[IGHS] Newsletter, October 31, 2004 Kingman, Arizona

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Mission Statement:

The Ghostweb is the official Web Site of the International Ghost Hunters Society. Membership in the IGHS is always FREE. The IGHS is an international society dedicated and committed to the research and study of ghostly phenomena recorded through EVP, digital, film and video photography. The IGHS is a society of ghost believers, ghost hunters, and ghost researchers with over 15,000 members in 87 countries worldwide.

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International Ghost Hunters Society Newsletter

October 31, 2004 from Kingman, Arizona

Dr. Dave’s Notes:

I would like to update those who have been praying for my Mother's speedy recovery. She was released from the hospital this past week and is slowly returning to life outside a hospital bed. She is staying for a few weeks with my brother and his wife before returning to her home. I want to personally thank each and everyone who sent positive energy and thoughts her way.

We are still offering a Halloween Special on our Home Study Courses. The special pricing is our way of celebrating this time of year. Check out our specials at http://www.ghostweb.com/mainhsc1.html.

If you missed the book review of Haunted America Speaks, I have posted it on our web site at http://www.ghostweb.com/bookreview.html.

Just to show how busy our ghostweb.com web site is in October, I will share some stats that I got yesterday October 30^th, at noon. As of that time, we had over 3,563,234 hits to our site. 3,004,804 files were viewed with 338,224 pages accessed; our members and visitors used over 20 gigabytes of bandwidth. Remember that the average ghost hunting web sites are limited to ½ gigabyte per month.

I remember in my earlier years when I had children still at home that Halloween was one of the fun times for us. I would take the children treat or treating at dusk, walk behind them they visited the homes in our subdivision. I could never understand why the church we attended had a Halloween costume party where ghouls and monsters could walk around the halls, but good old Santa Claus was forbidden to show up at the Christmas party because our pious church leaders did not want to take away from Christmas, but it was okay for ghouls and goblins to hobnob around the halls.

One year after Sharon and I moved to Seaside, Oregon, we were hitting the garage sales scene. I found a frightful “Freddy” mask from the Elm Street horror flick. I purchased the frightful mask and so when Halloween came along, I dressed in a black cape so only the Freddy mask showed. I wired some speakers outside the door so when someone rang the doorbell or knocked on the door, Sharon would switch on the CD with the scary music. The house would be dark, except for our Halloween lights in the windows. The speakers would blast out the howling coyotes and other Halloween sounds.

I would open the door slowly and with the darken room and the black cape, all the children would see was the spooky Freddy’s mask. In most cases, their mouths would fall open and they would stare at me. Suddenly as if an alarm sounded, they would scamper back to the safety of their parents waiting on the sidewalk. However, there were times when I had to remove my mask so the young boy or girl would stop crying, I didn't want to be responsible for that young boy or girl having to go home for a change of clothes.

I got some good mileage out of that Freddy’s mask. Often I would put the mask on and sneak up behind Sharon and tap her on the shoulder while she was busy doing something in the house. She would turn and see the red demonic face and scream. However, she finally got even one year, the rubber mask was getting pretty worn, and in the back of the mask, a small rip had formed. I do believe she packed it away for preservation. Later I found a white ghostly mask that almost had the same effect on her.

Just the other day while we were walking through a store, I found an ugly goblin mask. I put it on and walked quietly up to Sharon and tapped her on the shoulder, she turned and screamed and then proceeded to tenderize my arm. I returned the mask and decided to do the same thing again, but this time without the mask. I quietly walked up to her, tapped her on the shoulder, she turned and screamed. She thought I had another mask on, but it was only my natural mug, now I am not sure which is more scary, the mask or the real me.

Over the years, Sharon and I have rented a spooky video, made some popcorn, turned the lights down low, and watched the video as the ghouls and goblins ran amok in the video. In ancient of times, the people believed that if they left treats out by the front door, it would keep the ghosts from entering their homes. Today we are still using this tradition and the treat or treaters represent the ghosts coming to our homes. Halloween is also the second biggest holiday, second only to Christmas. During our travels, we have spotted several Super Halloween stores, but we have never taken time to stop and view their many displays.

Today we are in Kingman, Arizona and will be here for about a week before heading down to Wickenburg where we will stay for the next several months. We love to visit Kingman each year during our travels. We can see so many changes and growth in the town that amaze each year. There are several old ghost towns near Kingman that we enjoy visiting and even some we will be conducting EVP investigations while we are in the area this year. So from Kingman, Arizona, Sharon and I wish each of you a happy Halloween.

Happy trails.

Sharon’s Notes:

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one who took the time to share their condolences with me at the passing of my Father. It is always hard to lose someone we love but to know that so many people care makes the transition much easier. I appreciated all of the thoughtfulness at such a difficult time.

We are thrilled to tell our readers that Dave’s Mother has left the hospital is now in the loving care of one of her sons in Oregon. She has made tremendous progress and if she does well over the next couple of weeks, she will be able to return to her own home once again. We can't tell you all what it meant to have so many prayers and positive thoughts held for Dave’s Mother. We know that the odds were against her surviving such a devastating accident, but she has passed the crisis and is heading toward a normal life again. Prayer and collective consciousness changes things and we feel the evidence of this is clear in the miracle of healing seen in Dave’s Mom. Thank you all.

Last year when we held our conference in Reno, Nevada, we had the pleasure of meeting an author whose first book was about to be released. Her name is Mary Roach and we enjoyed spending time with her during the conference. Mary writes a monthly article for Reader’s Digest under, My Planet, which is worth reading. I make a point of picking up the magazine monthly and enjoy her articles a great deal. I enjoy her sense of humor and the subject matter that everyone can relate to as her experiences are our experiences with an hone, humorous twist.

Mary Roach's book can now be found on bookstore shelves and with Halloween here, I thought it was an ideal time to recommend it to our readers. The book is titled, Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Published by Penguin Press. Let me just share a little bit of the contents of the book with you.

“A fascinating, unusual exploration into the macabre, Mary Roach's search for the many uses of the human body stretches from China and the myth of human dumplings, to ghoulish history of nineteenth century body snatching and experiments involving crucifixion to check the veracity of the Turin Shroud to present-day Body Farms, plastic surgery labs and conferences on human composting. Stiff tells a story of the last 2,000 years, in which cadavers have been at the forefront of scientific exploration. Combining riveting story-telling with science, history and reportage, Stiff is one of the funniest, most intriguing books you will ever read!” That was taken from the book cover and says in fewer words, what I will try to express to you here.

One chapter in Stiff, talks about the crash of Flight 800. In July 1996, TWA Flight 800 left JFK International Airport bound for Paris, France. It blew apart in the air over the Atlantic east of New York. Some witnesses claimed to have seen a missile strike the airliner and traces of explosives turned up in the inspection done on some of the recovered wreckage but no trace of bomb hardware was found. Conspiracies spread quickly but definite answers to what really happened to take the plane down were harder to find. Mary Roach goes after some answers to what really happened.

Mary find the professional called in to see what he could determine from the remains of those on board Flight 800. When answers aren't found in the aircraft wreckage, pros turn to the human wreckage factor for answers. Mary takes you on a journey of learning, step-by-step as she interviews the experts and learns the procedures that lead the professionals to their conclusions. In this chapter, the reader learns what it takes to be a pro in this field and how much information they can glean from what remains of the passengers.

A chapter entitled, Holy Cadaver; the crucifixion experiments, talks of the Shroud of Turin. For years, folks have wondered if it was truly the shroud that held the body of Christ when taken from the cross. The shrouds authenticity was in question and the church had turned to medicine to see if the markings corresponded with anatomical and physiological markings. Was the dried fluid on the shroud really blood or was it chemical stains? In search of answers, Mary once again consults the experts. She found one expert who veered from using cadavers to crucify to crucifying live volunteers! Of course she had to ask how much he had to pay a research subject to be crucified and the answer was shocking. The good doctor conducting the research used leather straps rather than nails on his subjects. Most volunteers are curious to what it feels like to be crucified, but one girl actually wanted the real thing, nails and all. If you have wondered about the validity of the Turin Shroud, Mary has the story of her search for the truth and it is well worth reading.

Find out how to know if you are dead, a chapter about beating-heart cadavers, live burials and the scientific search for the soul. With a debate on the “seat of the soul” ongoing for some 4,000 years, you will definitely want to join Mary on this journey. She shares Thomas Edison’s theories on the soul and why he felt people of another existence wouldn't waste their time communicating through a triangle on a board with letters (the Ouija board, as we know it.) The chapter is filled with excellent and humorous information including beliefs of organ recipients who tend to think they have inherited the traits of the organ donor. Is that fact or fiction?

Mary Roach has included chapters on her investigations into the guillotine experiments; decapitations, reanimation and the human head transplant. She begins her search in Paris, going back to the 1700’s through the modern day. What are we without our heads?

Stiff is a unique book and reads like a breath of fresh air. The author approaches a subject we generally won't discuss. In a time when stress runs high all around us, and anger runs a close second, I found Stiff to be entertaining as well as enlightening. I must admit I couldn't help but as myself how I would have reacted were I standing next to Mary Roach as she did and saw thing while exploring various aspects for her book, that most people would do anything to avoid.

At Halloween, if you are looking for something truly unique as a gift or something different for yourself, Stiff, by Mary Roach is ideal and can be found in major book stores everywhere. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and found it hard to put down. With the holidays just around the corner, the book makes a great gift idea. I guarantee you won't want to put it down either. The hard back edition has 303 pages of reading pleasure but the book is available also in paperback. Look for it; you won't want to miss it.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Southwest Ghost Conference in 2005:

We have scheduled our Southwest Ghost Conference for March 25-27 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. More information can be found at http://www.ghostweb.com/swc.html regarding this conference. Book early, as we will again have limited seating available to us. We are planning on a meet and greet on Friday night, sessions and hands on investigations on Saturday and for those staying Sunday, we will have a list of haunted sites they can investigate in the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area.

Ghost Charm Jewelry:

Sharon has created six different designs for her sterling silver ghost charm necklaces, with either carnelian and turquoise or carnelian and hematine stones. The sterling silver ghost charm measures about an inch in length. She also has created some beautiful jewelry by wire wrapping stunning carnelian nuggets that we found in the desert near Deming, New Mexico. The carnelian nuggets were tumbled for five weeks to bring out their natural beauty. She also has earrings with carnelian and combinations of either turquoise or hematine. Get your orders in today by going to http://photos1.ghostweb.com/carn2.html.

Digital Ghost Photography Handbook:

Are you confused about orbs? What are dust orbs and how do they relate to real ghost orbs? Read our 20 page thermal bound book or download the PDF book and discover how digital photography is the wave of the future. We have been using digital since 1994 and we share with the reader, which are the best digital cameras on the market today. We also share what to look for when purchasing a digital camera and provide some protocols to avoid falling into the dust orb trap. Check it out at http://www.ghostweb.com/booklet2.html.

How to Record and Analyze Ghost Voices:

We have shared the hidden techniques that enable us to be tremendously successful in recording the voices of the dead. If you need a step by step booklet to help you achieve the same success as we enjoy, including which software to use to analyze the EVP recordings or what cables to use to hook up the recorder to the computer, search no further, check out the booklet at http://www.ghostweb.com/booklet.html. We ship via Priority Mail through the Post Office or download it as a PDF that can be printed out on your end.

CD Version Home Study Courses Halloween Special:

We are having our Halloween Special with special discounts on all Home Study Courses. This is the premier certification program for ghost researchers and paranormal investigators, written by professional full time ghost researchers, Drs. Dave & Sharon. Part 1 deals with ghosts and the psychology of earth bound spirits, and Part 2 deals with working with people who are haunted by loved ones. We teach the scientific approach specializing in ghost photography and etheric voice phenomenon with 28 years of combined experience in this field. Read the recent testimonial. More information is available at our Halloween Special discount site at http://www.ghostweb.com/mainhsc1.html

Password Memberships:

We offer a special membership in our Ghostweb Ghost Galleries. Due to the size of these ghost galleries, we have to limit the number of people because of the bandwidth consumed by downloading the photos, spirit voices, and ghost videos in this area. If you want to view the largest collection of ghost photos, EVPs, and videos, check out our membership program at http://www.ghostweb.com/pass.html.

Life Time IGHS Member Certificate:

Instead of renewing every year, IGHS members can now purchase a Life Time Membership for $60 or a Life Time Membership and Life Time Clip ID Badge for $75. This is available through PayPal and through our online Secure Order Form at http://www.ghostweb.com/memcert.html.

IGHS ID Badges for Investigations:

We have received many requests for some kind of Identification Badge to wear while conducting field investigations. We have created a laminated ID Badge with a metal clip that snaps onto your shirt or other piece of clothing. It says that you are a Registered Ghost Hunter/Paranormal Investigator in good standing with the International Ghost Hunters Society and it has our signatures and web address. Order the ID Badge at http://www.ghostweb.com/id_badge.html.

IGHS Membership Certificates:

The IGHS offers a beautiful Membership Certificate. The membership certificate is valid for one year Check it out at http://www.ghostweb.com/memcert.html for more information.

Kind regards,

Dave, Sharon & BooBoo

International Ghost Hunters Society