The Occult Section

Yes, it’s another addition to the list of celebrity ghost stories. Apparently Miley Cyrus had some paranormal activity in her London apartment during her 2009 tour. I’m terrible at research, so does anyone know if she had been smoking marijuana back then? Also, this is not the first time the Cyrus family has been linked to the paranormal…or featured  on our blog (see here, here and here, where Billy Ray Cyrus was supposed to host a show on SyFy).

“A ghost? That’s pretty cool!”

The 20-year-old singer and her family rented an apartment in the English capital during her 2009 European tour but they had to move to a hotel after a number of ghostly encounters.

She told British Elle magazine: “It was seriously so terrifying. One night, my little sister — it sounds crazy to tell you — but she was standing in the shower and all of a sudden, I hear her scream. I run in there and the water had somehow flipped to hot but it was still … It wasn’t like the water had just changed, the knob had turned but she hadn’t turned it and it was burning her. She was really red.

“I thought I had seen a little boy sitting on the sink watching me take a shower so I felt really freaked out. I was sitting there the next night and maybe I’m crazy, but I could have sworn I could see this little boy sitting there on the sink, kicking his feet.”

The family later discovered the apartment was reportedly haunted and Miley has vowed never to stay there again.

She said: “We found out that there was this older man that owned it [the bakery that had once been in the building] and his son lived with him there, and I guess the wife died or something, she had gotten sick.

“So it was just the son and the dad that lived there in the bakery, and then the dad died and the son took over the bakery, and I thought I was seeing the son. I’m not even kidding.

“I had to move. That’s not a lie. I will never stay there ever again.”

I think it’s safe to say that ever since Ghost Hunters came on the air, any business that can charge admission of some kind is not “reportedly haunted.” Hell, it’s an easy way to make a buck, and all you have to do is make up some cliché, non-verifiable story, and the knuckleheads will eat it up and pay $200 to get in and investigate with 150 other knuckleheads. Like, totally seriously though, old faucets and valves can move on their own if they are old, broken,, and there’s enough water pressure. Like, totally.

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One of my favourite ghost stories relates to an enterprising Scot who immigrated across the pond to the US, finally ending up in Canada. Simon McTavish was a Highlander born around 1750. When he first arrived in the Americas, he spent several years living in New England, before ending his days in Montreal, Canada. In that time, he became a very successful fur trader, owner of the dominant North West Company.

Simon McTavish

By all accounts, McTavish was a colourful character, who kept the citizens of Montreal highly amused by his antics. An acknowledged hard worker, he also liked to enjoy himself. One of his favourite past-times was apparently either falling in love or being in love. He led quite a grand life, throwing large parties and enjoying good food. In 1793, he got the hang of the love game, marrying Marie-Marguerite Chaboillez, a local woman. They had six children, of whom four survived. McTavish promised his wife that he would built her a castle on top of Mount Royal, the grandest house in all of Montreal. But he died during its construction in 1805. His body was buried on the site in a mausoleum.

But McTavish did not rest easily in his tomb, and in fact went on to become the centre of one of Montreal’s biggest local legends. The story became so notorious, that it led to McTavish’s mausoleum being covered over. There are quite a few twists to the tale. Following his death, the grand house McTavish planned for his wife was never finished, and became known as the ‘haunted house on the hill’. People reported hearing the revelries of huge parties emanating from the house. Others said that the man himself could be seen dancing on the rooftop – maybe with or without a few accompanying fairies. Perhaps more unusual, and rather befitting for the ghost of an eccentric ex-pat Scot, his ghost could also be seen sitting upright in his coffin, sledging down the side of Mount Royal.

It goes that the abandoned construction of his castle after his wife left Montreal angered McTavish’s spirit, causing it to get up to such merry japes. His ghost was also said to be somewhat miffed when some grave robbing took place in the new cemetery in Mount Royal in 1870. An anatomy professor had employed some bodysnatchers to sort out a supply problem for his classes. The resurrection men were reportedly accompanied by McTavish sliding down the hill next to them in his coffin. McTavish’s tomb itself was also apparently broken into.

A few years ago, archaeologists began excavating Simon McTavish’s mausoleum. It’s not known if they had any coffin-sledging company from the other side…

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I’m intrigued by this article. There’s a house for sale in Montreal, right, and people are already assuming it’s haunted. Why? Cuz paranormal stuff is so hot right now. But seriously, it’s an old house and apparently hasn’t been renovated much, if at all, since being built almost 100 years ago.

An eerie house for sale in Montreal’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie area is still in search of a buyer nearly a year after going on the market, according to CTV News.

The listing says a building contractor built the house with his employees in 1919 and 1920. Judging from the images posted online, nothing has changed since.

The house looks like a time capsule from the 1920s; its well-worn furniture and dusty floors contributing to a sense that something of its past owners lingers on inside the empty rooms.

“Probably the first Victorian house to be built in the area of Petite Patrie and certainly the last to be renovated,” the listing says.

It adds that the floors, doors and paneling are all original, made from oak. The floor was only ever covered with beeswax, it says. The walls bear the marks of items that once hung there and the bedroom still contains a bed.

A visitor told CTV News the house had a feeling to it, as though it was haunted.

The listing includes a warning that there is no legal warranty for the house’s quality.

In this day and age, it’s totally acceptable to presume everything you come across is paranormal, full of ghosts, possibly demonic, and definitely soon-to-be on TV.

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I’ll admit, I’m totally jealous of these two – they get to look for all the famous ghosts, while most of us are reduced to searching for the “normies.”  I suppose someone’s gotta do it though, and why not Robbie Williams and Meat Loaf? Also, can we just talk about how this article informally refers to Meat Loaf as just “Meat.” AWESOME.

Yeah…this kind of happened….

SUPERNATURAL nut ROBBIE WILLIAMS would do anything to spot ghosts and UFOs.

Now he’s got a new pal to help him do that – MEAT LOAF.

The pair have known each other for years and Meat is planning to take Rob on a hunt for CHARLIE CHAPLIN’s poltergeist.

He said: “Robbie should absolutely come ghost-hunting with me. There are so many places to go – we could head to the old A&M recording studios in LA. They think Charlie Chaplin’s down there.”

Meat, who starts his farewell tour in Newcastle on April 5, believes his body acts as a ghost doorway.

He said: “There are people they say are conduits, who are more open to it, and so this stuff’s been going on since I was a kid.

“I’ve seen my mother after she died and my grandmother. I talked to my mother, and she talked back.

“And I’m not crazy, but people would think, ‘He’s crazy’.”

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I can’t even keep track anymore and I don’t even pretend to try. Shortly after announcing the renewal of “Ghost Mine,” Syfy has announced its also renewing “Haunted Highway,” a critically acclaimed paranormal reality TV show starring Jack Osborne (son of Mumbles McGee). “Haunted Highway” will be shoehorned in premiering on July 24 with six new episodes, with “Ghost Mine” returning in September.

Proof that Syfy will pretty much give anyone a TV show.

JACK’S BACK!

SYFY RENEWS HAUNTED HIGHWAY FEATURING JACK OSBOURNE, JAEL DE PARDO, DANA WORKMAN AND DEVIN MARBLE FOR A SECOND SEASON

NEW SIX EPISODE SEASON OF THE PARANORMAL REALITY SERIES TO PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 AT 10PM ET/PT

NEW YORK – April 22, 2013 – Syfy has ordered a second season of its hit paranormal reality series, Haunted Highway. The new six episode season will premiere, on a new night, Wednesday, July 24 at 10PM (ET/PT). The hour-long series follows two teams, Jack Osbourne & Dana Workman, and Jael de Pardo & Devin Marble, as they conduct their own first-person investigations into some of the most frightening claims of paranormal activity in some of America’s most remote regions.

Fueled by eyewitness interviews and evidence collected with state-of-the-art equipment, the two teams will self-document their harrowing face-to-face encounters with the paranormal. The new season features examinations and investigations that will take the teams off the beaten path in places like the Arizona desert, the Sierra Nevada mountains and bayous of New Orleans as they seek werewolf-like creatures, the Black Angel of Death, the ghosts of the famous Donner party and other paranormal phenomena.

This season, in a first for the series, all four cast members will join together for a special investigation of Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. One of America’s largest and most remote coastal bases, Fort Jefferson is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 68 miles from Key West. Built in 1846 to protect one of the most strategic deep water anchorages in the United States, Fort Jefferson quickly became a horrifying prison fortress. The most famous prisoner of Fort Jefferson was Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth and was allegedly an accomplice in the assassination of President Lincoln. Many report that Dr. Mudd’s angry spirit has never forgiven those who wrongly imprisoned and tortured him. Though the island on which Fort Jefferson sits looks beautiful and tranquil, it is still known as “Death Island” for the number of fatalities among both soldiers and prisoners.

In its first season, Haunted Highway averaged 1.12 million total viewers, 538,000 Adults 18-49 and 618,000 Adults 25-54 – ranking #10 in Adults 25-54 during its Tuesday, 10-11PM (ET/PT) time period.

Haunted Highway is produced by BASE Productions. John Brenkus and Mickey Stern serve as executive producers.

I can’t wait for the premiere of “Haunted Antarctica.” You know it’s coming.

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