"A Haunted Carriage Ride!"

 Welcome!

A couple of weeks ago, Greg and I were traveling through Abingdon, Virginia late in the afternoon during the Virginia Highlands Festival, when Greg suddenly drew my attention to the horse-drawn carriage coming down the street. We were both surprised to see it since we didn't know that there were carriage rides in Abingdon.

I found out later that the Martha Washington Inn offers carriage rides for special events, like the Highlands Festival, as well as rides, regularly, certain days of the week.

I quickly pulled my camera out of my pocketbook and snapped a picture because I thought it would be great to put in my new book about the Southern Appalachian Mountains. 

After I got home, I looked through the pictures that I had taken during that day. I was surprised, but not shocked, when I discovered that the picture that I had taken of the horse-drawn carriage had obvious ectoplasm in it!

A Carriage Ride Through Abingdon

I suppose you could say that those on the carriage went on a haunted carriage ride!, whether they realized it or not.

Here's a closeup of the ectoplasm in this photograph-

Notice the ectoplasm above, that goes all the way across the photograph in almost a straight line, from the brick building on the left, to the edge of the photograph on the right. There are large and small breaks in the ectoplasm, however. There is also ectoplasm on the carriage, and on the woman on the right side of the picture.

What is causing this ectoplasm? It could be that spirits are attracted to the carriage that brings back memories of earlier times.

This is not the only time that ectoplasm has shown up in my pictures of Abingdon. I believe that this beautiful, historic town is very haunted!

For more genuine spirit photographs that my husband, brother, and I have taken, you might want to check out my paranormal Kindle book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind." For more information, just click on the widget above.

Thanks for visiting! Until around Saturday, September, 6, 2025, Becky

 

"Paranormal Book"

 Welcome!

Greg and I recently went to a local writers fair, and I told another author about my book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind." I explained what the book was about since she was really curious and intrigued about Greg's and my ability to take pictures of the paranormal.

I told her that we didn't see spirits before we took pictures, and that most of the time, we don't intend to take paranormal photographs. Instead, the spirits just show up in our photos when we least expect them.

For example, a few days ago, I was taking pictures for a new book that I am writing about the picturesque area in which we live, never intending to get anything paranormal, when I noticed that something paranormal did show up!- 

Notice the large balls of ectoplasm or orbs to the left of the old building. They show up really well against the dark foliage.

This ectoplasm could be the spirits of either people or animals that died recently, or they may have been in this area for many years, or even for centuries! What types of animals, or humans were these? If they were the spirits of people, were they perhaps those of cave men, Native Americans, or pioneers?

What caused this paranormal phenomenon? I can only make an educated guess since I'm good at taking paranormal pictures, but I have no idea how to interpret them.

I leave the interpretation of paranormal phenomena to the experts, genuine psychics who specialize in these things.

In my paranormal book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind Ordinary People, Extraordinary Encounters," I was fortunate enough to have a gifted psychic, Elaine Watson, who is now deceased, to explain most of the (Over 100!) photographs in my book that Greg, my brother, Nick, and I took.

A few of the intriguing chapters in the book are, "Unusual Ectoplasm," "Shadow Ghosts," and "My Childhood Home," as well as others.

The Kindle version of my book is now on Amazon. For more information, please see the widget above for more details.

Thanks for visiting! Until around Saturday, September 21, 2024, Becky

Eerie Spirit Photo!

 Welcome!

A few weeks ago, Greg and I went to Wytheville, Virginia on business. On the way back, we decided to stop at a convenience store. As we drove into the parking lot, I noticed some land and a few pretty trees growing on it. One of the trees was especially nice. I told Greg that I would like to stop by and photograph the one tree that I liked when we came back out of the store. (I try to photograph anything that looks interesting or unique since I sell downloads of some of my photographs on a stock photo website.)

When we came back out, a few minutes later, I noticed it was somewhat darker, around dusk. I was thankful that it wasn't any darker, and I quickly took several pictures.

I was really pleased with a couple of my photos.

This was my favorite one-

I really like the way the tree picture turned out. However, I never dreamed that it would have something that looked like a moon since there was actually no moon in that area! I had to conclude that it was a large orb! Also, notice that there is ectoplasm as well as other faint orbs near the "moon." In addition, there is light green ectoplasm on the tree on the right hand side of the photo. I believe it would be fair to say that this is an eerie spirit photo!

I can easily understand why there is all of this paranormal activity since this is actually a graveyard!

In my newly republished memoir, "Down Memory Lane," I have several photographs and a few new chapters. One of these chapters is entitled "Haunting Memories." This chapter, with spirit photographs, is about some of my paranormal adventures at different times in my life.

For more information about my memoir, as well as my paranormal book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind," please see the widgets above. Both of these books are for sale on Amazon. My memoir is in both the paperback and the Kindle versions, and my paranormal book is just in the Kindle version.

Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting! Until Saturday, March 18, 2023, Becky

Haunted or Not?

 Welcome!

I have written several blog posts about our unfinished cabin, and now, here's another one about our cabin!

This is my latest cabin photograph. It looks harmless enough.

As I've mentioned previously, I believed that our cabin was haunted because of some of the ectoplasm that showed up in some of my photographs, taken both inside and out. Also, a psychic that I consulted by phone said that she thought that the cabin was actually built on top of a slave graveyard!

Since the cabin is unfinished, so far we have used it only for storage and for yard sales.

The past ten days, it has been the temporary home for one of our cats, Kit-Cat, a stray that we've been feeding. Kit-Cat had to have emergency surgery, so we let it recuperate in our cabin.

Here (above) is a photograph I took of Kit-Cat on an old comforter inside the cabin. The photo looks a little blurred. I was disappointed that the image was not sharper, and it was too dark. I obviously did not use a flash. I usually don't use one as I prefer existing-light photos. The only thing I changed about the photo was adding my watermark.

This second photo (above) is much lighter (I didn't use a flash on this one either!), and it's a lot more blurred than the first one. Here, again, I just added my watermark. 

Actually, I took four pictures. The first one was light and very blurred, the second one was dark and slightly blurred, and the ones above are the third and fourth photos.

While I was taking the pictures, I felt very frustrated because when I tried to push the button down on the camera, it hesitated on taking the picture at least a couple of times. Maybe it was because of the low light. I don't know. Perhaps it was something else! Was something messing with my camera?

Anyway, I was somewhat perturbed that the strange photos might be because of something paranormal. I was especially upset because of the fact that before we put Kit-Cat into the cabin, I smudged the cabin using a sage smudge stick, and demanded that any negative, evil entities leave the cabin forever. In fact, I told them to leave our entire property immediately! I said that only positive, good entities would remain. I also sprinkled salt in all four corners of the cabin to further get rid of any negative energy!

Good news! Today, Kit-Cat got out of the cabin, and went back to her normal life just outside our house, in the yard that she apparently loves. She seemed fine, better than ever. I thought about the blurred photos, and decided that the camera may not have operated properly because of the low light, or maybe because there were some helpful, healing spirits that were there with Kit-Cat, helping her to recuperate, because after the first couple of days of her being in the cabin, she seemed to settle down, and she did just fine. She even seemed to thrive.

Positive spirits are very acceptable, but, of course, the negative ones are not!

So, is the cabin haunted or not? The best I can tell is that positive energy is all that remains there. So, a happy ending for us all!

For more true stories about the paranormal, both in the United States and abroad, please check out my book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind" on Amazon. Just click on the widget above for more information.

Thanks for visiting! Until Saturday, May 15, 2021, Becky

Paranormal Book and Other Paranormal Info

Welcome!

Starting today, the third Saturday of each month is when I'll publish my "Spirit Photographs" blog post, at least for now.

If you enjoy my "Spirit Photographs" posts, I'd like to recommend my paranormal book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind," which is full of paranormal photos, most of which my husband, Greg, and I took. Many of the photos were taken in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and some were taken in other states and in Europe.

There are also true ghostly stories in the book, about events that happened to Greg and me, as well as to others we know.

The book even includes the regionally famous June Tolliver House ghost photo which my brother, Nick, took when he was a school boy.

To get a copy of my book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind," by Becky Arnott, you can order online from:

www.fastpencil.com (See the widget at the top of this blog post which features my book.)

www.amazon.com  

Thanks, and enjoy!

Some other paranormal info:

My sister-in-law Cris sent me a copy of the online paranormal newsletter she gets, "American Hauntings Ink," which is from the paranormal website www.americanhauntings.net

The website features ghost books, ghost hunts, ghost tours, and various other paranormal events.

Their current newsletter tells all about their upcoming ghost hunts, etc., including "Night at Fox Hollow Farm" in Carmel, Indiana in April, and "The Dead of Winter Festival" in February. These events are not for the faint of heart! (Many of these events are already sold out since they are so popular! Don't worry, however, if you miss out on these that are listed because "American Hauntings" offers these tours, etc. all year long.)

I recently discovered an intriguing ghost-hunter television show "Paranormal Lockdown" which stars Nick Groff, who used to be on "Ghost Adventures." It's on TLC on Friday nights at 9/8C. You just might want to check it out, if you  haven't already. Hope you don't get too scared!

Thanks for visiting! Until Saturday, February 18, 2017, Becky

Mystery (Paranormal?) Photo

Welcome!

My husband, Greg, and I attended a funeral yesterday at a rural church in Northeast Tennessee, and only an hour later, we visited the downtown area of Rogersville, Tennessee where we took some pictures of this quaint little town.

I noticed after Greg had taken this one of me in the courthouse square, I thought it looked like ectoplasm in the background, but Greg thought it was merely a ray of sunlight with lens flare.  What do you think?  (I'm presently looking for a good psychic to view and interpret our recent photographs that we think might be paranormal, for my next paranormal book.)

Here's the mystery photo:

Greg Arnott Photo (copyright 2014)

Please email me and let me know what you think:  (spiritphotographs@gmail.com

Also, I'd just like to wish everyone a safe, happy Halloween!  Hope the weather is nice tonight where you are for all the trick-or-treaters and other Halloween celebrants.

If the weather is crummy, you might just want to stay home and watch "Travel Channel's" "Ghost Adventures" where the guys will feature Ireland and Mexico.  Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!  Until next Saturday, Becky

Ghost Hunt at Falcon Rest Mansion

Welcome!

On my 8/3/12 blog post, entitled "Falcon Rest," I told about our visit to the interesting old mansion, Falcon Rest in McMinnville, Tennessee.  We took a regular tour of the mansion during the daytime, but as I wrote on my previous post, it partly turned into a ghost tour, for it seems difficult to completely separate this mansion from the paranormal!

Photo by Greg Arnott

On our tour, I didn't get any paranormal photos inside the mansion, but I did get a couple outside the mansion.  The reason I didn't get any on the inside was that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside at that time.*

However, if you go on their ghost hunt this month, you will be allowed to try to photograph (with a low-light camera) the mansion to see if you can capture any ghostly images!  Also, you may take your camcorder, audio recorder, etc.

These "Tag-Along Ghost Hunts" will be led by the "Ghost Hunters of Southern Tennessee," to see if they can "add to evidence of otherworldly inhabitants obtained during four years of previous tag-along ghost hunts."

The tours are October 30 and 31, and November 1.  For more ghost-hunt-tour details, see F.Y.I. below.  (Check out their website.  It's really interesting, scary, and fun!)  

*I'm hoping to get permission to put the paranormal photos that I took in my next paranormal book, probably out next year.

F.Y.I
Falcon Rest Mansion
2645 Faulkner Springs Road
McMinnville, Tennessee
931-668-4444
www.falconrest.com

Hope you enjoy the tour, if you decide to go.  Greg and I will be unable to attend this year, but we're planning on being there next October!

Thanks for visiting!  Until next Saturday, Becky

Another Strange Incident

Welcome!

It seems that I'll just be doing normal, everyday things like moving a few things from one room to another when suddenly something strange happens.  That happened to me a few days ago.  I decided to finish getting myself ready for the day in our downstairs bathroom, so I gathered a few items I needed and temporarily lay them on top of a chest, and went back for a couple of more items.  When I got back to my first group of items, I was amazed to see a small container where I keep a few of my earrings, etc. precariously perched on the edge of a white basket.  Although I had only gotten about five hours of sleep the night before, I thought that I surely wasn't that far gone, to have placed the small container the way it was sitting.  I'm always careful, because I hate for stuff to fall on the floor, and I can't imagine placing the container like that.  I asked Greg if he had moved any of my stuff, and he said that he hadn't.

If I didn't do it and Greg didn't do it, then there was only one more explanation, and it wasn't a normal one.-It had to be paranormal!  It seems that the paranormal has become the new norm in our new house.

The room where I'd placed these things does have a haunted piece of furniture in it; I know that as a fact, because a visiting psychic saw the spirit in that very room next to her apparently favorite piece of furniture.  I'm going to tell everything the psychic told us (It's fascinating!) in another paranormal book I'm currently writing.

Anyway, I do believe that this spirit moved the small container to the place I found it sitting.  Why?  Who knows?  Maybe she wanted to let us know that she was still in the house or maybe she just wanted a little excitement or attention.

That's okay.  After my initial shock wore off, it really didn't bother me.  She seems harmless enough.  However, if things things ever stop being harmless, that piece of furniture is out of our house-heirloom or not!

"Intelligent hauntings are (when) they're trying to communicate with you, like tugging on your clothes."
-Grant Wilson

Thanks for visiting!  Until next Saturday, Becky

Where Have All the Spirits Gone?

It seems that I used to get a lot more spirits in my photos than I've been getting lately.

I believe there are several reasons for this:

One reason is that I'm not using my flash as often.  I'm going through a phase where I'm enjoying taking arty, existing-light photos instead of using my flash.  Psychic Elaine Watson who helped me with my book, "Photographic Encounters of the Spirit Kind," said that in order to get good spirit photographs, I needed to use the flash whether it was day or night.  (Whenever I'm intent on getting spirit photos, which is not very often, I do turn on my flash, however.) 

Another reason for not getting spirit photos is because a place simply may not have any ghosts or spirits.

However, even if a place is known to be haunted, the spirits sometimes hide.  They just don't want to be photographed.

Also, some periods during each year, "the veil" is pretty much closed; it's a time when few spirits can be detected.  Even the place where Greg works, which is usually a hotbed of spirit activity (It was a former Civil War battlefield.), is quiet.  Things have been pretty quiet at our house, too.

The period we are in right now may be a dormant one for spirits or maybe some of it might just be me.  I've felt a little run-down lately, so in about a week, I'm going to be watching what I eat (after my birthday!), exercising, and getting more rest and sleep.  Then, maybe my paranormal picture-taking ability will improve.  (If not, I should at least be a lot healthier!)

If my plans work out, I should be getting more paranormal photos.  If I do, you'll be the first to know about it.  Also, that will mean that I'll have more pictures to add to my collection that might be in my second paranormal book which should be published in 2015! 

Thanks for visiting!  Until next Saturday, Becky