Buck's Ghosts and Hauntings: Ghostly Roundup

Image via WikipediaSorry to be so remiss in posting here. Lately, life has intruded on my paranormal hobbies. The major time crunch has been the fact that I have finally sat down to begin working on a murder mystery novel about a pair of paranormal investigators who get involved in the cover up of a murder while investigating an abandoned house that is supposedly haunted.

So, my apologies and to let all my friends and readers know that I haven't abandoned you, I present this week's installment of the Ghostly Roundup.

The Roundup starts in 3, 2, 1....

GHI is Hot!

Ghost Hunters International outperformed the 8pm series premiere of the horror-themed reality series 13 - Fear is Real on The CW by +12% in Adults 18-49, +36% in Adults 25-54 and +12% in total viewers.
A spin-off of SCI FI's popular Ghost Hunters series, Ghost Hunters International features a squad of real-life "ghost-busters" - ordinary people who investigate and attempt to debunk claims of otherworldly activity. The team travels to different European cities each week in pursuit of the truth behind bizarre supernatural claims. Its success so far has cemented Ghost Hunters' place as the #1 paranormal franchise in cable! Joining regular cast members Robb Demarest and Barry Fitzgerald this winter are Ghost Hunters investigators Dustin Pari and Joe Chin as well as new team members Brandy Green and Angela Alderman.

Do you care? Nope. Neither did I. The only reason I mention it is because my dear friend and colleague, Paul Bradford, had one of his gadgets featured on the show recently. Paul's IR/UV strobe made it's national TV debut. You can see the clip here:

Why Did the Ghost Cross the Road?

The numerous ghoulish encounters with a mysterious 'white lady' has prompted many to believe they had met a supernatural being.
For bemused locals, the only question on their minds, was: 'Who You Gonna Call?'
Well, Ghostbusters, of course.
Over the past six weeks there have been dozens of sightings of the apparition near the ruins of a remote farmhouse in near Coalisland in Co Tyrone.

Ghoulish encounters: Cars have been queuing at a road near Coalisland in Co Tyrone after dozens of sightings of a mysterious 'white lady' near the ruins of a remote farmhouse (file picture)

Convinced that the sightings are true - rather than the result of one too many pints of Guinness - convoys of ghost hunters have flocked to the dip in the road where she was seen.
Up to 60 cars have been spotted parked on the side of the road at midnight, causing traffic jams in the usually desolate area.
Villagers who have spotted the ghost say it looks like an old woman with a sad expression.
However, none have so far been able to describe the features of her face in any detail.
The spot where the ghost was spotted could perhaps best be described as a 'ghost's paradise'.

The damp crumbling walls on the ruined house where the ghost was spotted still bear the scorch marks from a fire.
Broken doors now creak in the wind and tree branches scratch against the collapsed roof. The birds in the trees are strangely silent.
Ryan Bell, the son of the local landlord Raymond, claims he has seen the ghost more than 20 times.
'I was freaked out the first time I saw her, but now I'm getting used to it,' he said. 'It looks like an old small woman with a shining white cape.
'When you drive by the run-down house, the figure emerges from the trees and crosses the road in front of you before coming to a halt in the same place each time.
'It's definitely a creepy experience. You can only see the profile of her face but she appears sad.'
Paranormal experts are now heading to the area with thermal imaging cameras and high frequency voice recorders in the hope of verifying the sightings.
Warren Coates, of the Northern Ireland Paranormal Research Association, said he was aware of previous paranormal activity in the area.
'It related to a phantom female hitchhiker, who caused a stir five years ago,' he said. 'Drivers would see her on the side of the road with her thumb out. When they pulled up to offer her a lift, she would vanish.
'Sometimes she would walk across the road in front of cars. But when drivers swerved to avoid her, she disappeared. These sightings were about a mile away from the latest sightings.'
Mr Coates, who set up his paranormal organisation in 1991, believes the ghost might be a woman who has died in a car crash in the area. (Source)

Yes, jump to the conclusion that it isn't a hoax, isn't just mass hysteria or the Irish version of Zombie Road. Let's go right for it's a ghost and not only a ghost but let's give her some back story before any research is even begun. God preserve us from the pop ghost investigator.

Police Brutality

Since the inception of reality based TV in the U.S., new trends inexplicably emerge each season in attempts to corner the market in this ever-evolving format. The trend in the 2008/09 season undoubtedly is ghost chasing.

Already successful with Paranormal State, a show involving Penn State students solving ghost mysteries, A&E is latching on further to the popular afterlife story line with its latest greenlit series, Paranormal Cops.

Seeking to one-up its successful Ghost Hunters rival on Sci-Fi, Cops will add a new layer to the popular reality genre with a group of real-life police officers in Chicago as the subjects. According to TV Guide, the program will follow the group as they lead normal police lives by day and moonlight as ghost chasers at night.

Robert Sharenow, the senior VP in nonfiction and alternative programming at A&E equivocates the show as, “the perfect marriage of A&E’s successful crime and justice genre with our blossoming paranormal programming that documents real-life accounts of bona fide paranormal investigators.” (source)

Oh yes, A&E has decided to launch yet another version of Ghost Hunters but instead of plumbers they're going for cops. Am I the only one who has become completely fatigued by the amateur reality star ghost hunter thing?

No word on whether the Paranormal Cops for Chi town will be beating those recalcitrant ghosts into submission with billy clubs or whether the Tazer will take the place of the EMF meter. Ow, it really hurts when my eyes roll into the back of my head.

Helping Them Cross Over

An interesting thread on nurses' experiences with spirits and people near death appears on the Allnurses.com website. Some of the stories are very interesting.

Personally, I've been present when many patients have died. After all, I worked trauma so it comes with the territory. Besides, if the Victorian idea that ghosts are created in moments of death involving panic or fear then I should have been constantly running into ghosts. Unfortunately, never once did anything unusual happen.

The closest I came was my own uncle passing away who held a long and lucid conversation with my dead father just an hour or so before he passed away. He also sat and stroked his dog that had died while he was in the hospital. Strange, yes and certainly the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

Maybe we can get some feedback from Dethmama who deals with death as part of her job as a hospice nurse.