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Main Page

Here is the main page for my podcasts.  Periodically I will archive the podcasts on this page in linked pages.  Please check back over time, because podcasts will move from one Internet network to another.

While I specialize in ghosts and folklore about the spirit world, the term 'paranormal' really does describe my interests.  The world is full of people, places, and things that are out of the ordinary, and extraordinary; and we can find them if we look.  My show is about the search for the odd and unusual, across the world.  Please tune in and listen, and email me, to suggest other guests!  -Jeff

Recent Podcasts

Find Archived Podcasts

Legends and Strange Facts of World d War I On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 11 April 2019 Posted 12 April 2019

Haunted North Head Lighthouse Part 2, On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 28 March 2019 Posted 12 April 2019

Haunted North Head Lighthouse Part 1, On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 21 March 2019 Posted 18 March 2019

Genvièv Martin Bernard on the healing power of Hypnosis on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World, 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 21 February 2019 Posted 13 February 2019

Philip Hutchinson - Jack the Ripper! on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 14 February 2019
Posted 13 February 2019

Ross Allison on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 7 February 2019
Posted 3 February 2019

Wayne Schmidt on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 31 January 2019
Posted 30 January 2019

Dal Neitzel on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World, Speaking About the Forrest Fenn Treasure 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 24 January 2019
Posted 20 Jan 2019

Jeff Belanger on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World Posted 16 January 2019

Jeff Davis's Peculiar World Airs on the UK Paranormal Radio Network Posted 16 January 2019

 

Jeff Davis's Peculiar World Airs on the UK Paranormal Radio Network Posted 16 January 2019

In 2018, I was a guest on Irene Block's podcast, Paranormal UK Radio, which airs every Wednesday night.  After our interview, she asked me if I was interested in hosting my own show.  Her offer came in the middle of the Halloween season, so I could not start immediately.  However, we spoke again in December, and I accepted her offer.  My show, Jeff Davis's Peculiar World will be an extension of my own curiosity about the odd and unusual across the world.  I will talk to my guests about a variety of subjects ranging from archaeology, to ghosts, to mysteries, to buried treasure.  Please tune in!

 

 

Jeff Belanger on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 17 January 2019


click the picture to listen on Youtube

My first guest is my friend, Jeff Belanger.  Our paths have crossed over the years, despite the fact that he lives on the East Coast and I live on the West Coast.  I am pleased Jeff agreed to be my first guest!  Among his many credits, journalist Jeff Belanger works as researcher and writer for the TV series Ghost Adventures, and hosts and produces the PBS series New England Legends.  In this episode of Jeff Davis’s Peculiar World, the two Jeffs talk about their experiences writing for the Weird U.S. book series, working with Ghost Adventures, and sharing stories about places from Astoria, Oregon to the Lizzie Borden murder mansion, in Massachusetts.

To learn more about Jeff Belanger, visit him at, www.jeffbelanger.com  or www.ghostvillage.com  

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Dal Neitzel on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 24 January 2019
Posted 20 Jan 2019

Dal Neitzel is an experienced professional treasure hunter, and he has spent nearly a decade trying to find a treasure hidden by antiquarian Forrest Fenn.  The Forrest Fenn treasure is free for the taking, if you can find it.  He even wrote a poem with nine clues on how to find the treasure.  It has eluded professional and amateur treasure hunters, despite the fact that Fenn has published several clues about its location.  In addition to hunting for the treasure, Dal Neitzel hosts one of the Internet’s most popular blog, tracking the search for Forest Fenn’s treasure.  He will share some of his experiences, and speculation on tonight’s show.https://dalneitzel.com/

Here is Forrest Fenn’s poem with its nine  embedded  clues to a multi-million dollar treasure

As I have gone alone in there
And with my treasures bold,
I can keep my secret where,
And hint of riches new and old.

Begin it where warm waters halt
And take it in the canyon down,
Not far, but too far to walk.
Put in below the home of Brown.

From there it’s no place for the meek,
The end is ever drawing nigh;
There’ll be no paddle up your creek,
Just heavy loads and water high.

If you’ve been wise and found the blaze,
Look quickly down, your quest to cease,
But tarry scant with marvel gaze,
Just take the chest and go in peace.

So why is it that I must go
And leave my trove for all to seek?
The answers I already know,
I’ve done it tired, and now I’m weak.

So hear me all and listen good,
Your effort will be worth the cold.
If you are brave and in the wood
I give you title to the gold.

Books by or About Forrest Fenn

  ·         Fenn, Forrest (2010). The Thrill of the Chase. ISBN 9780967091785.
·         Fenn, Forrest (2013). Too Far to Walk. ISBN 9780967091792.
·        
Rhu Seau, Trent (2013). The Chase for Forrest Fenn's Treasure. ASIN B00CCZ5XVC.
·         Steele, Maxwell (2013). How to Find Forrest Fenn's Treasure. ASIN B00BSXTISS.
·         Briggs, Andrew (2015). Title to the Gold: Find Forrest Fenn's treasure. The clues and answers. ASIN B0145S7IU2.
·         Ritt, Jordan (2015). A Treasure More Than Gold: How I found the solution to Forrest Fenn's poem. ISBN 9781478753742.
·         Wolf, The (2015). Finding Forrest Fenn. ISBN 9781311318602.
·         Brooks, Marvin (2016). Toward Solving Forrest Fenn's Hidden Treasure Clues. ISBN 9780692711781.
·         Thomas, P. (2018). "The Forrest Fenn Treasure Ultimate Clue Guide".

New Copies of Forrest Fenn’s books are available through the Old Santa Fe Trading Company at: https://www.oldsantafetradingco.com/.  Used copies are available through EBay and other online used bookstores. 

The Brother Jonathan

 Sources for this article come from my book, Portland’s Rose City Ghosts I, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jonathan_(steamer)#Legacy

Everyone seems to love stories of buried treasure, especially when it’s buried by pirates.  Which sort of explains the public fascination with them; and the resulting talk like a pirate day at some people’s work.  A close second to that is a treasure recovered from a sunken ship, like the Brother Jonathan.  

The Brother Jonathan was built in 1851, in a time when ships used steam power, but builders included masts for sails, just in case.  She was 220 foot long and 36 foot wide, with two masts, but her main propulsion cam from two 33-foot diameter side-mounted paddle wheels.  The Brother Jonathan carried passengers in two, 70 foot long salons decorated with gold leaf and enamel as well as passenger cabins. 

On July 27, 1865, the Brother Jonathan left San Francisco, headed for Portland, Oregon, with 244 passengers.  According to some, she was overloaded with cargo, and in need of repairs to damage caused a few weeks earlier.  In addition to manufactured goods, and mining supplies, the Brother Jonathan carried the pay for the U.S. Army garrisons in the Pacific Northwest, as well as gold coins to pay various Native Americans compensation, as part of government treaties.  There was also supposed to be gold from Wells Fargo, as well.

After dropping off cargo in Crescent City, California, she continued north, and headed into a storm.  The Captain eventually ordered the ship to return to Crescent City, unfortunately, a wave carried her onto a granite monolith, jutting up from the sea floor, 250 feet below.  Of the three ships boats, only one made it away safely, saving 18 of the passengers and grew, out of 244.  Because of the depth of the shipwreck. 

At the time, no one could recover any of the gold from the Brother Jonathan.  However, fate seemed to take a hand.  In the 1930s, a fisherman found 22 pounds of gold bars, bearing a mint mark of 1865.  He died before telling anyone where he recovered the gold.  Later, coin experts questioned whether this gold was from the Brother Jonathan or another source.

Despite the fact that Brother Jonathan sank just 8 miles from Crescent City, the storms, rocky passageways, underwater currents, and underwater darkness prevented her from being found. On the last day of its 1993 expedition, men involved with Deep Sea Research (DSR) decided that the ship had floated underwater to hit bottom 2 miles (3.2 km) from where it smashed into the reef.  Led by Donald Knight, and under risky conditions, on 1 October 1993, a mini-sub discovered the Brother Jonathan in the predicted location at a depth of 275 feet.   By 30 August 1996, divers found 875 1860s gold coins in near-mint condition.  The salvagers eventually recovered 1,207 gold coins, primarily $20 double eagles.

While recovery efforts continued, the lawsuits began. California took the legal position that it owned the rights to the wreck and everything located close to its shores. Finally, in 1998, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1998 unanimously decided against California, and ruled for the salvagers. However, California threatened an appeal, and in a settlement the state received 20% of the recovered gold.

On 29 May 1999, the first legally-recognized sale of all of the salvagers' took place at the Airport Marriott Hotel in Los The sale of its 1006 coins fetched a total of $5.3 million. Later, the finders of the coins once again appealed the Supreme Court's decision and were granted the rest of California's gold coins.

You can go online and buy some of these coins from dealers.  The Del Norte County Historical Society has  an exhibit on Brother Jonathan's demise along with many recovered objects.  In a rare twist of fate, the ship’s wheel was recovered a few days after the shipwreck in 1865, with the body of one of the sailors still lashed to it.  Currently the ship’s wheel is on display at Dan and Louis Oyster Bar in Portland, Oregon.  Some people believe the wheel retains some psychic impressions of the wreck and death of the sailor.  That may be why the moved it out of reach.
(Ship's Wheel, from Dan and Louis website)  
 

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Wayne Schmidt on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 31 January 2019
Posted 30 January 2019

Wayne was a film fan since almost birth, brought up on monster movie magazines like Famous Monsters and late night horror movie showings on local TV.  In the late seventies he co-wrote and co-produced a science fiction film called THE DAY TIME ENDED.  He worked in the vaults of Columbia pictures for a number of years before leaving to do assistant editor chores on several films in Salt Lake City.

Wayne rode the wave of early non-linear editing in the nineties, with low budget epics like DINOSAUR ISLAND.  In the mid-nineties joined Sony Pictures, helping to restore and prepare classic and catalog films for the dawn of HD television and home video.  In the early two thousands he went to Universal Studios to supervise new transfers of classic films for HD markets.

He moved to Portland in 2005, when he began working as an independent contractor work for the studios off and on.  He is also been involved in community health care centers, serving on the board of directors for Neighborhood Health Centers.

The discussion I had with Wayne was far ranging, from Hammer Studios in England, to his most recent project, formatting older movies and preparing them for digital release.  He has worked directly with or for the production companies of Roger Corman, Jim Wynorsky, Fred Olen Ray,   Charlie Band, and others.  He worked as a screen writer, producer, or editor on many movies, including Dinosaur Island, The Day Time Ended, and  Night Train to Terror.  Wayne shared stories about working with and for them, as well as anecdotes about Sir Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, and Oliver Reed.  

Wayne's later work included remastering and digitizing over 100 older movies, from the 1950s through 1980s, formatting them for digital release.  He spoke at length about one movies that he was passionate about, 1957's Night of the Demon, with Dana Andrews.  Wayne did not work on any Spielbergeque movie extravaganza, he worked steadily on popularist movies, including what some people call B-Movies.  While critics sneer at this genre, these movies would not be made, if people did not pay to see them.  This legacy also affects the way people view the paranormal, and their expectations about what it is like, experiencing a haunted event.

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Ross Allison on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 7 February 2019
Posted 3 February 2019

The oldest story of ghost hunting, at least in Europe dates back over 2000 years and was recorded by Pliny the Younger.  Here is a translation of the story, which took place in Athens, Greece.  Things did not change too much, until the advent of reality television.  

Ross Allison has been involved in the paranormal field for over 20 years.  He is a Paranormal Investigator, Author, Media Host, Lecturer, Teacher, and even Tour Guide.  He is the Pacific Northwest’s only full-time Ghost Hunter.  Founder of A.G.H.O.S.T. (Advanced Ghost Hunters of Seattle-Tacoma) and now runs AGHOST Investigations. He teaches a class based on his book, Ghostology 101 – Becoming a Ghost Hunter, and spends much of his time in Seattle, at his business, Spooked in Seattle ghost walks.  He will talk about his work, as well as change in how paranormal investigating has changed over the last 20 years.

Ross has been lecturing for Power Performers since 2004 and has spoken to thousands of students at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the U.S. on his ghost hunting adventures and teaches a class based on his book, Ghostology 101 – Becoming a Ghost Hunter.  Through his travels, he has had  opportunities to work with some of the biggest names in the field, such as Jason & Grant of “Ghost Hunters” fame. He has also investigated some of the scariest and most haunted sites known to man: the Stanley Hotel, Eastern State Prison, Amityville House, Alcatraz Prison, Roman Catacombs, the Ancient Rams Inn.

Our discussion was far ranging; I have known Ross for over 20 years.  We spoke about how approaches and technology relating to ghost hunting have changed in the last two decades.  Ross was critical of the way some television shows have 'promoted' their stars as experienced paranormal investigators, while in reality they were chosen for on-camera appeal.  He also talked about his own efforts have grown over the years, from founder of an amateur ghost hunter group, to his 14 years giving ghost walks in downtown Seattle, and college educational visits.  Here are some links to Ross's books and appearances.

 Books:    
Ghostology 101 – Becoming a ghost hunter
Spooked in Seattle – A Haunted Handbook

My Haunted Journal – Recording the unknown

Psychology for the Ghost Hunter – What every ghost hunter should know

Ghosts on Campus – Stories of ghosts that haunt students

Haunted Ships & Lighthouses of the West Coast

Spooked again in Seattle

Links
http://spookedinseattle.squarespace.com/
https://collegepowerperformers.com/artists/ghost-hunters-paranormal/ross-allison/ 
https://www.aghost.org/

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Philip Hutchinson - Jack the Ripper! on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 
11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 14 February 2019
Posted 13 February 2019

 

Serial Killers, the anti-hero of the information age.  To use a pun, everyone seems to want a piece of them, particularly Jack the Ripper, the first mass-media serial killer.  Just as fascinating as the question of who he was, if the phenomena of people trying to answer the question.  Every year new books are published on Jack the Ripper, each one with a new suspect.  Ripper Historian Philip Hutchinson is still curious about Red Jack, but just as curious about the weird theories proposed by many authors.  In this interview, he discusses some of the more recent books written about Jack the Ripper, as well as changes in the streets and buildings of London, where he gives his Jack the Ripper walks.

Philip Hutchinson comes from Hampshire and has a life-long interest in the macabre and the unpleasant, which began with a trip to Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors when he was six years old. He began reading true crime books in his teens and followed this up by making day trips to London to visit the scenes of notorious homicides.

He is a member of the Ghost Club, the oldest psychical research organization in the world, and he has sat on that august body’s Council since 2001. In that same year, he started The Ghost Tour of Guildford.  However, before that, he has an even darker interest, if that is possible: Jack the Ripper. 

Philip has been a Ripper historian since 1990 but his deeper interest was kick-started when he worked as an actor at The London Dungeon in 1998.  He has now been guiding Jack the Ripper tours as a freelance guide for 11 years.

He has lectured on the case in many places in the UK (often touring his one-man lecture ‘Jack the Ripper: Facts, No Fiction’, which received a five-star review from Broadway Baby at the Brighton Fringe in 2013) including the City of London Police HQ, and in America.  He is the author of the highly esteemed ‘The London of Jack the Ripper Then and Now, The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield’s Yard and The Whitby Collection’ and Haunted Guildford (The History Press, 2006).

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Genvièv Martin Bernard on the healing power of Hypnosis on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 21 February 2019 Posted 13 February 2019

Tonight’s podcast on Jeff Davis’s Peculiar World is a bit more serious than usual.  Jeff and award winning hypnotherapist Genvièv Martin-Bernard will discuss the modern uses and application of hypnosis as a healing tool.   

Genvièv Martin-Bernard was born in Monaco but now lives in Oregon.  She is a Fellow and Former President of the Oregon Hypnotherapy Association, and an award-winning Board Certified Instructor with the National Guild of Hypnotists.  She works with private clients as part of their mental or emotional healing process as well as law enforcement, to help crime victims and witnesses recover lost or forgotten memories. Featured on Discovery Channel, radio and television programs worldwide, Genvièv is the author of Zen in the Art of Survival, published in the best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul, as well as Diving into the Unsolved Mysteries of the Mind, Make a Friend of Fear, Meditation in Motion, Life Line, The Gift, Emotions, and countless magazine columns and articles on performance, achievement and success. Her story is featured in Chicken Soup to Inspire the Body and Soul – Motivation to get over the hump and on the road to a better life.

Here are links to learn more about her and her work.

Genvièv Martin-Bernard, DESS, BCH, CI:

Fellow & Former President, Oregon Hypnotherapy Association, Author, Forensic & Clinical Hypnotherapy, Board Certified and Certified Instructor, National Federation Union Member, Founder, Forensic Brain Rewiring ™
https://www.youtube.com/user/GenvievTV/videos

http://www.GenvievHypnosis.com/
Genviev@GenvievHypnosis.com
https://fbr.hearnow.com

The American Psychological Association says:  "Hypnosis is a therapeutic technique in which clinicians make suggestions to individuals who have undergone a procedure designed to relax them and focus their minds.  Although hypnosis has been controversial, most clinicians now agree it can be a powerful, effective therapeutic technique for a wide range of conditions, including pain, anxiety and mood disorders. Hypnosis can also help people change their habits, such as quitting smoking.  https://www.apa.org/topics/hypnosis/"

Meriam Webster’s dictionary’s explanation is also vague, not explaining the how, merely the look and effect:  "1.  Hypnosis is a trancelike state that resembles sleep but is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject.  2 : any of various conditions that resemble sleep."

The search for how hypnotism works is just as interesting as what it is used for, and it goes back centuries.  Many historians cite ancient mentalists and mediums in India, Persia, and China for practicing what we might call hypnosis, backward in time thousands of years.  However, I want to talk about a man named Franz Mesmer, who many consider the father of modern Euro-American hypnotism.  "Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer (/ˈmɛzmər/;[1] German: [ˈmɛsmɐ]; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German doctor with an interest in astronomy who theorised that there was a natural energy transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called animal magnetism, sometimes later referred to as mesmerism. The theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the century.[2] In 1843 the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term hypnosis for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today this is the usual meaning of mesmerism."

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Alberto Eufrasio Talks About Weird Washington and Weird Oregon on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 28 February 2019 Posted 18 March 2019

 

Artist and author Al Eufrasio was born in New Jersey, where he first encountered a magazine and later mass market book, Weird New Jersey.  He liked the publication so much that he contacted the editors (the Two Marks) Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, and offered to contribute artwork and articles.

By 2008, Al had moved to Washington State, where the Two Marks introduced him to author Jeff Davis.  Together they collaborated to write Weird Washington, which was part of the Weird US book series.  This book was so popular, within Washington State, it was recommended to teachers for their Introduction to Washington State History classes.  In 2010, Jeff and Al completed the companion boo, Weird Oregon.  And the rest is history, so they say.

In this podcast, Al and Jeff talk about the books, articles, and share insider stories about the process of writing together.

Al Eufrasio Biography

To learn more about Al, please visit his website at: http://www.eufrasio.com/ or read this article on his work.  https://southsoundmag.com/al-eufrasio-weird-washington/

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Author Astronomer David Lee Summers Talks About the Solar "Carrington Event" of 1859, on Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 6 March 2019 Posted 18 March 2019

Our sun, which astronomers call Sol.  It is a dwarf yellow star, falling on the main sequence of star types.  It converts hydrogen atoms into helium atoms in its core, which produces light and heat.  About 90 percent of the stars in the universe are main sequence stars. These stars can range from about a tenth of the mass of the sun to up to 200 times as massive.  Our sun will burn for about 10 billion years.

Even though we and our ancestors were born under the sun, and have experienced its light and heat all of our lives, humans did not know how it produced energy, its age, and eventual ending; not until the late 19th and early 20th century.  One side effect of the sun’s nuclear conversion is sun spots and solar flares.  All of us know that solar flares can disrupt radio waves, and certain devices, but how many of us know how that happens?  How catastrophic could they be?

Tonight I will talk with an astronomer about solar flares, and the first and largest solar flare ever recorded, which struck the earth in the 1850s.  What happened then, and what might happen now.  While we will probably discuss radiation poisoning, it won’t go far enough to suggest a zombie apocalypse.  At least not seriously.  We’ll leave that for another discussion.  For now, let’s talk about the sun, science, a little scifi, and the history of the Carrington Event.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859#Other_evidence_and_similar_events
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_storms

We all know solar flares happen, and how they affect our TV and radio reception.  How much do we know about how they form?  What would happen if the Earth was hit with a super solar flare?  Author and astronomer David Lee Summers discusses the Carrington Event, the most massive solar flare ever recorded, what it did, and what a similar storm might do today.

David Lee Summers is the author of a dozen novels and over one hundred short stories and poems. His writing spans a wide range of the imaginative from science fiction to fantasy to horror. David’s novels include The Solar Sea, which was selected as a Flamingnet Young Adult Top Choice, The Astronomer's Crypt, which is a horror novel inspired by his work at an astronomical observatory, and The Brazen Shark, which was voted best steampunk novel in the 2017 Preditors and Editors Reader's Poll. His short stories and poems have appeared in such magazines and anthologies as Realms of Fantasy, Cemetery Dance, and Straight Outta Tombstone. In 2010 and 2016, he was nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award and in 2017, he was nominated for SFPA's Dwarf Stars Award. In addition to writing, David has edited five science fiction anthologies including A Kepler’s Dozen, Kepler's Cowboys and Maximum Velocity: The Best of the Full-Throttle Space Tales. When not working with the written word, David operates telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Learn more about David at davidleesummers.com

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Haunted North Head Lighthouse Part 1, On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 21 March 2019 Posted 18 March 2019

Haunted North Head Lighthouse Part 1

North Head Lighthouse, located north of Ilwaco, Washington has operated since 1898.  In those years, there was terror and loss at and around the lighthouse.  Zak Bagans and the crew of Ghost Adventures visited in 2018, as part of their series Graveyard of the Pacific.  I was involved in that series as a historian, as well as helping find witnesses to some of the hauntings in and around the mouth of the Columbia River.  Next week, I interview one of the witnesses, my friend, Wendy Stanton Philips on her experience in and around the North Head Lighthouse.  This includes the Lighthouse Keeper’s cottages, not too far away from the lighthouse itself.  This week’s broadcast is related to a weekend I and others spent in the same location as Ghost Adventures filmed, in 2018.

Since I was not part of the Ghost Adventures investigation, I asked some friends if they wanted to participate in an investigation weekend this year.  Several agreed.  We stayed over the weekend of Friday March First to the morning of March 3rd.  As a group, we rented the main cottage and one unit of the Assistant Keeper’s Cottage.  The other unit was not available, due to renovation.  We tried renting access to the lighthouse itself, but it was also closed and fenced off due to renovation construction.

We ended up dividing into groups, in our quest for paranormal activity.  The other group, staying in the assistant keeper’s cottage believes they recorded large amounts of paranormal activity.  Unfortunately, I was not able to interview everyone, so I can’t tell you what happened there.  However, I did an experiment with a couple of friends.  We did not record a spectral voice warning us we were ‘Going to Hell!’  However we did get some audio and electromagnetic anomalies that are not easily explained away or dismissed as static.  We got subtle results that we did not expect, relating to electronic voice phenomena.  I hope it interests you as well.  It is worth going back again. 

On the morning of the second of March, while staying at the North Head Lighthouse Head Keeper’s Cottage, I made seven EVP Attempts.  I worked with my friends Loren and his wife Maryanne.  The next segment of this podcast will explain what happened, and give you a chance to listen to some of our attempts.  I am going to play our first and second attempts for you.  Normally I don’t give any kind of explanation of what “I” think the sounds mean.  That is one of my main complaints about the television shows, where they state several times things like, “OH MAN!  You’ll never believe it, but the ghost just said we were going to hell!!!”   

Here is the first EVP attempt.  Listen carefully for the anomalies.  What I heard was what sounds like static, at 29 seconds and 37 seconds.  There is a third anomaly, at 1:04 seconds, just before I shut off the recorder.  You will have to trust me when I say, that I had not touched it at that point, so I did not create the sound, by touching the recorder. 

Here is the first EVP attempt again, after I used the sound editor Audacity to boost the volume by a factor of 10.

Oh, by the way, when these anomalies were recorded, that is the same time when Loren’s hearing aids buzzed, as if they were clearing feedback.  Furthermore, we had a Tri-field meter active, which detected spikes in the background electromagnetic energies, when the static anomaly was recorded. 

 Here is the second EVP attempt.  I have not made any changes in the volume.  This time there were several buzzes of static.  They appeared at 18 seconds, 26, 34, 43, and 58 seconds.  When we recorded this EVP attempt, we noted that the Tri-field meter needle did move, correlating to the buzzing sound being recorded by the digital audio recorder, as well as Loren hearing his hearing aid go off.  I am not sure if the tri-field meter went off each time though.

 Here is a second evp attempt, this time, I boosted the anomalies by 10 times, with Audacity again. 

What do you think?  If you think it had something to do with other electronic devices, the North Head lighthouse does not get satellite television reception.   After this EVP attempt, we suspected the static might have been caused by Loren’s hearing aid, or some other nearby devices, such as cell phones.  We moved all of the other equipment several feet away, and Loren shut down his hearing aids, and moved them to another room.  We did not hear any anomalies in the third and fourth attempts.  We decided to experiment again, so Loren brought his hearing aids back into the room, turned up the volume, and placed them next to the digital audio recorder.  We also turned on our cell phones and placed them next to the audio recorder.  We speculated that if the hearing aids or cell phones had created the anomalous static, we would get static on our next EVPs.  We made three more attempts, but did not get any anomalies, static or voice.

There are no active wifi routers at the house, and cell phone reception is nearly nonexistent.  If you think it’s static, send me an email to let me know.  If you think it’s something else, let me know that too.  My email address is: jddavis@rocketmail.com. 

If you want more information about the park, and North head Lighthouse, visit the site  http://parks.state.wa.us/241/North-Head-Lighthouse

 

North Head Lighthouse and the Graveyard of the Pacific

 Over the years, people have reported various paranormal activity in the area.  This includes spectral shipwrecks not far from the lighthouse promontory, to a ghostly lighthouse keeper’s wife, who may have committed suicide, standing near the lighthouse, where she fell or jumped to her death; to spirits within the Head Keeper’s Cottage, or the duplex, where the two assistant keepers and their families lived.

The following narrative comes from the Washington State website, www.northeadlightouse.com, and Jeff Belanger, producer and historic researcher for the television show, Ghost Adventures. 

It is estimated that 2,000 ships and over 700 lives lost along the stretch of coast from Oregon to British Columbia. For this reason it is sometimes called, “The Graveyard of the Pacific.” The ever-present fog, shifting sands and treacherous currents have claimed at least two hundred ships near the mouth of the Columbia River. The North Head Lighthouse stands guard right in the middle of this notoriously dangerous area.

Construction began on North Head lighthouse in 1897 and it was completed and lit on May 16, 1898.  The tower was built 65 feet above the ground, designed large enough to hold the First-order Fresnel lens transferred from Cape Disappointment lighthouse.  As ship traffic increased around the turn of the century, so did the frequency of shipwrecks. The narrow beach and rocky coves below North Head became known as “Deadman’s Hollow.”

Dead Man’s Hollow: In 1853, a barkentine, a ship named the Vandalia wrecked near the mouth of the Columbia River, killing 9 people. The ocean current carried their bodies to a small inlet near North Head, where they came ashore.  Over the decades, the current carried other bodies to the same spot. 

There have been 90 reported deaths in the vicinity of the North Head Lighthouse.  We don’t know how many ships went down with no survivors, and there was no one to report the loss.  The two worst wrecks were the Tanker Rosecrans in 1913, where 33 perished, and the Freighter Iowa in 1936, where the entire crew of 34 drowned.

The first head lighthouse keeper at North Head was Alex K. Pesonen. He was placed in charge of North Head lighthouse on May 16, 1898.  During the time, Pesonen had a second assistant keeper by the name of Mabel E. Bretherton. She was the only female keeper assigned to North Head lighthouse. From 1905 until her resignation on October 31, 1907 she assisted in the care and operation of the light.

Some people believe the ghosts of Mr. and Mrs. Pesonen may haunt the Keeper’s Cottage, and vicinity of the North Head Lighthouse itself.  Pesonen married Mary Watson in 1900, two years after arriving at North Head. They lived together at the lighthouse for over 20 years, along with two other assistant keepers and their families.  In 1922 or 1923, Mary Pesonen started acting strangely.  In the spring of 1923, Alex Pesonen took to a facility in Portland, Oregon, where she was diagnosed with “melancholia,” a condition marked by persistent depression and ill-founded fears. On 8 June, Alex Pesonen went to Portland, got her, and returned to the lighthouse. 

On the morning of 9 June, Mary arose early and went for a walk with her dog Jerry.  Some time later, Jerry returned, without Mary Pesonen.  Fearing the worst, Alex went looking for her, on the land around the lighthouse.  He did not see her, but saw a place near the cliff edge, where the grass looked like someone slid off the cliff into the sea below. 

On the night before she slipped down the cliff, Mary Pesonen wrote a letter which included: “I see where I have been wrong in a great many ways but please God I will try and change and do better…I'm even going to try and do without my medicine and just pray I’ll get better and better.”   

And the mystery continues to the present day; did she fall, did she jump, or was she pushed?  This is one of the many questions the Ghost Adventures crew asked, along with Wendy Stanton Philips, my friend, who was with them for part of their investigation.  Please stay tuned for Part 2.

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Haunted North Head Lighthouse Part 2, On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 28 March 2019 Posted 12 April 2019

North Head Lighthouse, located north of Ilwaco, Washington has operated since 1898.  In those years, there was terror and loss at and around the lighthouse.  Zack Bagans and the crew of Ghost Adventures visited in April 2018, as part of their series Graveyard of the Pacific, which aired in October, 2019.

One of their guest witnesses was Wendy Stanton Philips, a Northwest consultant on the paranormal.  She visited the Head Keeper's Cottage as well as North Head Lighthouse itself.  In this podcast, she describes what it was like, working with Ghost Adventures, and the spirits at the lighthouse. 

 Wendy's biography says, As a Sensitive with Mediumistic abilities, Wendy has dealt with spirits her whole life. Now as a paranormal investigator, case manager and occult specialist in training, she has been blessed to partner up with June Lundgren in helping clients with the removal of spirits as well as negative entities and helping them to understand and deal with other issues they may be experiencing.  One of her main contacts is through her website, http://www.ghostsandgirlsparanormal.com/    Their Mission: We believe that everyone should feel safe in their home. Your home is your sanctuary. When something unseen invades your home and it is no longer safe, it becomes a prison, a place filled with fear.  We are here to help those people who have paranormal activity in their homes, at their work site and land. We investigate to determine if there is indeed paranormal activity. If paranormal activity is confirmed we will inform you of what we find and then discuss options.  We are the go-between for those who have crossed into the spirit realm and the living. Sometimes the clients decide to coexist with the spirits and at other times they just want them gone.  If we find something negative we will remove it for everyone’s safety. We do not charge for our services. It is the work we do for the Creator.

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Legends and Strange Facts of World d War I On Jeff Davis's Peculiar World 11 PM Eastern Standard Time, Thursday 11 April 2019 Posted 12 April 2019

I am excited about tonight’s show, and I hope you are as well, or will become so, after I tell you a little bit about it.  Tonight my guest and I will talk about World War I.  Okay, please don’t tune out until I tell you what we will talk about.  We are going to talk about some of the odd and unusual happening and coincidences surrounding World War I and it’s aftermath.  There are some legends that aren’t quite true, and other legends that really are.

 We are going to talk about the peculiar way the war began, with a failed assassination attempt, which eventually succeeded because someone took a wrong turn.  We will talk about spectral bowmen, or was it angels?  Was there really a lost battalion of U.S. Soldiers in World War I, or were they merely misplaced, and what happened to their commander?  And the legacy of World War I continues to this day.  Did you know the Treaty of Versailles ordered the Germans to surrender the skull of an chief to the British Government?  And even now, bodies of fallen soldiers are still being found in many different battlefields.

 To make sense of these unusual events, My guest is Dr. Mitchell Yockelson, a renowned historian and scholar of World War I.  Between the two of us, we’ll touch on these people and events.  Before you meet him, let me give you a few factoids on World War I.  Mitch Yockelson is the chief historian for the United States World War One Centennial Commission. He is also an investigative archivist with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Archival Recovery Program (ARP). Mitch has authored articles and book reviews in various journals and magazines, and his written four books. His most recent, Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I, was published by New American Library Press in 2016.  Mitch received a Bachelor’s Degree from Frostburg State University, a Masters from George Mason University and holds a Ph.D. from the Royal Military College of Science, Cranfield University, United Kingdom. 

 

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In recent weeks it has come to my attention that certain parties are using my ghost stories and those of my contributors as references for their own commercial enterprises.  If you or someone you know is writing a book on ghosts in the Pacific Northwest, PLEASE DO NOT!!! copy or use the following stories or any other materials within this website as references.  

Jefferson Davis (25 April 2003)

 



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