Discussion Eleven: The Bean Nighe

The Bean Nighe, also known as "washer woman at the Ford," is found in Celtic legend. These banshee-like spirits are the ghosts of women who died in childbirth, and are doomed to wash blood stained clothing in a quiet and hidden stream, until the day they normally would have died. If you happen upon a washer woman, this may or may not be a good thing. Although most accounts of the legend say the Bean Nighe appears as a hideous hag (some say she actually appears as a beautiful woman. Depends on who you ask, I guess), she supposedly has the power to grant wishes if you claim to be her child. She is also able to tell you the names of those about to die. But beware; some legends claim this mournful spirit is a harbinger of death to those she meets. Personally, I like the wish-granting version better ;) .

For more info on this mysterious washer woman, see here:
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/folklore/the-bean-nighe.html

Discussion questions:
Do you believe in the Bean Nighe? What would you do if you saw one? Would you ask her to grant you a wish, or would you run screaming? What would you wish for?

Happy haunting,
Frankie

Merry Christmas!

Frankie and I would like to wish everyone a Very Merry (and Scary) Christmas! 

Remember to have fun and be safe. Regular discussions will take place again on Friday.

-Emily (and Frankie)

Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas

Instead of a regular discussion this week, we decided to change it up for the holidays, to get all of our club members in the "spirit" of the season ;).

Just because it's the holidays, it doesn't mean you have to put your paranormal studies on hold. There are plenty of fun, freaky, and frightening holiday themed movies, TV specials and books out there:

Books:
A Christmas Carol; by Charles Dickens-
A classic ghost story about stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's visit from the spirits of holidays past, present, and yet to come. This story has been loved by generations, and is still scary.

Goosebumps: Beware, The Snowman; by R.L. Stine-
A spooky-fun story about a girl who moves into a remote town with a secret that is somehow connected to her past.

Silent Night I and II; by R.L Stine- Two thriller novels that are very spooky, and full of frightening twists and surprises.

The Christmas Tree That ate My Mother; by Dean Marney-
A funny short novel about a girl who's Christmas tree is up to no good.

Movies:
Tim Burton's The Nightmare before Christmas-
The fun classic about how Christmas came to Halloweentown.

A Christmas Carol (Any version- there are many)-
There are plenty of movie versions of Charles Dickens' haunting tale. I recommend the 1970s version, called Scrooge, and the new Disney animated version.

Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (animated or live action)-
These are fun holiday classics.

TV specials:
"Holiday Spirit"- Ghost Whisperer

"Second Chances"- CSI: NY

"How The Ghosts Stole Christmas"- X-Files

"Christmas Carol"- X-Files

Check out any of this great holiday fare. What are your favorites? Do you have any other shows, movies, or books to add? Let us know!

Season's Greetings,
Frankie (and Emily)

Discussion Ten: Bloody Mary

Now, there are several Bloody Mary's. One, of course, being a drink which we will not discuss (your mother's can though if they really want to). The other is Queen "Bloody" Mary of England. This is quite interesting and morbid. Especially since it's not as debatable as many of our paranormal topics. However, the Bloody Mary we are discussing here is the Bloody Mary Legend.

You may have heard of this from slumber parties. Everyone goes into a dark bathroom and chants her name. If you do it just right, she will appear and scratch your eyes out. (I've never done with, but my mother did with a cousin and her cousin swears she saw red lights in the mirror). The real question is: Who is Bloody Mary? Why does she want to kill us if we chant her name? Does this really happen? Is she real?

Have fun discussing. And beware of dark bathrooms!
http://www.halloween-website.com/bloody_mary.htm

Discussion Nine: The Legend of La Llorona

Anyone who has read Kathleen Ernst's Secrets in the Hills: A Josefina Mystery, has read about the weeping ghost La Llorona. This Hispanic legend tells of a ghostly woman who searches for her dead children. She is said to wander the earth, crying out and searching for them. Some versions of the story say that to hear her cry is a harbinger of sickness or death. Some versions of the story say that if she finds a child while she is wandering, she will take them in place of her own kids. That legend of la Llorona has been told for many years in Spanish speaking communities, as a warning to children.

What do you think of this endurinng legend? Do you think La Llorona is real, or is it just a tale to scare children from staying outside after dark? Have you ever heard of her, or even seen her?

Find out more about the legend here, then tell us what you think:

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/gh-lallorona.html

-Frankie

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Happy 12th Birthday, Emily! :)

Your friend,
Frankie

Discussion eight: Wendigos

The wendigo is a ravenous, werewolf- like beast from Native American legend. It is also one of the most terrifying creatures I know of- something you would never want to run in to!

Read all about this strange creature here.... if you dare:

http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Wendigo

Then, come back and discuss these mysterious monsters.

-Do you believe in them? Tell us why or why not.
-Why do you think wendigos are believed to live only in colder climates?
-What do you think is the creepiest thing about wendigos?

Discussion Seven: Mothman

This is the one creature that scares me the most, but it's also fascinating. Mothman might be a little more obscure than some other paranormal creatures, so if you don't know a lot about it, that's okay. You can ask questions and give your opinion.

Mothman is a winged man-like creature that was very active between November 1966 and December 1967 in West Virginia (so if anyone lives around there beware, it's its hunting time now). Sometimes it is described as having a head and other times not so much. But most commonly it has red, glowing eyes, huge wings, super fast gliding ability (it doesn't flap its wings), and a piercing scream.

So, when your mom is driving you around at night and you see a red glow nearby...

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Mothman

Discussion Six: Werewolves

Werewolves have made a comeback in pop culture recently, appearing in popular book series and movies. But where did the legends come from? And can a person be half human, half animal? Many people believe in these creatures of the night. Do you?

Here are some websites that provides everything you would want to know about werewolves and their "cousins." Take a look, and then let us know what you think:

http://werewolves.monstrous.com/lycanthropy_definition.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf

-Frankie

Emily here, just wanted to add: Do you think werewolves fall into the same category as ghost and aliens? Why or why not?

-Emily

Discussion five: Roswell aliens

Are we alone in the universe? Do aliens exist? The Roswell alien encounters are a very well documented case of life on other planets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident

Is this incident proof aliens exist? You decide.

-Frankie

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody! Make sure you eat a lot of candy! And be on the look out for anything spooky going on. Here's my costume pictures:

 Me as an FBI agent. Jess as a princess. Jocelyn as a hippie.

Molly (my cousin) as a pirate, Kit (my sister) as a hunter, Nellie (my sister) in Halloween garb.

Spooky Fun

Today is Halloween! Yay!

Lanie and Paige and I trick or treated together. Lanie had to go home early, but Paige stayed and we sorted our Halloween loot. We got candy, and toys, and even some of those cool rubber band bracelets. Here is a picture of us:

What did you dress as for Halloween?

The Haunted History of Halloween

Halloween has some pretty cool folklore and history. I will share some of it here!

- Jack-o' lanterns were not always pumpkins! They were first carved gourds and turnips. They were used as protections against spirits. It went like this until settlers from Europe discovered that pumpkins are much easier to carve.

Here is a neat website about Jack o' lanterns: http://www.albee.org/halloween/jackolantern.htm

Here is another neat website about Halloween itself:http://www.life123.com/holidays/halloween/halloween-history-traditions/halloween-history.shtml





Now I will share a Halloween picture:

Lanie and Paige came over yesterday for a Halloween practice run. Here we are: Paige is a Grecian Princess, I am an angel (what else? :)), and Lanie is a cowgirl.

Happy Halloween!

Discussion Four: Why do Ghosts Stick Around?

Okay, everyone! It's my turn to do a discussion today.

Why do you think ghosts haunt? It's what ghosts do, of course. But why? Here is the link to a website that may help you come up with a theory or two: http://www.paralumun.com/ghosts.htm

Here are some reasons I could think of:

-They have unfinished business on earth. This is a very common belief, portrayed in all kinds of ghost stories and movies.

-They don't know they are dead. This is a huge element in the "phantom hitchhiker" stories.
* Find out all about phantom hitchhikers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_hitchhiker

- They are so attached to a place on earth that they just can't leave

I hope you guys liked my first discussion. Please post your comments and ghost stories, and add to this week's topic!

-Frankie

Halloween Treats

My friends and I had to get creative in making some goodies for Halloween since there wasn't much to work with in the house. But what we came up with was very yummy: chocolate covered marshmallows. We used flavored marshmallows since that was all we could find, but regular ones will work better. We used orange colored candy chips (white chocolate) and the biggest jar of Halloween sprinkles we could find (see Jocelyn in the background).


First coat the marshmallows in chocolate. That's Jess carefully stirring. Jocelyn or I would have made a mess.

 Next put some sprinkles on a plate and roll the marshmallow in them. This turned out to be quite messy, so make sure you mom doesn't mind chocolate getting everywhere.

 And that's it. Let the chocolate harden and eat!

We're still not sure what Jocelyn was attempting to make. To me it just looks like a blog of marshmallows covered in chocolate, but she said it was art.
Bonus: you can do pretzels the same way or even cookies if you're so inclined.

Discussion Three: Paranormal Activity and Halloween

Alrighty, everyone up for another discussion? This week it's going to be a bit more of debate. The topic is: Does paranormal activity increase around Halloween? If you google that sentence you can get a ton of different articles.

A few things I picked out to spur this along:

• more paranormal activity occurs because of the colder weather?
• because more people are expecting creepy things to happen and see it everywhere?
• because ghouls and such are celebrating too?

Time to get searching and debating!

Telling ghost stories

Yesterday, Paige came over after school to play. We shut the curtains in my room, got out our flashlights, and told ghost stories, to get excited about Halloween. Paige's story was spooky.

"Once," began Paige, " a girl named Mary moved into a spooky old house. Just like this one. The floors creaked at night, and whenever Mary was in her room, she heard footsteps walking above her head, where there was nothing, but an empty attic."

"One night, Mary was curious about what the noise was, pacing back and forth over the old floorboards. She told her dad about the noise, but he said it was probably just squirrels. Mary wasn't so sure. After a week of the frantic pacing, Mary decided to investigate the noise she heard. One night, she got her flashlight, and climbed the stairs to the dark attic. The pacing stopped. She knocked on the door. No sound. She unlocked the door, and went in. She gasped, dropping her flashlight.

Staring at her, was a giant mutant squirrel, with green goo dripping from it's mouth.

'It was a squirrel,' thought Mary. 'Dad was right!' But before she could move, the squirrel swallowed her whole, because her house was not haunted. It was built on a toxic waste dump.

There. paige set the mood for creepiness, then, surprised us. I like scary stories that are also funny.

Halloween Craft: Yarn Dolls

I thought it would be fun to add some crafts to the blog, so here is an easy and fun little project. They're called yarn dolls and you can make them in any color of yarn you wish. Obviously I did mine for Halloween. All you need is yarn and a hard object to wrap the yarn around. I used a cassette tape (which is about 6 inches long); a small hard cover books works great as well. And it can be any size so you can tailor how big you want your yarn dolly to be. So lets get started!

Firstly wrap the yarn around your object. I used two different colors of yarn to get this look. Wrap the yarn around about 50 times (I did it only 25 times since I had two strands of yarn). For a smaller doll wrap the yarn around fewer times. Unless you want a squat, little dolly!

Slide the yarn off and slip a piece of yarn through the loop and knot it at the top. Don't cut these strings!

 Now tie a head. You want this to be closer to the top. Cut all the looped strings at the bottom.

 Next make a waist a bit below the head. Pull a string loose from each side for arms and trim them shorter. I'm lazy, but you can use several strings for arms and tie them together.

 And your dolly is complete! To make a boy, divide the skirt into two parts and tie the bottoms. The strings on top of the head I told you not to cut is where you can add hair if you wish. Just place the yarn over the head and knot it on top. Now you can trim those strings.

These  are the 3 dolls I made. The one is the middle I made smaller using the shorter length of the cassette tape.

Alrighty everyone, time to get creative! Have fun!

Discussion Two: Paranormal Encounters

For our second discussion everyone is welcome to share any of their own paranormal encounters. It can be sometimes small, like maybe you thought you saw a UFO on your way to school. Or something bigger, like you've felt a ghostly presence in your room. If you haven't have an encounter, don't worry! Please, still give us your thoughts. And maybe what you thought wasn't an encounter actually was.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Guess what everyone? Today is my Birthday! I am ten. Double digits! Today I had a little party. Lanie, Elizabeth and Paige came. They are my closest friends that live near enough to visit. But Emily sent me my own FBI badges! I also got a cool gift from my best friend, Natalie. She is a military kid. She and her family moved away to England last Spring. She sent me my own toy double decker bus! It's red and shiny. I miss her a lot. I hope she visits someday. Paige gave me a stuffed bluebird. It is so cute. It's my favorite new stuffed animal. Lanie gave me a photo album. I got some more small things from my family and other friends too. We all played with our AG dolls. We also had cider and all kinds of treats. I love having a Halloween time birthday! It's too cool since it's my favorite holiday.

After we ate, we played hide and seek around the farm. It's my tradition. There are lots of places to hide. I hid in the chicken coop! Do you have any birthday traditions?

Tonight, Paige is sleeping over. She is one of my closest friends. She moved into Natalie's old house this past Summer. We always have a great time together. Having her around makes me miss Nat less, and she is an awesome friend. Today has been a great day!

Happy Birthday, Frankie!

Today is Francesca Schafer's birthday! Happy B-Day, Frankie! I hope you have a blast.

Your Friend,
Emily

Terms of En-fear-ment

Terminology for the beginning ghost hunter
By Frankie

Apparition- A ghost that you can see. That transparent person walking down the street. actually, apparitions can be in the form of animals as well.

Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)- Recorded ghost voices. Any voice you recorded that scares the stuffing out of you if you didn't make it.

Ghost Hunt- An attempt to find ghosts.

Ghost Hunter- You. a person who looks for and tries to understand ghosts.

Haunt- A place where spooks hang out (examples: houses, cemeteries, old inns).

Orb- A round light. The easiest shape a ghost can form.

Paranormal- Ghosts, UFOs, etc. Anything "not normal." Things parents say aren't real.

Poltergeist- In German this means "noisy ghost." They are synonymous with mischief and trickery. There are several high profile cases of poltergeist activity. Peeves from Harry Potter is a poltergeist.

Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)- Alien spacecraft. I suppose a UFO could also be ghost lights or something. Afterall, it is "unidentified."

Those are some terms that are very useful in ghost hunting. Sorry to go all "school" on you guys. I tried to make it fun. Did it work?

P.S.- Tomorrow is my birthday!!! I will be ten.

First Discussion

Hello everyone! Is everybody ready to get talkin' about some ghosts? Our first topic is going to be about Mt. Misery (http://lioddities.com/ghost/Misery.htm). What do you think about it? Real? Fake? Have you ever been there or experienced something similar?

This is how the discussion will take place: Simply post your thoughts in the comments. Other people can reply to your comment (use "" if you're quoting someone's comment) and you're more than welcome to reply back and post multiple comments. If you have a friend or sibling using the same computer, identify yourself at the beginning or end of you comment. Remember, no mothers are aloud! This is for us girls (and boys) only.

One more housekeeping detail: Frankie and I are still looking for a better name for our blog. Please give us some suggestions. I'll make a poll after I have some more ideas.

I'll post a conclusion on Monday.

Frankie here!

Hi there!

My name is Francesca Schafer, but people call me Frankie. Please feel free to! I'm an AG doll, friend of Emily, and fellow ghost hunter/co-founder of this club. I'll be on here to, posting about my paranormal adventures. I've never seen an actual ghost or alien, but I like to look for them anyway.

I also play piano, although I am not the best at it. I take lessons and I enjoy it a lot. I also like to draw. What do you like to do for fun?

Welcome!

In case you didn't know, my name is Emily. I'm twelve-years-old and want to share my love of aliens, ghosts, and other such creepy things with other girls like me. There will be a weekly topic to discuss that will be posted on Friday and open for discussion until Monday. These will be our "Case Studies". I like to think of myself as an FBI agent, but if you're more into being a ghost hunter or an alien bounty hunter that is totally fine.

I think for our first meeting, we will discuss the general stuff. Like a name for our club (Paranormal Doll Club is temporary unless everyone likes that), if we want to have a logo and make badges, if we would like to have a chant and special greeting or what-not. We'll try to get to a case study as well.

If you have any questions send me a message or post in the comments. I look forward to meeting all you fellow alien/ghost/strange-loving dolly-girls!