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White Noise
(2005)
When the unexpected happens,
architect Jonathan Rivers has become
a grieving widower, wallowing in deep
confusion over the death of his wife.
But a paranormal expert approaches
Jonathan with the unlikely: the ability
to hear his wife from beyond the grave.
Through a form of unusual
communication known as EVP
(Electronic Voice Phenomenon),
Jonathan will finally be able to see his
wife. But in doing so, Jonathan has
drawn himself into a much more
complex situation when his curiosity
becomes an obsession. Only that
obsession will have him confront those
not of this world, and some of them
don't approve of Jonathan's
interference with their destructive
nature.
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Orbs is the popular name given to
(typically) circular anomalies
appearing in photographs. In
photography and video, orbs appear to
be balls, diamonds, or smears of light
with an apparent size in the image
ranging from a golfball to a basketball.
Orbs sometimes appear to be in
motion, leaving a trail behind them.
There are two main schools of thought
regarding the cause of orbs in photo
images. The first school sees it as a
fairly clear-cut case of flash reflection
off of dust, particles, insects, or
moisture droplets in the air in front of
the camera, i.e. they are naturalistic.
The opposing school maintains that
orbs are paranormal in nature, i.e.
non-naturalistic.
While some people claim that orbs are
more likely to appear in certain
locales, or are attracted to human
actitivities (especially those involving
children), the images on the internet
fora devoted to orbs are taken in
graveyards, backyards, attics, and
kitchens, as well as bars, convention
centers, and city streets -- in short,
anywhere people may be taking
photos.
As orb photos may demonstrably be
gained anywhere, the position of
"ghost hunters" who claim orb photos
are more common in allegedly
haunted areas is significantly
weakened. That orb photos can be
gained anywhere has, however, been
adopted into the position of those who
maintain that orbs are probes/devices
being used by an alien culture to
monitor human activities.
Orb photos have become so common
that some ghost-hunting organizations
are no longer accepting submissions
of them, or specifying that only
"exceptional" examples be presented.
Spirit Orbs are sometimes claimed to
exist more densely around certain
haunted regions, or to be the spirits of
departed loved ones. These types of
orbs are sometimes claimed to have
faces, sometimes with discernable
expressions and sometimes of
recognizable persons. Some feel the
size of an orb indicates how great of
an impact a life force had in its life
time.
Another view of spirit orbs holds that
they are non-human spirits, with blue
and red orbs symbolizing angels and
the devil respectively. (Another
interpretation of colors in orbs is sex
differentiation - blue for male spirits,
and red for female.)
Spirit orbs are also felt by some to be
curious, friendly protectors, particularly
of children. Belief in these "orb
friends" is reminiscent of the belief in
fairies in the early part of the twentieth
century.
The paranormal belief in orbs is not so
straightforward as those who believe
that they are simply photographic
artifacts. While an oft-encountered
quote is "orbs are considered by some
people to be the simplest and most
common form of a disembodied spirit",
this concept is not supported by all
within the paranormal faction. There
are those who maintain that the orbs
are caused by:
Ghosts/spirits
Angels/guardian spirits
Aliens
"The Little People" - elves, pixies,
fairies
Interdimensional beings
Humans from the future
hitherto unnoticed life forms
Even those "true believers" who
steadfastly maintain that orbs are of
paranormal origin are often forced to
concede that dust may be the cause
of most orb photos. A subset of these
believers say that they can tell the
difference between "dust orbs" and
"real" (spirit) orbs, sometimes from a
close examination of the image, other
times because of how they felt or were
acting at the moment the photo was
taken. Some true believers say that the
orbs respond to spoken requests to
appear, move, or appear as different
colors.
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So it's sort
of social...
demented
and sad...
but social,
right?
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The Myrtles Plantation
The Bone Pile
July 18, 2006
Hi hi hi, T-boners. My apologies for not getting this column done sooner as
promised. Since returning from my trip to south Louisiana, I have had some
difficulties with my Internet at home. Once again, SBC is screwing with me
and so far, they haven't helped me at all. In fact, in the yellow pages, there
are about 20 different numbers to reach SBC with, and none of them have
an option to get you to a live operator. I tried the Internet, but all I can do is
send in a written request. I did so and I have still not heard anything from
them. So right now I am using a very weak signal that I picked up from
somewhere else in the apartment complex. Sssshhhh, no telling.
So I just visited the Myrtles
an hour north of Baton Rouge. It is said to be the most haunted home in
the United States and is currently ranked 13th in the world. We got there in
the day time so we could get settled into our rooms and get tickets to take
the last mystery tour.
We ended up getting three different rooms despite having no plans to
actually sleep. I had no intentions of paying money to sleep when there
were ghosts to be seen. The room I set my stuff in was the original slave
house/servants quarters. This is the last place that someone actually died
Hunters, the cameras captured some movement of a lamp on the bedside
table in this room. Since then, the owners told us that the lampshade had
actually caught fire, but when they put the fire out, they discovered the bulb
had never burst and the filament was still intact. I claimed this room hoping
something would happen.
Mad Pup, Neal, and Renee claimed the Judge Clark Woodruff Suite. This is
one of the original rooms of the house and it is very private compared to
the rest of the house. It sits just above the Haunted Mirror, and there is the
famous staircase that leads up to that room. The staircase is where one of
the former owners died after being shot. He was trying to make his way
upstairs to see his wife once more before dying but died on the 17th step,
just three steps shy of reaching her. Ghost Hunters caught the shadow of
someone bent over, almost crawling, across the bottom of the steps, when
the show aired. I am unaware of any specific happenings in the actual
Woodruff Suite, but again, the Haunted Mirror is just below.
According to old custom, when someone died, all mirrors were covered up.
It was believed that if a spirit crossed an uncovered mirror, it would become
trapped on the other side. This mirror is believed to have been forgotten to
be covered after one death. The only thing original about this mirror is its
frame. The glass keeps having to be replaced because of extremely bad
streaking. This is no ordinary streaking. These are large black and gray
smudges that the owners say you cannot get off no matter how hard you
clean it. It seems to be smudged from the inside out. I wasn't going to try
to debunk this because imagine me trying to rub off a smudge and the
mirror falls and breaks. That's a bill I need sent to my place. So I took it for
what it was worth. This mirror is also the encouraged photo opportunity
spot of the plantation. We took a few pictures and one in particular seems
a bit disturbing. First off, when this picture was taken, I had just seen
something at the top of the stairs.
there appears to be a hand trying to reach out of the mirror. This isn't a
picture that you have to look at and try to make something out of it. It
jumped out to most of us as clear as day.
Just across the hall from the mirror is a day room. Woodruff's wife
supposedly stayed in that room most of her day napping and looking out
the window. It is said that between tours, the bed gets messed up and the
curtains go from being undone to drawn back. Nothing too scary, but
significant.
Another room we reserved for the Daniels was the Ruffin-Sterling room.
This room served as the children's nursery. The original owner of the
plantation had a wife and two children. He also had a slave that served as
his mistress. Her name was Chloe. Chloe liked to listen in on his
conversations and tell gossip to the other slaves. She was warned and
when she was caught again, her ear was cut off and she was reduced to
harder labor rather than just house chores. Since she was missing an ear,
she started wearing a turban. In order to get back into her owner's good
graces, she decided to help bake a birthday cake for the children. She
thought she would put a little something special in it in order to make them
sick and then nurse them back to health in order to look good. She put
boiled Oleander in it, which serves the same purpose as Arsenic. A few
days later, the owner's wife and both children died. He was out of town at
this time, so Chloe sought refuge with the other slaves, but they turned on
her. They hung her from the tallest live oak and her body was thrown in the
nearby Mississippi River.
Chloe's ghost is said to be seen all over the plantation. The ghost of the
children can be heard laughing, whispering, and playing in the
Ruffin-Sterling room. Also, porcelain dolls have disappeared from other
rooms and mysteriously appeared in the nursery. The Ruffin-Sterling room
is on the complete opposite side of the plantation home as the Woodruff
Suite. In fact, there is a touring area with several rooms that separates
them and they are locked up at night. But children can be heard running
from one side of the plantation to another.
After we took the tour,
they were designated to go. We put them around the many statues located
on the grounds and in every room we reserved. We each had to go to our
designated area alone. I went out to my area with no flashlight. I was told it
was on a statue on the grounds and that was it. I went out about 100 yards
from the plantation almost to the woods. My eyes were playing tricks on me
big time because I thought I kept seeing these statues, but when I would get
up on them, they would disappear. After about 20 minutes of going after
invisible statues, I went back to the courtyard to let them know I hadn't
found it. They pointed me in a more specific direction and I found the
statues. They were of these creepy little angels playing musical
instruments. I felt all around each statue and still never found the card I
was looking for. I still felt my eyes were playing tricks on me because I was
told there were 4 statues. I saw 5 for the longest time and when I walked up
on the 5th one, it disappeared right in front of me. I got discouraged again
and went back to the courtyard. Mad Pup came with me with his flashlight
and we found the card on a statue I had spent 5 minutes looking at. I have
no idea how I missed it.
Later, we tried to get some EVP work done. EVP is electronic voice
phenominon. Watch the crappy movie White Noise and you will know what
I am talking about. Basically, electronic devices pick up sounds that it are
impossible for humans to make. Many times it sounds like voices saying
specific things in response to questions we ask. We do not hear them, but
they show up on the tapes. The odd thing about this EVP session is that it
seems to have come out very unsuccessful. However, our tape recorder
was acting very strange. Anytime we would ask a question, it would
immediatly shut itself off. It wouldn't pop like it was out of tape or out of
battery, it just quit running. It would then start up as soon as we'd ask
another question. So it recorded almost everything we'd say, but nothing in
between. It may just be a fluke, but it is odd because nothing like that ever
happened on this recorder when Kitty used it in class.
I would say probably the freakiest thing to happen to me personally would
be when I got Neal to bring his camera and we went walking into the woods
where I felt I kept seeing statues appear and disappear. I figured at least
someone else could verify the things I was seeing and maybe we could
capture something on camera. We kept taking pictures at random, hoping
to pick up something.
if you are in pitch black? As we were snapping pictures in the dark, we
noticed the number of orbs start to increase in every picture. Then I
noticed a thin sliver of blue light about 100 feet away from us. It looked to
be only about 2 feet tall and hovering just over the ground. It was as thin
as a piece of rope. I instantly started nudging Neal to take a picture and he
did. He never saw the blue light, but what he saw in his digital creeped him
out. In the initial pictures, the most orbs we had seen in one picture was
about 6. In this picture, there appeared to be more than 100. Needless to
say, we were a little creeped out so we moved on to show the rest of the
group. They all called bullshit and said it was probably just dirt. So we did
A few hours later, activity seemed to be slowing down and I was getting
tired. I still had to drive back the next day, so I decided I was going to take
a quick nap in the slave quarters. I was so tired, nothing could have kept
me from falling asleep. Of course the guys who stayed awake had to be
the turd in the punchbowl at some point. I heard one of them bang on the
side of the cabin really hard and open the back door really slowly. Still
mostly asleep, I was pretty excited at first. Then reality set in and I looked
out of the front window to see Mad Pup laughing. Ass. Apparently right
before this, though, he and Kitty were watching Poltergeist on a couch just
outside of his room. It was just starting to get light outside when they heard
something very heavy rolling across the front porch. They assumed it was
the staff arriving and maybe it was a cleaning cart. They went to check on
it and saw nothing. Turns out, nobody from the staff was even there. They
were not the only ones to hear it, though, as other guests were saying
something about it that morning at breakfast.
So there you have it. We all survived and most of us can walk away saying
that we all at least MAY have experienced something. I know I feel that I
experienced a few things, especially out near the wooded area. I don't see
how they can rank this place as the MOST haunted in America as what we
saw was very limited. Even the people at Ghost Hunters didn't find a lot.
They agreed that it was haunted, but I have seen episodes where much
much more had happened. I would like to go again sometime and try to
get a different experience of it all. All in all it was a lot of fun.
In case some of you are wondering about my job situation, I just started a
new job. I have officially been an employee of my new company for a week
now and am really enjoying it. I was flown into New Jersey a week ago for
some training in company protocol. While I was there, it was discovered
that I had never been to New York City. So my last day of training was cut
short in order to send me into the city with some of the younger guys in the
company. But those stories will have to wait until next column.
Until next time, thow up a "T" for...
T-BONE!
Plantation a few weeks ago,
and it was a great trip. I went
with some friends, old and new.
Just to give you some names
for reference, there was my
girlfriend Kitty, my friend Mad
Pup, his cousin Neal and his
wife Renee, and two guys I
barely know named Daniel.
The Myrtles Plantation is in St.
Francisville, Louisiana, about
in the house. It is
said that a robbery
went wrong and the
caretaker was
stabbed to death
during the robbery.
He is said to be seen
sitting on the steps of
the cabin quarters or
greeting people in
the parking lot saying
that the plantation is
closed. Also, during
an episode of Ghost
I saw a figure, just in the spot of
the 17th step. Nobody was up
there from our group because
we were all taking the tour. No
other guests were allowed up
there and I know I saw
something, so it must have been
an apparition. Back to the
mirror, just as that happened,
Neal took a picture of the mirror
and it came out strange. The
entire picture is very clear
except for the bottom. It is a bit
blurry, and in the blurry spot
We were quickly
approaching 3:00 am,
which according to
many is the time of most
spiritual activity. I have
seen many ghost shows
where they make a big
deal about orbs that
appear in pictures. I
always thought little of
them because any
source of light can
cause an orb. But what
a dust test and a dirt test and
neither one could duplicate the
results of what we saw. Plus, I
know that I saw that blue sliver of
light and I have a feeling that is
what contributed to the strange
picture. In fact, after that point, it
seemed the one orb was following
me throughout the night because
there was one that I took near a
statue and one of me near the
back of the little swamp.
we pretty much had
free roam of the
plantation. Most of
us weren't scared
and were actually
anxious to see
something. Mad Pup
and I went out
together and placed
some cards at certain
points in the
plantation in order to
prove that people
went to the area that
Breaking a mirror can even make a
skeptic shudder for a brief moment! The
superstition is an old one and has
managed to keep its strength over the
years. In fact, many superstitions exist
for mirrors but the particular beliefs
centering around broken mirrors are the
most common today.
Mirrors are thought to have two
supernatural abilities:
They bring bad luck
The help tell the future
Before mirrors came along, any
reflective surface was considered to be
magical and credited with the ability to
look into the future. In ancient
mythology we can often find the gods
and goddesses, as well as mere mortals,
looking into the still water to catch a
glimpse of their fate. The power of
reflective surfaces to captivate and
deceive are also featured strongly in
such myths as Narcissus and Snow
White. Reflective surfaces like shiny
metals and mirrors were also used to
receive messages from the gods.
Queen Elizabeth's court magician and
well-known alchemist, John Dee, used
a mirror for scrying. He has been
credited with prophesying the plot to
kill King James in 1605.
Because mirrors were thought to hold
the key to the future, to break one was
to shatter your own future. One of the
techniques devised to reverse the bad
luck was to bury all the pieces deep
within the earth. Another superstition for
breaking a mirror was that shortly
thereafter a family member would die.
Other Mirror Superstitions:
To see your reflection in a mirror is to
see your own soul, which is why a
vampire, who are without a soul, have
no reflection.
If a couple first catch sight of each
other in a mirror, they will have a happy
marriage.
If a mirror falls and breaks by itself,
someone in the house will soon die.
Any mirrors in a room where someone
has recently died, must be covered so
that the dead person's soul does not get
trapped behind the glass. Superstition
has it that the Devil invented mirrors for
this very purpose.
It is bad luck to see your face in a
mirror when sitting by candlelight.
Before mirrors, in ancient societies, if
you caught sight of your reflection or
dreamt of it, you would soon die.
Someone seeing their reflection in a
room where someone has recently
died, will soon die themselves.
Babies should not look into a mirror for
the first year of their lives.
Actors believe that it is bad luck to see
their reflection while looking over the
shoulder of another person.
To see an image of her future husband,
a woman is told to eat an apple while
sitting in front of a mirror and then
brush her hair. An image of the man
will appear behind her shoulder.
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