Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ghost to Show You

Josh Flowers and I totally went on a ghost hunt on FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH.

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Step off, Mulder and Scully.

I'm rather skeptical when it comes to communiqués from the Great Beyond. When I talk about "Kentucky spirits," I'm usually conversing about Bourbon.

But Friday, Josh and I traveled to E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park outside of Louisville to meet up with SERIOUS Paranormal for an evening of history and supernatural phenomena.

Did you know that E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park is built on the site of an insane asylum?

I didn't!

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I mean, what other face would you make?

I'm sure we would have learned more about the site's background if we'd been on time but unfortunately, nothing in the park's planning told us where to meet up with the group.

We actually spent a half hour wandering around a cemetery by our lonesomes before we figured out where the event was taking place.

No worries, though. We arrived just in time to tour the grounds with a hilarious posse of mostly middle-aged folks who were sipping something a little stronger than coffee from their travel mugs.

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dowses wild

An earnest young man used dowsing rods to ask phantasms simple yes or no questions. It went like this:

Man: Are there any spirits here with us tonight?
[Rods slowing move together, crossing. Apparently this means 'yes.']
Man: Thank you. Uncross, please.
[Rods slowing move apart.]
Man: How many are here with us? Cross when I get to the number.
[Rods cross when he says, "eight."]

At this point, I whispered to Josh that I was cold and bored.

Then, the young man handed the rods over to a lady in our group that had been visiting with some spirits in her travel mug.

Man: Ask the spirits a question.
Lady: Um. [Addressing the ghosts.] Don't you think it's a little ridiculous that we're all out here in the dark trying to talk to y'all? I mean, what do you think? We're on this side of the ground and you're not. Doesn't that bother you?
Lady's friend: Who do you think will win the Louisville-Lexington game?
Man: [Snatching rods.] Alright, who's next?

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unearthly graffiti 

Josh and I then got to run around a nearby cave that was used for cold storage by the hospital. We were told over and over that it was probably used to store dead bodies at one point.

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Josh, in his ghost-hunting bowler hat

So, while in the cave, Josh and I tried to address the specters ourselves:



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root cellar canal

In the root cellar, we met an incredibly nice lady who told all about the tools she uses to chart otherworldly activities. I think she called this light field a "wizard grid":

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demon disco

At this point, I kind of felt like an unadulterated turd.

So, I'm not a big believer in the paranormal and I may have ventured out in a state park in the middle of the night for an outing I figured would be more comedic than mystic.

But here was a woman who volunteered her time to share something with us that she felt was important and interesting. She was just too devout to disparage.

After a fantastic evening giggling and stomping around the grass with my camera, I left without any greater understanding of spectral. But I did spend a lot of time pondering the very human need to believe that there are real connections to those we have lost.

And then, when reviewing the photos I'd snapped, I came across this one, taken when Josh and I were snickering to ourselves in the cemetery:

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That's right, ORBS.

Agh!

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