Ahhhhhh...ghosty stuff.  Thats why we're here isnt it?

"Paranormal" by defintion, is a very widely encompassing term.  It simply means, "above the normal", or outside of what we as humans understand as "normal".  Outside of the tangible, perhaps. 

This actually would pertain to all unexplainables.  Cryptids, UFOS, spirits, telepathy, prophecy etc.

However, the term "paranormal" as we have come to know it, and as it is most widely used, pertains to a "haunting"-type situation.  Poltergeist, inhuman, shadow people, restless spirits and so on.  So this section will ultimately pertain to that type of situation.

We here at OTF don't openly air our particular thoughts on the parnormal.  We believe everybody has a right to their own opinion or belief, without having others 'forced' upon you.  We want to provide a plethera of information, from un-biased perspective, so that you may make your own educated thoughts and decisions.  What we ARE sure of, however, is that there are completely inexplicable things that happen in this universe, and our goal is to try and document them.  We want to try and get to the bottom of these things, driven by our curiosity, whether of not they are indeed spirits, energies, demons, or something far more mundane.  We want to compile information.  So....away we go!



I want to start with telling the story of we here at OTF's favorite haunting, and a haunting widely regarded as the "most-famous American" haunting...

The Bell Witch
Adams, Tennessee

The Bell Witch Haunting is a Poltergeist-style haunting that manifested itself to, or perhaps better put "upon", the Bell family of Adams, Tennessee.

The haunting began in 1817 when the Bell family began experiencing strange phenomena in their home. First, the house was plagued with knocking and rapping noises and scratching sounds.
 
Blankets were pulled from beds, family members were kicked and scratched and their hair pulled. Particularly tormented was young Elizabeth Bell, who was slapped, pinched, bruised and stuck with pins. At first, John Bell was determined to keep the events secret, but soon confided in a friend, who then formed an investigative committee. John Bell's friends soon learned that the strange force in the house had an eerie intelligence. It soon found a voice and from that day on was seldom silent.

The spirit identified itself as the "witch" of Kate Batts, a neighbor of the Bell's, with whom John had experienced bad business dealings over some purchased slaves. "Kate" as the local people began calling the spirit, made daily appearances in the Bell home, wreaking havoc on everyone there. People all over the area of soon learned of the witch and she made appearances, in sounds and voices, all over Robertson County.

The ghost became so famous that even General Andrew Jackson decided to visit. He too experienced the antics of the witch and his carriage wheels refused to turn until the witch decided to let them.

John Bell fell victim to bouts of strange illness, for which Kate claimed responsibility. While he was sick in bed, the spirit cursed and prodded him, never allowing him to rest. One day, he went to bed and never recovered. He was found senseless in his bed one morning and a strange bottle was found nearby. Bell's breath smelled of the black liquid in the bottle, so a drop of it was placed on the tongue of a cat and the animal dropped dead. John Bell soon followed suit and Kate screamed in triumph. She even made her presence known at his funeral, laughing, cursing and singing as the poor man was buried.

Kate didn't vanish immediately after the death of her proclaimed enemy, though. She stayed around, threatening Betsy Bell to not marry the man that she truly loved, Joshua Gardner. The witch would never say why, but she did allow the girl to later marry the local schoolteacher, Richard Powell. Kate soon left the family but promised to return in seven years. She did come back and plagued the family again for two weeks.

Who was the Bell Witch? Was she really a ghost, who claimed to be connected to a living person? Or did the resentment and the hatred of the real Kate Batts create an entity of its own? Or could the haunting have been poltergeist activity linked to Betsy Bell?

The Death Ship of the Platte River
Torrington and Alcova, Wyoming

I dont actually have a category here on the OTF site for ghost ships, so I guess Im just going to file it here, under paranormal.  Its a good story.

On the Platte River between Torrington and Alcova, Wyoming, there is a legend that a “Ship of Death” sails upon the sometimes dangerous waters. The phantom ship rises out of a strange mist that quickly becomes a massive rolling ball of fog. As the ship comes closer, witnesses report that its sails and masts are covered with frost. Upon its deck stands the crew, also covered with frost, and huddled around a corpse lying on a canvas sheet. The legend states that the ship always foreshadows the death of someone who will die on the day that it is spotted. As the crew steps back, the identity of the corpse is revealed as a person known by the witness.

The first alleged sighting was made in 1862 by a trapper named Leon Weber. When the crew stepped back, the corpse revealed the body of Weber’s fiancé who died later on that same day. Another sighting of the phantom ship was made by cattleman, Gene Wilson in 1887, when he saw the body of his wife laid out on the canvas. In 1903, another tale describes that when Victor Heibe was chopping down a tree on his riverfront property, he spied the ship. Laid out on the deck was the body of a close friend.

Every case was reported in the late fall, and in all cases, the person seen upon the deck of the phantom ship died on the very same day.

One of the sighting allegedly occurred six miles southeast of the town of Guernsey, near Casper, Wyoming. Another sighting was said to have occurred at Bassemer Bend on the Platte River.

I like this story.  My only problem with it is this:  How the hell did these people SEE and IDENTIFY who the corpse belonged too, as it laid ON THE DECK at a distance?  If this is indeed a ship, you would have to either be ON IT, or ON A HILL above it with binoculars to make such an identification.  Just some food for thought.


Paranormal Dictionary

I think we'll go over some general thoughts and guidelines of the paranormal.  Lets start with bit of a dictionary, shall we? 
This is merely to get some of you familiar with oft-used terms.

ANOMALY - An irregular or unusual event which does not fit a standard rule or law.
An anomaly is something which cannot be explained by currently accepted scientific theories.
Anything weird, abnormal, strange, odd, or difficult to classify is considered an anomaly.

CLAIRAUDIENCE - Hearing voices, astral music or discarnate beings.

CLAIROLEOFACTOR - To have an extraordinary sense of smell, as if you could smell flowers before they bloom or
smell trouble before it occurs or death before it happens.

CLAIRSENTIENCE - The ability to clearly feel yours and/or another's emotions and sensations.

CLAIRVOYANCE - To have lucid mental perceptions and keen insights about people and life situations and to have clear
visual mental images,
pictures, to "see" auras and other psychic phenomena.

DEJÀ VU - Certain events and experiences seem as if you are re-experiencing the event or situation that has happened at another time.
As familiar as the experiences are, you cannot recall nor figure out when they happened.

DEMONOLOGY - One who studies and practices the art of demonology. An individual who specializes in the removal of
evil or demonic forces from a given environment using the art of demonology. One who brings demonic forces out of their
slumber to be cast away. Someone who uses the art of demonology to incantate demons for ones use in battling them.

DIVINATION - The obtain unknown knowledge or future events from omens. Astrology may be considered divination.

DIVINING ROD - A forked rod from a tree said to indicate the presence of water or minerals underground.

DMILS - Abbreviation of Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems. Used to denote instances where one person is attempting to
influence a distant biological system, usually the physiology of another person.
As it is unclear whether this represents an influence (see psychokinesis), a case of ESP on the part of the influence (see ESP)
or an opportunistic selection process, the term 'interaction' has been adopted.

DOPPELGANGER - A spirit of a living person outside of the physical body.

DOWSING - To be able to find underground water and/or underground minerals.

ESP - Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the knowledge of external objects or events without the aid of the senses.

OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE or ASTRAL PROJECTION - To be able to leave your physical body and project your soul,
consciousness or what appears to be your mind to another place and return via a silver cord.
PARAPSYCHOLOGY - Literally beyond psychology. The study of apparent new means of communication, or interaction, between organisms and their environment (commonly referred to as psi, or psychic ability), beyond those presently understood by the scientific community.

PAST LIFE RECALL - To remember or have mental flashes about living in another century.

POLTERGEIST - A general term applied to a variety of site-, or sometimes person-, specific physical phenomena.
These can include temperature variations, anomalous sounds, and movement of physical objects.
The word 'poltergeist' literally means 'noisy spirit' and was coined back when such phenomena were thought to
be due to the presence of some sort of mischievous entity. Currently, poltergeist phenomena are usually
considered to be related either to unusual physical conditions at the affected site, or to be related to psychokinesis.
Anecdotal reports suggest that many poltergeist focus on an individual under some form of emotional stress.

PRECOGNITION - Pre-knowing; where nondeductible information about a future event is acquired.

PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS - To have dreams of events or incidents before they happen.

PREDICTION - To be able to predict future events before they occur.

PSI - A general term for parapsychological phenomena that includes informational (RV, ESP) and energetic (PK) effects.
Psi, or Y, is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet.

PSYCHIC - Popular term used to denote a person who regularly uses, or who appears to be especially gifted with, psi abilities. Also refers to general phenomena related to the mind (from Greek psyche).

REMOTE VIEWING (RV) - Ability to access distant or shielded information primarily of visual character, such as natural or structural features,
via an unknown mental process. RV can include other sensory modes, such as feelings, motion, or sound.
Some individuals associate specific approaches, or protocols, with RV. Other similar terms: remote perception,
enhanced perception, extrasensory perception (ESP).

SCRYING - A term used to cover a wide range of divination techniques which parapsychology would tend to classify as types of ESP.
Most scrying techniques involve some degree of fixation on a surface with a clear optical depth (e.g. a crystal ball, a pool of ink or deep water)
or on an area which shows random patterns (e.g. flames in a fire, smoke), the idea being that subconscious information available
to the scrying will be manifested in their interpretation of the imagery or random patterns they see.
Techniques using a clear optical depth are actually very similar to the idea behind the homogenous visual field used in Ganzfeld ESP research.

SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION - Sensory impressions below the threshold of conscious awareness.

SYNCHRONICITY - Meaningful coincidences that often are mediated by subconscious psi activity. Our intuitive/psi faculty nudges our paths into 
meaningful intersections in times of need.

-UPDATE-

OTF's good friend Maggie up in Iowa pointed out a couple of things in the Dictionary above.  I'm going to put her email below in her own words.  THANKS Maggie!

Hello again, I was browsing through your paranormal dictionary I wanted to give you some food for thought. I saw that your definition of Doppelganger is "DOPPELGANGER - A spirit of a living person outside of the physical body."
There is a lot more information on a Doppelganger than just this. It technically is not a spirit of that person but it often comes as a warning. It is the "Carbon copy" of a person... often acting like a residual haunting going about its own business. But it is rumored to be Fea or Omen/warning.
Even though it often doesn't give any information. Example:  Maybe you see your child running into his/her room. Then suddenly the front door opens and your child is standing there coming inside from playing. Then you immediately receive a phone call that your brother's being in a car wreck.
This type of activity is often attached to -or- copying an adolescent, from a  baby all the way up to a tween. Sometimes copying a babies cry you go into the nursery to find your baby sound asleep.
The subject it copies can be either awake or asleep. That is why in my opinion do not believe it is a spirit jump. Sadly many cultures simply didn't write the lore down the verbally passed it on.
That is why it so difficult to get the proper info.

-Also-
 DIVINING ROD - A forked rod from a tree said to indicate the presence of water or minerals underground. Can be metal also, not always made of wood.
  POLTERGEIST - A general term applied to a variety of site-, or sometimes person-, specific physical phenomena.
These can include temperature variations, anomalous sounds, and movement of physical objects.
The word 'poltergeist' literally means 'noisy spirit' and was coined back when such phenomena were thought to
be due to the presence of some sort of mischievous entity. Currently, poltergeist phenomena are usually
considered to be related either to unusual physical conditions at the affected site, or to be related to psycho kinesis.
Anecdotal reports suggest that many poltergeist focus on an individual under some form of emotional stress.
This theory is actually out of date. It is now believed by many that poltergeist is always attached to a child mainly a female and generally when they hit puberty. It is thought that the emotional and hormonal state may cause I direct poltergeist. All places I have investigated that fits the general symptoms of Poltergeist has had a Female either entering puberty or in fact a older lady entering menopause, You might want to actually look for these when entering a possible poltergeist environment  . If you even look at "The Bell Witch" it was generally focused in or around Elizabeth Bell who was young enough that it is possible she was entering puberty. So bottom line is that it may possibly be the person in question making these things happen, not an actual spirit or haunting.

I want to say thanks again to Maggie, and I encourage you all to get in touch with us with your thoughts, etc.

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This page will perpetually be under construction, as we add compiled information frequently.