Ghosts World Wide

(A true story posted by a reader of Paranormal Phenomena at About.com)

I am a soldier in the US Army and was recently deployed to the Iraqi desert with a medical unit in support of OIF. We were in the middle of nowhere in these abandoned buildings, and several people have experienced "strange phenomena" while we were there, but this is my experience.

One night while I was on guard duty, our duty phone rang. My battle buddy and I assumed it was an emergency and someone was hurt, being that it was almost 2 a.m. I picked up the receiver and before I said anything, to my surprise there were several voices talking at once, and all in Arabic. They sounded frantic, but they also sounded like they were talking through cotton. I assumed it was a wrong number and hung up the phone.

My battle buddy and I looked at each other strangely, and I recorded the phone call in our log. The rest of the night went on without incident and we were relieved at 08:00. The soldiers replacing us went through the log and questioned the phone call incident. I told them what happened and they looked at me like I was crazy. I didn't understand until I looked at the phone cord behind the table. It wasn't plugged in.

by Kanika

The above Article can be originally found in http://paranormal.about.com/library/blstory_july04_14.htm

By Norman A. Rubin

Belief in ghosts, demons and spirits has been deep-rooted in Japanese folklore throughout history. It is entwined with mythology and superstition derived from Japanese Shinto, as well as Buddhism and Taoism brought to Japan from China and India. Stories and legends, combined with mythology, have been collected over the years by various cultures of the world, both past and present. Folklore has evolved in order to explain or rationalize various natural events. Inexplicable phenomena arouse a fear in humankind, because there is no way for us to anticipate them or to understand their origins.

The mystery of death is a phenomena that does not offer a rational explanation to various cultures. Death is an intruder. Death is the change from one state to another, the reunion of body with earth, of soul with spirit. Humans, throughout the ages, have seldom been able to believe or to understand the finality of death. For this reason fables and legends have evolved around the spirits of the dead.

The Japanese believe that they are surrounded by spirits all the time. According to the Japanese Shinto faith, after death a human being becomes a spirit, sometimes a deity. It is believed that eight million deities inhabit the heavens and the earth - the mountains, the forests, the seas, and the very air that is breathed. Traditions tell us that these deities have two souls: one gentle (nigi-mi-tama), and the other violent (ara-mi-tama).

Buddhism, which was introduced into Japan in the sixth century CE, added a new dimension to the belief in spirits and other supernatural forces. The Buddhist belief in the world of the living, the world of the dead, and the ‘Pure Land of Buddha’ (Jodo)¹ achieved a new meaning. The way a man behaved during his lifetime determined whether he would go to the world of the dead or the ‘Pure Land’. Those driven to the nether-world found it to be a hell in all its vileness...

AS MEDIEVAL CASTLE bedrooms go, this one looks the part. Disturbing Flemish tapestries share the walls with stern portraits. On close inspection, the ornate fireplace's iron firedogs turn out to have devils' heads. This place is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Tom Skelton, a 16th-century jester said to have committed murder. The malevolent face of "Tom Fool" stares from a dimly lit oil painting just outside the bedroom.

My assignment is to stay overnight in the Tapestry Room at Muncaster Castle in Cumbria, UK. Having earlier reassured my editor that I laugh at ghost stories, my bravado is crumbling. I still don't believe in ghosts, but I'm scared the atmosphere will wind me up into a panic. Two previous guests have bolted in the night, one a premiership footballer, the other a diehard sceptic who came to scoff. Then I learn that I will not be able to leave the room without tripping the castle's burglar alarms. What have I let myself in for?

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Four Mile Creek meanders through the woodlands of Northern Erie County Pennsylvania and empties into Lake Erie. Over the eon's it's slow moving waters has cut a large swath of land, and one of the more spectacular creations of the small creek is a mile long ravine called Wintergreen Gorge. From Prehistoric until Colonial times the Gorge and creeks path provided a clear route to the Lake for both the local Native Americans and European Settlers.

Ancient Indian war trails line both sides of the Creek, trails that were used by the Seneca Indians as they waged their war with the local Eriez Indians before the white man entered the area. Many intrepid amateur archaeologist and even professionals from the local Penn State Erie have found a rich stash of pre-Colonial Native American artifacts lining the paths and cliffsides of the small waterway. My friend Tim grew up in a small house on the banks of Four Mile Creek near the thousands of acres that made up the Penn State Erie's Wintergreen Gorge.

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