Howard County Historical Society Ghost Investigation: PART 3: The Cook

Welcome sign

Last week's blog mentioned my joining the Inspired Ghost-trackers of Odenton, Md. to investigate the Howard County Historical Museum in old Ellicott City, Md.     Read the previous blog to follow the investigation. 
  My friend Troy, also a medium was also on the investigation and often times we verify what the other picks up on during ghost adventures. This was no different.
  After we all went through the upstairs and downstairs of this church-turned museum we all congregated back near the old stage and altar to talk about our experiences. 
  Troy had investigated the basement on his own with a tape recorder.  Earlier, Ronda (from the Ghost-trackers) and I went down stairs. 

Margaret and Ronda listening to our experiences

  Once everyone was seated we shared experiences. Troy said that at the back of the building he sensed a matronly woman with greying hair in a bun, who was preparing meals for the church goers or just men and women. She was very concerned about getting everything right. 
 - I had written down a similar experience when I was in that same area in the basement. Sometimes I can touch and object and get a sense of a person connected with it. I touched a knob on an old black stove (circa mid 1900s) and sensed a woman in a white dress or apron, in charge of preparation of meals for a large group of people. She was very meticulous and dedicated to feeding those people. She also resembled Troy's description. 
 -After telling our stories, the museum curator said that the basement was once a restaurant in the mid-1900s- and the kitchen was close to where the stove was now buried under boxes. 

  Both Troy and I also felt that this woman was residual and not an intelligent haunt. That means, she can't answer questions or interact with the living. It's just that she had so much passion for cooking for people that her energies remained behind.

Margaret asking questions during an EVP session to get ghostly answers

  ENERGY AND OBJECTS- As I mentioned previously, when we're emotionally attached to an object, our energy also attaches to it. It's like leaving an energy "thumbprint" behind that others may be able to "See" or read. That's what happened with the area of the kitchen in the basement and the stove where the woman cooked.

Howard County Historical Museum Ghost Hunt Part 2: The Tingling Chairs

Juror's chairs with a lot an residual energy

Last week's blog mentioned my joining the Inspired Ghost-trackers of Odenton, Md. to investigate the Howard County Historical Museum in old Ellicott City, Md.     Read the previous blog to follow the investigation. 

  When my friend Troy (also a medium) and I approached the front left corner of the room, Troy sensed a strong energy. I walked over to two identical chairs because I was drawn to them. I touched the arm of one of the chairs and felt "pins and needles" in my fingertips that spread throughout my hand. It was residual energy of anxiety and nervousness. That's when I looked at the sign on the chairs to see that they were seats for jurors in the nearby courthouse! 

  -It made perfect sense. Jurors, especially those debating for the life or death of a defendant would feel nervous or anxious. 

Ronda also gets the "pins and needles" feeling.

  Troy touched the chairs and experienced the exact same feeling. In fact, the tingling shot all the way up his arm, he told me and Ronda from the Ghost tracker group. We wanted to verify this, so we also asked Ronda to put her hand there, and she, too, experienced the pins and needles feeling in her hand.

  The bottom line is that if we are experiencing a lot of emotion while holding an object, or about an object, some of our energy will be absorbed or imprinted into it. 

   *NEXT WEEK IN PART 3, Troy and I sense the same Female Presence

   *COMING IN 2 WEEKS, IN PART 4, A former pastor enables me to draw him, and then I find a photo of him that matches!

Missed the Radio Interview on Unknown Paranormal? Hear it here!

On July 31, I was a guest of the Unknown Paranormal Radio show. The show ran from 9pm to 11pm EDT, and I talked with the hosts (one of whom is also a developing medium) about my book and my abilities. 

 - We had some great conversation about energies, the difference and similarities between a ghost and spirit and much more. 
NOTE: I come on about 15 minutes after the show starts. **Before that, they talk about some "housekeeping" things." 
Hear it here:

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/unknownpg/2011/08/01/unknown-paranormal-radio

SUMMARY OF THE SHOW: 

Join Host Kevin Weddle, Founder of Unknown Paranormal, along with Co-Host Mike McCaskill as they discuss with guests topics of paranormal, spiritual, and the unknown and unexlained. Come join us for an in depth discussion of the paranormal world.  This week, our guest will be Rob Gutro.  Rob Gutro is a "developing medium" who is still learning how to use his abilities. He can receive messages from those who have passed either from Earth-bound ghosts or spirits who have crossed over. He wrote and published the book "Ghosts and Spirits: Insights from a Medium."  Because he's a meteorologist, he tries to provide some kind of scientific explanations on the how and why ghosts and spirits exist and are able to communicate.  He always gets a headache whenver he's in the presence of a ghost or a spirit.  There is a difference, which he explains in the book.  The book also contains personal experiences on and off ghost tours in historic places.
OR HERE:

Listen to internet radio with Unknown Paranormal on Blog Talk Radio

Ghost Hunt: Howard County Historical Museum: PART 1

Welcome sign

This weekend I joined the Inspired Ghost-Tracking group of Odenton, Md. for a ghost investigation at the Howard County Historical Museum in old Ellicott City. The museum is located in an old church that sits atop a hill looking over downtown, historic Main Street. Old Ellicott City was founded in the late 1700s by the Ellicott Brothers from Pennsylvania - who opened three mills. The town, which became the site of the first passenger railway station for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, became very popular during the Civil War. It is extremely haunted because two rivers run through it, and the water energy keeps the ghosts powered up.  

Inside the church part of the museum

 -  In my book "Ghosts and Spirits: Insights from a Medium" (paperback, e-book, kindle), I wrote about several ghostly encounters I had in various buildings throughout the city. This was my first time in this building, far removed from the Main Street.

 - I'm breaking this down into several different blogs because there would be too much to read. 

  ENTRY 1: When I initially walked into the building I felt nothing. Usually I get a headache in the back of my head whenever there's a ghost or a spirit (who crossed into the light) present. I walked through the entry way and first room. When I got to the doorway on the left, that led into the small church (the room I first walked through was for a reception area outside of the worship area) I DID get a headache. 

 - Because ghosts and spirits are energy, they overload the electrical impulses in my brain and give me a headache. 

 - So, something was there- either residual (emotional energy attached to something) or an intelligent haunt, where ghosts can respond and answer questions. I sensed a more residual presence. 

  - My friend Troy was with us, and he's also a developing medium. Often, he and I sense the same things and compare notes to later find out we met the same entity.

 Troy also sensed a male presence in the back left corner of the church after walking through that doorway where I got my headache. We both felt that the energy was residual.

Stained glass window at back of bldg of 2 angels

   As we went into the church area, we also sensed a female energy and were drawn to one old wooden chair with broken spokes.

  It wasn't until we got to another piece of furniture that we really got something interesting. 

  WATCH FOR THAT IN PART 2.

AFTERLIFE- Is there a Hell?

   An  Op-Ed in USA today addressed the belief in Hell. I found it fascinating because up until the time I started being able to communicate with those who passed, I firmly believed in Hell. Once I started communicating, and understanding what happens, I realized that there really is no "place" called Hell. I'm sure that's very disconcerting for a lot of people, especially because of what the Bible says. But even in this Op-Ed, Hell is explained as a concept that is mis-understood from the Bible.

 - SO, what happens to murderers, criminals and evil people when they die? My experience is that they linger in a state outside of the light- a "phantom zone" if you will, where they receive an immediate recognition of the horrendous things they did during their lives. A place where they can spend a long time (something we wouldn't be able to comprehend) trying to atone for their sins. Hoping for forgiveness from those left behind.

Ghosts are an example of that. Ghosts are earth-bound energies that are trapped on earth for various reasons. So, why is that "Hell" being trapped out of the light? Because all of your loved ones are IN THE LIGHT.

Think about it. Being trapped as an earth-bound ghost or an energy unable to go into the light to be with all of your loved ones is torturous. Isolationism as a human being is torture, as it is for a ghost or spirit. THAT is my understanding of Hell.
 *****************************************
AUTHOR OF THE USA TODAY OP-ED THAT FOLLOWS:  Oliver Thomas is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors and author of 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can't Because He Needs the Job).

 FROM USA TODAY:   Should believers fear Hell — and God?

FULL STORY: http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-08-07-love-wins-afterlife-hell_n.htm?csp=Dailybriefing 

The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans all had elaborate beliefs about the afterlife. We're no different. Right now, a book is burning through America's churches that has put the issue back front and center for many. The book —Love Wins— by Rob Bell challenges the traditional Christian belief in a place of eternal punishment. Damnation.

Most Americans still believe in hell. A 2009 poll by The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life put the number at 59%. A 2005 Fox News poll put it at 74%!

Ask these folks why they cling to such a decidedly medieval notion, and they will tell you: Because the Bible teaches it! And if we're talking about the King James Bible, they are right — at least on the surface. But dig into the languages in which the Bible was actually written — Greek and Hebrew — and things get murky.

Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) is the abode of the dead described as a place of eternal punishment. Rather, "Sheol" as it is sometimes called, appears as a shadowy, dreamlike place where all people — good and evil — are destined.

One Old Testament writer has this to say: "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might for there is no activity or planning or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." Not my idea of a Shangri-La, but certainly better than everlasting fire.

Even Jesus gets misquoted here. Clearly, Jesus taught that there would be a day of reckoning. In the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, he paints a disturbing picture of it. "I was hungry and you didn't feed me. Naked and you didn't clothe me."

But the Greek word that is often translated "eternal" (aionos) — whether it is used to describe punishment or life — is better understood as a word of quality, not quantity. Punishment is only "eternal" (in the way that Americans understand that word) in the sense that it could be final.

Not what Jesus meant

Nearly every reference to "hell" that comes from the lips of Jesus is a mistranslation.

The word translated as hell by the King James Bible is the word "Gehenna," literally "the valley of the sons of Hinnom." This notorious valley on the south side of Jerusalem was once the site of pagan sacrifices, including child sacrifice, and had been cursed by the prophets of Israel. By Jesus' day, it served as the garbage dump. It was a foul, noxious place where dogs roamed and fires burned. Jesus seized upon this vivid imagery in his sermons. He urged people to repent (literally "change your mind"), lest they end up in Gehenna (i.e. the garbage dump).