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Ghost Files

Ghost Files

6.1.5

Welcome back to Ghost Files, your premier source for the summary and review of the major happenings in the world of the paranormal. It’s the first week in June, and the birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and the ghosts are out in full force.

Prepare to enter that most haunted and ghostly realm, most commonly referred to as Ghost Files.

:: Top Story ::

It’s hard to imagine any possible benefits of a ghostly haunting. Lights turning off and on, objects moving on their own, strange sounds in the night—none of these sound particularly pleasing or enjoyable. But, you know what they say about one man’s trash…

Wilkes calls on ghosts to scare up project money

Monte Mitchell (JOURNAL REPORTER) Tuesday, May 31, 2005

There's been talk for years of people hearing the ghosts of Tom Dooley and his lover, Anne Melton, arguing in the 1860 jail where they were once held for the murder of Laura Foster.

Huggins, who is leading a $2.4 million fund-raising effort to restore the 1902 Wilkes County Courthouse and turn it into a history museum, hopes the ghost stories help with the museum effort.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783013150

There’s a good idea, if I’ve ever heard one. Use the haunted history of a historical location to boost tourism and promote profit. Problem is, it makes me wonder if these reports are authentic. It seems an opportune time to invent some poltergeist activity. When money is involved, nothing is sacred.

However, the “candlelight ghost tours” at this particular place are free, with the welcoming of donations. I guess I can live with that. In fact, such a tour sounds quite enticing.

Now I can only hope for a similar event in my area.

:: Belief ::

It’s truly a rare occurrence that, when searching through the plethora of stories to present, I come across a ghost article with facts, figures or logistics. Therefore, this article was just too interesting to pass up.

87% of University Students in Taiwan Believe In Ghosts: Survey

CNA News 2005/05/29 21:47:31

Taipei, May 29 (CNA) A survey of nine universities in Taipei area found that 87 percent of students believe in the existence of ghosts, probably because they have since their childhood been inculcated with such an idea. Culture Weekly, a campus publication of the Chinese Culture University, sent a questionnaire to students at National Taiwan University and eight others in the capital area in mid-May, receiving 1,144 valid samples.

http://english.www.gov.tw/index.jsp?action=cna&cnaid=10173

Some of the questions asked and the percentages of returned answers are both intriguing, and at the same time funny.

I found the answers to what their reaction would be to a ghostly occurrence particularly hysterical. A whopping 18.4% say that they would do nothing and pretend the ghost wasn’t there, while 11% said they would simply run away. I could understand running away, but pretending it’s not there? That would take an amount concentration and fortitude that I simply don’t posses.

My reaction would most likely fall in the less than 10% response: swear at the evil spirits, or cry hysterically. This would probably be followed by the cleaning of my shorts.

What I found to be the most interesting statistic is that 60% of those surveyed replied that they feared death. While that is a majority, I think it is a fairly small amount if compared to Americans. It is my belief that our materialistic, often unfulfilling, society creates a greater fear of death, than in other cultures.

This may sound all well and good, but look at some of these other, shall we say…odd?, beliefs:

little over 30 percent believe that sticking the chopsticks into a rice bowl will attract "good brothers" (Taiwanese slang for ghosts) to fight for the food. Twenty-eight percent of those questioned believe that you will get your ears cut off if you point your finger at the moon;

Have your ears chopped off if you point at the moon? What is that all about? Not many astronomers in Taiwan, apparently. And what of these ‘good brothers’? They will fight for your food if you stick chopsticks into a rice bowl? I’ll have to remind myself of that if I ever travel to Taiwan.

:: In The Media ::

Expect a fall line-up ripe with the paranormal.

CBS fires God, Rather

GLENN GARVIN - Thu, May. 19, 2005

Joan of Arcadia, in which a teenage girl chatted (often confusedly) with God on crosstown buses and in her high-school cafeteria line, will be replaced with Ghost Whisperer, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as a medium who relays messages from the dead.

''I think talking to ghosts may skew younger than talking to God,'' Moonves said.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment/television/11681721.htm

I guess talking with God isn’t ‘hip’ anymore. Though, I find it hard to believe that you could have a ghost show, with an obvious display of an afterlife, without touching on a higher deity in someway.

The article goes on to speculate that CBS’s Ghost Whisperer, is probably a planned copy of NBC’s [i]Medium[i]. I can’t in all honesty say that I’ve watched or have had the desire to watch Medium, and I doubt that I’ll ever watch Ghost Whisperer.

There’s a funny story, however, when they played the Medium promo before a movie I saw recently. They make a joke towards the end in which a medium’s partner asks, “What are you? Some kind of medium?”

To which she replies, “No, I’m a small.”

I found myself the only person in the theatre laughing at the phenomenally un-funny remark. Apparently there weren’t any Coast listeners in the audience.

:: Dead End ::

Another week and another ‘Files. I hope you enjoyed your trip into the paranormal. Come back next week, if you dare, for yet another installment of Ghost Files.

Until then, toodles and ta-ta.

~Khyron, 2005.

Discuss ghost files @ the USofE HERE