ghosts
The Calling Cards Of Spirit Whispers
When I was a teenager, my father said in a very serious tone, “I want to talk to you about something important.
My immediate thought was, I hope this is not going to be a cringe-worthy talk about the birds and the bees. Please let it not be!
But fortunately it was not about the facts of life. Instead, it was an enlightening conversation about spiritualism and the afterlife.
My father told me about his conversion from atheist to spiritualist about a decade earlier. Apparently, my mother had made a bet with him about something that he had lost. According to their agreement, if he lost, he had to accompany her to a spiritualist church to attend a service.
So they went to the Spiritualist church in London one Sunday night when Joseph Benjamin, a well-known medium at the time, was scheduled to demonstrate on the platform. Benjamin was a prominent Spiritualist medium whose mediumship was highly regarded in those days.
Although my father sat all they way in the back during the service, that didn’t stop Benjamin from locating my father in the assembled crowd and delivering a profound message from my late paternal grandfather.
The message stunned my father, especially when Benjamin told him how disappointed my grandfather was that the tools he’d left him were neglected and “rusting away in the shed. And so it was that my father became an avid believer.
The Phenomenon Of Spirit Apparitions
Have you ever felt a presence in the room and then caught a glimpse of a recognisable shadow or a fleetingly familiar face, only to realise that they are no longer among the living?
You are not alone, and it is more common than you might think. It is known as a spirit apparition and most people prefer not to talk about it for obvious reasons.
Lately, I’ve noticed an increase in such experiences with my clients, perhaps due to the other side’s increased efforts these days to communicate with us. I’ve also found myself to be a prime example of this phenomenon.
Increasingly I am seeing familiar faces of deceased people I have known in my life, manifesting in the form of brief spirit apparitions. There is never any doubt as to who they are, as they always have the same appearance as when they lived their existence here.
What exactly are spirit apparitions? They are visual energy manifestations of people who have passed on, appearing to the living in various forms. The word ‘apparition’ simply means an ‘appearance,’ often of something surprising or unexpected. In the context of afterlife phenomena and the spirit realm, it refers to the manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person as a visible image or figure.
The Haunted History Of Music City
Many cities around the world are home to their fair share of ghosts and haunted places. Nashville, Tennessee, also known as Music City, is no exception. With the city’s rich and diverse cultural history, from early Native American times to the Civil War to today’s country music industry, it’s no wonder Nashville is haunted.
The unique histories of cities like Nashville, New Orleans, and Savannah, which have experienced war, disease, natural disasters, and slavery, contribute to their reputations as some of the most haunted places. In these cities, many people died under unpleasant circumstances, and much of the modern urban landscape is built on old graveyards and cemeteries, adding to the lore and mystery of these places.
One of the most famous ghosts in Nashville is that of Adelicia Hayes, a 19th century woman whose second husband built the city’s famous Belmont Mansion. Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham (1817–1887) is an influential and controversial figure in Nashville’s history and was one of the wealthiest women of the antebellum South. Her first husband died in 1846, leaving her an inheritance valued at approximately $1 million, which included seven Louisiana cotton plantations, a two-thousand-acre farm in Gallatin, Tennessee and hundreds of slaves.
The Difference Between Ghosts And Spirits
The terms “ghost” and “spirit” are often used interchangeably, but there are significant differences in how they’re traditionally understood.
Over the years, I have found that it is quite common for people to sometimes confuse ghosts with the spirits of their deceased loved ones, primarily because both concepts involve entities that are no longer living in the physical world.
However, understanding the distinction between these two types of entities is important for those seeking comfort, closure, or communication with the afterlife, especially in the context of mediumship readings and spiritualism.
Our emotional connection to the deceased often influences how we interpret paranormal experiences. Grief, longing, and love can make us more receptive to signs and spiritual energies that we believe are from our deceased loved ones.
Without a clear understanding of the differences between ghosts and spirits, any unusual paranormal activity may be misinterpreted as evidence of a loved one’s presence.
While both ghosts and spirits are spiritual phenomena related to the survival of human consciousness beyond the death of the physical body, there are distinct differences in these two types of entities’ connection to the physical world and their level of progression or transition into the afterlife.
Electricity As A Conduit For Paranormal Activity
My friend pointed out something rather interesting the other day, as we made the long drive once again to the spiritualist center we go to some Sundays when one of our favorite mediums is on the platform to do readings.
When we drive there, the radio is never on because we talk so much. This time she noticed that the car radio always tends to come on suddenly and several times during our drive to the center, but never on the way back?
This was not a big surprise to me because when I drive alone I often ask spirit for a sign of their presence. One of the signs I often receive is indeed the car radio coming on by itself.
What is more interesting is that it is always on a different frequency or channel than before, without having been adjusted. And sometimes the channel that spirit chooses is certainly not one that I would normally select.
For example, several times before a local breakfast show came on with a host who had a very high-pitched voice and talked non-stop! When such an annoying station comes on, I know it is a particular loved one in spirit who had a wicked sense of humor in life.
Investigating Paranormal Activity
The existence of ghosts and the paranormal has been a topic of debate and controversy for centuries. With something so abstract it is nearly impossible to find fact in every ghost story. These tales are many times shrouded in myth, legend, and superstition.
However, there are those who make it their life’s work to prove the existence of ghosts and the paranormal. These people, known as paranormal investigators, use various tools and methods to detect any presence of energy that may be other worldly.
The modern field of paranormal investigation requires much more sophisticated tools than one may think. Professional investigators use an array of various technological gadgets and tools, each with its own unique purpose. For basic equipment, most investigators would go nowhere without some type of energy meter, a camera and a voice recorder.
For the more seasoned investigator, an electromagnetic field meter (EMF) and an infrared (IR) thermometer are crucial to a successful and thorough investigation. An EMF detects high levels of electromagnetism, but they are not ‘ghost detectors.’ An EMF only captures the information, but it is up to the investigator to decipher this data. High readings near telephone lines or wiring may be false positives, but a presence in an abandoned building or open field are likely to be more suspect.
An IR thermometer will simply detect changes in temperature, but as with EMF readings these readings must be analyzed and all other sources must be ruled out, before deeming it supernatural.
Paranormal Encounters In Unexpected Places
People generally believe that cemeteries, historic battlefields, and old buildings such as castles, forts, and mental hospitals are the most haunted places. The truth is that paranormal activity can be found in many other unexpected and less stereotypical locations.
In fact, as a psychic, I find a cemetery to be a very peaceful place to visit. People sometimes laugh at me when I tell them that I like to go to cemeteries just to walk around and look at the life stories of the people on their headstones.
To be honest, I have never felt the presence of any malevolent energy or restless spirit in a cemetery. To me, a cemetery is like a little piece of heaven on earth. It is truly a sanctuary; a sacred place of peace and rest. I could easily spend the night in a cemetery and sleep like a baby. Graveyards are not haunted in my experience.
Now, a junkyard full of old, wrecked cars is a whole different situation. Creepy, to say the least! Many drivers have died suddenly in these cars and their spirits have never left the vehicle because they have the impression that they’re still in this life and on their way to their destination.
You see, often when a person dies very suddenly, they don’t go towards the light and cross over to the other side. They do not realize that they are no longer alive.
That is why you could not pay me to visit a junkyard. Just driving by and seeing such a place from a distance scares me! I have endless admiration for the people who restore old cars from these places. I can only imagine what kind of residual energies they bring home with them.