California's Most Haunted Places

Please take this video and all it states as claims, with a grain of salt. This video is almost an hour long and filled with various stories and claims of personal experiences and legends of hauntings throughout the state of California. Including the Whaley House in San Diego.

According to the date stamp, this is about 3 years old.




Part 1 of 6 of "Ghosts of California" with the date stamp being about a year and a half ago since it was posted.



To watch the other parts to this, please CLICK HERE.

Zombies

They are a cultural icon. We here in America have gone crazy over them. We love our brain/flesh eaters with a passion.

Zombies.

They are defined as (according to Wikipedia) "A zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) can be either a fictional undead monster or a person in an entranced state believed to be controlled by a bokor or wizard. These latter are the original zombies, occurring in the West African Vodun religion and its American offshoots Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo."

Over in Africa, they are not your run-of-the-mill, ghastly, brain-eating zombies. As a matter of fact, they look pretty much like you and I would while still considered as part of the living population.

This documentary is 70 min. long, and was made in 2005. They are in Haiti. But it gives a good ideology in regards to Zombies within the real world.



As for Hollywood, we have so many Zombie-based movies, it really isn't funny. It all started with the infamous George A. Romero and his "Night Of The Living Dead".



One of the newest "rages" with this subject comes to us from the television channel, American Movie Classics (also known as AMC). Last year, they pulled off the seemingly impossible. The comic book, "The Walking Dead" was brought to life in a new, original, "pushing-the-envelope" series with the comic's main title.

Here is a (graphic and verbally expletive) trailer for season one of the hit thrill ride of a show.



We went from human-looking zombies, to sub-human, brain-eating, disgusting-looking zombies, thanks to our generation of horror fanatics being thirsty for more blood and guts. Whereas those that truly believe in the lore of Zombies and who practice Voodoo have a more realistic take on the subject.

But their take on zombies isn't as fun to watch. *grin*

Time Travel

I remember as a small child, my mom watching the Time Traveler, Dr. Who. He was quite the eccentric, wasn't he? I loved how he would go to various places in time and space, using his machine, TARDIS (acronym for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space).

The original version of the Sci-Fi series ran from 1963 to 1989, and starred : William Hartnell initially.

Here's a video of the introduction to the original series.



As for time travel it's self, it is defined as (via Wikipedia) "is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space, either sending objects (or in some cases just information) backwards in time to some moment before the present, or sending objects forward from the present to the future without the need to experience the intervening period (at least not at the normal rate)".

We in a way, do use time travel. But in a different way. Such as using Time Capsules. And watching old footage from news reels. But to travel to the future, not the past, that takes some real doing and know-how, primarily scientifically. And we have yet to gain that knowledge and ability.

Will it ever happen? I can personally never say "never" or "impossible". Well, maybe so for MY lifetime. But in my children's lifetime, or their children's it may very well be possible. Technology advances in new ways all of the time. Practically on a daily basis, really.

What are your thoughts on Time Travel?

Vampirism

The following is provided by... Wikipedia.

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person. Although vampiric entities have been recorded in many cultures and in spite of speculation by literary historian Brian Frost that the "belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself", and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked and people being accused of vampirism.

While even folkloric vampires of the Balkans and Eastern Europe had a wide range of appearance ranging from nearly human to bloated rotting corpses, it was the success of John Polidori's 1819 novella The Vampyre that established the archetype of charismatic and sophisticated vampire; it is arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century, inspiring such works as Varney the Vampire and eventually Dracula.

However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and which provided the basis of modern vampire fiction. Dracula drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the "fears of late Victorian patriarchy". The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films, video games, and television shows. The vampire is such a dominant figure in the horror genre that literary historian Susan Sellers places the current vampire myth in the "comparative safety of nightmare fantasy".

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Personally, I have always been fascinated by the subject of Vampirism. There is something truly magical and tantalizing about the possibility of ever-lasting immortality, such as is portrayed by Bram Stoker's novel.

But also, let's not forget where Mr. Stoker had originated his idea of a "walking dead guy" that had the need to feed off of the blood of the living...

And that would be in regards to Vlad The Impaler (Vlad's Story). He was a ruthless, dark, murderous ruler who had those he had captured staked *ALIVE* and then captured their blood in a cup and drank of it. Hence the true origin of Stoker's 'Dracula' character.

Although Vlad The Impaler dies, his alter ego, Dracula lives on in novels, movies, cartoons and even in CEREAL (Count Chocula).

                                   Mr. Bram Stoker, author of "Dracula" (1897)

               One of the most modern Television shows of my generation, "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" (based off of movie of the same name, featuring Kristy Swanson)

                               The most infamous "Dracula" portrayal of all time.. Bella Lugosi.

                              Vlad The Impaler, original ideal for Stoker's novel.

               
                                  Depiction of impaling prisoners of Vlad's. As you can see, Vlad would DINE at the impalings of his victims and drink of their blood that is collected.

       

                              Personally, I have never tried this cereal. Surprising, I know (lol)! But maybe one day I will. After all, I would kill for chocolate. (=

Paranormal Television Shows (The good, the bad, and the non-worthy)

Some aren't even worth my time. Such as Paranormal State and Ghost Adventures. They only delve in to the "bad side" of ghostly phenomenon. And it makes me sick to see the FEAR that the shows instill in their viewers. Especially for those that believe, but have yet to truly experience a haunting themselves.

Then, you have Paranormal Cops. While those guys may have the detective skills, they certainly don't seem all that much to be taking the Paranormal Investigator job all that seriously.

Ghostly Encounters, while at times intriguing, can seem too "dramatized" for my taste. Tell the story, don't embellish it.

Now as for those that I like, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International for me, ranks right up there at the top of the heap. They are genuine and walk in as skeptics. Not out of malice towards those that they are helping, but to get a better overall view of the places that they are investigating and come to a level-headed decision about each site. And their work ethic is exceptional in how they carry themselves on their jobs with each client that they serve.

Also, I like the new (in it's second season) Celebrity Ghost Stories. Just because they are celebrities, it doesn't mean that they aren't human and can't experience ghostly happenings as well. And the way that some of the stories are told, it's just mind blowing and if you have been through a similar experience, you feel that you can TRULY relate to that particular celeb. Although, I am glad that they no longer do that white noise/face thing in between stories as they go to commercial. It not only scared my kids (who like the show, too), but myself as well. Made me jump EVERY time.

My new favorite to add to my list, that I missed the Pilot Episode of LAST WEEK is My Ghost Story. It features three or four different stories from everyday, ordinary, average people such as you and I. They tell their story and as it's being told, video and picture evidence is being provided, as well as a re-enactment by the story-teller(s) themselves. I love that about this show. There are REAL people telling THEIR stories and showing it playing out on THEIR OWN TERMS.

Psychic Kids, with Psychic/Medium Chip Coffey is another good show. And I love how he and his Psychologist friend help these kids through what can be a very scary, life altering, and embarrassing (as well as shunning) thing in their lives. They have the compassion, understanding and drive to TRULY help these kids that have the ability to see, hear, and sense spirits feel not so isolated, and help them get a better handle on their abilities.

Understandably, this is only the tip of the ice burg. There are many more ghost/haunting-related shows out there. Too many to name or talk about in fact. But these, for myself anyways, stands out from the crowd. Do you have any paranormal shows that you like or dislike? Tell us and the reason(s) why.