all the men injured in the copper mine. There seems to be no doubt that its former role is now a major factor in the paranormal activity seen at the building. I found out an interesting tidbit of information about Jerome during the height of copper mining operations from a small shop manager: Not only were the conditions in the mines deplorable as far as safety, but it seems the mine’s owners, in collusion with the town’s politicians, drafted an ordinance that forbid any of the plethora of miners that had serious injuries from appearing on the streets of Jerome. Whatever was going on underground and behind the doors to the hospital, the owners of the United Verde Copper Company wanted to keep the casualties of their operations shielded from the public eye. Evidently these same men are still trying to be seen—post-mortem!
5,200 feet high on the side of Cleopatra Hill, Jerome’s streets are a series of terraces on the side of this “hill”, reinforced by high walls that keep it from sliding down the side of the mountain. As I went up to the town’s second level via a switchback, I came upon an interesting shop called the Firefly. The owner told me an intriguing story about the shop’s former role as a saloon that typifies the behavior of those in the “wickedest town in the West”: A man walked into the saloon and demanded the rent from one of the bartenders, Walter Vogel, in his late teens. Vogel responded that the rent was paid in full, and he was shot and killed on the spot. The Mafioso style rent enforcer would later find out that Walter was telling the truth . . . wicked town, wicked life.
When I went inside the Firefly, I discovered a sample of the malevolent history behind the shop that was as eclectic as its name from the affable owner, all the way from Louisiana. She urged me to go down to the basement to see the old photo (1908) of the saloon with the young Walter Vogel behind the bar—complete with a bar full of cowboys and miners all gathered in the back. I took a photo of this old black and white, and it would not disappoint. I came by later that night when the Firefly was closed and captured several faces in the front window, including one whose eyes have an eerie resemblance to those of the young Walter Vogel. Look for yourself—do you think the eyes in the ghost photo match those of the young Walter?
Compare the 2 photos—do the eyes in the ghost photo match those of the young man in the black and white photo?
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Several other faces showed up in the Firefly, the man with the white hair and the beard being the clearest and most obvious, with the other 2 faces showing up in a white “mist” near the ceiling.
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As I continued through the streets of Jerome, I came across a partial full-bodied apparition that stood in front of a biker bar that earlier had between 20 and 30 Harleys parked out front, with open doors that allowed the sounds of a 1950s rock band to escape to the street. The bikers had left, and evidently the ghost felt that it was time to leave too, perhaps to return when the action returned to his old watering hole.
Here’s a partial full-bodied apparition standing in front of a Jerome bar:
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On a third level of Jerome, I found the Haunted Hamburger, and of course I had to eat there, and after consuming my dinner and a massive piece of chocolate cake, I continued my hunt. What a shame that the lights in this restaurant were far too bright to enable a ghost to appear in its namesake—so I moved further up the street. I came upon a building housing a business called Burlwood Furniture, and behind a large ultra-violet geometric light apparition I found two shadow people casually looking out the second floor window as if they were part of the community of the living, and I guess in their own sense, they were.
Two shadow people casually look out a 2 nd story window in upper Jerome:
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This is the last building that I captured apparitions in before I rounded the corner of the third tier of Jerome to come on a square looking commercial structure—the last before the Jerome Grand Hotel. So far, Jerome is living up to its reputation, but I will save the last two places, purportedly the town’s most haunted, for Part II . . .
______________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Part 2 of this book will be released on August 28th, 2018, although it’s available for preorder right now. This book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
May 28, 2018
Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows—Relics in Sedona, Arizona
In this my second installment on going behind the paranormal television shows, I challenged myself to searching for photographic evidence in one of my favorite spots in this country: Sedona, Arizona. I went to a restaurant called “Relics”, featured on The Dead Files in March of 2017, with the restaurant proudly displaying this fact, signed photos from the show’s two stars, as well as a drawing of the psychic impressions of the phantoms that call this restaurant home. The second thing I noticed about the restaurant was candid shots of movie stars and posters of the movies shot in Sedona about a half a century ago—stars such as John Wayne, Henry Fonda (Jane’s father), and Glenn Ford. Finally, the restaurant is filled with relics from the past (antiques) that are for sale—hence the name.
I found out about the restaurant’s haunted reputation by asking several Sedona residents that I met. I stopped at the restaurant after a visit to the haunted mining town of Jerome (not too far from Sedona—more to come in a later blog on Jerome), arriving right before closing time. A smattering of families were just finishing their evening meal, and I asked for permission to search for the reclusive wraiths at Relics. The restaurant is divided into rooms that were given proper names, and my first stop was the Gibson Room—because that’s where The Dead Files psychic Amy Allan (according to the documents on the wall) sensed the paranormal presence of multiple entities. She also noted that the energy put off by these wraiths could cause a lot of stress, anxiety, and even physical symptoms such as stomach problems. According to the owner, employees and customers alike have reported “. . . things moving on their own, shadow figures in different forms, full body apparitions, and mood changes.”
I entered the haunted room to find an older man and two women finishing up the last of their evening meal, and I disclosed to them my intentions. They seemed to be more interested in tapping my brain about the sights to see in Sedona than discussing the paranormal. So while I answered questions about where to go in Sedona, I began to photograph the room, assuring the diners that I never use anyone’s photograph without expressed written permission. One of the women looked down to rummage through her purse for a credit card to pay her bill, and I captured the top of her head in one of the many photos that I took. A face literally appeared on top of her head that was so obvious that I could see it on my camera’s tiny review screen. I was stoked at having captured something so quickly, and as I left the Gibson Room I stopped to show the woman in charge—just to let her know that I was a serious photographer who could really find and capture ghosts on camera. (No, I don’t always succeed on my first try; some places in Colonial Williamsburg required multiple attempts.) I think that there was something about this woman that attracted the ghost—or she already had a spirit attachment. I wonder if this is the face of nineteen-year-old George Nelson, the young man who was shot in the back of the head with a shot gun—splattering his brains everywhere in the car—and yet he did not die instantly, but died a slow, painful death right outside in Relics parking lot in 1957.
This face appeared over top of a woman’s head as she bent down to look inside her purse for her wallet.
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I hoped to also find the face of drifter/alcoholic Randy Austin, a regular who left the Relic’s bar area in 2006 and went out and laid face down in the middle of Route 89, where a motorist (that did not see him until it was too late) ran right over the despondent drinker. I thought that perhaps I might find a single or group of Native Americans, who were removed from the area in 1872, when soldiers forced the Yavapai and Apaches out of the area. A group of Apaches attempted to hide out in a cave and fight not to be removed from their ancestral home and sites that they considered sacred, but the soldiers found out about it—the result was the Skeleton Cave Massacre, in which about 75 of the Native Americans were killed and approximately 30 were forcibly taken to a reservation. In 1875 the remaining 1,500 Native Americans in the area were forcibly marched to a reservation south near Phoenix in February, with hundreds dying along the way—and they were not allowed to bury them.
So with so much death near or at this sight, I was hopeful to find some identifiable faces (possibly even matching them to photographs). I cannot say with any degree of certainty that the very first photo that I got was the face of George Nelson, but it is a possibility—if you watch this episode of The Dead Files, pause it over the photo (at 18:11) and compare them. What do you think? I captured a rather intimidating skeletal face on the outside of the building—is this what is described as an “elemental” in the show? I also found a fellow with an angular forehead and a large mustache, as well as two men with beards. The last group of 2 photos is rather bizarre: Although I divided one into two photos, I found a large, almost skeletal face, with a smaller face that appears to be African-American on the left. Below that is the face of an angry African-American with what might be a dog covering part of his face—and if you watch the episode you will hear Amy Allan describe a ghost dog that she primarily sees in the kitchen that brushes up against people and causes accidents—is this what she saw? I would like to go back to see what else I could find at Relics—it seems to be quite the intriguing hangout for the dead as well as the living . . .
The Skeletal Face; is it from the massacre?
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These last 2 photos are the most bizarre; the first features a skeletal face and the smaller face of what appears to be an African-American.
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This last photo has both the face of a very angry-looking African-American (and there is no story of an African-American associated with the restaurant) and what may be the ghost dog described by Amy Allan in this particular episode of The Dead Files.
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For the next blog I’m going to be examining the photos from Jerome—once described as the “Wickedest City in the West”. Stay tuned for that, as well as my second release on the ghosts of the world’s largest living museum, Williamsburg, which I affectionately renamed the world’s largest active ghost museum. The book will be released in August (2018), with the title Breakthrough Ghost Photography of Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, Part 2. There are some intriguing surprises in this book, including perhaps the largest group of ghosts ever captured on camera!
May 17, 2018
Going Behind the Paranormal Television Shows– The Red Garter in Williams, Arizona, Part II
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In this the second part of my blog on the Red Garter in Williams, Arizona, I’m going to focus in on one of the more colorful owners of the former saloon/bordello. If you recall the photo from part I was taken circa 1934 (above), and it had the ghost of a former “working girl” on the far left side (some believe her name is Eve) with no reflection in the nearby mirror. The man standing next to the pool table in that old photo is Longino Mora, who made out quite well selling bootleg liquor from his saloon during the Prohibition years of 1920 to 1933. I know, the condition of the place in the photo doesn’t look like Mora was flourishing, but I think he was spending his money on other things: It seems that Mora had quite the libido–he was married five times and fathered twenty-five children, fathering his last child when he was eighty! In addition to selling illegal liquor, Mora also broke Arizona’s gambling laws, hiding his gaming tables behind a partition in the saloon. Likewise Arizona had laws against prostitution, but local laws in Williams allowed for the licensing and taxing of the working girls. So out of his three illegal activities, Mora only had to worry about the gambling and selling the bootlegger’s brew, because prostitution was a fixture and a source of income for the town of Williams. At the age of ninety, and in poor health, Longino Mora decided to end it all by plunging a knife into his chest in 1938, just four years after the photo was taken.
Here is the cropped photo of Longino Mora, the owner of the Red Garter, captured in 1934. Compare the following faces that I captured to this one–is there a match?
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As soon as I heard that Mora committed suicide, I began to study the male faces that I captured in the windows of the Red Garter, because I have seen evidence that the ghosts of those who commit suicide often stay behind in the house or building where they chose to end it all (and I have to wonder if that is their punishment). The Peyton Randolph House is a good example of a place that is haunted by the angry wraith of a man that committed suicide; does his never-ending despair drive him to intimidate and scare people? So I began my search for the former owner of the Red Garter, and I came up with three faces that may qualify. So I’m going to post the 1934 photo of the former owner and the faces that I captured in the windows. I believe that one looks like a pretty good match–tell me what you think! Does the ghost of the former owner haunt the Red Garter?
This first face was captured in the early afternoon right before I ate lunch at the Canyon Cafe–the business that now occupies the space of the former Red Garter Saloon.
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These next 2 faces were taken in the early evening at the Red Garter. Do any of these faces match the photo of Longino Mora?
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On another note, I just turned in the final edit for my second book, which is now on its way to its first printing. So stay tuned for my second release on the ghosts of the world’s largest living museum, Williamsburg, which I affectionately renamed the world’s largest active ghost museum. The book will be released in August (2018), with the title Breakthrough Ghost Photography of Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, Part 2. There are some intriguing surprises in this book, including perhaps the largest group of ghosts ever captured on camera!
______________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
May 10, 2018
Going Behind Paranormal TV: The Red Garter in Williams, AZ
I do not watch the plethora of paranormal television shows too often; I probably have seen “Ghost Adventures” more than any of the other shows simply because it was one of the first of that genre. That said, and without any malice or disparagement towards anyone, I thought that it would be a challenge to go behind these shows to the very same places that they investigated and hopefully find evidence that they could not. So on my trip out to the Southwest, I came upon the Red Garter in Williams, Arizona–where I was told that the former bordello/saloon was featured on paranormal TV (Ghost Adventures? Anyone seen this episode?). So I spoke with Anna, the manager of the Canyon Cafe, which occupies the former saloon part of the establishment, who kindly gave me permission to photograph the downstairs area of the building, completed in 1897 as a part of Williams’ infamous “Saloon Row”. The dual function of the Red Garter was to satisfy the carnal needs of the loggers, the cowboys, and the men that worked on the railroad that connected Williams to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon: Whiskey and women. In an effort to remind patrons of the Red Garter’s former role to its clientele, a mannequin hangs out from a second story window dressed like an early twentieth century “working girl” trying to allure customers to her “crib”. Today, in lieu of a bordello, the upstairs of this building functions as a bed and breakfast, and the saloon/pool hall downstairs has been replaced by a modern cafe. However, the cafe prominently displays a reminder of what life was like in the same space in the early twentieth century: A rather large photo is framed and hanging prominently in the cafe. Taken circa 1934, the photograph shows the owner, Longino Mora, and some of his family standing next to a pool table, with a bar to the left. A most intriguing feature of this look into the building’s past is what’s leaning against the bar to the far left: A Hispanic woman wearing a black top and a smile that belies her secret–she wasn’t really present for the picture–according to those present–she was not standing there! They believe that she was a former prostitute by the name of “Eve”, and why she felt compelled to appear in the photo no one knows. Oddly enough, the mirror straight back from the former working girl holds no reflection of her presence–how does light show up in a photo and not reflect in a mirror? Are ghosts able to change the properties of light or the laws of physics?
I stopped into the Canyon Cafe in early afternoon for a late lunch of fish and chips, and after getting permission from Anna I began to take a few photos of the inside of the cafe. I captured the blurred image of a phantom standing right next to our table, and then after hearing the story of the ghost working girl hanging across the room from our seats, I had to photograph the cafe’s photo-bombing phantom.
Here is the blurred image of a ghost right next to my table at the Canyon Cafe–in the early afternoon (Look to the far left).
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I discovered two things from this fading photograph: When I zoomed in on the photo I quickly realized that “Eve” was not the only phantom present. Right at her shoulder is a more intimidating presence, and it is not smiling. To the left of the second phantom is another, making me wonder what role these wraiths played in relation to both this building and to Eve. I discovered that one of the “johns” was stabbed in the back on the stairway to carnal heaven by a working girl, and he fell down the stairs and out the front door, dying on the sidewalk in front of the Red Garter. Could that be the angry, murdered cowboy at the shoulder of the smiling Eve?
Here is the photo of the owner and part of his family circa 1934 in the Red Garter Saloon, with the ghost of a former prostitute believed to have been “Eve” to the far left.
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I discovered another phantom at the shoulder of “Eve”; notice that although Eve is smiling, this ghost has a rather intimidating look to it.
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Just a few feet away another paranormal presence can be seen in this almost century old photo:
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I came back later that evening to resume my photo-op of the former bordello, and I captured some compelling faces in the windows, including the face of a female phantom. Take a look at the face that I captured in the window and compare it to the face of Eve from the old photograph–the same girl or different?
Compare the photo of Eve circa 1934 to the photo of another female phantom that I recently captured; is it the same woman?
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The second thing that I discovered has to do with the colorful, intriguing former owner of the saloon, which you can read about in part II of this blog. Stay tuned for that, as well as my second release on the ghosts of the world’s largest living museum, Williamsburg, which I affectionately renamed the world’s largest active ghost museum. The book will be released in August (2018), with the title Breakthrough Ghost Photography of Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia, Part 2. There are some intriguing surprises in this book, including perhaps the largest group of ghosts ever captured on camera!
______________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon:
[image error]
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
September 21, 2017
Gettysburg: A Gathering of Ghosts
As I looked out over the huge rocks down to the open fields below, I tried to comprehend the thought of 51,112 casualties of war–the official stat from the Civil War Trust. One of my relatives fought in this the costliest battle of the Civil War in human life–from this very vantage point at Little Round Top, Day 2 of the 3-day battle of Gettysburg. I felt strangely connected as I stood on the boulders, photographing a strange mist that my camera picked up that I could not see with the naked eye. Seconds later I picked up a white figure near the trees, and in the next photo part of it turned navy blue–indicative of a Union uniform? As I went to jump from one boulder to another to possibly get a better photo of the figure, I saw a dark shadow move into the trees from the path. I couldn’t help but think of what the difference is between the white figure, the figure in the blue uniform that I captured on my digital camera just a second later, and the dark figure that I saw with my eyes–is it based on how one lives their life, or their mood, or their overall outlook on life, or does it have to do with light and dark matter that makes up the universe? Whatever the cause of their appearance, I was not alone as I gazed out into the visually empty fields of green and tried to imagine them stained with the blood of thousands of men fighting for causes they may or may not have believed in.
Here are the figures that showed up on a digital photo on Little Round Top (taken just a second apart), the site of a particularly ferocious Confederate assault whose outcome changed the whole Civil War. Notice that in the 2nd photo part of the figure is clad in a navy blue uniform.
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I came upon Gettysburg quite by accident; you see I had to deliver a revised edition of my second book along with new photos to my publisher in Pennsylvania, turn in the signed contract for book #2, as well as talk with my editor and publicist. Because it was their annual picnic, I would also get to meet with my publisher and other authors to talk about their latest projects, interests, and endeavors. We traveled up Route 95, the main traffic artery along the East Coast, and traffic became congested and slow-moving due to returning vacationers as well as Florida residents trying to escape the wrath of Hurricane Irma–before we even came to Washington D.C., which is always a bottleneck. So we took an alternate route that took us within 6 miles of Gettysburg–and I have been anticipating going there for several years. So we diverted that afternoon to the site of so much carnage over 150 years ago to see if this bucolic setting of green fields and trees held any evidence of the vitriol between the opposing sides of the Civil War.
It was ironic that such a beautiful day on the East Coast was the precursor to such a violent storm that would ravage Florida and Georgia, and in a fitting analogy just like the irony of the beauty of the pastoral green fields of Gettysburg being overrun with blood stains from over 50 thousand men. Our journey began at the Gettysburg National Park Visitor’s Center, from which we would obtain a map to follow a self-guided tour in our car through and around the major points of conflict. Along the way I would take many photos, and came up with some convincing evidence that the battlefield and its buildings are still holding on to some of its fallen. I was shocked by how many faces that showed up in the Lutheran Seminary and the other buildings on Seminary Ridge. There were also faces in the Trostle farmhouse and outbuilding, as well as other stops throughout the tour.
Here are a group of faces captured in a window at the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg. Perhaps the battle is still being fought for these men:
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All I could think of at the end of the day as we sat eating at a Gettysburg brewery/restaurant was that I hadn’t even left yet and the place was calling me back. Whether it was the fact that I had multiple relatives that fought on both sides of the conflict, or just that one person that fought and was wounded at Little Round Top that was the draw I cannot say–I just have to go back. I won’t go into all the details about the Battle of Gettysburg or even the Battle at Little Round Top–the Civil War Trust can do a much better job. I would like to share the photographs of the mist that I found at Little Round Top, the figures by the tree, as well as a group of many faces that I captured in the Lutheran Seminary on Seminary Ridge–something the Civil War Trust can’t do. In fact, according to them, the hauntings at Gettysburg basically started in the 1990s when there was a concerted effort to hunt for the paranormal “myth”–and to make a little money selling ghost tour tickets. As a former skeptic myself, I know that the only way to convince a skeptic of the reality of the paranormal is if they have an unexplainable experience themselves. In the meantime I will keep accumulating and sharing my photographic evidence for those of you that know about this netherworld–a place where the word “myth” does not apply . . .
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
July 8, 2017
Ghosts, Energy, & the Haunting of Crawford Road
We get our energy by consuming food and converting it into energy for movement and thought, ghosts do not have to convert–they absorb it directly: I’m talking light energy, heat energy, and yes even energy stored in batteries. (Have you ever heard paranormal groups say that the batteries in their instruments were drained? More about this in a minute.) So I do not believe that ghosts are cold creatures, but when they pass near us or even touch us we feel cold because they can suck the heat energy right out of you. I have experienced this many times when out photographing ghosts as well as in my own home. As I stated in a past blog I passed my arm right through a ghost and it felt like my arm was placed into a very cold freezer. Apparently “food” comes in a completely different form for the dead! So the walking dead will not try to eat your flesh, but they will try to absorb your heat energy.
Paranormal television does not use this fact to their advantage, and most of the evidence you see may be sketchy at best. Let me give you an example from my experiences: One of the most haunted roads in this country is Crawford Road, but the bridge that is the center of most of the paranormal activity is in a very dark, forested area that is not near any human dwellings. So there is no ambient lighting from any neighborhoods or even streetlights, just a canopy of trees that prevents even light from the full moon from filtering down. So results from my first visit were blurry and questionable at best without any lighting, and without driving my SUV under the bridge. However a return to the area with lighting, people, and these same hot, humid conditions gave me very different results.
The ghost story most often told about Crawford Road is about the young bride that will jump off the bridge to hang herself. Some say she was being forced to marry someone that she did not love, and chose suicide over a forced marriage. There are many variations of the story, depending on who you talk to. But the one consistent part of the legacy is that as you drive your car slowly under the bridge, or if you stop and park under the bridge, the battery in your car will be drained and immediately after occupants of the vehicle will see a woman jump or fall from the top of the bridge and remain suspended from an invisible rope. (I will have a more comprehensive story in my upcoming book to be released in the spring of 2018.) Often this fall is accompanied by a thump on the car as if the suspended body hit it, curiously preceded by the battery being drained, and if the car is left on–the engine will cut off. This connection to energy consumption makes me think that the ghost needs the shot of energy provided by the car battery in order to reenact the hanging. Although I have a firsthand account of the paranormal activity at Crawford Road, I have not been able to capture a photo of the hanging bride . . . yet. I do have some photos that demonstrate how ghosts are able to appear more clearly if there is a nearby energy source.
The first time I went to the bridge, I was able to capture what appears to be a ghost with his arm outstretched as if he was waving to us. Everything was quite blurry except the eye detail, and you can see that the spirit has blue eyes. A second time, when there were people, several cars with engines on, and headlights shining, I was able to get a much clearer photo of a ghost. This ghost, conversely, does not have a lot of detail in the eyes, but it appears to be a male with a beard and a high collared shirt that could be from the Victorian Age (late 1800s). This has happened at other places, and although it’s not definitive proof, it seems to be pointing to the hypothesis that ghosts need an independent source of energy to make a more detailed apparition when trying to be seen–and yes, I think they want you to know that they are there! Wouldn’t you?
Check out the 2 ghost photos below taken at Crawford Road. The first was captured without lighting, a lot of people, and vehicles with their engines running and the lights on; the second photo taken with all of that ambient energy present.
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
June 17, 2017
Warm Humid Nights, Fog, Thunderstorms & Ghosts!
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Forget Halloween; I find that warm, humid weather brings out the ghosts–which is why I do not understand why paranormal groups are so adamant about ghost-hunting during the Halloween season. Warm humid nights are ideal for finding ghosts–especially before or during a thunderstorm, when the air and ground are charged with positive and negative particles. I have quoted the theory of Einstein physicist Janus Slawinski, who hypothesized that humans have an electromagnetic conscience, which may be the reason for these factors. Could there be a more ideal time for an electromagnetic entity to come out than in the rain, high humidity, or fog? The same conditions that promote lightning (a form of electromagnetivity) may enable ghosts to manifest themselves. An entity that is pure energy would have to replenish its energy much the way we have to eat to survive; could that happen during a thunderstorm? I know that in the movies, the thunderstorm just adds to the fear factor and the unknown when the protagonist encounters the paranormal, but could this be the logical explanation why this happens in real life? The same goes for the fog–how many times have you seen a movie that purports that the fog is not just a fallen cloud of moisture, but its a transport carrying the fallen souls of those long deceased?
Time and time again I have gotten much better photographic results on warm humid evenings, and when there are thunderstorms the results are even better. As I have mentioned before, I live on the outskirts of a Civil War battlefield, and not only have I seen men in navy blue uniforms (Union soldiers) in our house on a regular basis, but the activity is amped up during a thunderstorm (when I observe it on a security camera equipped with infrared capabilities). By activity I mean softball-sized orbs traveling at speeds that are much faster than a piece of dust or moisture is capable of without a moving air current, as well as pixelated outlines of large forms, sometimes resembling the outline of two humans walking.
We experienced a fog or cloud that rapidly engulfed our car as we turned into the neighborhood early last fall. I was driving about 30 mph when something came over top of the car and down onto the windshield that looked like fog. I can say with a degree of certainty that fog does not move that fast! In just a split second, the cloud came out of nowhere and engulfed the whole windshield of my SUV. Keep in mind that this was a small “cloud” and that there was no other “fog” in the area at the time–although it was a warm humid evening. It happened so fast that the car blew right through this small fog before I even had time to react, and when I looked in both the rear-view mirrors the cloud had instantly dissipated. I use the words cloud or fog loosely because that’s what it looked like, but I cannot say with any degree of certainty that what I saw was actually moisture moving through the atmosphere. I did however see and photograph a fog that appeared at a beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina that had blurred faces within it, making me believe that it was some form of moisture that was at the same time conducting these electromagnetic fields of consciousness–ghosts. What makes me think “paranormal” was that I took several photos in quick succession, but the “cloud” appeared instantaneously in the last photo. I’m talking about appearing in seconds as well as containing blurred faces, not something that the wind blew in in a few minutes. Keep in mind that this area is known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”, and that thousands of ships have been sunk right off these beaches. Perhaps these next few photos are just a few of the faces of the many unfortunate sailors that perished in shipwrecks off the treacherous shores of North Carolina:
Here are some of the blurred photos from the beach “fog” at the Outer Banks:
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This is a photo of a pair of eyes in a breaking wave:
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So take it from someone that has taken thousands of photos of ghosts (getting close to 20,000 now), the optimum time to ghost hunt is now–the warm humid nights of summer. Even better right before or during a thunderstorm, when the ground and air are charged with positive and negative ions–potential energy for electromagnetic entities. Also, the next time you see fog, keep in mind that you may be looking at something that is more than moisture in the air–you may be looking at an energizing transport for lost souls. They are everywhere, and many of them want to be noticed!
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timscullion43/
May 26, 2017
Enormous Orbs at William & Mary
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If you look on the back cover of my book Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia you will see a photograph (see top photo) of something that gives a whole new meaning to the word “orbs”. You see up until now orbs have been rather small (perhaps baseball or softball sized) circular points of light that vary in strength from a bright white color to a grey color and in some cases just an opaque shape. But in the photo of the crypt side of the Wren Building (Yes, there are famous Virginians buried there!) on the campus of William and Mary I captured orbs that are gigantic, towering over if not dwarfing the 3-story building. I have captured orbs of similar size at the Mathews County Baptist Church (see photo below), and upon seeing these photos I wonder if these anomalies are really ghosts. Could something of that size come out of a human body that is on the average somewhere between five and six feet tall?
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Several researchers throughout the world, have theorized that our mind is an “electromagnetic conscience” (their words, not mine) because they cannot find a tissue area of the brain where thoughts coalesce to form conscious thought. So they theorize that since nerve signals are electrical, the conscience is likewise electromagnetic in nature and functions as a separate unit in conjunction with our brains. (I go into this a little deeper in my second book, due out in the spring of 2018.) This is what some scientists (like physicist Janus Slawinski) believe can survive the death of the human body. Once death has occurred and the electromagnetic conscience leaves the body, does it expand to an area much larger than the space taken up by the human body? Could that be an explanation for these gigantic apparitions? When water changes from a liquid to a gas, the volume of the area taken up by water vapor increases by a factor of 1,700–meaning that it takes up 1,700 times the space that it did as a liquid. Could this be an analogy for the human soul also? Could the expansion of the electromagnetic field that results from the death of the human body be an explanation for these monstrous orbs?
Something else that I thought as a possibility from this same line of thought: Is this likewise an explanation for the phenomena of psychics? Could the electromagnetic field of a psychic already be at least partially expanded from the confines of the human body, and thereby be an explanation for the psychic’s ability to pick up on another person’s thoughts? In a similar vein, if a person walks within the confines of these huge orbs, could the “ghost” pick up on our thoughts? Do they know what we are thinking?
By suggesting plausible theories what I hope to do is take the idea of the human soul or ghosts out of the realm of mysticism and the occult and look at it logically. I have taken almost 20,000 photographs myself–more than enough to convince myself that ghosts are real, and I hope that the photos in my blog and book are able to convince my readers of this reality. As for myself, I will continue to experiment with the technology to get even better photos, but even with the photos, there are still a lot of questions. We may soon have (or perhaps already have) the technology to fill all the gaps in our knowledge about this alternate reality–all we have to do is pursue it!
_________________________________
After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon:
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Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
Join me on these social media sites:
Please help support these free blogs: https://www.patreon.com/timscullion
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timscullionauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tim_scullion
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timscullion43/
