RV Travel Poll: Have You Ever Seen A Ghost?

Above, Banquo's Ghost by Théodore Chassériau, 1855.

For those who are interested in the paranormal, RV Travel has up a poll asking if readers ever seen a ghost.

I responded:

Never seen one, but when I was 15, I worked as a dishwasher in a convalescent hospital and saw a metal dessert cup move by itself.

RV Travel posed the question this way:

Ghosts… You either believe in them, don’t believe in them, or don’t believe in them until you see one! Right?

Have you ever seen a ghost? If so, can you say you saw one with absolute certainty or are you pretty sure, but not positive? If you answer yes, you must (and we mean must!) leave a comment and tell us about your ghost experience. We’re dying to know. Thanks!

To read more and participate, go here. 

Graceland...Haunted?

Above, the upstairs office windows of Graceland from the backyard. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The first job I ever had was as a dishwasher at a Hawthorne, California convalescent hospital.

One day, I was talking to the cook, whose back was to me and separated by a stainless steel kitchen counter. A metal dessert cup was face down on the table. The table was dry and there were no vibrations. Suddenly, the dessert cup moved, as if by an unseen hand, about seven inches.

Ever since that experience, I don't doubt stories of hauntings and other paranormal activities.

The latest comes from Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion. 

The Express (U.K.) reported:

Elvis Presley lived and died at Graceland 45 years ago. The King was fascinated by death and once visited a morgue in Memphis with his inner circle. His cousin Billy Smith knew it was time to move out of the mansion when he became hearing the late star calling him from upstairs where he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1977.

Speaking previously on his son Danny’s YouTube Channel Memphis Mafia Kid, Billy said of sensing Elvis’ presence at Graceland: “I did. In fact, I guess that was the biggest reason I left Graceland. Got to a point where I’d go to sleep, it’d be early in the morning and I would hear him calling me. And I even got up and got Jo up too. She used to wake up too sometimes close to the same time.”

Yet it was when Billy was near the front of Graceland and he saw the upstairs windows that he says he felt something.

Billy continued: “I’d get dressed and I’d go out to Graceland and for some reason I always looked up at his office window because I felt like he was calling me and he was looking out the window. Oh boy that…that…got to me. And after they brought Elvis’ casket back into Graceland and they buried it then I felt like I was a little more at ease and it was time for me to get out of there.”

Above, the upstairs windows of Elvis Presley's bedroom. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

To read more, go here. 

Gallup UFO Film Festival - Day 2

Above, Jonathan Dover of the Paranormal Rangers giving his presentation. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon at the final day of this year's Gallup UFO Film Festival.

Before the program started, I chatted for a while with Chuck Wade, the founder of the film festival. I recommended to him the book, Witness To Roswell. He said he has the book but hasn't yet gotten around to reading it. I told him that the authors presented the Roswell Incident story as a prosecutor would in a trial with plenty of eyewitness testimony. He said he will immediately do so once the festival is over.

Above, Chuck Wade's map of New Mexico UFO crash sites. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The program was with Jonathan Dover of the Navajo Paranormal Rangers. He spoke of paranormal incidents in and around the Navajo Nation. He was a police officer in the Winslow, Arizona area. The Paranormal Rangers investigate unexplainable incidents in the Navajo Nation.

Incidents included Skinwalkers, mysterious orbs, Satan's Butte, Bigfoot, hauntings, Parallel Dimensions, Ouija Boards and others.

Above, a vintage theater snack bar sign. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The program lasted about three hours and by the time it ended, I was dog-tired and left.

Art Bell Dies At 72

Back in the 1990s while working the "graveyard shift", the time would pass very quickly whenever Coast-To-Coast AM with Art Bell would have an interesting topic or guest. My mom had told me about Bell's show and I listened regularly to it during that time.

It has been reported this morning that Art Bell passed away at age 72 (ironically, on Friday the 13th).

According to Radio NK:

One of radio’s most successful syndicated hosts has died. Both the Las Vegas Review Journal and NBC TV in Las Vegas are reporting that Art Bell died at his home in Las Vegas on Friday, April 13. The Nye County Sheriff’s Office announced that an autopsy will be done later this week to determine the cause of death. 

Bell’s paranormal-themed overnight show, “Coast to Coast AM,” was syndicated on hundreds of stations by Premiere back in the 90’s. He left the show in 2002. He also had a show on SiriusXM in 2013. Bell was 72 years old. Most recently Premiere was syndicating Bell’s show Somewhere In Time which was the best in classic Art Bell shows from 6pm – 10pm on Saturdays.

The article is incorrect as Bell died at his home in Pahrump, Nevada, in Nye County, not in Las Vegas (Nye County was referred to as the "Kingdom of Nye" on Bell's show).

Coast to Coast AM continues today with George Noory, but it has never been the same without Bell.

The Tim Burton movie, Mars Attacks!, gave Bell a "tip of the hat" by having the initial meet-up between the Martians and earthlings take place in Pahrump.

To read more, go here.

Familiar Ad With The Paranormal

While perusing a link a friend sent me on some paranormal photographs, a familiar ad popped up on several of the pages.

The "15 Terrifying Unexplained Figures In Photographs" are quite interesting. If you would like to see them, go here.

Latest Blog Pick-ups

The good folks of The Japan Daily has picked up three of yesterday's blog posts for sharing with their readers.

They are:

To read The Japan Daily, go here.

Blog Post Picked Up By...The Daily Ghoul

Usually, my blog posts may get picked up by The Japan Daily or by some other travel-oriented website. This time, an online "newspaper" called The Daily Ghoul picked one up.

The Daily Ghoul's focus? Here's what they say:

Delivering News of the Paranormal from All Over the World

The blog post was this one:

To read The Daily Ghoul, go here.

Tohoku Survivors Visited By Deceased Family Members?

At the age of fifteen, my first part-time job was as as dishwasher at a convalescent hospital. Convalescent hospitals are derided as "warehouses for the elderly" and most patients/residents at those places don't make it out alive.

One day, I saw a dessert cup move by itself on a stainless steel kitchen counter. Ever since then, I have a completely open mind concerning paranormal or supernatural phenomena. As Lou Costello's character (Wilbur) said in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, "I saw what I saw when I saw it!"

I also had a different experience when my father died, but I won't go into that.

Why I bring this up is because Rocket News 24 has an interesting article on a reporter who is interviewing and recording stories from survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami who claim to have been contacted by relatives who were killed in that disaster.

The article starts with:

What happens after we die? Is it possible to communicate with loved ones after they are gone? And if not, how can we explain the stories of those who claim to have done so? These questions are pertinent to the work of journalist Shuji Okuno, who researches the yūrei banashi, or ghost stories, of relatives bereaved by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. 

Over 18,000 people were killed in the disaster in March 2011, most by drowning; including 2,601 bodies that were never recovered. Okuno has been researching and recording the stories of Tohoku people bereaved by the disaster who say they were visited by the spirits of their deceased family members, often at the exact moment of their passing.

Okuno and NHK has been criticised over the reporting of these stories. My feeling is, and this is due to my own experience: If that's what they feel actually happened and they are comforted by it, what right does anyone have to put them down?

To read the full article, go here.