Dr. Phil crosses over ...

As usual, when it comes to the spirit world, I find my daily life gets in the way. I mean I haven't even had time to watch Ghost Hunters lately. So sad.

Anyway, I thought of my much neglected blog this afternoon while watching a little of the Dr. Phil show. James Van Praag sat next to the good doctor and gave some good information about ghosts and the other side. I really like him. He seems to know what's what most of the time.

Then, Jennifer Love Hewitt arrived via the big flat screen TV and spoke of the weird happenings around the set of Ghost Whisperer.

I love it when life imitates art.

Past Lives on Blogthings

Ever wonder what your past life involved? How long of a life did you live? Were you happy? Where did you live? Did you have a family?

Today I took a very short test on Blogthings. There are many tests there, but the one that caught my eye was titled, "Who were you in a past life?"

Curious, I spent 10 seconds on a one question test.

In a Past Life...

You Were: A Ditzy Assassin. Where You Lived: Poland. How You Died: Hung for treason.

Who Were You In a Past Life?

I somehow don't think this could be true, but you never know...

Let me know what you find out!

Discovering Avenel...

This past month, I think my ghost hunting dreams came true when my friend Sue invited me to a local haunted house. Avenel is the name of it (I love houses with names). You can find it in Bedford. I am saving pictures and ghosty stories for the book I am writing, but Heather and I finished this day definitely feeling sorry for Jason, Grant and the rest of the crew on Ghost Hunters. Here is the short version:

As a newbie and eager beaver, I brought any and all ghost hunting equipment I could find while on this ghost hunt. Even though we were there during the day, a few spooky things happened. Unfortunately I did not get any evidence. Heather took some interesting pictures, but other than that - nothing to PROVE a haunting.

We learned the most about ghost hunting when we returned to my house to "review the evidence". I had set up my video camera next to a bed in the "Lee Room" - named after General Robert E. Lee. For an hour and fifteen minutes, I watched the "Lee Bed" doing nothing. Heather joined me for half of it and then told me she "had to go". I wish I could have joined her. Alas, these are the really tough parts of paranormal investigating. The Lee bed obviously didn't perform for us the way we hoped.

I do plan on going back to spend the night - if I should be so lucky twice! Better luck next time...

Boo!! Surprises Around Every Corner!

Last month, I had the privilege to meet the owners of a local haunted house. Dr. Amos and his wife, Laquita showed me around their famously haunted house, circa 1769. With a deep history beginning with an Iron Works, I was completely spellbound with this beautifully restored home in Franklin County.

After walking away from a photo session on my first visit, Laquita gave us directions to the actual furnace that used to accompany this house. "Dick Shoemaker lives there," Laquita explained, "just knock on the door and let him know what you're doing and he'll let you go into his backyard." Still star-struck with the grandeur of the home I had just visited, I nodded and got into my husband's truck to go look for the furnace.

As soon as we buckled up, my husband asked, "Dick Shoemaker! Do you know who that is?"

I had no idea. The name sounded familiar. I just couldn't remember where from. "No...who is he?" I answered.

"Channel 12... The Rise and Shine TV show!"answered my husband.

Oh! The light bulb went off above my head. Here in Franklin County, we have a local channel on television. Channel 12 is what we call it. You can find it on - you guessed it - channel 12. The morning talk show is called, "Rise and Shine". We had watched it before, but never really made it part of our regular routine.

The most time we spent watching this show had to be when my friend and author, Becky Mushko made an appearance. She visited to talk about her book, More Peevish Advice. The entire family had tuned in, (kids, husband, and even the cat), and fell in love with the host of the show, Dick Shoemaker. Later that evening we had seen him dining at a nearby table with what looked like family in Moosie's, a local restaurant. Emma noticed him first and was very excited to see a TV star in a regular public venue.

So, here we were, about to find a two-hundred-year-old furnace and take pictures of it! The bonus, especially for John, was that we would meet Dick Shoemaker!

Following Laquita's directions we found Dick's house easily. Emma would have been surprised that he even answered his own door when we knocked! Taking us around back to look at the furnace, we were given a "snake rake" by Dick - in case we came across any.

We did find this ancient furnace to be in superb condition and I am sure the pictures will make a nice addition to this ghost story. The information given to me by the Amos family and the pictures I took there will complete my findings. I finished this investigation with complete success and satisfaction! (Ghost stories will be in the book - not on the blog!!)

My husband however will look back on this day with great excitement as the day he met Dick Shoemaker!!

I have many more little stories to share from my adventures. As I find time in between my investigations, I will be adding them!

Haunted House in Christiansburg, VA

In this weeks podcast, I talked to Beth (my twin sister) about her haunted house. Beth lives in Christiansburg, VA in a house with a long history and has had some strange happenings there.

Rob, tells us the hidden history underneath this house and of this area. We learn of a famous horse buried where the house is. The famous person attached to this horse stays close by to visit on a regular basis.

To find out more, check out my podcast. Thank you Beth and Rob for calling in!

I also had someone from Iowa call in to Rob during the show last night to participate. I wish we could have talked to you - it would have been so much fun! Next week's show will take place at 10 pm EST and we are talking with another "ghost writer", Debora Hill. If anyone would like to call in, please do so, at or before 10 o'clock so that we can involve you!

Rob took full advantage of my sister and I with a second podcast. He talked with us about being twins, what this means spiritually and of course how to focus in on our "twin power"! Thanks Rob! You can find both great podcasts here on this site, on itunes, the sourcepodcast site, and myspace as well.

Thank you to all of my listeners for tuning in and a special thank you goes out to Joanne. Joanne was nice enough to call Rob yesterday to express how much she enjoys this show! Thank you Joanne - I would love to hear from you!

Notes From A Ghost Writer is now on itunes!

Yes, you heard it here first!

Notes From A Ghost Writer is now on itunes! You can still listen to it here, at your computer. For those of you with ipods, you can now find my great podcast among the big boys in itunes, download, and take my spooky stories with you!

I have also done a Metaphysical Minute this week. With Brittni taking some much needed Mommy time with her new bundle of joy, Simone, Tony and I have stepped in to share the extra fun for Source New Age. Simone's Metaphysical Minute should be out Monday, and mine should be out Tuesday this week at itunes. Check them out!

While you are in itunes, check out Simone's podcast, A Road Re-Traveled! Metaphysical Minute and A Road Re-Traveled are among the top downloaded podcasts under the Spirituality and Religion category. Simone has only posted two podcasts to date and they have been downloaded over 100,000 times! Keep up the great work guys!

For those of you looking forward to calling in to my show this week (or any other week), make sure you go to Talk Shoe first to set up an account. To call in, make sure you use my Talkcast ID - 47931. This will take you to MY podcast and not another person's podcast.

This week, my podcast will go on Thursday at 9 pm instead of Thursday at 10 pm. I have a special guest calling in with a story about her haunted house. If you have a haunted story to tell, please call in at that time! I would love to hear it!!

Ghosts in N.Y.C.

This week, I decided to invite other people onto my podcast to find more and more ghost stories. My ghost book is regional, my podcast and blog are not. Here, you will find it all - ghosts from Scotland Yard, California, and even N.Y.C.

This past week, Simone from my favorite podcast, "A Road Re-Traveled" traveled to New York City in search of great metaphysical stories. For some reason, Simone is always being "messed with" in the ghost department. In New York, the spirits kept business as usual for Simone and she shared her mishaps with us on my podcast.

I have posted this picture of Grand Central Station where Simone's ghost story took place. There is a man in the bottom right hand corner. He looks very faint to me - maybe a ghost?

Rob (the keeper of the records) joined in with two more amazing ghost stories for us. They gave me goosebumps! Check out my podcast to hear these great stories and more!