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Hauntings of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allen Poe’s life is...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:46:00 -0400

Hauntings of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s life is marked by tragedy and suffering, his death marked by an equal amount of confusion. Regarded as simply ‘a mediocre poet’ during the 1800s, Poe grew up orphaned, living with the Allan family until he attended college in 1826. He only stayed for a year before leaving for the army because of severe gambling debts. His life from there is marked with tragedy, marrying his 13-year-old cousin Virginia in 1835, losing her to sickness in 1847. He never held a steady job, fired from numerous jobs mostly due to a severe drinking addiction. Although he could never hold a job, editors held him in high regard with his ingenious poetry and short stories, including The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. Nevertheless, his drinking and depression took hold of his life. He died two years after his wife, passed out in a street in Baltimore. He died hours later in the hospital, crying manically about someone called Reynolds. Although he was dead physically, his spirit lived on in his residences and final resting place.

Edgar Allen Poe’s Hauntings at His GraveDecades after his untimely death, people began reporting sightings of his ghost appearing at his grave site. On his birthday, January 19, people say they have seen a man shrewdly covered in black, walking towards the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. His face is unrecognizable because of the black scarf that disguises his face from view. Nevertheless, the black-coated man walks towards Edgar Allen Poe’s on his birthday, leaving a bottle of cognac and three roses. The black-coated man then disappears in the night, slowly meandering through the graveyard with a walking stick. People speculate that this is the ghost of Edgar Allen Poe, honoring himself with the ceremonial bottle of cognac and three roses. People are discouraged from approaching the ghost and not to disturb the spirit.

In 1990, the curator of the Edgar Allen Poe house, Jeff Jerome, permitted photographers to shoot Poe’s grave site on his birthday for any evidence of this mystery ghost. Sure enough, the ghost walked towards his grave, kneeling down. In the picture the ghost is clearly seen with his trademark black clothing and black fedora, scarf covering his face. The ghost then disappeared into the night.

Hauntings in Edgar Allen Poe’s House His grave isn’t the only place that is haunted by ghosts. During his marriage to Virginia Clemm, they lived in a small, understated house on North Amity Street, located in Baltimore, Maryland. It is believed this house is haunted as well. People have reported seeing a gray-haired woman wearing early-1800s clothing, reportedly overweight. Some people believe this in the ghost of Poe’s aunt, Maria Clemm. People have also reported feeling ‘cold spots’ (things mostly associated with the presence of ghosts), hearing voices, and seeing windows and door open without help from outside sources. No explanation is offered for this incidences.

Is Poe’s spirit alive where he once dwelled? It might his tortured spirit, seeking redemption from beyond the grave. Others say it’s mere fantasy, just like Poe’s stories. Although no one will know the true origins of these incidences, Poe will continue to live on through his stories and poetry.

Icelandic Elves The origin of the elves in Iceland (álfar in...

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 20:02:00 -0400

Icelandic Elves

The origin of the elves in Iceland (álfar in Icelandic) goes back to Germanic paganism and mythology. They were originally a race of minor gods associated with nature and fertility.

In Iceland, elves were mentioned in both the sagas and the Eddas (Prose Edda, by Snorri Sturlusson). They can be the same size as humans or even smaller, and are dressed like humans. Elves are usually invisible, but can be seen if they feel like it. They can be helpful and kind to those who do them no harm, and repay favors with favors. On the other hand, they can also be malicious and take revenge if harmed.

Elves in Iceland are often pictured as splendid and beautifully dressed, especially in colorful silk. They usually dwell in nature, especially in forests, rocks, hillocks, wells and springs.

My apologies

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:52:17 -0400

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything in the past few days when I promised to post something every day. I’ve either been out late and yesterday was Warped Tour. So…I’m also still pretty new to this new blog and I keep losing track of my memories and promises. But I promise I will post new content tonight and try my best to keep up with the schedule. And if you could do me a favor, send out recommendations to other followers and friends to this blog. It would mean a lot to me and it might also get my followers more content out of a day.

Thank you,

Nick Oberheu

Cursed Royal Wedding Ceremony The story begins in May of 1867 as...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:47:00 -0400

Cursed Royal Wedding Ceremony

The story begins in May of 1867 as Princess Maria del Pozzo della Cisterna prepares for her wedding to the King’s son, the Duke of D’Aosta. The first disaster strikes when the Princess’s wardrobe mistress hangs herself. The princess immediately hires another seamstress to make her a new gown.

On the day of the wedding, the ceremony is delayed when the officer leading the royal procession collapses from a heat stroke. When the party arrives at the palace, the gatekeeper won’t open the gates. He’s discovered dead at his post.

After the wedding ceremony, the best man accidentally shoots himself while toying with a ceremonial gun. Anxious to get away, the couple flees for the train station to begin their royal honeymoon and escape tragedy. As soon as they leave the palace, the official who composed the marriage contract dies from a sudden heart attack. Before the couple can arrive at the train station, the stationmaster somehow stumbles into the path of an oncoming train, the one sent to collect the couple.

The King rushes to the station to prevent the couple from boarding the train because by now he’s convinced that there’s a curse or jinx on the couple. He attempts to herd everyone back to the palace, but on the way, the Count of Castiglione, who’s riding beside the royal carriage, tumbles from his horse and is run over by the carriage. He’s killed by one of his uniform medals crushed into his chest.

Mongolian Death Worm The Mongolian death worm is a creature...

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:20:00 -0400

Mongolian Death Worm

The Mongolian death worm is a creature reported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is generally considered a cryptid: an animal whose sightings and reports are disputed or unconfirmed.

It is described as a bright red worm with a wide body that is 2 to 5 feet (0.6 to 1.5 m) long.

The worm is the subject of a number of claims by Mongolian locals - such as the ability of the worm to spew forth acid that, on contact, will turn anything it touches yellow and corroded (and which would kill a human), as well as its reported ability to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge.

Though natives of the Gobi have long told tales of the worm, the creature first came to Western attention as a result of Professor Roy Chapman Andrew’s 1926 book On the Trail of Ancient Man. The US paleontologist was not convinced by the tales of the monster that he heard at a gathering of Mongolian officials: “None of those present ever had seen the creature, but they all firmly believed in its existence and described it minutely.”

The Highgate Vampire In the world of supernatural urban legends,...

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:25:00 -0400

The Highgate Vampire

In the world of supernatural urban legends, they don’t come much more bizarre than the tale of The Highgate Vampire, which purportedly haunted London’s Highgate Cemetery in the early 1970s. Abandoned and overgrown cemeteries are strange and evocative places at the best of times, but Highgate seemingly captured the over-active imaginations of several young people including Seán Manchester and David Farrant.

In December 1969 David Farrant appealed for witnesses after sighting “a grey figure” in Highgate Cemetery. Several locals responded, but few sightings had any common traits. Nevertheless, when Sean Manchester told the Hampstead and Highgate Express that “a King Vampire of the Undead” was buried in the cemetery in the early 18th century, the grey figure morphed into The Highgate Vampire and an urban legend was born.

Manchester claimed the vampire had been summoned by Satanists, and that its body should be staked, beheaded and burned – standard practice for disposing of vampires, but somewhat illegal nowadays. Rivalry between Farrant and Manchester reached its zenith by 1970 and on Friday 13th March, an “official” vampire hunt saw a mob descend on the Highgate despite police efforts to stop them. After this strange spectacle, things became even more bizarre, and Farrant – who, according to his website, always opposed the vampire interpretation of Highgate’s supernatural happenings – was arrested in August 1970 allegedly in possession of a crucifix and wooden stake.

Doppelgängers Urban legend or scientific phenomenon? ...

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 19:28:07 -0400

Doppelgängers

Urban legend or scientific phenomenon? A doppelgänger is said to be the ghost or double of oneself, usually considered an omen of bad luck, evil or even death. Ghostly doubles and look-alikes have been woven into the fabric of folklore from the Ancient Egyptians to Norse mythology, but modern occurances and the tale’s perfect suitability to campfire storytelling have made it one of the scariest urban legends. The sight of your own doppelgänger is said to be an omen of death, while a doppelgänger seen by a person’s friends or family is considered a sinister warning of impending doom.

Doppelgängers were reportedly observed by Percy Bysshe Shelley and Abraham Lincoln, while patients at a Bombay hospital claimed to see Indian mystic Osho on several occasions, despite his presence elsewhere. Even today, some people report sensing or even seeing themselves in their peripheral vision where there was no chance of a reflection. It sounds like the perfect urban legend, but a 2006 study reported in nature unexpectly reproduced similar effects in a patient suffering from epilepsy. On several occasions, when electrical stimulation was applied to the left temporoparietal junction of the patient’s brain, she felt the presence of a person located immediately behind her with body posture identical to her own.

Suicide Drawing The story is this, in Japan shortly before a...

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:01:00 -0400

Suicide Drawing

The story is this, in Japan shortly before a teenage girl committed suicide,she drew this picture, scanned it and posted it online. In Korea this story broke out and it spread like wildfire. There are various posts around in Korean forums that say that the viewer gets drawn to the girls blue eyes,they say they can detect a hint of wraith and sadness within the eyes. Maybe the girl had died with so much sadness and anger that her spirit haunts the image, or maybe the image provoke sadness, similar to the song ‘Gloomy Sunday’.

The freaky bit is this, they say it is hard for a person to stare into the girls eyes for longer than 5 minutes, there are reports that some people have taken their own lives after doing so. People say the picture changes,as you view it there is a hint of a growing taunting smirk appearing on the girls lips or a dark ring grows around the girl or her eyes.

Honey Island Swamp Monster The first claimed sighting was in...

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:11:21 -0400

Honey Island Swamp Monster

The first claimed sighting was in 1963 by Harlan Ford, a retired Air traffic controller who had taken up wildlife photography. After his death in 1980, a reel of Super 8 film showing the creature was allegedly found among his belongings.

In 1974 the monster gained national fame after Ford and his friend Billy Mills claimed to have found unusual footprints in the area, as well as the body of a wild boar whose throat had been gashed. Ford continued to hunt for the creature for the next six years.

Another sighting happened recently, though not in Honey Island. A bizarre creature was spotted in the Bayou area, when a man and his family were camping; when he woke up his camera was destroyed but his SD card wasn’t, which caught the monster on tape. The image was later proved as a hoax several times because two different versions of the same image had a different date on it.

The creature is described as bipedal, seven feet (2.2 metres) tall, with gray hair and red eyes. The creature is accompanied by a disgusting smell. Footprints supposedly left by the creature have four webbed toes.

A local legend tells of a train crash in the area in the early twentieth century (early 1900s). A travelling circus was on the train, and from it a group of chimpanzees escaped, and interbred with the local alligator population.

The Jersey Devil Most tellers of the legend of the Jersey Devil...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:32:00 -0400

The Jersey Devil

Most tellers of the legend of the Jersey Devil trace the devil back to Deborah Smith who emigrated from England in the 1700s to marry a Mr. Leeds. The Leeds family lived in the area of the NJ Pine Barrens (Leeds Point, Galloway Township, Atlantic County). Mrs. Leeds had given birth to 12 children and was about to give birth to her 13th. The story goes that Mrs. Leeds invoked the devil during a very difficult and painful labor and that when the baby was born, it either immediately, or very soon afterwards, (depending on the version of the story), grew into a full-grown devil and escaped from the house.

Another version of the story says it was when Mrs. Leeds found out she was pregnant with her 13th, that she said that if she were to have one more child, “may it be a devil”.

Another version is that the child/devil was the result of a family curse.

Another version is that Mrs. Leeds, who was a Quaker, had refused to be converted from the Quaker faith and that the clergyman who had been trying to convert her was so angry that he told her that her next child would be an offspring of Satan.

Another version is that the child was born a monster and that Mrs. Leeds cared for the child until her death. In this version the child/devil “flew off” into the swamps after Mrs. Leeds’ death.

People in the 1700s still believed in witchcraft and many people of the period felt a deformed child was a child of the devil or that the deformity was a sign that the child had been cursed by God.

It may be that indeed Mrs. Leeds gave birth to a child with a birth defect and given the superstitions of the period, the legend of the Jersey Devil was born.

In any event there do not seem to be any subsequent reported encounters with the Jersey Devil in which he/it actually harmed anyone.

In the last 200 years or so, there have been a number of “sightings” and the hearing of eerie noises/wails in the forests which have been attributed to the Jersey Devil, but since these accounts are, in the main, generic descriptions, one is somewhat drawn to the conclusion that any number of “weird” things in southern Jersey are attributed to the Jersey Devil as a matter of course.

Over the years the Jersey Devil has been called by a number of names, “Hoodle-Doodle Bird”, “Wozzle Bug” and the “Leeds Devil”.

The Midnight Man This game was used as a ritual to summon The...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:24:00 -0400

The Midnight Man

This game was used as a ritual to summon The Midnight Man to punish rule breakers in Pagan religions long ago. WARNING!: Play this game at your own risk of torture and death.

You’ll need the following supplies to play: paper, pencil, needle, candle, a box of matches, a door and salt.
Turn off all the lights.
Light a candle
Write your name on the paper, first, middle, and last
Prick your finger with the needle and add a drop of blood on the paper, allow it to soak in
Place the paper with your name on the floor in front of the door.
Knock on the door 22 times with the ticking of the clock, the 22nd knock MUST occur at 12am.
Open your door, blow out the candle, and close it. You have now summoned the “Midnight Man”.
Immediately relight your candle

This is when the game begins. Your goal is to avoid the midnight man at all costs. You may move through the house to avoid him. You can tell if he is near; your candle will go out, it will get chilly, you’ll hear a low whisper, and he will appear in front of you. You must relight the candle within 10 seconds. If not, throw down a circle of salt around yourself and stay inside the circle from 12:01am to 3:33am.

If you are still alive at 3:33am, you’ve won. If not, you’ll be tortured, sometimes to death, until 3:33am. Come back and let us know if you’ve won the game.

The Slender Man The Slender Man was created at the Something...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 01:23:00 -0400

The Slender Man

The Slender Man was created at the Something Awful Forums in a thread entitled “Create Paranormal Images.” He is described as wearing a black suit strikingly similar to the visage of the notorious Men In Black, and as the name suggests, appears very thin and able to stretch his limbs and torso to inhuman lengths in order to induce fear and ensnare his prey. Once his arms are outstretched, his victims are put into something of a hypnotized state, where they are utterly helpless to stop themselves from walking into them. He is also able to create tendrils from his fingers and back that he uses to walk on in a similar fashion to Doc Ock, the Spider-Man villain in the Marvel Universe. The superhuman stretching ability could also be seen as a similiarty between himself and Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. Whether he absorbs, kills, or mearly takes his victims to an undiclosed location or dimension is also unknown as there are never any bodies or evidence left behind in his wake to deduce a definite conclusion. Not much is known, as no specific information has been found about origins, but his objective and habitat are made very clear. He has the need to kidnap children, and is seen right before the disappearance of a child or multiple children. He seems to prefer fog enshrouded streets and wooded areas as a way to conceal himself from being noticed. It should also be noted that children have been able to see him when no other adults in the vicinity could. Children also have dreams or nightmares concerning The Slender Man before their disappearance. Confiding these stories to their parents are met with the usual parental admonition: overactive imaginations. Even though The Slender Man is fairly new in the media, people have already claimed sightings. He appears to the unwitting mostly at night, and most always peering out of wooded areas or near rivers. He has also been reported to peek inside left open windows and to walk out in front of lone motorists on long uninhabited roads. The Slender Man or men, have appeared everywhere from Japan, Norway, and America to name a growing few.