A Look Inside the Haunted Eastern State Penitentiary

Inside Eastern State Penitentiary. Credit: E. Campion

Recently my friend Ed, who is a talented photographer, took a trip to walk though Pennsylvania's very haunted Eastern
State Penitentiary. It's open to visitors during the daytime and to get information and tickets, see below). Meanwhile, take this opportunity to learn about Pennsylvania's most infamous penitentiary that has a number of ghosts.

    ABOUT THE PRISON:  Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world, but stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers.Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of convicts. Its vaulted, sky-lit cells once held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and Al Capone.

Ed's photos (which you can buy):  http://escampion.zenfolio.com/easternstatepenitentiary

Gargoyle at Eastern State. Cr: E.Campion

HAUNTINGS: As early as the 1940s, officers and inmates reported mysterious visions and eerie experiences in the ancient prison. And the ghost sightings have only increased since Eastern State was abandoned in 1971.

VIDEOS: Several Ghost Hunting Television programs investigated the prison, and you can see on of them here: Most Haunted Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEIP1lMJquo#t=281

HEAR SOME AUDIO ABOUT THE PRISON: http://www.easternstate.org/halloween/ghosts/audio

MORE INFORMATION AND HOW TO VISIT: http://www.easternstate.org/

Every day 10 am to 5 pm
(last entry 4 pm)
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.
Address:
2027 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Phone: (215) 236-3300

Check out the Big Séance Podcast !!

Patrick Keller, host of the Big Séance Podcast is taping an interview with me tonight for his upcoming New Year's Week 2015 show and I'm really excited about it. I thought this would be a good time to remind you of his program- because it's a top notch production and always entertaining and informative. - Rob

The Big Séance Podcast can be found right here at http://bigseancepodcast.com/,  and on iTunes, and on Stitcher. 
 Please subscribe, submit a rating, or share with a fellow paranerd! 
Do you have any comments or feedback? Please contact me at Patrick@BigSeance.com. 
Consider recording your voice feedback directly from your device on my SpeakPipe page! 
You can also call the show and leave feedback at (775) 583-5563 (or 7755-TELL-ME). 
I would love to include your voice feedback in a future show. The candles are already lit, so come on in and join the séance! - Patrick

Patrick Keller

About Patrick Keller, host of the Big Seance

My name is Patrick Keller. Along with blogging and podcasting (bigseance.com), and doing various kinds of paranerdal research here at home, my main gig is being an educator. I am also the founder of the Missouri Spirit Seekers (mospiritseekers.com), a group of paranormal investigators based in both O’Fallon and Lexington, MO since 2010. I am a member of Association TransCommunication (ATransC) formerly the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AA-EVP).

In the news: New Mexico police catch a 'ghost' on camera

 The following article appeared on-line from a New Mexico Television station (local fox news broadcast). It was from footage in a parking lot for the Espanola Police Department. It was a locked lot and it appears there was a ghostly man walking around. What do you think?  Video and story follow.- Rob


New Mexico police catch a 'ghost' on camera

Published September 26, 2014
SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/09/26/new-mexico-police-catch-ghost-on-camera/
   Next time you see a ghost, ‘who you gonna call?’ For those who live in Espanola, New Mexico, it won’t be Bill Murray and his fellow Ghostbusters, but instead the local police department. On Sept. 20, Officer Karl Romero of the Espanola Police Department was on duty watching surveillance video from around the station when he spotted something strange. What he saw spooked him. In the surveillance footage, a foggy figure is seen moving through a parking lot and through a secured gate.
   “At first I thought it was a fly, a moth, and then I saw the legs and it was a human,” Romero told KOAT.
While not entirely clear, the object in the video that moves across the screen appears to be walking. Skeptics might raise their eyebrows at Romero’s claims that the shape on the screen is something otherworldly, but it is the kind of spectral presence that Detective Solomon Romero said is not out of the ordinary at the station.
   “A lot of officers have seen certain things,” Det. Romero said. “Some officers have felt someone breathing down their necks as they’re working in the briefing room.”
   For those who have watched movies like “Poltergeist,” the question of whether or not the station is built over ancient burial grounds immediately comes up. KOAT reports that the department, which has been at this location since 2006, is not standing over any hallowed ground and no inmates have ever died on the premises.
      That being said, those who work at the station have their fair share of spine-tingling stories. Many of the officers have reported hearing unusual noises in the middle of the night as well as seeing strange images in the building’s lobby that can’t be easily explained.
     Just in time for Halloween season, these unexplained sightings have left many at the station rattled. Is the image in the video a speck of dust, or a visitor from the ‘beyond?’ For Det. Romero, at least, the answer is clear. “I do believe in ghosts,” Det. Romero said, adding that “we’ve had some unsolved murders in the area.”
VIDEO LINK: http://youtu.be/X4mMw0lcEYM

Want to learn more about how spirits communicate? 

 Check out my Book: LESSONS LEARNED FROM TALKING TO THE DEAD: Follow Rob on a treasure-hunt-style journey in Virginia as he and others try to explain what appear to be random and obscure words, signs and symbols from a spirit, that all wind up being intensely personal to the spirit.Explore the science behind how they communicate. Learn how to receive their messages, where they appear, and important messages in how to live your life. Rob takes you into cemeteries, battlefields, and historic places. You’ll see what happens to victims of suicide and murders, and how infants and animals pass messages to the living. Featuring: Inspired Ghost Tracking and mediums Barb Mallon, Troy Cline and Ruth Larkin. 

Lessons Learned from Talking to the Dead for $8.99 paperback and $2.99 E-bookon AMAZON:http://tinyurl.com/q3bhgdeor to Purchase from the CreateSpace eStore:https://www.createspace.com/3824548

Give the Gift of Spirit with the Beantown Medium

What is a Ghost-Sign? It's not Sign from a Ghost!

A Ghost Sign on a Baltimore Building. Credit: Steve C. 

Here's a bit of Trivia that I just learned about from my friend Steve C. in Baltimore. He found out faded signs painted on the walls of old buildings are called "Ghost Signs." Here's an old Coca-Cola sign that Steve photographed on a building in Baltimore. Not a sign from a ghost, but a ghost sign!  

Here's the history of them according to Wikipedia: 
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_sign
    Ghost signs are found across the world with the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Canada having many surviving examples.^[1] Ghost signs are also called fading ads^[2] and brickads.^[3] In many cases these are advertisements painted on brick that remained over time.^[4] Old painted advertisements are occasionally discovered upon demolition of later-built adjoining structures. Throughout rural areas, old barn advertisements continue to promote defunct brands and quaint roadside attractions.
Many ghost signs from the 1890s to 1960s are still visible.^[4] Such signs were most commonly used in the decades before the Great Depression.^[5]



The painters of the signs were called "wall dogs".^[6] As signage advertising formats changed, less durable signs appeared in the later 20th century, and ghost signs from that era are less common.
Ghost signs were originally painted with oil based house paints. The paint that has survived the test of time most likely contains lead which keeps it strongly adhered to the masonry surface. Ghost signs were often preserved through reprinting the entire sign since the colors often fade over time. When ownership changed, a new sign would be painted over the old one.

Conservators today are being asked to preserve the original signs rather than painting over them.

References:

1. Ghost Signs - A Waymarking.com Category
2. see Fading Ad Gallery
3. see Ghost Signs
4. Ghost signs: Old slogans never die in Butte..., The Montana Standard (Butte, Montana). 9 August 2001. Accessed 6 September 2007.
5. Joseph Berger. "Fading Memories". New York Times. November 5, 2005. Retrieved on October 5, 2009. Genovese, Peter (March 30, 2012), Ghost signs: Jersey's commercial history is written large in faded paint on city buildings, The Star-Ledger, retrieved 2012-03-30

A Meditation to Connect with your "Spirit Guide"

I was recently asked for a Meditation to Connect witha "Spirit Guide," and decided since I couldn't find one, I'd write one

up for you.
  A spirit guide is a main spirit that watches over you and guides you. It could be a departed friend or relative or pet, or someone we never met in life. After I did a meditation, I learned that I had two spirit guides. One is an elderly man named "Jason" and the other is a dog.
 

TO START:  Find several friends who will do this with you, and have one person read it:

 Put on soft instrumental music and low lighting. Close your eyes.

Picture yourself in your favorite place in nature away from people like a forest.

  You'll have to open your eyes to read this, or have someone read it to you: 

THE MEDITATION:

Walk through the forest and smell the plants, smell the dew on the plants, feel the gravel beneath your feet. Hear a waterfall in the distance. Continue visualizing that you're walking through the woods and the sun is high but obscured by the tree canopy.

 -  Clear your mind of thoughts and enjoy "looking" at the woods in your mind.
 - the path takes you up a hill. You climb the hill seeing the tree line fall behind you and stop mid way up. There's another path that goes around the hill and you take it. It is there that your spirit guide will be waiting for you around the corner.
 - You feel warmth, peace and comfort. You come to the end of the path and your spirit guide is waiting there.
 Is it a man or woman? Is it a dog, cat or other animal?
What is their name?
 Are they holding anything?
Do they have any advice for you?
- You thank them and turn around. You walk back down the hill, and through the woods, smelling the smells of the forest and enjoying the quiet , knowing you have just met your spirit guide or guides.
Open your eyes and breathe deeply.!

HERE ARE 2 CAN  PLAY ON YOUTUBE WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED: 
 http://youtu.be/ThWh9QIcgdA 

 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqVh5ICEKk8

INSTRUCTIONS / INFO from other websites:

 http://www.magickal-musings.com/spirit_guides.htm

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-13085/befriend-your-spirit-guide-3-simple-steps.html

Give a gift of "Spirit"- Let others know their loved ones are still around

The holidays are a time when we miss our people and pets who have passed. But that's the time they're usually trying to give us a sign. So, if you know someone missing someone, they may find hope and comfort in my books- to learn how to see the signs that they are still around.