Throughout history and even at the present time there are a lot of people who believe in the spirits of the dead. To some people it is part of their religion. Some Native Americans believe they have a spirit guide which takes the form of an animal and they can meet their dead ancestors. Some people may criticize this belief, but I say is it any more unusual than believing death is not the end for us, after all many of us believe this? The idea we don’t really die goes back to somewhere in our dim past and I don’t think anyone can really pinpoint where this belief started. It was only reinforced by Christianity not discovered. This was one of the main reasons the Egyptians mummified their dead, they believed they were preserving their body for the afterlife. I wonder if they would have felt that way if they would have seen what these bodies look like after thousands of years. It is ironic how the Egyptians went to great lengths to preserve these bodies and yet in the 1800s many were used as fuel for steam trains.

There are a lot of other paranormal beliefs and one of them which I classify as paranormal is the gift of prediction. I classify this that way, but I don’t necessarily believe in it. Having said that, there was a woman who was called a prophetess. Her name was Baba Vanga also known as Prophetess Vanga. Many people put her in the same class as Nostradamus and even called her the Nostradamus of the Balkans. She lived from 1911 to 1996. A tornado is said to have picked her up and thrown her down into a field causing her to become blind. When she started giving prophecies she said she was able to do it, because she spoke to the dead. Her home has been turned into a museum. She made a lot of predictions and to her supporters I have to ask the question how come she predicted a World War using nukes which would start in 2010 and end in 2014? In all honesty she was a lot like Nostradamus since she wrote in riddles. Here is a prophesy which is said to refer to the 9/11 attack. “Horror, horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush and blood will be gushing” I hate to say it, but if the dead helped her they better bone up on their prophesies.

I have said it before, but let me say it again, I don’t consider aliens and UFOs to fit into the paranormal category even though they have been lumped together by many others. There are a lot of things running around this planet which we can’t explain however and maybe some of them could fit into this category. There is a train station in Sidney, Australia which people claim to be haunted. The ghost or spirit, whichever you prefer, has been haunting this place for about one hundred years. Witnesses claim after the last train leaves you can hear a faint crying which becomes much louder and sometimes a ghost of a teenage girl appears wearing dancing clothes which are covered with blood. Sometimes the ghost just sits in the middle of the station starring and crying. An article was published in 1906 which stated a woman named Emily Gengeson was hit by a train and killed along this railroad line. The ghost has also been known to stop crying and give off terrible screams. Over the years many reports about this ghost have been made.

An unusual branch of studies is being born and it is the study of the afterlife. It is true a lot of people who have had after death experiences and yet survived have reported some incredible things. Scientists and engineers are getting together for the study. The study of human consciousness is producing strange ideas and one of them is we are not really using our brain for our consciousness, its purpose is only to act as a receiver. Supposedly our consciousness is somewhere else and it is sending our thoughts to our bodies through our brain. If that is true our bodies are merely machines we are using for a while, but our true being is something else. Most believe it is a spirit or energy. This might mean if ghosts exist they may be nothing more than humans without bodies. They may be trapped here, because they were too afraid to take the next step, whatever that step is. If this study produces empirical proof we do have a life after death, it might change the human race completely, especially if there is punishment for our sins and this can be proven. If this turn out to be true then life has to be pictured in a different way in our minds. It becomes only a step in our journey to somewhere else.

A woman in Britain became famous as a composer and pianist. Her name was Rosemary Brown and what is so unusual about her is the fact she claimed famous dead composers were communicating with her and helping her write her music. She claimed her chief instructor was Franz Liszt, but she also claimed she received music from Ludwig van Beethoven, Fryderyk Chopin, Claude Debussy, J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert and others. That is quite an incredible group of composers. Some experts claim to have examined and listed to her music and they believe only those musical greats could have wrote it. Others scoff at the idea, but claim there was something special about her music and something unknown was at work here. Even more incredible was the fact Rosemary Brown had only a couple of years of piano lessons and still was able to write this incredible music. Many have said the particular pieces of music which she credited to certain dead composers did indeed seem like their work. Brown said she could not contact these composers at will, but was more like a receiver when they wanted to broadcast.

It seems like every area has its so called haunted homes, cemeteries and other areas. While some of these places are interesting, there is nothing more appropriate in the paranormal than a haunted castle and grounds around it and where are the most haunted castles? Why in Great Britain of course. The most haunted castle is said to be in Scotland and is Glamis Castle in Strathmore. It was given to the Earl of Strathmore as a gift by Robert the Bruce in 1372. There are two less windows inside the castle when compared to the windows on the outside, leading to the idea there are hidden rooms. A ghost known as the White Lady is said to be haunting the castle and has been seen over a period of hundreds of years. Another spirit said to wander the halls of the castle is Earl Beardie or Earl Crawford. He was said to be very cruel. Jack the runner is said to be another ghost haunting the castle. In the 17th century a black slave was stripped and hunted with dogs and stabbed many times as the ladies of the castle watched and laughed. He was finally ripped apart by the dogs. Another ghost is said to be the Gray Lady. Her identity is unknown. Years ago a reception was held in the castle and about 100 guests saw her as she floated by. The castle is known for all sorts of noises and transparent spirits of people.