Castle figure wins 'ghostly' competition.

An eerie picture of a figure in period costume at the window of a Scottish castle has won a competition to find the world's most convincing "ghostly image".

The picture, taken in May 2008, appears to show a man or woman wearing a ruff, looking through a barred window at Tantallon Castle in North Berwick, East Lothian.

No mannequins are used at the castle, and there are no costumed guides. Three photographic experts have confirmed that the photograph was not manipulated.

Christopher Aitchison, a visitor who took the photograph said: "I was not aware of anyone or anything being present in my picture, only noticing the anomaly when I got home. I did not notice any nice old ladies wearing ruffs walking around the stairs!

"Some people have suggested it's just light reflecting on rocks, and one person suggested it may be King James V of Scotland."

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, who has made many studies of the supernatural, launched the investigation a month ago. He asked members of the public to submit ghostly images for experts to analyse.

More than 250 pictures were received from all over the world, and there was then a public vote on which people thought were the most convincing photos.

Camera shy

Professor Wiseman, himself a confirmed ghost sceptic said that the importance of faces to our lives means our brains are programmed to see them even where they don't exist: "I suppose it could be another visitor looking a bit strange. Perhaps someone will come forward."

The study is part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival, and will be discussed at a one day public festival called "Hauntings" which will examine the evidence for the existence of ghosts.

Co-organiser Dr Caroline Watt from Edinburgh University said: ""Even though we had the public submit their most mysterious photographs, the images we received don't provide compelling evidence for spirits. If ghosts are out there, it seems they are somewhat camera shy. "(above taken from BBC News". )

Living a Haunted Lifestyle

As a ghost hunter or paranormal investigator you tend to live a life full of haunted locations and very haunted individuals that contact you to assist them in learning why they are haunted. In many instances it is the location but a few are the actual person who contacted you .

Where ever they go they are haunted by real ghosts. And because of your chosen hobby or interest in the paranormal so are you!

The term Paranormal lifestyle in politics can often be used in conveying the idea that society be accepting of a variety of different ways of life—from the perspective that differences among ways of living are superficial, rather than existential.

Paranormal or Ghost Hunter Lifestyle is also sometimes used pejoratively, to mark out some ways of living as elective or voluntary as opposed to others that are considered mainstream, unremarkable, or normative.

Within anarchism, lifestylism is the view that an anarchist society can be formed by changing one's own personal activities rather than by engaging in class struggle.

In business, "Paranormal lifestyles" provide a means by which advertisers and marketers endeavor to target and match consumer aspirations with products, or to create aspirations relevant to new products. Therefore marketers take the patterns of belief and action characteristic of lifestyles and direct them toward expenditure and consumption. These patterns reflect the demographic factors (the habits, attitudes, tastes, moral standards, economic levels and so on) that define a group. As a construct that directs people to interact with their worlds as consumers, lifestyles are subject to change by the demands of marketing and technological innovation.

Paranormal Subcultures can be distinctive because of the age, race, ethnicity, class, location, and/or gender of the members. The qualities that determine a Ghost Hunter or Paranormal subculture as distinct may be linguistic, aesthetic, religious, political, sexual, geographical, what types of equipment you use are don't use or a combination of factors. Members of a subculture paranomal investigation group often signal their membership through a distinctive and symbolic use of style, which includes fashions, mannerisms, and argot.

The study of paranormal subcultures often consists of the study of symbolism attached to clothing, music and other visible affectations by members of diverse paranormal subcultures, and also the ways in which these same symbols are interpreted by members of the dominant culture. Subcultures have been chronicled by others for a long time, documented, analysed, classified, rationalized, monitored, scrutinized. In some cases—think of homeless subcultures or criminal gangs or skateboarders—subcultures have been legislated against, their activities regulated or curtailed.

But paranormal subcultures also talk about themselves, constantly. It is helpful to think about subcultural narratives, told either by subcultures or about them by others. Subcultural narratives—whether one approves or disapproves, what one assumes about a subculture, the tone of one's engagement with a ghost hunting subculture—are a matter of position-taking.

10 SIGNS THAT YOU LIVE A PARANORMAL LIFESTYLE

1. You never miss any paranormal programs on television. A week without watching ghost Hunters Jason and Grant is week without sunshine.

2. Your paranormal group meets more then once a week.

3. You hunt for ghosts and ghost photos on the internet every chance you get.

4. Your library is 90% paranormal related books.

5. Your house or place of work is very haunted.

6. You visit haunted cemeteries and other locations more then once a week.

7. Your a member of the TAPS Family and proud to post it on your web site or myspace page.

8. Your spouse and partner complains that you'd rather be with dead people then be with them.

9. Your looking for a paranormal partner who digs your lifestyle.

10. You are... have been... or am trying to have intimate relations with a ghost.

(above taken from "Haunted America Tours by Randy Merchant ". )

The St. Louis Ghost Train

For a province that's just over 100 years old, Saskatchewan is home to a surprising number of ghost stories, legends and mysterious occurrences. One of our most enduring mysteries is the "The St. Louis Ghost Train", a strange phenomenon named after the central-Saskatchewan village where it occurs.

Although he'd never seen the ghost train, Serge Gareau grew up in the vicinity of St. Louis and was well familiar with the stories.

When an Alberta couple came to Saskatoon for a visit about five years ago, Serge and his wife Gail decided to see whether they might amuse their friends with a little paranormal entertainment. They got more than they bargained for.

The foursome hopped into Gareau's vehicle and drove 130 kms (80 miles) northeast of Saskatoon to St. Louis. They arrived around 11 p.m., well before the prescribed hour of midnight. They pulled up beside the abandoned railway track in the rolling countryside just north of town, left the motor running to provide heat against the cool autumn evening, and waited.

"We sat there for about an hour, and nothing was happening," Gareau recalls. "And then all of a sudden we saw this light. It was just like a train coming. A bright light coming at us, with a little red light towards the bottom."

Enthralled, the Gareaus and their friends watched "for a good two hours" as the steady white beam and its crimson companion appeared to approach, but never arrive. As time skipped by, chatter in the automobile turned to the source of the light. They decided to investigate.

With the light plainly visible through the windshield, they drove straight at it on a rough old road running parallel to the track bed.

"We drove, and drove, and drove. And all of a sudden the light was gone. When we looked around, it was right behind us!"

Gareau said it "scared the hell" out of at least one member of the party.

The ghost train has been a part of St. Louis for as long as anyone can remember. When the rail line was abandoned and the tracks removed years ago, some thought the phenomenon would end. It didn't. Locals say the ghostly apparition can still be seen almost every night.

Whatever it is, its enduring nature is fertile ground for imaginative legends and theories. One of the most persistent of these involves a hapless conductor who was struck down and decapitated by a train while doing a routine check of the tracks. It's said the bright, yellowish light belongs to the old steam locomotive pulling his train. The smaller, red one, is the lantern he's using in a futile search for his head.

St. Louis Mayor Emile Lussier, who runs a hotel at the foot of the iron bridge once used by the old trains, admits "I'm not much of a believer in this kind of stuff." But he, too, has seen the light.

A few years back, Lussier and his brother-in-law went to the crossroads with a somewhat daring plan in mind.

"So far as we knew, nobody had actually walked the tracks. So we did," says Lussier.

They walked about a mile along the old track bed, without seeing anything. Then suddenly, "there was a light right at our heels -- a strong light that cast shadows. When we turned around, it was gone."

Lussier and his partner went back to town and reported their experience to a group of friends and relatives. Tantalized by word of the encounter, Lussier's son and some friends decided to go out to the old track bed to see for themselves.

Lussier went with them, but stayed at the crossroads as the boys hiked off down the old track bed. As he watched them in the distance, something very strange occurred.

"The light lit everyone up. It looked just like a globe -- really bright. And yet, they didn't see a thing."

Lussier points to that episode as an indication the "phantom light", as some people in St. Louis prefer to call it, "appears in two very different ways".

There's been speculation that people who observe the light -- and there have been hundreds of them over the years -- are merely seeing automobile headlights from a distant highway, says the mayor. But he's been told scientists studied the phenomenon and discounted the headlights theory.

"They couldn't find anything that would explain it," Lussier says.

"I don't think it's car lights," says Rita Ferland, one of the few people who've seen the phantom beam in broad daylight.

Ferland, of St. Louis, said she and her mother were picking wild raspberries beside the old track bed a few years ago when "all of the sudden the light came out".

"It was amazing," says Ferland. "It appeared to move along the tracks and get brighter, and then that was it. It was gone. Very weird." (above taken from "Virtual Saskatchewan by Dave Yanko ". )

Cowboy Ghost at the Pub.

Seems to been a lot of ghost cowboys in the news recently. I like this one a whole bunch better then the previous cowboy ghost I posted. Have a look.

Lazyowl

THE ghostly figure of a cowboy walks in front of a roaring fire in a haunted pub and is caught on video.
Locals are convinced paranormal forces are at play and that the spooky sighting is definitely a ghost.
Just visible is a Stetson style hat and a waistcoat.

Caught as pals tested out the video mode on a new mobile phone, the strange presence was NOT seen until the recording was played back.

And landlords have told of similar spooky goings-on in the same pub in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs.
Filmed by local Andy Willett and pals Macca and Vince Bundy, the bizarre footage spooked all three.

“It has to be a ghost,” Mr Bundy, 43, said. “There is no other explanation.”
“We didn’t see it while we were sitting there, only when we played the video.

“I couldn’t believe it.

“You can make out a hat and a waistcoat. I’ve never seen a video as clear as this before. It’s not a fake, it actually happened.”

The Tunstall pub called the Ancient Briton, now a derelict site after it was targeted by arsonists, was thought to be haunted.

Mr Bundy, who has hung on to the footage for three years, said: “One previous landlord told a local his young son used to talk to ‘another little boy’.

“And one tenant’s child spoke of a cowboy who used to pick-up his socks.”

Ghost Rides Rocking Horse

"Finally, I can share this video with everyone. It dates back to 1992 but just became digital as far as I know. For years, this recording of an apparent ghost riding my nephew’s rocking horse was misplaced and in a not so digital format. "

Ghost Rides Rocking Horse

"When my nephew was young, his grandmother found an old rocking horse at a garage sale in Colorado and sent it to him. Late at night, his mother and father would hear the rocking horse squeaking. In an attempt to “catch” their young son sneaking into the room and riding his rocking horse they set up a video camera. The camera captured something else at play as you will see.

I also find it interesting that my nephew asks his father, “Who’s that” when he is riding the horse before leaving the room. The “other” rocking horse rider begins about 2:14 into the video or so." (above taken from "Phantoms and Monsters". )