Georgia Ghost Hunters

True hauntings are rare, but they happen more than most people realize. It is always a good idea to follow certain procedures of professionalism while conducting any investigation. A logical and orderly investigation must be performed to properly explore all areas of the phenomenon, either it is natural or supernatural. Future clients have probably already exhausted thereself physically, mentally and emotionally prior to calling in a paranormal investigative team. Most have done the research to find out what don’t fit in with the natural realm of things and would like answers as to why this is happening to them. In turn, they need to turn to a respectible group that has expertise, experience and knowledge.

With most hauntings, the place will produce phenomena after a sudden emotional, violent or traumatic death. The way someone met there death could be the reason why energy is released at the location and sometimes can be sensed by smells, the feeling of being touched or actually seeing an entity. Then another could be an attachment to the place where they loved so much while they were living and refuse to leave since they passed away.

Another cause of producing spirits is remodeling or demolishing the place where they lived. Any sudden or drastic change in the environement could agitate the ghost as they wish for the home or place to remain as it was while they were alive. Ghosts are not harmful and should not be feared at all, most have the same personality as they did when they were alive. But most individuals refuse to live with an invisible house guest and want help with the removal of the ghost.

Paranormal teams will establish standards and protocols for investigations, this helps form a tight-knit bond with each other and keeps down chaos during the investigation. These rules are created to maintain a level of professionalism, which may at sometime seem to strict during the investigation, but that is not the case. By following certain rules, it can make the entire investigation easier and make the client feel at ease. 

Most investigative teams will not permit, seances, ouija boards or psychics. As they are trying to scientifically prove the existence of ghosts. Using seances or Ouija boards, either of these could open a door that cannot be closed and evil entities could pass through that door and cause a world of trouble. It is best to avoid situations like that because you are playing with something that you have no control over. This is not a game, it is serious matter’s that could have a life long effect on you. As with psychics, we personally would rather stay clear from needing a psychic.

Aside from all above, what causes a spirit to be earth bound? This question is very complex, but here are a few possible answers. Unfinished Business - the spirit feels they have something very important that must be accomplished before they can move on. An Attachment - they are attached to a another person or watching over them. A Material Attachment - the refuse to leave there earthly possessions. Protector - they feel they need to watch over someone. Confusion - they may have died traumatically and are unaware they are dead. There may be other reasons while a spirit refuses to leave, but these are the most common. Independent research from small groups have yielded some fascinating results in recent years. But the number of hoaxes have only damaged the chances of serious research being conducted.In the next article we will learn some of the basic steps you should follow to help your group stay clear of mishaps and keep your group a reputable one.

I’m not looking for the dictionary definition of ghost. I “know” what a ghost is. I want to know WHAT a ghost is. Where does it come from? What is it made of? How did it get here? And many more questions that need answering. I am curious.

I have been doing some research into finding out what makes a ghost. I have been reading books, articles, research papers and even the Bible to find out the answer. How can such a fascinating subject have no definitive answer? There are so many unanswered questions regarding ghosts. I would love to be able to pick up a report and have someone tell me exactly what one is. Unfortunately, there is still an enormous amount of information that is unknown regarding ghosts.

Let’s start with a look at the definition of a ghost. I know I said I wasn’t interested in the dictionary definition but it gives us a good start at solving the puzzle.

Here is the definition from Stephen Wagner of About.com:
A ghost - or spirit or apparition - is the energy, soul or personality of a person who has
died and has somehow gotten stuck between this plane of existence and the next. Most
researchers believe that these spirits do not know they are dead. Very often they have
died under traumatic, unusual or highly emotional circumstances. Ghosts can be perceived by the living in a number of ways: through sight (apparitions), sound (voices), smell
(frangrances and odors), touch - and sometimes they can just be sensed.

Here is Webster’s definition:
The visible disembodied soul of a dead person.

Here is a scripture from the Bible. It is Jesus talking to his disciples after his
resurrection:
Luke 24:39 - Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost
does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

Based on these three definitions, we can form a few facts about ghosts. First, they are dead. Second, the ghost itself is not a physical being. Third, ghosts have been a factor of life for thousands of years. These three facts alone can give you a good description of a ghost but they
do not answer exactly what a ghost is.

How does a ghost form? How do they make sounds? How can they produce smells? The inability to answer these questions leaves the door wide open for skeptics to question the validity of the ghost’s existence. If we are unable to find the answers to these questions, how can we quiet the voices saying that ghosts exist only in our minds?

My personal experiences with ghosts have increased over the last couple of years. Maybe I have witnessed them all along and was unopen to the possibilty that they existed. Maybe my fear of coming in contact with a ghost kept me from seeing what was really there. I come from a family of fairly open minded individuals. We were never told to not believe in ghosts. I was given the fear of ghosts by my father. His constant scaring of us as children formed a deathly fear inside of me that stayed with me into adulthood. Just a few years ago, I was completely unable to deal with any type of paranormal or spooky experiences. I could not even sit down and watch a scary movie without having an anxiety attack. I would break out in a cold sweat. I would shake and get short of breath. There was no way that I could possibly be an investigator of paranormal activity. All of that changed when we moved into a house next to a cemetery.

Let me start by saying that we are still unsure if the cemetery next door had anything to do with the haunting of our house. I was never able to find a history or information to substantiate whatever was there. I do know that the house was fairly active on a daily basis.

When it first started I thought that it was my mind playing tricks on me. I was a little stressed and tired from the move. I figured that I was being forgetful when I would go back to get things that would end up not being there. I would find my objects in odd places. My barrettes and hair ties seemed to be a favorite object with the entity that stayed in the dining room. I also thought, at first, that I was just being a scaredy cat because I was home alone throughout the day in a strange new house. That all ended the day a friend of mine was with me and she heard for herself the child voice. I had not told anyone at that point of my experiences. She gave me solid validation that I wasn’t losing my mind. Let me tell you of my unexpected house guests.

I feel that we had three separate entities in our house. A woman, a child and a grouchy old man. I do not think that these three ghosts were together or related. They did not seem to communicate with each other. This is all theory, of course.

The woman stayed primarily in the dining room. Every once in a while she would go over into the kitchen but mainly she stayed within the confines of the dining room. She was most active during the day which is unusual. But then again, my house is quieter in the daytime than it is at night.

As I stated before, she liked to play games with me. She would move objects and return them on request. She would hide my barrettes and hair ties in odd places. One time I found my barrette inside of a flower arrangement. This would not be a normal place for me to store my hair accessories. Ever. She would also sing and hum to us. Sometimes it was faint and if you were not used to it you wouldn’t know it was happening. We knew what it was and would listen for it. I saw her twice while we lived there. Once she was standing in the doorway to the den which used to be a sliding glass door. She looked like she was cleaning the window. The other time was a fleeting glimpse of her walking from the kitchen to the dining room. The best experience, and the most unnerving at the same time, was one day when I was playing music on my radio. I was cleaning and doing chores around the house.

I walked through the dining room on my way to the den. About that time, there was a break in the music and to this day I will never forget what happened. I heard her say, “I see you.” It wasn’t a faint voice. It was very clear and was done in a sing-songy, playful spirit. This was the one and only time I ever heard her voice clearly. It never happened again.

Now, the child in the house was not limited to one specific room. I actually did not know the child entity was there until my son said something about him. It was getting windy and cloudy outside. My son looked at me and said, “My friend will be coming in soon. He doesn’t like this kind of weather.” Of course, I did not know what to say to this. I asked my son about it. He said that he played with this invisible friend all the time. I did notice that my son came through a different door every day after school. He said that was the game they played. The friend had to guess which door he would be coming through. After this conversation, I started noticing that our dog would seem to play with something while our son was away. He would take off running into another room with his toy and bark his playful bark like he was asking for someone to throw his toy. This would get to me at first but after a while I let it go. At least he was kept busy while I tried to get work done.

Last but not least is the grouchy old man. I say he was grouchy because you could feel his presence. It was a dark, somber feeling whenever he was around. There were times that I would wake up in the middle of the night and I would feel like his face was directly in front of my face. It was always an oppressive feeling when he was around. Sometimes I think he is a residual haunting and sometimes I think he is a regular presence. I say this because he was always present in the hallway. At night, you could hear him pacing up and down the hallway. He seemed to stay in the upper part of the house around the bedrooms. There were a few times I would be working at my desk and would see something cross behind me as a reflection in the monitor. I would freeze up and be terrified to turn around. I was so afraid of what I would see. That fear became a reality one night. I got up to go to the kitchen. All of the lights were off so it was pretty dark in the house. I was walking down the hallway when I noticed the temperature drop rapidly. The hair on my arms and neck stood straight up. It felt like electricity was flowing through my body. Then I noticed a dark spot in the hallway. It was like a shadow but wasn’t. It seemed darker than the darkness around it. It came right at me and went through me. It was the scariest moment of my entire life. It also was the moment that I was released from the fear of seeing a ghost. I had now seen one up close and personal and I didn’t die from it.

We now live in a different house and most days I am grateful for the silence and peaceful atmosphere. But there are some days I long to be back in that house on South Hatcher Street. It wasn’t until after we had moved that we started our journey of paranormal investigations. We did some EVP work and took some pictures in the old house but nothing serious. For us, it felt like we were living the investigation on a daily basis. I now wish we had documented so much more than what we did.

I think about the experiences we had in that house. I think about what we saw and heard and felt. They weren’t solid, physical humans but they were an entity of something. They manifested from somewhere. It is the where and how and why that remains the mystery.

The Myrtles Plantation is an antebellum plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, near Baton Rouge. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the plantation is a bed and breakfast, and it offers historical and mystery tours. It is supposedly the most haunted location in the United States.

History

The Myrtles Plantation was built in 1796 by General David Bradford and called Laurel Grove. He lived there alone for several years, until being pardoned for his role in the Whiskey Rebellion in 1799. He then moved his wife Elizabeth and their five children to the plantation from Pennsylvania. One of Bradford’s law students, Clark Woodruff (or Woodrooff) eventually married Bradford’s daughter, Sara Mathilda, in 1817. After the death of David Bradford in 1808, Clark and Sara Woodruff managed the plantation for Elizabeth Bradford. They had three children: Cornelia Gale, James, and Mary Octavia.

In July of 1823, Sara Woodruff died from yellow fever. Clark Woodruff continued to manage the plantation with his mother-in-law. In July of 1824, James died of yellow fever as well, and his sister Cornelia Gale succumbed to the disease in August of that year.

When Elizabeth Bradford died in 1830, Clark Woodruff and his daughter Mary Octavia moved to Covington, Louisiana, and left a caretaker to manage the plantation. In 1834, Woodruffe sold the plantation, the land, and its slaves to Ruffin Gray Stirling. Woodruff eventually died in New Orleans in 1851.

Stirling and his wife, Mary Catherine Cobb, undertook an extensive remodeling of the house. When completed, the new house was nearly double the size of the former building, and its name was changed to The Myrtles. The Stirlings had 9 children, but five of them died young. Stirling died in 1854 and left the plantation to his wife.

In 1865, Mary Cobb hired William Drew Winter to help manage the plantation and as her lawyer and agent. Winter was married to Mary Cobb’s daughter, Sarah Mulford. Sarah and William Winter lived at the Myrtles and had six children, one of whom died from typhoid at the age of three. Although the Winters were forced to sell the plantation in 1868, they were able to buy it back two years later.

In 1871, William Winter was shot by an unknown man on the porch of the house and died. Sarah remained at the Myrtles with her mother and siblings until 1878, when she died. Mary Cobb died in 1880, and the plantation passed to Stephen, one of her sons. The plantation was heavily in debt, however, and Stephen sold it in 1886 to Oran D. Brooks. Brooks sold it in 1889, and the house changed hands several times until 1891, when it was purchased by Harrison Milton Williams.

Over the next several decades, the land was split up and owned by various Williams heirs. In the 1950s, Marjorie Munson owned the house itself. Munson apparently noticed odd things happening around the house and began to question neighbors about its history. This is possibly the beginning of some of the legends surrounding the Myrtles. The plantation changed hands several more times and was restored in the 1970s by owners Arlin Dease and Mr. & Mrs. Robert Ward. At some point the house changed hands again, being bought by James and Frances Kermeen Myers. The Myers apparently believed the house was haunted, and it began to be featured in books and magazines about haunted houses. Frances, publishing as Francis Kermeen has written a book about the Myrtles and its supposed haunting. The house is now a bed & breakfast and offers historical and mystery tours, and is owned by John & Teeta Moss. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places .

Legends and ghost stories

Touted as “one of America’s most haunted homes”, the plantation is supposedly home of at least 12 ghosts. It is often reported that 10 murders occurred in the house , but historical records only indicate the murder of William Winter.

The legend of Chloe

Possibly the most well known of the Myrtles supposed ghosts, Chloe (sometimes Cleo) was reportedly a slave owned by Clark and Sara Woodruff. According to one story, Clark Woodruff had pressured or forced Chloe into being his mistress. Chloe and Clark were caught by Sara Woodruff, and Chloe began to listen at keyholes, trying to learn what would happen to her. Other versions of the legend have Chloe listening in at keyholes to learn news of Clark Woodruff’s business dealings or for other purposes. After being caught, either by Clark or Sara Woodruff, one of her ears was cut off, and she wore a green turban to hide it.

After having her ear cut off, Chloe supposedly baked a birthday cake containing oleander leaves, which are poisonous. The various legends diverge as to why she did this, with some saying she was getting revenge on the Woodruffs and some saying she was attempting to redeem her position by curing the family of the poisoning. According to the legends, her plan backfired. Only Sara and her two daughters ate the cake, and all died from the poison. Chloe was then supposedly hanged by the other slaves, either as punishment or to escape punishment by Clark Woodruff for harboring her.

The historical record does not support this legend. There is no record of the Woodruffs owning a slave named Chloe or Cleo. The legends usually claim that Sara and her two daughters were poisoned, but Mary Octavia survived well into adulthood. Finally, Sara, James, and Cornelia Woodruff were not killed by poisoning, but instead succumbed to yellow fever. Regardless of the factual accuracy of the Chloe story, she supposedly haunts the plantation.

 Other legends

There are a variety of other legends surrounding the Myrtles. The house is reputedly built over an Indian burial ground, and the ghost of a young Indian woman has been reported. During the Civil War, the house was ransacked by Union soldiers, and legend claims that three were killed in the house. Supposedly, there is (or was) a blood stain in a doorway, roughly the size of a human body, that will not (or would not) come clean. Other legends say that cleaners have been unable to push their mop or broom into that space. However, there is no record of any Union soldiers having been shot on the Myrtles property.

A mirror located in the house supposedly holds the spirits of Sara Woodruff and two of her children. According to custom, mirrors are covered after a death, but legend says that after the poisoning of some of the Woodruffs, this particular mirror was overlooked. The uncovered mirror reportedly trapped the spirits of Sara and her children, who are occasionally seen or leave handprints in the mirror. These handprints may have been left by workers replacing the glass or resilvering the mirror.

The plantation is also reportedly haunted by a young girl who died in 1868, despite being treated by a local voodoo practitioner. She supposedly appears in the room in which she died, and has been reported to practice voodoo on people sleeping in the room. There is also a ghost who reportedly walks, staggers, or crawls up the stairs and stops on the 17th step. Some have said that this is William Winter, the victim of the only reported murder in the house. Alternate versions of his murder claim he managed to walk or crawl up the stairs, and collapsed in his wife’s arms on the 17th step. However, this version of the story is contested. There have been other reports of odd sounds, but they generally do not have legends attached to them.

Sitting all alone one night, you suddenly feel a cold chill run up your spine, not thinking anything out of the normal could have caused this, you just pass it off as just one of those things. Unaware of what may have just crossed paths with you, you continue what you are doing. Then a strong presence is felt, you begin to wander, maybe this is something paranormal.

When someone see’s something that just don’t fit into this realm, there reactions maybe so over-whelming they wouldn’t know what to do. Some may continue what they are doing and pretend as though they didn’t see it, while another may shriek and run the other way. Whichever the case may be, here are some tips that could help document the experience. Try as much as possible to stay and witness the phenomena. Recording as much as possible in your mind. This could help identify what type of ghost or haunting that may be residing in your home or place of business. While observing, if you think the spirit is friendly, attempt to communicate with it. It could possibly be trying to relay a very important message to you. But by all means, never approach the spirit, touch it or take anything from it. Some spirit’s are a sign of bad luck. Most spirits will not cause harm to the living, but under a traumatic death, violence could occur.

There is another type of phenomenon that is witnessed, but only out of the corner (peripheral) of your eye. These are called shadow people or shadow men. There are many theories on what they actually are. Some think they are beings that slip in and out of our world, unaware that they are here and have been seen by us. Another theory I have heard is the “alien type”. They move so fast, but often we only catch glimpses of them out of the corner’s of our eyes. Have you ever wandered why the vanish when you turn your head and look at them straight on? from: Ghosthunter a member of our site, explains her theory on this;

“My answer to this is based on the actual physiology of our eye. Basically we have two photoreceptors, rods and cones. The cones are located in directly across the fovea or directly in the center of our vision. These receptors allow us to see in colour, but need quite a bit of light to function. If you have noticed, if you are sitting in the dark without a light source, your vision is in black and white. This is due to the fact that there is not enough light for the cones to function so our other photoreceptor, rods, take over. Rods allow us to only see a colourless grainy image, but can also detect light that is a billion times dimmer than that of an average sunny day. This allows us to see things when using these photoreceptors that we would not normally be able to. Also, the highest concentration in our eye of these rods is 15 to 20 degrees off the center of our vision, or in our peripheral. This may account for the fact that we see something out of the corner of our eye (using our rods) and when we turn, we switch photoreceptors (cones being in the center of our vision) and the object disappears.”

While observing these elucid shadow people, try and keep your head stationary and try not to turn to look at them straight on. If you seem to see the same thing in the same spot frequently, set up a camcorder and try and get video proof.

Children and pets are extremely sensitive to paranormal happenings. I have heard from a few people that there child is talking to an imaginary friend. Although most is passed off as a playmate. If you see this happening on a day to day basis, take notes and ask your child the name of there playmate, then try and research any history of the location. Many documented cases turn out that the children is actually talking to a deceased loved one or previous owner of your home. This could possibly mean they are being watched over - in a good sense. But rare, some children are frightened and cry. If this is the case, contact a respectible investigative team.

Then  you have your pets. Pets are extremely sensitive to those things we cannot see or hear. When your pet(s) start acting eratic, barking, whining, hissing and shying away for no apparent reason. There could be more than meets the eye lurking around.

With the unknown, there is so much to explore. Answers are what we are looking for and sometimes we have a hard time picking apart reality from all those little things that “go bump in the night”. Some do not want to believe and then there are some that are trying to keep an open mind. To be a firm believer, one must have experienced phenomenon that totally changed their mind. Most people will not believe in the spirit world, unless, they have faced it - face to face.

So when it comes to ghost’s, haunting’s, spirit’s and specter’s. There is so much we can learn from them. It is opening new doors that we thought would always stay shut. The general public is helping out paranormal groups that are searching for a logical explanation as to why they are still here. With your help, we may, one day have the proof that cannot be disproved.