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The Mysterious Winchester MansionParanormal in Plains Midwest, United States Every Friday 13th and around Halloween, the public is invited to torchlight tours of the Winchester Mystery House. It stands on South Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, set in immaculate, palm-scattered gardens, and today has a total of 160 rooms, though it once had more. Its turrets, inlaid floors, numerous fireplaces, lifts, gas lights, central heating and unique architectural features are clearly the result of years of painstaking, costly work. It is estimated that the enormous building, which incorporates all the most expensive modern conveniences available at the time, took 38 years to complete, at a cost of around five and a half million dollars. However, the source of inspiration for the mansion was not simply self-indulgence on the part of its wealthy creator.
Sarah Winchester, who planned the building of the house, married the son of Oliver Winchester. Oliver, his son and Sarah's baby son all died within fifteen years of each other and Sarah became convinced that the family was cursed. Records seem to suggest that she consulted a spiritualist medium for help in lifting the curse and the medium confirmed her suspicions: that the Winchester family had made its money from the Winchester firearms company, and the souls of all those whose lives had ended with a bullet fired from a Winchester rifle were now intent on revenge. It is said that the medium went on to instruct the Winchester widow to use her inherited fortune to build a house for herself and the wandering spirits, and the Winchester Mystery House is the result.
Though the house is clearly a masterpiece of craftsmanship of its time, it is not this which sets it apart from other stately homes of the era, but rather the incorporation of Sarah's spiritualist beliefs into its structure. Her lucky spider web motif is repeated throughout the house, most notably in a patterned Tiffany window which is encrusted with thirteen precious stones - a number which she surrounded herself with in hundreds of decorative items. There was never a clear plan for the layout of the house and it seems that Sarah continued to add to it in a desperate, haphazard fashion, which rather seems to corroborate the story that her consultant medium told her never to stop building, for fear of death. Stairs lead to the ceiling or run upside-down, doors open up to nowhere and rooms lie within rooms.
The surreal sense of chaos certainly adds to the ghostly air of the place. Poltergeist activity is regularly reported, and the ghost of Sarah Winchester is said to linger along with those she worked to accommodate when alive.
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Review by Photo by flickr user bella731 |
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AlcatrazParanormal in San Francisco, United States In the middle of a cold, grey bay, surrounded by dangerous waters keeping the warmth of the city lights out and the damp and fog in sits a lonely rock on which the notorious prison Alcatraz was built to house some of the people America feared most. Alcatraz wasn’t designed with rehabilitation in mind, from its opening in 1934 until it closed in 1963 it was a place of punishment and fear, this is where difficult prisoners were sent to be broken and many men subjected to the harsh treatment naked, beaten and deprived of light, sound and food in the ‘Hole’ cells ended up dead or insane. Is it any wonder that these harsh blank halls and chilly four by eight foot cement cells absorbed the ill-will and negative energy of those who were forcibly confined here, howling and screaming in their distress? Parapsychologists have suggested that this kind of tortured life and traumatic death is what leaves its mark on a place and causes the strange occurrences people attribute to ghosts or spirits. Before it was a federal prison, the island was used to house military convicts who were kept in chains and slept on stone floors in freezing conditions and were left to exist amongst their own filth and disease. At the end of the Civil War Indian Chiefs who refused to relinquish their land and titles and were causing trouble were brought here as well - some people believe that these Indians are responsible for some of the earliest spiritual or paranormal activity; Native Americans already believed ‘the rock‘ was a place for evil spirits to meet. By the beginning of the 20th Century the islands criminal population was burgeoning and were put to work expanding the prison - which could also explain the nasty vibes people say the island radiates. By the 20s and 30s Alcatraz was a fortress for big name prisoners like Al Capone (who is one of the most recognisable spirits), Robert Stroud (the infamous Birdman), Machine Gun Kelly, Doc Barker and Alvin Karpis. Capone did several stints in one of Alcatraz’s ‘Holes’ and despite starting out believing he was a celebrity he ended up a damaged man. More men took their lives and suffered mental breakdowns by percentage here than in any other prison, men chopped off their own limbs, slit their own throats and one spent almost 22 months in solitary confinement - the spirits of Alcatraz are violent and disturbed. During daylight tour groups looking for a chilly thrill walk through what is left of the prison but at night its a different story: strange clanging sounds come from inside boarded up corridors and cells and night watchmen have reported hearing the sound of men running coming from the ruined upper corridors. Murmured voices are said to be heard in the hospital ward and screams from the dungeons, where the Indian Chiefs were held and from the ‘Hole’ cells which are icy cold, even when the rest of the prison is boiling hot. 14D (D Block), one of the Holes was feared by inmates as well, who have reported seeing glowing red eyes there - one crim supposedly strangled himself (?) in this cell and was seen afterwards in prison line ups by groups of guards and prisoners. Phantom gunshots are another common Alcatraz phenomenon, both pre and post closure. Capone spent a lot of his time towards the end of his stint in Alcatraz playing the banjo and a number of people (some of them Park Rangers now looking after the site) have reported hearing strange banjo music coming from the shower room where those in the know say Capone was supposed to have been allowed to practice because he thought he‘d be murdered if he went out in the yard. Even though Capone was transferred, completed his sentence and was freed people still believe his disorientated spirit left its mark here with the other tortured souls. More than a million people now visit Alcatraz each year, among them ghost hunters and psychics and they are seldom disappointed, Richard Senate spent a night there and later said, “emotions seem to drip from ever corner of Alcatraz.”. I would have to agree with him, in cell 14D I felt an icy pressure on the back of my neck and the base of my spine and an intense presence radiating from the corner of the room (could this be the same place where the unlucky inmate saw the glowing eyes manifest?), while in 12D (also a Hole) I felt the temperature drop suddenly and I felt my fingers tingle sharply in the hospital. A colleague touring the dungeons on another occasion said he had a sudden mental picture of the mutilated bodies of men in uniforms strung up in chains pop into his head accompanied by a gust of wind which seemed to come from nowhere. He also sensed unexpected hostility in the laundry room, his research later turned up records that a prisoner had been murdered there. If residual evil survives anywhere it will be here on ‘the rock’.
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Review by Photo by flickr user b r e n t |
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Waverly Hills Tuberculosis SanatoriumParanormal in Louisville, United States If parapsychologists beliefs that negative energy leaves an indelible mark on an environment are correct then the thousands of souls who died of illness or madness within the walls of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium have certainly infected these bricks and mortar. Built as a very nice state of the art hospital for TB sufferers, with a large solarium porch and upstairs conservatory, the building, even when newly opened in 1926 complete with school, chapel and playground looked creepy (it’s just the style of the period, nothing sinister, but it does add to the legend and hospitals are always ripe for haunting.). After closing as a TB facility it re-opened as Woodhaven Geriatric Facility which had a far less friendly outlook; rumors circulated about electric shock therapy and patient mistreatment and it was eventually closed because of improper patient care in the early 1980s. After this the building was sold privately and was left to vandals and squatters to abuse, it was around this time that stories about satanic rituals and strange happenings started to spread. Locals began to report hearses driving by to DROP OFF coffins, peculiar noises, children who looked real then appeared to vanish (the most common sighting is of a boy in old fashioned clothes playing with a ball.) and the malfunction of electrical equipment (electricity was cut off when the geriatric facility closed.). Paranormal investigations of Waverly have reported shadowy figures, flying orbs and other strange lights, the smell of food, unexplained falling objects and baffling noises. The strongest paranormal activity seems to center around the Death Tunnel or the body chute (it even has two suitably grizzly names), where the cadavers were removed from the hospital. The TB death rate peaked at around one an hour and the tunnel was actually built to prevent patients from seeing the all too regular hearse pick ups, but a lot of people believe the tunnel is a hive of ghostly goings-on. Another room popular with psychics and ghost hunters is Room 502, originally a nurses station. A translucent woman in a white nightgown has been seen running screaming from this room towards the front of the hospital and while hearsay says it is a crazed patient who stabbed a nurse to death in this room, the only recorded death of a nurse in Room 502 was a suicide by hanging, but it is worth saying that mentally unstable patients were housed in this part of the hospital and apparently continued to use Room 502 while the body hung. As well as the woman in white people have also experienced rapid temperature decreases, heard strange sounds and felt sudden unexplainable drafts in 502. Waverly has a reputation of being one of America’s most haunted buildings but a lot of its reputation has been built up by haunted tours and television specials, however I have visited several times and felt several strange presences including a tingling in my fingers and arms while on the fifth floor and an eerie feeling of calm in the Death Tunnel so I would have to say that I am inclined to agree with the chorus and say that there is something definitely not right about this building. My most extreme experience happened in a room off one of the operating theaters: walking into the room I feel quite ill and my face and hands became clammy. I later discovered that this could have been one of the rooms where corpses were drained of their toxic mucus, a long incision was made from neck to pelvic bone and the bodies were strung up like meat, supposedly reducing the risk of further infection. A colleague stayed here overnight in a group and reported feeling an intense chill while in one of the rooms and the forth floor and while the group looked for the source two people saw a blond boy pass in front of the window, but when they went looking for him the corridor was empty. While the group was waiting in the courtyard he said he saw curtains move on the second and forth floors and a shadowy presence behind one of the windows which came out as a bright blur in a photo he took…
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Review by Photo by flickr user ConspiracyofHappiness |
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Santa Monica Farmers’ MarketMarkets in Los Angeles, United States The Santa Monica Farmer’s market is an abundant source of fresh vegetables, fruits and meats with lashings of extra ethics for a guilt-free shop. The freshly grown produce is locally grown limiting carbon emissions during transportation, it is often organic and so kind to the earth (and you) and can be picked when ripe as it does not have to be transported very far, limiting any waste. The animals are free range and locally reared and even the milk is ethically harvested to produce thoroughly ethical dairy products. But as well as all being naturally produced, the variety of vegetables itself is astounding. Not only will you find enormous white cauliflowers at the market, but there are peppery yellow, purple and green (fractalesque) ones as well. Why buy boring green beans when you can get yellow or purple ones? Swap your purple aubergines for white ones, and if you thought curly kale was exciting wait until you see the black stuff. Other highlights include mouth-watering peaches, nobbly avocados, Persian cucumbers, concord grapes and wild arugula. The market also celebrates the national holidays of the local communities with extra juicy asian pears for Chinese New Year, speciality herbs for the week-long Iranian New Year, melon mania in July and the highly amusing all you can carry pumpkin patch in October leading up to Halloween.
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Review by Photo by flickr user Charlie Brewer |
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Bonn Om TukFestivals in Phnom Penh, Cambodia This three day festival is one of Cambodia’s biggest and celebrates the end of the wet season and the rivers changing flow in a series of boat races. The course is constructed so the water is held in that section of river by a gate dam across the finish line and when the race is won the gate is pushed open and water gushes out. Special rice dishes are served late at night in the light of the full moon and there are fireworks and a lantern lit flotilla contributing to the spectacle and celebratory atmosphere. Bonn Om Tuk is held annually on the full moon at the end of October, beginning of November.
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Review by Photo by flickr user Neil Rickards |
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