Debbie Beamer of the
Mechanicsburg Mystery Book Shop
did an amazing job of organizing the Supernatural Saturday event, bringing together some fantastic
speakers, and overseeing throughout the day. She was so efficient,
buzzing here and there, I thought she might have had a little
supernatural help that day. :)
I was invited to participate in a panel, and I'm especially grateful to Deb for including a copy of my paranormal novella,
Soul for Sale,
in every goody bag! Such a thrill for me! And she was wonderful to let
me bring copies of Surfacing, my mermaid fantasy, along as well. It's an
incredible high to see people walking around with copies of your books
in their hands.
The half-day conference was held at
the Holly Inn in Mt. Holly. I've been there a few times before, but
never realized the inn had a ghost story of its own.
I couldn't find anyone who knew the actual
story, so Googled it and found
this story, which interestingly enough, is about a soldier in the Civil War. From the orbs in the photo below, it appears he may have attended the conference, too. :)
Kicking
off the conference, Mark Nesbitt presented "The Ghosts of Gettysburg:
The Evidence." Oh yeah! Exactly what I've been needing. I've been
reworking my Gettysburg ghost story I don't know how many times, and
always felt it was missing something. So I bought two of Mark's books -
his most recent, Civil War Ghost Trails, and The Ghost Hunter's Field
Guide (I'm giddy with glee!).
I literally have pages
and pages of notes because every session was riveting, but I'll condense
for these posts, and I also won't give away too much of what the
speakers said. You should really buy their books!
Here's
Mark Nesbitt with his latest release, Civil War Ghost Trails, so new he
actually hadn't seen the cover until that day. His publisher hurried so
he'd have copies to sell. Cool for us!
I live about 20 minutes from Gettysburg. I really should go
there more often, but it's in a direction I don't normally travel, and
you know how life gets crazy. But now I'm determined. I'd love to go
there during the anniversary of the battle in early July, when
paranormal activity's supposed to become very active.
Gettysburg's
one of the most active haunting sites. Maybe, Mark said, partially due
to the 1.6 million visitors each year, whose visits may help hold the
spirits there. Any protracted sadness or grieving may hold a spirit to
this world.
The battle grew especially intense, and
during 24 hours, claimed 35 casualties per minute -- or one every two
seconds. That's a huge amount of deaths in one place in a short time. Of
the 400 buildings in Gettysburg standing during the Civil War, about
200 of the original structures are still standing, which may also play
into the fact that such a large number of spirits remain attached to the
town.
About 300 to 1,100 bodies remain unaccounted for
- and the lack of a final resting place is another contributing factor
to why spirits don't move on.
There are several types of hauntings:
intelligent, during which spirits interact with humans
I read elsewhere that Gettysburg has one of the highest number of intelligent hauntings)
residual, in which events are replayed over and over again as if recorded
for instance, Mark shared one haunting that visitors may catch sight of
and think it's a group of reenactors, but it's not! A unit of soldiers
will come marching out of the woods, perform maneuvers, and mark back to
the wooded area - or else, if interrupted, will simply vanish!
warp, or a tear in the fabric of time, during which present-day people may actually glimpse events of the past
this was one of the creepiest stories - Pennsylvania Hall was used as a
hospital during the battle, and surgeons often tossed limbs out the
window or piled them up in a gory pyramid. Employees who worked at the
Hall in modern times worked late one night, got on the elevator and
pressed the button for the first floor, but it took them to the basement
instead. The elevator doors opened onto a scene in which people in
1800-era clothes were working in a makeshift hospital. The women pressed
the "close" button like mad, but the doors wouldn't budge. An orderly
walked by, made contact with the women in a beseeching manner, and then
finally the doors closed and they ran to the security guard. Brave souls
that they were, they went back down, but the basement was again just a
storage room. This event happened at least one other time to another
person. I asked Mark after the session what might have happened if one
of those people had stepped off the elevator into another time. It's
anyone's guess!
poltergeist - sometimes associated with younger spirits, but can be any energy
Spirits
can make themselves known by touch, sight, sound or sometimes smell.
Mark played a chilling recording in which a woman visited Iverson's
Pits, and said a blessing before leaving. The answer? A man's scream. I
still have goosebumps from that one.
Electronic Voice
Phenomenon, or EVP, captures sounds the human ear can't hear in real
time, but when you play it back, you can hear the all-too-accurate
responses to the questions you ask. (I need to buy a tape recorder.)
There
was much more, but I won't give too much away. Mark has written several
books detailing accounts of hauntings. I bought a few of these books
(novellas, really) years ago, so can truthfully say they're well worth a
read if you love true ghost stories.
The Ghosts of Gettysburg ghost tours are spooky fun.
Check out this link, and if you can't visit, you can download a virtual walking tour.
You can
find Mark's books at the same site,
as well as another presenter's, Patty Wilson. I can't wait to share her
session. Everyone there was riveted during her talk, and you could
literally hear a pin drop.
I'll share some of Patty Wilson's session next time, so stay tuned. You'll want to keep the lights on at night afterward!
Special thanks to Diane DeLucca Appelt for two of the photos.
