The Occult Section

I just really like these commercials. And it’s Saturday, so I felt like doing something more light-hearted. Sasquatch in mainstream media? I’m all over that.

Technorati Tags: bigfoot, commercial, jack links, sasquatch, tv show

We at the New York Paranormal Society are obviously interested in all things paranormal. So when I found this article, I got a bit of a tickle out of it. The scariest thing about spooky occurrences in your home, according to Consumer Reports?? Increased utility bills! Oh no! ANYTHING BUT THAT!!!!!

That noise coming from the refrigerator? It's not a ghost. I promise.

Kitchen doors and cabinets opening by themselves, appliances unexpectedly turning on and strange bumps in the night. In the wake of Halloween, it’s easy to connect strange incidents to the paranormal. But an industry expert says the real scary feature of these fairly common household occurrences is the increased utility bills they can cause.

“We joke about flying witches in this place, flying squirrels is more likely the culprit,” says Daniel Diclerico, senior editor of Consumer Reports.

Small animals and rodents often sneak through small holes into attics to nestle in the insulation, and get in to walls causing the strange bumps or scratching noises.

This lets air into the house, running up heating bills, Diclerico says,

“The best thing to do is to try to keep them from coming in in the first place and that means plugging holes around the exterior of your home.”

Diclerico recommends lighting incense and looking for the smoke to blow sideways, an indicator that there’s some sort of air leak or inadequate insulation nearby.

The potential safety hazard of kitchen appliances turning themselves on might be even more alarming, but again Diclerico says there is nothing supernatural there.

Last week, over 120,000 Electrolux Smoothtop Cooktops were recalled for doing just that.

And even mysterious movement in kitchen fixtures isn’t necessarily a poltergeist.

“It is low humidity — it’s going to cause the wood to shrink and doors and cabinets will start to open by themselves.”

I actually woke up at 5:15 a.m. this morning to find that my living room floor lamp had turned back on. I am more inclined to blame my cat or a faulty lamp than a ghost, though it was interesting. And funnily enough, my first thought wasn’t a ghost, but my utility bill! We’re in a recession! I can’t have my stuff turning back on!

Technorati Tags: animals, consumer reports, cooktops, Electrolux, Electrolux Smoothtop Cooktops, ghost, ghosts, halloween, haunted house, heating bill, incense, mice, mouse, paranormal, people, refrigerator, rodents, supernatural, thoughts, utilities, utility bills

When I was really little, the annual trip to the local haunted house attraction, put on by a nearby Montessori school, was at the top of my must-do list.  I would get myself in the mood for the big event by watching The Worst Witch for the zillionth time, anxiously awaiting the most amazing musical sequence ever captured on film (clearly this was before Tim Curry went on to terrorize the better part of my childhood with his role as Pennywise in It) and plotting that year’s elaborate Halloween costume (I always strived to look authentic, whether it meant I walked around all night with itchy straw stuffed underneath my clothes when I went as a scarecrow, or painted my entire body yellow to go as Bart Simpson).  Side note:  I think that this longstanding dedication to the art of the creative Halloween costume is what has made me so hostile towards the lazy costumes that I have seen New Yorkers send their kids out to trick-or-treat in since I moved here six years ago.  I can promise you this: you wouldn’t have caught me dead in a plastic Duane Reade mask and getup.

MICHELLE!! ANIMAL!!

When I finally got to go to the haunted house, I was a ball of excited energy; I turned each corner in nervous anticipation, screaming at each creature that popped out at me, and laughing when I realized it was usually something silly, like a character from the Muppets. I would talk all the way home about how CRAZY it was that Animal knew my name, because how scary was THAT?  As you can imagine, I was devastated when I learned a few years later that Animal only knew my name because he was played by none other than my next-door neighbor.  Bummer.

Junior high and high school meant planning trips to scarier haunted houses and hayrides.  We’d pretend we weren’t afraid as the bloodied and fanged creatures chased us through the attraction; we were giggling throughout and yet were secretly relieved when it was over.  I haven’t been to many haunted houses since those days, and I don’t really have a desire to ever go back again – I guess I’ve outgrown them, just like I outgrew the preschool version so many years ago.  Being in New York doesn’t hurt either; with haunted houses costing upwards of $30 for admission, it’s an easy decision to make.

"Dave, you are not taking this theme park job seriously enough. Put some more fake blood on your face, and act crazier!"

I know we don’t typically talk about manufactured haunted houses here on The Occult Section (unless Laura’s hilarious posts about all of the pseudo-celebrities who think their houses are “haunted” counts) but with Halloween around the corner, there have naturally been more and more haunted house stories popping up in the news.  Take this one, for example, published last week in the Sandusky Register, where mental health advocates are taking issue with the portrayal of the mentally ill at Cedar Point’s Halloween attractions.  While I think perhaps it’s a bit unfair to single out Cedar Point, when practically every haunted house I’ve ever been to has featured some variation of a mentally ill character, there are some valid points being made and it’s an interesting discussion.

I know some would make the argument that they’re harmless fun, and others would say that I’m being hypocritical by calling haunted houses a waste of money, when I’m promoting ghost tours, etc. that also cost money, but for me, I just don’t enjoy haunted houses like I used to. I’d much rather go investigate the real thing, and stick to visiting pumpkin patches, seeing a scary movie or taking a historical ghost tour when I’m looking for Halloween entertainment.  What about you?  Will you be going to any haunted houses this Halloween season?

Technorati Tags: attractions, cedar point, halloween, haunted house, haunted houses, media, new york, the worst witch, tim curry

I have to admit, Mothman is one of my favorite unexplained mysteries. Not because I fully believe that a giant moth-like humanoid terrorized Point Pleasant, West Virginia, from 1966 to 1967. But mainly just because the whole story is so bizarre. There are other stories about similar beings, but not many. Mothman just isn’t quite as prolific as Bigfoot. But The York Press is reporting that a woman from York took a strange photo while vacationing in Nuremberg, Germany. This article presents it as a possible UFO or ghost, but other articles have mentioned that it also looks like Mothman.

Didn't this guy fight Godzilla once?

A WOMAN from York captured an unexplained object in her holiday snaps this month, and wants your help identifying it.

Abbey Linfoot, 22, was on a European holiday with her boyfriend when she took a photo of this street in Nuremberg.

When she looked at the photo later, she saw something she couldn’t explain, high above the buildings.

“I was taking lots of photos to show people where we’d been, but when I got back into the car I noticed there was something on this one,“ said Abbey, who is currently studying at Newcastle University “I just though, ‘What it that? That looks weird’, and couldn’t work out what it was.”

Abbey has shown the picture to friends and family, including a photography student, and nobody has yet come up with a clear explanation.

“I thought it looked like a cherub,” said Bev, Abbey’s mother.

“I also thought it looked a bit like a naked Buzz Lightyear toy, but could be a bee or an insect or something.”

Looking into the region online, Bev found there had been a fatal crash at an airshow near Nuremberg earlier this summer.

“There was a crash on September 5 where one person was killed and nearly 40 injured.

It’s really odd,” said Bev.

So what do you think – is this a trick of the light, a partly-invisible insect, a naked space ranger or something else?

To me, the photos look like something that was Photoshopped or otherwise edited. Or, it could very well be an insect very close to the camera. Of course “naked Buzz Lightyear” is just as plausible an explanation as Mothman. Though I sort of feel like a Naked Buzz Lightyear ride would work out just fine in Germany…

Technorati Tags: germany, media, mothman, News, paranormal, people, picture, UK

I was an only child, raised by parents who’d already raised four children to adulthood. I had a great time. I think their parenting philosophy, though, was, “Get them out of the house! Let ‘em go play.” That’s one thing when there are four kids, and another when there’s just one, and she’s shy, bent toward the melancholic, and let’s admit it, a little strange.

I had a lot of time for reading and over-thoughtful introspection. Here are my most nostalgic, night terror-inducing books, TV episodes and actual night terrors:

1 and 2
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
and More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, by Alvin Schwartz.

I was reading in kindergarten, I was young for a kindergartner, and never remember a time I did not have these books. I think they were a Christmas present (from Satan). They were illustrated by sick, sick Stephen Gammell and have haunted my dreams all my life. No wonder he won a Caldecott Medal. It was like someone told him, “Scare the pants off kids.” And he said, “Okay?” And they said, “Sure! Why not? Scare the pants off kids.” And he did.

http://www.amazon.com/More-Scary-Stories-Tell-Dark/dp/0064401774

3
Actual tombstones, when tree roots are all weird and above-ground, dark water in ponds, mirrors at night, and the Revolutionary War.

My parents were very sociable, and liked to take me with them wherever they went. Not one to eavesdrop on adult conversations, I wandered around strange yards, peering into old wells, gazing at broken attic windows, making up ghost stories for myself. Many were Revolutionary War-themed because I grew up in South Jersey.

4
The Rocking Chair Ghost: An Easy to Read Mystery, Mary C. Jane

Illustrated by the less terrifying Tommie de Paola.

http://www.amazon.com/rocking-chair-ghost-Easy-read-mystery/dp/B0006BYPCM

5
The Patchwork Monkey, by Beverly Butler

I just Googled this, and there is, apparently, a 2003 movie, and the casting director made an actual “patchwork monkey” for the thing. I don’t think I could have been involved with this project at all.
The story goes that a babysitter gives some children a delightful patchwork monkey, and it ends up terrorizing all of them. The story’s in a collection called “Baleful Beasts and Eerie Creatures,” which Amazon promises is a “book of short stories containing everything a young child fears.” Four stars!

http://www.amazon.com/Baleful-Beasts-Eerie-Creatures-Norton/dp/0528802119

6
The episode of the 1980s Incredible Hulk TV series where Bruce Banner’s trapped in a basement full of water. It’s a ghost story, and the ghost enjoys singing the lullaby, “Hush little baby, don’t you cry/ Momma’s gonna buy you a mocking bird,” in a minor key.

The series is on Hulu! I can’t wait. It’ll be cathartic for my fears of the sump-pump. We had a sump-pump hole in our South Jersey basement, full of water. “Where’s Buffy?” My mom would ask, sometimes, when she hadn’t seen the cat in a while. “I hope she didn’t fall in the sump pump!” Envision a small girl standing behind her mother, eyes widening with terror.

http://www.hulu.com/the-incredible-hulk

7
An old 70s Archie Comics story about a sea monster.

I just found it, referenced in a scholarly comics blog by Jamie Weinman, titled “Bob Bolling and the Pursuit of Melancholy Innocence.” (That sounds about right.) Bolling drew this story where Little Archie goes out to sea, and is met by a very realistically drawn plesiosaur-type “sea monster” (who’s soothed by the sound of Archie’s rock stylings, but you had me at realistically drawn sea monster, Bob Bolling. This comic, inspired a lifelong love of cryptozoology).

The article, and link to the comic:
http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2009/08/17/bob-bolling-and-the-pursuit-of-melancholy-innocence/

8
Comic books of the 70s.

I’m in my 30s, but my older brother and sisters are in their 40s and 50s. They left a lot of stuff behind when they moved out, namely, some predominantly gothic comics. Gotham, Metropolis and the Underworld (Hercules Unbound), were not happy places in the 1970s.

Hercules Unbound, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(DC_Comics)

9
All of my night-terrors, collectively.

Night Terrors, Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror

10
The one where the hand comes out of the grave.

A most-cherished nightmare, sublime in its detail and emotion– the overly saturated green hillock, the child-sized tombstones, the chain link fence, the gray sky, and the hand! Oh, the exquisite hand that rises from the grave! Thanks for letting me share. I feel a little better.

Loved and feared.