Tim Scullion's Blog, page 4
May 6, 2017
Civil War Ghosts in My House
I’m not sure if time has any effect or meaning to ghosts, but last night they seemed to be out and about. Einstein physicist Janus Slawinski theorized that ghosts are an electromagnetic conscience, and time would have no effect on ghosts. I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds like they would live forever. Regardless of whether time has an effect on ghosts or not, they must be aware of its passing. Last night, May 4th, 2017, was the 155th anniversary of an event that claimed the lives of 3,843 men. The small rural town of Williamsburg, once the bustling capital of Virginia, was now a sleepy farming community when over 70,000 men converged on its east side to fight an inconclusive battle of the Civil War in 1862. (Some call this the Battle of Williamsburg; others call it the Battle of Fort Magruder.) Houses were overflowing with the wounded and the dead, mass graves were dug in several places, and the butcher shops that they called hospitals had piles of arms and legs right outside their doors as limbs were often needlessly removed for fear of infection and death. The Union doctor, an alcoholic, was given the moniker the “Yankee Butcher” for removing arms and legs that could have been saved. Isn’t it funny that Colonial Williamsburg is known all over the world for its role in the pursuit of American independence, but the story of this little-known Civil War battle is hardly known–even to longtime residents. What I wonder is how many people in this neighborhood, or even on this side of town, have experienced the paranormal because their homes were built on the battlefield?
You know of the effects that the attacks of 9/11 had on our nation’s largest city-killing 2,753 there, and yet more people died in the small town of Williamsburg than actually lived here–almost twice as many! I have numerous examples of what appears to be Civil War ghosts in my first book (Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography) and the second release that’s due out in the spring of 2018, but I thought I would tell you a little about the experiences that I have had at my house–especially last night. Yes, we have multiple ghosts here, including what appears to be two Union soldiers as well as a man whose death has been more recent. (I have photographed a few faces that I will show you.) This man shows up more often that the soldiers because my wife and I sleep in the room that he died in. How do I know? Last night, as my wife got out of bed to go to the bathroom, his apparition appeared to her face-down at the foot of our bed. I told her that he was letting us know that he died in this room, which is why he keeps trying to come in. He was a stocky man, who had a sheet laid over him with bare shoulders and legs sticking out as if the paramedics had covered him up.When I walk out into the living room from my bedroom, I have often heard a heavy sigh, and I think the man that died there is distraught because we do not want him in the bedroom when we are sleeping. My wife saw his apparition later that morning with a ball cap on and standing near the window in our bedroom, so I’m certain that he was trying to convey the message that he lived in this house and died in the room we are now sleeping in–perhaps even to scare us enough to leave his room.
If that’s not enough, we also have the two Union soldiers who may have died right by the inside front entrance to our house. We will often see what looks like the pixelated outlines of two men walking down our hallway on the Cox security camera. Of course when we look in the hallway, they are not to be seen. Because our security camera has infrared capabilities, I believe that we cannot see them because they are manifesting themselves in infrared light–invisible to the naked eye. Often members of the family and friends feel like someone is following them as they walk in the hallway, up the stairway, or into the laundry room. Most of us have seen a large black mist in different parts of the house; my wife saw it hovering over me as I slept in bed. She woke me up to tell me, and I asked it to please leave our room, which it did. Another time my wife saw it follow her into the room and stood by the closed door at the entrance. She whispered to me to get up and ask it to leave; so I got up, walked across the room and reached my arm out to open the door. When I did, my arm instantly got ice cold as if I had stuck it into a freezer, all the tiny hairs on my arm stood straight up, my arm got goose flesh, and the chills ran from my arm to and down my spine. Again I asked it to leave as I opened the door, which it quickly complied, and I began to feel some of the heat return to my arm. I could not see the apparition but my wife could, and as I came back to bed I showed her my arm.
She said, “That’s because you reached right through the black mist to open the door!”
Neither of us know if the black mist is the man that died in our room, one of the two Civil War soldiers, or just another entity altogether. But the fact that it’s a black mist is more than a little disconcerting–even though when I asked it to leave it immediately dissolved into the air.
There are a few other manifestations of the ghosts in our house that both family and friends have experienced. One of the ghosts has taken up the task of completely unnerving people by whispering their name into their ear when they least expect it. (Of course, I cant say that anyone ever expects to hear an unseen presence whispering their name into their ear!) We hear footsteps upstairs at all hours of the night, doors will open when the person witnessing the movement can plainly see there is no human pushing the door open. The thing about the footsteps last night was that they were thunderously heavy at one point–as if a very large, heavy man was stomping on the second floor–and no one living was upstairs at the time. Was that because it was the anniversary of the Battle of Williamsburg, or was it some other stimulus that prompted the raging footsteps?
I could go on, but I think you get the point. We have some unwelcome guests in the house–of course, from their perspective–we are the unwelcome guests. (Have you ever seen the movie “The Others”?) I have gotten used to the paranormal manifestations, but the rest of my family hasn’t. But then again I do not have the ability to see dead people, and they do. Until I can walk a while in their shoes, I will not judge them, just respect their need to distance themselves from these entities. That’s why we will be moving soon, hopefully to a place without ghosts. Anyone interested in living in a haunted house?
I will post some of the faces that I’ve photographed below–but although quite a few people have witnessed the navy blue uniforms of the Civil War soldiers, none could see their faces well enough to identify them from the following faces I’ve captured in the foyer of my house, peering through the glass at me. Which 2 faces do you think are the Civil War soldiers? Any of you care to have roommates?
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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/
April 15, 2017
Ghosts are Attracted to Children . . .
Perhaps you’ve heard that statement before–does it surprise you? Does it shock you? I have gotten some amazing photos around the Powder Magazine when Colonial Williamsburg’s Virginia Militia re-enactors are teaching children of about middle school age what it was like to be in the military in the 18th century. During this teaching moment, I took a photo the other night that captured paranormal lights around the children that perhaps may validate the statement that I just made: Ghosts are attracted to children. Why–I don’t know–but my best guess is that the children have what the ghosts want: Life. They have a whole lifetime ahead of them, and the ghosts have had a whole lifetime that has past them–could that be the source of the attraction?
Middle-school children stand at attention as Colonial Williamsburg’s Virginia Militia re-enactors (not in the photo–they are off to the left) are teaching them what it was like to be in the military in the 18th century. But in front and all around them are perhaps former members of the militia that would like to participate too. Additional photos around the powder magazine that will appear in my 2nd book (to be released in the spring of 2018) will shock and amaze you! This photo came straight from the camera and was not modified in any way with any computer program!
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Another idea is that children, particularly small children, are able to see things that we do not. Some have suggested that as we get older our minds block sensory signals that we do not understand or cannot comprehend. Something that we may have seen and been aware of as a child may not be there as an adult because our conscious mind dismisses these sensory signals as irrelevant since we cannot make sense of them.
So did you, or someone you know in your family have an “invisible friend” that could only be seen by him or her? Perhaps that friend was as real as you or I. The reason I make that suggestion is based on an experience in my own family. I’m going to tell you a story about a child in my family who had (has) an invisible friend that he would talk to and even play with in his room. This is a small excerpt from my second book, which is scheduled to be released next spring (2018):
I do have another intriguing story of a young man in my family who would like to remain anonymous, so I shall tell this story without naming the family members. When this young man was about three years old, he had an imaginary playmate, and he could be heard carrying on a conversation in his bedroom with this person. Whenever his mother would inquire to whom he was speaking, he would always say what we thought was, “I’m talking to the man.” Now this response had frightened his mother, especially after learning that construction on a mall just a few hundred feet from their house was halted because an ancient Indian burial ground had been unearthed. His mother had no idea who this “man” could be, and it frightened her not knowing who he was or what he wanted with her son. Well the conversations with the invisible playmate continued, and one afternoon the boy’s grandmother came into the room.
Her grandson immediately responded, “Awwww, you scared away the man.”
She replied, “What man?”
The boy answered, “The man knows you!”
Now the grandmother was freaked out, and the mother and the grandmother both began to panic from the implications of an unseen entity talking to their grandson/son. They began discussing what they could do, and moving away was debated. Although what the boy said in these conversations was innocuous, they had no idea what the invisible entity was saying to the boy, and that unknown factor frightened them. Finally an answer came when the mother brought the boy to our house, and she was standing in the hallway holding him. On the wall in the hallway are a number of pictures of our family, and the boy looked at one and exclaimed:
“There’s my ma’am!”
“Where’s your man?’ His mother responded incredulously.
“No, not man. Ma’am!” he corrected her. “She’s right there!”
The boy pointed to a photograph of his great grandmother, whom he had never seen or met. “That’s my ma’am.” (The boy had been taught to address people that he did not know as sir and ma’am.)
“That’s who you talk to in your room all the time?”
“Yea; she plays with me. She said she knows you. She said she loves you, you know!” he said matter-of-factly.
His grandmother asked him if he saw her in any other photos on the wall, and he correctly pointed her out in three other photographs. It has been a few years since this happened, and the boy has no recollection of what we thought was his imaginary playmate. It makes me wonder—did I have an imaginary playmate that has slipped away from my memory? Was that person a relative from my past? Has this happened to anyone else in my family? Why do we forget something as profound as that? Do our imaginary friends make us forget? Have you ever asked your family if you had an imaginary friend?
So if a child in your family has a playmate that you don’t see, perhaps you might consider the possibility that you may be blind to what the child sees, and not dismiss it as a wild imagination. What lurks in the depths of our minds that we’ve forgotten?
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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/
April 7, 2017
Lens Flare . . . or Ghost?
According to just about every professional photographer, the odd shapes of light that I photograph are the result of a lens flare, and that I should immediately dismiss them as inconsequential and move on. But until I can get a thorough, scientific explanation that debunks anything paranormal, I have to dismiss the lens flare explanation of these light anomalies. Why? If my camera is stationary (on a tripod), by the definition of a lens flare, it (the lens flare) would not move nor would it shape-shift!
So let’s take the definition of a lens flare from a professional photographer:
When light rays coming from a bright source(s) of light (such as the sun or artificial light) directly reach the front element of a camera lens, they can reflect and bounce off different lens elements, diaphragm and even off the sensor, potentially degrading image quality and creating unwanted objects in images. https://photographylife.com/what-is-ghosting-and-flare/ Nasim Mansurov, What is Ghosting and Flare, Photography Life. February 27, 2017 (Accessed April 5, 2017)
Before we go any further I want to say that I have a high-quality, expensive lens (and camera) that is cleaned before every shoot. I have deliberately pointed my camera at the sun at every conceivable angle to try to get a lens flare without any success–the only thing that I would get is haze. Keep this in mind as you continue:
In this particular definition or any of the myriad of other definitions of a lens flare, nothing is said about unwanted objects moving or changing shapes from one photograph to the next. In the case of my photographs, the light source is usually coming from an outdoor light on the outside of the building or on a lamppost near what I’m photographing. Now if I use the same camera (on a tripod), the same lens, the same distance from the house or building, and the light on the building is the same, then the anomaly should be the same–every time I take a photo–the same way you can hold a prism up to the sunlight and get the same shape of light (the rainbow) with all the colors appearing in the same sequence each and every time you do that. Now if all these conditions remain the same, and the light anomaly moves or changes its shape and/or sequence of colors, then that widely accepted definition cannot apply in these instances. So I’m not denying that lens flares exist, but I am stating that under these specific conditions I do not accept the given definition as applicable, and perhaps you will not once you see the photos.
So the first example is from the light anomalies over the Bruton Parish Church, and these were taken at different times of the year. The first example was taken in the winter, and the anomaly has a convex shape, and its colors are at the green / blue / indigo / violet end of the visible light spectral bandwidth. The second example was taken during the summer, and its colors are at the red / orange / yellow end of the visible light spectrum (slight contrast boost to see the anomaly better). The third example, taken the following winter, was taken with a full-spectrum camera, because the visible light was not showing up. Notice that in the third photo, there appears to be three very similar apparitions rather than just the one.
3 photos of the light anomalies over the Bruton Parish Church: [image error]
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The second series of examples was taken from my first book, Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg with Breakthrough Ghost Photography, from the chapter on the Geddy House, and show even further variations in the shape and color shift from one photo to the next. Note that in the first photo, I must have taken somewhere between 25—30 photos on about 5 different nights before I got anything at the Geddy House. If it were a lens flare, I should have gotten one every time! The second and third photos were taken in sequence one night in early spring at the Geddy House, so that the change you see in the shape and color took place in just a few seconds—from one photo to the next—again, with the same camera in the same position with the same lighting conditions—nothing changed from the second to the third photograph except the size and shape of the apparition! Does the rainbow change its size and shape while you look at it?
3 photos of the light anomalies over the Geddy House, with the 2nd & 3rd photo taken just seconds apart:
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So now you are thinking, as I did, if these shapes of light are really paranormal in nature, why would they be hanging around lights? Several scientists have theorized that humans have an electromagnetic consciousness that can survive the death of the body (see Chapter 1 in my first book for a more detailed, in depth explanation of how and why, including 2 scientific facts that support this theory). As humans, we have to consume food to create the energy to live—but where would an electromagnetic conscious get the energy it needed to live? Possibly from a light source? Or perhaps draining a battery? Perhaps even you: I think that is one of the reasons that ghosts “feel” cold—not because they are cold—but because they are absorbing the heat energy from your body and the surrounding environment.
So now you know why I assert that the light anomalies that I have photographed are paranormal in nature. Up until this point, no one can prove to me why the light apparitions could change both color and shape (in several cases in a matter of seconds) when nothing else had changed. There are a lot of “logical” explanations for things that people do not understand, but some are just not adequate. Just take a look at the past century—how many things that were understand to be scientific fact have been proven false? (Just look at all the misinformation we have been given on diet and nutrition!) There still is debate in scientific circles on what light is. I think the wall of scientific facts that we have assembled is still too porous to accept the lens flare explanation verbatim—there is more to it than that! Don’t get me wrong–I believe in the accepted definition of a lens flare. But I also believe that in a controlled set of circumstances, if a light anomaly moves or shape-shifts when nothing else has changed, then it is paranormal in nature.
_____________________________________
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/
March 26, 2017
Williamsburg Capital: The Female Phantom & the Headless Statesman
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I have been away from this blog for a time as I finished up my second book on paranormal Williamsburg and beyond. Now that I have that turned into the publisher (release date for next spring), I can return my attention back to the blog. One of the places that I covered in my second book was Williamsburg’s Capital building—reconstructed yes but nevertheless haunted! I will give you a very brief background of the Capital building itself before I turn my attention to those that live here postmortem:
The first American structure to which the word “Capitol” would be applied was completed in 1705, housing the oldest elected representative body in the United States in continuous operation, starting in 1619 as the House of Burgesses in Jamestown, and it became the legislative body of the independent state of Virginia in 1776. The Capitol burned in 1747. Patrick Henry made his defiant and passionate speech against the Stamp Act and the crown here at the rebuilt Capital on May 29, 1765—a speech some considered treason. On May 15, 1776, Virginia became the first state with a unanimous vote for independence. The once proud Capitol building of the first and largest colony in North America had an undeserved fate after Virginia’s government moved to Richmond in 1780: The west wing was sold for its bricks and demolished (1793); the east side burned in 1832, ending the legacy of Virginia’s most historic government building.
Many of the ghost stories from here involve the founding fathers, like Patrick Henry, George Washington, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, and the ghosts of other Virginia legislators, and I would be absolutely thrilled if I could find just one of them in or around the Capital’s grounds. But considering the photos that I have taken, I have no reason to believe that these men are here . . . well, perhaps one of them could be here. I have captured a full-bodied, albeit headless statesmen dressed in very rich 18th century clothing—but other than the fact that he is wealthy and probably a statesman, I have no clue who he is.
On the other side of the statesman is a woman with rather clear features: Whole-body apparitions like this 18th Century woman are pretty rare—and I wanted to show you this photo for two reasons: First, it’s a preview to my second book coming out next spring, and I’m excited to show you a whole new menagerie of characters and some new things that defy explanation. Secondly, I wanted you to compare the similarities between my photo and a recent photo by a tourist. Although the tourist’s photo is void of much detail, the general outline, the clothing, and its color indicate that it is the same ghost. For me, this is a visual reminder of how I started this paranormal odyssey: I was giving evening ghost tours in Colonial Williamsburg when every once-in-a-while one of the people in my tour group would capture something paranormal on their cell phone camera—and that got me thinking about experimenting with my professional equipment. Even so, it’s always an affirmation to have someone go to the same place and capture something similar—if not the same thing—on their camera.
On the left you see a tourist’s photo of the phantom female at the Capital, on the right you see my capture of a similar or the same ghost; standing right in front of her is the headless statesman.
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I had a comparable thing happen on an interview with Daniel Klaes and Denise Garcia on the radio show Phenomena Encountered. Daniel mentioned taking a similar photo of an unknown entity (that I captured at the St. George Tucker House) while on one of his investigations—only not as clear. When you capture something that odd-looking it’s reaffirming that someone captured something like it. I know—it looks pretty strange—and I have no idea what to call it. Is it/was it a person? An animal? Whatever you decide to call it, I would say that it embraces the “para” in paranormal. I’ve got something coming up in the future that is even more bizarre . . . stay tuned!
The bizarre apparition I captured at the St. George Tucker House; ghosthunter Daniel Klaes found a similar apparition up in New York. But what is it? Ghost? Animal? What do you think?
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January 8, 2017
Part VI: The Ghosts of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
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(Photo above-apparitions, what I call “geo-lights”, appear over the Bruton Parish Church during a Christmas Eve Service.)
I’ve never had trouble finding ghosts, but then again I’ve never set out to look for a specific ghost. If Dr. Goodwin’s ghost would be anywhere in Colonial Williamsburg, it would be somewhere between the Bruton Parish Church and the George Wythe House, which is basically right next-door. I’ve stood at the main doorway to the church (through the bell tower/steeple) and photographed people as they have gone in and out of the church during evening concerts, and I have captured many apparitions doing that, but none have had enough clarity to be identified as a particular person. They have either been classic whites (what I call a white apparition with no identifiable features—usually just two eyespots, sometimes a nose and/or mouth), or so ephemeral that although you can make out the clothing, the facial features are so vaporous that you cannot really see what they look like. That’s because when the church is in use, there is so much residual light that the apparitions are not able to compete with the brightness, and when the church is not in use the ghosts seem to reside in an inactive state—or another dimension. Now at other homes and buildings in Colonial Williamsburg I have been able to get clearer photos of the ghosts because the lighting is not so bright, but there are exceptions—like the George Wythe House. The Wythe House almost always has interior shutters that are drawn in the evening, and the home is almost always in total darkness—unless there is a special evening program going on at the time. So one place is too bright, and the other is too dark and closed up to capture an apparition with enough facial detail to positively identify it. So I’ve decided to concentrate my hunt on the walkways in between the two possible places where I might encounter W.A.R. Goodwin.
One evening between Christmas and New Years when the streets were quite active, especially on the brick walkway between Bruton and the Wythe House, I began to take photos of the area. Dr. Goodwin was an affable man who loved to be around people; so if I could not find him in the church—what better place to find the ghost of the man who communed (his word, not mine) with the ghosts? I took many photos that evening, and I could see some things on the review screen that were difficult to make out, but I could tell they were paranormal in nature. The review screen is too small for any detail, but when I got home and downloaded the photos to my computer, I could tell one of the photos may contain what I was searching for: It was a little blurry, but it looked like the ghost of a cleric! The ghost wore a long black robe (the same type I had seen Dr. Goodwin wear!) with a very distinct white collar—also worn by clerics of the church. Now all of the photos that I have seen of Dr. Goodwin are when he was older—bald and gray; but this photo had a younger cleric with light brown hair—could this be Goodwin as he appeared as a young man? The ghost cleric may have a mustache (it’s hard to tell—the one side appears darker than the other); I’m not sure if Goodwin had a mustache as a young man, but it is a possibility! If you look at the photo below, I don’t think you will have any doubt that the ghost is a man of the cloth, and since it’s on the sidewalk just outside of the Bruton Parish Church, what are the odds the ghost was a cleric at the church? But since I cannot reference any photos of a young Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin at this time, I cannot say for sure whether this man is indeed Goodwin or not. I have seen, however, a photo of an older Dr. Goodwin dressed in a long black robe just like the ghost in the photo below. (If you do a search on the Internet of images of Dr. Goodwin, you can see the same photo.) Again keep in mind that ghosts move much faster than we do; for me this will result in distorted and incomplete photographic images-and you can see both in the lower part of the ghost’s face. So I will leave it for you to decide if I have captured the elusive rector from Bruton Parish—or whether this is the ghost of another cleric from the very same church. So . . . what do you think?
Here is the ghost cleric standing right outside Bruton Parish Church; is it the elusive Dr. Goodwin as a young man—or is it another rector? What do you think?
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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/
December 28, 2016
Part V: The Ghosts of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
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I have felt the cold touch of a ghost that has sent icy chills from the back of my neck all the way down my spine, but I don’t believe it’s really “cold” even though it felt that way. If you’ve read my book, you know that I believe that a hypothesis put forth by an Einstein physicist has a lot of credibility: That our souls, ghosts, spirits, or whatever you would like to call them, are intelligent, electromagnetic fields. They are pure energy, with no physical characteristics. As humans we have to consume physical things, aka food, to break down into energy to maintain our physical bodies. As a ghost you can no longer consume food, but you would still need an energy source to be active. That’s why I believe that when a ghost comes near you, it draws heat energy from you—making you feel cold. Some ghosts are also able to drain batteries from cameras, EVP recording devices, and other types of ghost hunting equipment. Whether they do this because of a need, or a hunger for sustenance, or as way to prevent you from recording evidence of their presence I cannot say, but it has happened enough to warrant bringing extra batteries. So if and when you ever experience a “cold spot” in a room that is not coming from a physical source (for example—a poorly insulated window) then perhaps you are experiencing a ghost that is utilizing the heat energy in that area of the room to be active. In my second book I will show what I believe to be a second energy source that sustains ghosts—light—which is why I believe they turn on lights in the homes they dwell in. I also have no doubt that they have learned to tap into the electrical current that runs through our homes, but I have no proof . . . yet!
According to the physicist’s theory, ghosts can pass through solid objects because they are not affected by space. So if a ghost is next to you, you will probably feel a shiver down your spine (as I have) because he or she or they are absorbing your body’s heat energy—but what happens if they just pass through you? Do you still feel the cold? Have you ever felt like something has passed through you? The reason I ask is that I frequently get photographic evidence that ghosts pass through people, and I wonder what it felt like. Have they passed through me and I did not realize it? I have a photograph that illustrates what I’m saying. Of course, if I went up to the man that I photographed and said to him, “I have evidence that a ghost just passed through your head. What did it feel like?”—what do you think would happen? So I kept my mouth shut and went on taking photographs; thinking that one day, with enough photographic proof, everyone will realize that the paranormal is a reality. (But then again, there are those who still believe in a flat earth!) Take a look at the photo, keeping in mind that I had to black out the man’s face because he did not sign a release. Notice that the ghosts are traveling together, and it appears that they are flying just above the crowd that gathered to see the fife and drum corps, but have possibly passed right through this man’s head.
Here is a photo of at least two or more ghosts with a red/pink hue passing through a man’s head as he stood in a crowd awaiting the fife and drum corps. (I had to black out his face without a signed release.)
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Having looked carefully at this photo, I’ll ask you, “Have you ever stood in a crowd watching an event? Have you ever felt like something has passed right through you? If you think you have, please tell me what you felt!
Now if you examine the photo very closely, you will see another man to the right with his back to the camera. His head is turned to the right, but instead of seeing his face, it has been covered by a very white ghost looking right at me that is standing there as if his/her face has melded to the man’s visage. I wonder if he feels anything at this moment in time? To help you see it clearer, I’ve cropped and enlarged that part of the photo below so that you can see. By the way, this ghost is looking right at me—I wonder if it knows that I’m taking its photo?
Here is a cropped and enlarged version of the first photo to show you the detail of another ghost whose face is partially through the face of a man looking to the left. Do you think he knows it?
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So the next time you are in a crowd watching some sort of event, I can assure you that there will ghosts among the gathering—watching you—perhaps even passing through you! Remember, as you stand watching the event, they stand . . . watching you!
Yes the search for Goodwin’s ghost continues, with each journey yielding something odd, strange, and curious. Will I find the good reverend amongst the throng of ghosts in Williamsburg, or will I keeping finding things that bend and distort my (and your) reality even more? Stay tuned for more on Goodwin’s ghost!
____________________________________________
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
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timscullion43/
December 24, 2016
Part IV: The Ghosts of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
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All I can think of on this particular night is that the ghosts must have had a party. Why you ask? Because they all seem to be out! Could it be the fife and drum corps? It’s quite possible; I’ve noted from several different sources, including myself, that when music is playing there is a definite draw from the other side. In other words, ghosts have an affinity for music. How do I know?
I know of an organist at the Bruton Parish Church who feels a tingling feeling on the back of the neck when practicing. Likewise I know of a piano player at the Williamsburg Inn who also gets a tingling feeling (both musicians used the word “tingling”) on the back of the neck when she plays in a certain room there. (Check out my book Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography for some amazing photos of some of the ghosts at the Williamsburg Inn, including a pair of ghosts that just may remind you of a Picasso painting!) I currently live in a haunted house, and I have a security camera pointed at my front entranceway that has infrared capabilities. Whenever I practice my guitar in the kitchen, I can see the monitor screen. What shows up on the screen is usually a pair of pixelated eyes—sometimes in white light and sometimes in dark light that show up on the stairway. If there is a lot going on in the house at the time, I will sometimes see the pixelated outlines of two human-like shapes appearing and sometimes walking in the hallway or on the steps. One of the ghosts (I don’t really know which one, or perhaps they both do it!) has started a new habit that rattles some of my family: He will whisper into your ear your name as if he is calling you or at least trying to get your attention, but that’s all he will say. You not only hear your name being said, but you also will feel the ghost’s breath in your ear and down your neck as the name is being spoken. So far, our ghosts have been quite innocuous other than that—if he (or they) decides to ramp up the activity to the poltergeist level, I will let you know . . . let’s hope not.
So let’s get back to the ghost party—perhaps drawn to the fife and drum music being played: The first photo is a little blurry, but you will see amongst the ghosts shown a man who definitely lived in the 18th century (the 1700s) because he is wearing breeches (pants that come down to and will button just below the knee) as well as the stockings that will pull up over the knee but underneath the buttoned breeches. The women have on floor-length dresses, and the woman to the right also has a shawl over her shoulders. Someone suggested that she might be Native American—what do you think? The second photo is really a crop from the same photo as above—you see there was a group of people in between the apparitions, and rather than black out all of their faces (because I don’t have a signed release to use their likenesses) I just made two cropped photos out of the original. This is what some would call a ghost hag; the apparition was right at the wall that surrounds the Bruton Parish Church.
Here is a group of 18th century ghosts on the street just outside the Bruton Parish Church:
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The ghost hag was near the wall that surrounds the Bruton Parish Church; note also the strange-shaped blue apparition:
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The next photo that I’m going to post is bizarre—there is just no other word to describe it! If you are able, I would suggest that you enlarge your screen so that you can see some of the detail better. Let me remind you that ghosts move much faster than humans could ever hope to move; they can blur a photo that is taken with a shutter speed that is just a fraction of a second. With that in mind, I’m going to try to describe this photo to you: The most prominent part of this many-faceted apparition is the ghost of a large black horse (What do you think—do animals have ghosts?) with its head turned towards me, and just one eye is visible. Note that the back half of the horse is just a blur—or it’s just not there. I have photographed that before—only getting half an apparition—and it’s always a catalyst to this thought: Could the ghosts be crossing through dimensions? Is part of it in one dimension that we cannot see and another in our dimension? Continuing with the description: There is ball of white light on the horse as if it has a rider, and a face that seems to indicate that a ghost is also standing between the horse and myself—otherwise the rider has a face in his chest area. Once you have taken that all in, then let me refer you to the alien-like ghost standing in the crowd to the back left side of the photo.
In my search for Dr. Goodwin’s ghost, this is one of the most bizarre photos that I have taken, just outside of the Bruton Parish Church.
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I have hesitated in the past to release photos like this, because I thought it would be more than most people could handle: Accepting an alternate reality is already difficult, a mental leap for some—but accepting something that is so bizarre and foreign to what we know as reality may be over the edge. Are you freaked out yet? To put your mind more at ease, I think we need to go back to the hypothesis that we have an electromagnetic consciousness. (Please refer back to my book, Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography, starting at page 12, for a complete explanation.) If I can, let me use modern movie production as an analogy: Today we have the technology to recreate anything we can imagine on the movie screen, correct? I believe that likewise ghosts have the ability to manipulate light to recreate whatever they imagine in a hologram form, and in some cases, as in this photograph, the results are truly bizarre.
The final photo I have for you is a cropped photo taken of the sidewalk right in front of the Bruton Parish Church (the full photo is at the top of this page). This is right after the last people are leaving the church after an evening concert. Right at the entrance gate you can see the outlines of four ghosts that appeared in just one of several photos taken of the brick walkway. These apparitions, like all the people, appear to be leaving the church after the concert. I would have loved to attend this concert and just take photos of the audience. I can’t tell you how many ghosts were in attendance that night, but I know there were a lot! It seemed that as I photographed people leaving the church, there were just as many ghosts streaking out the door. (I while come back to these photos in a later blog) As it was, I was told to leave the property by someone in charge that was worried about my intentions at the property. But if you think that this phenomenon is unique to the Bruton Parish Church, you are wrong. I have no doubt that if you attended a concert or program at your place of worship, you were in the company of ghosts!
Like everyone else leaving the church, these 4 ghosts are captured walking down the sidewalk after a Christmas concert:
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My journey in search of Goodwin’s ghost continues; stay tuned for the next part, with more exciting and bizarre photographs giving you a glimpse into the other side of life—death—as you’ve never seen it before . . .
_________________________________________________________
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/
December 20, 2016
Part III: The Ghosts of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
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You know, I thought that this would happen—the paranormal just does that to you—when you are looking for one particular presence and you find a plethora of other intriguing phantoms! I’ve found a red wraith that has the appearance of a dragon (or dragons—oftentimes ghosts will move so fast that their image doubles on the capture—even if the shutterspeed is only a fraction of a second, so I can’t be sure if it’s multiple ghosts or one caught in movement), I’ve found a youth choir dressed in white robes, and now I’ve found something equally as intriguing. I have no definitive explanations for the appearance of this ghost, but what I will offer is several possibilities for why this ghost appears as if it’s a GIANT.
In my book Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography I published several photos of gigantic red orbs—anywhere from 50 to 100 feet (over 30 meters) in diameter. Two of them, one at the Mathew’s Baptist Church (on page 201 you can see only ¼ of two giant red orbs that dwarf the church steeple) and one at the Hunter Millinery (page 193 on the far right of the page you can see the edge of a giant red orb that is at least two times the size of the I ½ story millinery), had a round shape, and the apparitions at the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary had hexagon shapes (page 99 and also on the back cover of the book you can see multiple red hexagon-shaped apparitions that vary in size from a basketball size to the faint outline of two orbs that are twice the size of the three-story Wren Building). It would stand to reason that if a ghost’s electromagnetic field is that large, then surely it must be capable of recreating an apparition that is large—perhaps as large as the field itself—but I have never seen an overly large recreation of a human ghost before. I use the word recreation because I believe that ghosts make holograms of themselves out of light because they are now just an electromagnetic field, and they must not be able to regulate or control color, so they are usually white. So now, in the midst of my search for Dr. Goodwin’s ghost, I have come across what appears to be a giant ghost. Not enormous, like some of the orbs that I spoke about, but nevertheless a giant in comparison to the surrounding real people. Whether this is a former human of a normal size who is capable of generating a much larger ghost, or an actual giant, I do not know.
Perhaps you have read or heard about a race of giants that once roamed the earth. You may have heard it through the Bible (a race of hybrid humans—the Nephilim—that were the result of what Genesis calls the “sons of God” or what some call angels came to the earth and had sex with human women: There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4) Greek mythology refers to this same group of hybrid humans as the Titans and a later group as Gigantes, along with many other references to large, humanlike monsters like the Cyclops. I would be remiss not to mention Heracles (or Hercules), best known as the strongest of all the human/angel hybrids. Although not regarded as a giant, he was not only stronger than all of the other giants and some of their angelic or godlike fathers, but also he was the deciding factor in the victory of the “gods” over the giants. Here in North America there are also references to and fossil records of giants. The Paiute tribe, that lived in the area that is now the Southwestern states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, have an oral tradition of a race of red-haired, white giants that were about 12 feet tall (about 4 meters). They were a vicious group of cannibals that preyed on the Native American tribes in the area until they all banded together to defeat the giants. Fossil records of these giants exist in the Southwest as well as throughout North America have been disappearing as if there is conscious effort to coverup the existence of the giants, but if you look in newspapers from the past you can read about the recovered skeletons of giants that have since disappeared.
Whether you believe in the giants or not, you have to admit that this next photo, taken in a crowd of people warming themselves around a torch set in the Governor’s Green right next to Bruton Parish Church, contains the apparition of a gigantic ghost apparition in human form—the largest that I have ever photographed. Whether this is the ghost of a giant from the distant past or just the over-sized apparition of a perhaps bigger-than-life character from Williamsburg’s past I cannot say. The irony of the situation is that I wonder how many of these same people (or even you for that matter) would still be standing there warming themselves if they could only see the ominous apparition looming overhead? Dare I say that the warm feeling of the fire would change to a cold chill down their spine? Dare I say that some of them, regardless of the shape that they are in, would break off in a full sprint back to their cars? I have cropped the photo so that you can only see the backs of the people standing around the fire, and I blurred the face of a woman standing near me (because I do not have the written permission of anyone in the photo to use their likeness in a public blog post).
This giant ghost appears to stand at least 4—5 feet higher than any of the humans warming themselves around him. The ghost is right next to the torch the people are standing around.
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This next photo was taken at the doorway of the Bruton Parish Church after an evening concert. I have blacked out the faces of two people leaving the church. Notice that behind them is a tall ghost, perhaps well over 6 feet in height. If you look between the two people whose faces I blacked out you can see that once again the shoe and the pant-leg are plain to see, but as you look to the upper body and the face, it has faded to a white, mist-like form that is not definable. (For those of you that have not read my blog before, the appearance of a shoe and pant-leg with just an ephemeral mist for the rest of the ghost’s body has happened before—both at the Boxwood Inn and outside the Courthouse of 1770.) The Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin was a tall man with a robust, if not athletic build—could this be Goodwin’s ghost at the doorway of his church—perhaps to see off all of the guests who came to hear the evening concert? I wonder what the pressed pants with a cuff and the shoe state about the time period that the ghost lived in?
Could the tall ghost standing behind the 2 people with the blacked out faces be the Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin? Notice that you can see his pant-leg and the shoe quite plainly (between the 2 people), while the rest of the ghost appears like a white mist?
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My quest for Goodwin’s ghost will continue nevertheless, hoping for a more definitive capture of the engaging, charismatic former rector of Bruton Parish Church; so stay tuned for Part IV!
_______________________________________________
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
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timscullion43/
December 17, 2016
Part II: The Ghosts of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
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The second night out on the hunt for Goodwin’s ghost I discovered that there was a choral concert being held at the Bruton Parish Church. I saw a family go into the churchyard, and they stood right outside the entrance for a few minutes before entering the old house of worship, apparently not sure if they were going to attend. While they waited I took a few photos of the area; I was worried that they might think that I was some sort of stalker—but little did they know that I had no interest in photographing them, only what was around them. What I have known for some time is that ghosts are attracted to young people. I have heard different theories on why this is so; perhaps the one that makes the most sense is that children have not learned to block out the sensory anomalies created by the ghosts. From my understanding the brain gets thousands of sensory signals per second from all over the body, and must prioritize or triage these to make the conscious mind aware of only the most important. An adult’s brain may discard sensory anomalies that it doesn’t understand, whereas a child’s brain may push through these signals to the conscious mind, making him or her aware that something supernatural is nearby.
Acutely aware of this paranormal propensity, I would later examine these photos on my computer with a great deal of interest—my visceral understanding of the supernatural would not disappoint. In one photograph that I took, standing between what I assumed to be the father, his wife, and two children, was a PHANTOM CHOIR! While in search of the former rector I’ve found a children’s choir; perhaps one of Goodwin’s very own during one of his two tenures as the rector of the 18th century church. This group of ghostly vocalists appears to be children, perhaps four or five of them, dressed in long white robes, some with their arms outstretched as they walked—or were they singing? The irony here is that although they appear to be a choir, their mouths are missing! This mute manifestation of sacred music caught me completely by surprise; were they going into the church to watch or to participate with the living choir? My next thought was if this choir all met their demise at the same time—or did they just get together posthumously to reform a bond they had as children. I suggest this because I’ve heard of a man who died of old age in another state who returned to his old Civil War regiment to participate in Confederate spying activities on the grounds of Edgewood Plantation. So where and how a person dies is not necessarily indicative of where their ghost returns to or even what they look like.
The Bruton Parish Church’s Phantom Choir:
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Unlike the red dragons that appeared on the bench in the previous blog, I had to do some work on this photo. After cropping out the family that the phantom choir stood between, I had to raise the contrast on the photo, take out the grain, and then darken in the eye detail that was lost when raising the contrast. The idea is to raise the visibility of the choir without compromising the integrity of the choir’s appearance. What’s evident to me from this and other photos is that humans, when they die, do not lose their desire to gather in groups with others of like mind, whether it be singing in a church choir, or marching or even fighting together in a military “band of brothers”. Another apparent irony about the photo of this phantom choir is that these “children” who appear to be in a choir may be hundreds of years old—and yet they are forever young. Does the mind of a ghost mature on the “other side” like it matures in our dimension? In other words, though they appear as children, are they adults in spirit?
Not Just Bruton Parish, but All Churches and Places of Worship
Someone asked me if I was trying to frighten the congregants of Bruton Parish Church by showing the plethora of paranormal activity around it. Let me answer with an emphatic NO. In fact, if you go to a house of worship anywhere, of any kind, you will find ghosts there. Granted, some older churches, like Bruton, have more ghosts not only because of the age of the sanctuary, but also because the grounds—including the inside of the church—are a cemetery. In my book Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography, I checked out two other churches in the area to see if the paranormal activity was comparable. The tiny Hickory Neck Episcopal Church, a few miles outside of Williamsburg, likewise has a large cast of phantom characters for such a small building, even though church services have been moved to a newer, larger building on the grounds. I captured huge orbs over the steeple of a Baptist Church in Mathews County; some appear to be over one hundred feet in diameter! Let me also say that I have photographed churches that are newer that have a comparable number of apparitions on the outside to the Bruton Parish Church; whether these were parishioners who have perished, or people that died on the grounds before the church was even built I cannot say. (Outside of Christian churches, I’ve gone to and photographed apparitions over a Jewish synagogue, a Unitarian Church—who accepts members of all beliefs, and an outdoor Native American ceremony.)
I have found multiple ghosts from the parking lot of a Williamsburg shopping center all the way to the waters of Currituck Sound; my point being that with over one billion dead in this world, ghosts are everywhere! If you go to places like the British Isles you will find churches and buildings that are much older than Bruton Parish Church, and as a result have a longer history of hauntings. More people have died there, and consequently more of the living have had paranormal experiences and believe in ghosts. I find that like myself, most people that have not had paranormal experiences do not believe in ghosts—until they do. What will it take to make you a believer?
________________________________________
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
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timscullion43/
December 9, 2016
The Ghost of Christmas Past: In Search of Goodwin’s Ghost
There is an old English custom that had been in place for centuries before Charles Dickens wrote his tale of ghosts, greed, and atonement in 1843: Christmas was a time to tell ghost stories as you gathered about the fireplace—yes Christmas was as much about ghosts as Halloween. Yet as the English tale of the paranormal and penance rose to the forefront of American Christmas culture, the English custom of telling ghost stories at Christmas took a backseat to the frantic dash to buy gifts, along with decorating the Christmas tree (a German custom introduced to America in 1842 here in Williamsburg) and the fireplace on the inside, coupled with putting up elaborate displays of lights and decorations on the outside of the home. In an effort to resuscitate this custom, I began my search for a real ghost—once a man who when alive “communed” with the ghosts every Christmas eve at midnight: “Tonight,” he wrote in 1935, “I am in the Wythe House waiting for the hour to strike for the midnight Christmas-Eve service . . . One is not alone here. The Ghosts of the past are my gladsome companions in the near midnight silence.” He was also a man who learned about Williamsburg’s history from the ghosts. A famous newspaper columnist wrote that it was when this man “was alone, in the starlight, strolling in the night, talking with the ghosts, that he learned about Williamsburg.” He wrote to a ten-year-old that you can “shut your eyes and see the gladsome ghosts who once made these places their home. You can learn to call them back,” he said. “You can train yourself to hear what they have to say.” This man was a rector of a church as well as a theologian, so the obvious question is in death does he continue on this earth with his gladsome companions or does he go to that place of Scripture, myth, and legend—depending on your belief system—where he is rewarded for living a good life?
The man was Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin, who first restored his place of worship, Williamsburg’s Bruton Parish Church (built in 1715), and then took on the task of restoring the whole former capital of Virginia to its colonial splendor. The quiet cleric who charmed Rockefeller out of millions to restore Williamsburg, spent many an evening in his office at the Parish House, the original home of George Wythe, a signor of the Declaration of Independence, law tutor and friend of Thomas Jefferson, and the nation’s first law professor (at the College of Williams and Mary). The home was built around 1750, and has been reported to be haunted for many years. (I covered the legends and lore of the house in my first book, Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography.) Evidently Goodwin was familiar with the wraiths that haunt the Wythe House, because he wrote a woman who inquired about them, “they are very elusive ghosts and refuse to be delineated or described within the limits of any paragraph. The only way is to come here and hold communion with them.” If you haven’t gathered by now, ghosts were more than just metaphors for Goodwin—they were very real to a man who is now a ghost himself, who moved on to the realm of his gladsome companions in 1939. Goodwin knew, as I have come to find out, that for the most part, ghosts are not the malevolent and/or demonic variety seen in newer movies like The Conjuring, Insidious, and Paranormal Activity, or even older movies like The Exorcist or The Shining, but rather quite innocuous—and sometimes helpful.
As I mentioned in my book, I can’t help but think that perhaps Goodwin’s ghost dwells perhaps in his former Parish House or in the Bruton Parish Church, and walks the streets of the city that he helped restore. For those that would cry foul, and say that the good rector has gone on to meet his Maker and his reward for a life well lived—who’s to say where that reward is? Perhaps it’s just a dimension away from ours, and he may look in upon his former haunts (pun intended) such as the Wythe House, or he may be one of the sentinels atop the Bruton Parish Church that oversee and protect it.
Bruton Parish Church holds a special place in my heart, because it was here that my paranormal odyssey began: I captured a lone apparition over the church of geometrically shaped colored light. If you would like to see that apparition and learn what it did to make such an indelible impression and inspired me to start this journey, check out Chapter 1 of my book Haunted Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography. It was quite a profound experience, and it was enough visual proof to make this skeptic a believer. Since that evening other apparitions have come out of hiding over top the church, making me wonder just how many ghosts are really there. One evening I even captured these apparitions forming a cross over the old church—something I have not seen since—that photo will be out in book #2. After reading how convinced Goodwin was of the existence of ghosts, I couldn’t help but think it might be him atop the old sanctuary, trying to prod me to make the rest of the world aware that Williamsburg, was more than just “America’s most historic avenue” (Franklyn D. Roosevelt, 1934), the old colonial capital that he knew and loved was a haven for ghosts of its historic past, that are just as real as you and I.
When I was young I saw a movie that I can still recall: The Sentinel (released in 1977, but I’m not sure when I saw it, because I saw it several years later on television). It was a film about a blind, damned clergyman that guarded the gates to hell, innocuously disguised as a Brooklyn brownstone. I’m sure that we all would be less than impressed with the movie’s special effects now, but the story was frightening. I’ve heard pastors talk of the malevolent spirits or demons out in the world, and this movie reminded me of that visually. When I first saw the apparition over the Bruton Parish Church, it made me think of that lone sentinel guarding not the gates of hell, but the doorways to the church. Several years later I was reminded what that sentinel atop the church might be guarding it from. One evening, the first night I set out on this Christmas quest, I captured an apparition on the bench just outside the doorway to the church. As I looked at the apparition, it brought back all the memories of that movie and its malevolent spirit forces. Take a look at the photo; what do you think it is? It resembles a red dragon(s), but is it a ghost? A demon? An alien? Were you as surprised as I was to see it right outside the doorway to a church?
Here’s the photo of the red dragon(s)-like apparition that appeared on a bench right outside the Bruton Parish Church:
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If you haven’t realized from the footnotes, I have taken all of W.A.R. Goodwin’s quotes from an article that Ivor Noël Hume wrote in the C.W. Journal in 2001 entitled Dr. Goodwin’s Ghosts. You see Hume had experiences in his native England with ghosts, and as a consequence has a visceral sense that they exist. He sought to prove his intuition by bringing a small group to the George Wythe House some years ago, hoping that the photographer that accompanied them, equipped with infrared film, might capture evidence of a paranormal presence at the old Wythe manor. Alas, he was unable to produce viable proof of the paranormal, but you can see some of the Wythe’s wraiths in Chapter 8 of my book. After reading Hume’s article on line, I thought what a great Christmas odyssey to hunt not for the ghosts that haunt the Wythe House, some of which I had already found, but instead to search for the ghost of Goodwin himself. Perhaps he is in some heavenly place of unimaginable beauty light years away, or just maybe he is just a dimension away, trolling the streets at night, or perhaps hanging at the Wythe House or the Bruton Parish Church. I cannot say where he is or what he is doing, but it would be great to search for Goodwin, either in the church that he helped restore, or in the larger church of political thought called Williamsburg. In his efforts to restore the ancient capital, he often spoke of its origins in Jamestown, and how the founding fathers such as Jefferson, Washington, and Henry, among others, discussed and debated these ideas in the homes and buildings of Williamsburg, to help form the first real democratic society in the modern world—that was his selling point to restore the capital. Of course my selling point for Williamsburg is that not only are those ideas for democracy still here, but also some of the purveyors of that ideology still linger, and perhaps among them—Rev. Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin. The search is on . . .
(Stay tuned for Part II of this Christmas saga: The Ghosts of Christmas Past—the Search for Goodwin’s Ghost.)
Ivor Noël Hume, Doctor Goodwin’s Ghosts: A Tale of Midnight and Wythe House Mysteries, CW Journal http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/spring01/wythe_ghosts.cfm (Spring 2001; Accessed Nov. 7, 2016)
Ibid
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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.
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