HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: jfurr@vtssi.vt.EDU (Joel Furr)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: re: means of detecting ghosts
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:38:32 GMT
Organization: The Ohio State University Department of Computer and Information Science

kanderso@reed.edu (Karl Anderson) writes: 

>
>While we're on the subject, does anyone have any suggestions for
>sensing a ghost?  I habituate a few areas that seem ripe for haunting.
>
>I can give one that wouldn't be very useful here in the U.S.:
>my friend lived with a family in Nepal for a time.  He likes to
>whistle, but would be gravely discouraged by the family against
>whistling in the house, because this was known to attract spirits.
>

Another means of 'detecting' ghosts I've heard, and the one I'd feel safest
trying out, is the audio recorder.  I've heard a few _very_ spooky stories
about people leaving tape recorders running in places believed to be haunted
and coming back to find mysterious voices, hoofbeats, cries, etc. or to find
the tape recorder damaged beyond repair.  

The reason I say I'd feel safest about this is because I think I'd turn white
and lose a few years off my life if I set up a _video_ camera in a place
believed to be haunted and came back, viewed the tape, and saw a ghost staring
into the lens (especially if it was staring into the lens the minute the tape
started, i.e. while I was there setting it up).

I think I could handle hearing stuff on an audio tape a little better than
that. 

Comments?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: trifid@agora.rain.com (Roadster Racewerks)
Subject: Quoting
Organization: Open Communications Forum
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 18:39:46 GMT



Some of us don't have as good an editor on our system as others. This leads
to full quotes of previous articles. Please consider whether a long enough
time has gone by to really require so much quoting, if your editor makes it
difficult to delete lines.

Suze
From: mdouglas@cad067.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Maria Douglas ~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Greek ghosts
Date: 14 Oct 92 20:26:26 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp.


-- 
Catherine Arnott Smith writes:

	My mom, dad, and small sister were in Greece driving on a very deserted
	country road.  They saw a young woman in the road ahead. She was wearing a
	black dress (this being Greece, the black dress is not particularly symbolic
	...)

Oh, Catherine!  I am Greek, my father being the first born of Greek immigrants.  The
black dress is *extremely* symbolic!  Whenever one of my grandmother's friends died,
she would wear black (dresses) for a year to signify her grief.  By the time my
grandmother died, my father HATED black, and would not allow us to wear it.  It is
very specifically a color of death.  If you saw a lot of people there wearing a black
dress or black clothing, they were probably in their year of mourning.

Your story is fascinating!  I will ask my father if he knows any more ghost stories
from Greece.

Yours truly,

Maria
--
Maria E. Douglas	(408) 765-4728		    
Intel Corporation	mdouglas@cadev6.intel.com  

"Boy, I don't know what that thar Space Mead is,
	but ahhhhl drink it!"

		Jake Barlow,
		Bounty Hunter and Cthulhoid Investigator

Standard disclaimer applies...I work for 'em, but I don't speak for 'em.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: wombat@cs.montana.edu (Izurieta)
Subject: halloween
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman Mt 59717
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:57:46 GMT


	Dear ghostly friends,

	Halloween is approaching fast, and I am suppossed to scare the
living pants of some neighbourhood kids.  Any ideas?  Storytelling would
be interesting but not very effective.  Has anyone done anything that deserves
mention?


		Please let me know,  better still, post it to the network
as I am sure other netters want to hear about it.


					Clem

					(wombat@fubar.cs.montana.edu)
.
From: pol30546@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peder Larsen)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: sources of ghosts
Date: 7 Oct 92 21:32:14 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

casmith@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (CatherineArnott Smith) writes:

>The second ghost I won't go into here,
 except to say that he was standing next 
 to a Cthulu type creature ... oops... sorry,
 had to do it.  :-)

 Ah come on, tell us about the second ghost, please?
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: nec10@cus.cam.ac.uk (N.E. Cole)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Audio Recorders
Keywords: UNEXPLAINED
Date: 13 Oct 92 20:10:54 GMT
Organization: U of Cambridge, England

Does anyone in England remember the first issue of 'The Unexplained' magazine
coming with a free 'Voices of the dead' flexidisc ?? It was omitted from the
second issue of the series for what I believe to be the following reason
I was a kid then and it scared me SHITLESS and my friend had real troubles with
sleeping for about 6 months! Now I don't know whether this proved to be a fake
but if anyone has any info about it and/or a recording or copy of the record, I
would be very interested to hear it! The only thing I can remember about it is
that all the voices spoke in mixtures of languages and one of the voices kept
saying the word ZENTA repeatedly (his name I believe?).

Can anyone help ?

Nick
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: casmith@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (CatherineArnott Smith)
Subject: Re: Greek ghosts
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 14:40:58 GMT


Sorry, Maria; I wasn't being very clear.  I didn't mean that black clothing
had no meaning, rather that it didn't have much relationship to whether the
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: scarrobi@shearson.com (Steve Carrobis)
Subject: Re: halloween
Reply-To: scarrobi@shearson.com
Organization: Lehman Brothers, Inc.
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 13:08:26 GMT

In article 20530617@isdres.er.usgs.gov, rhadden@isdres.er.usgs.gov () writes:
 The location is now littered with holes
> where people have looked for the "lost hoard of silver." I've always
> thought it was a lost hoard of kindness and lonliness...
> lee hadden
> 
in this i fell u r right but unfortunately man is a very greedy creature ... only the very young and the very old are truly selfless... unless they are corporate moguls but they are different creatures all together ..


---
Steve C. 

 ==> A wise man once told me - There ARE NO Wise Men !
                             - Just fools who think they are.
---------------------------------------------------------------		
 I understand you need someone to do work.
 I don't do work, but, I know this guy who does.
    -Vladimir Taltos
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: uni@acs.bu.edu (Shaen Bernhardt)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Haunted House?
Date: 7 Oct 92 07:28:27 GMT
Organization: Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

In article <1992Oct4.142137.2203@bvc.edu> frantz@bvc.edu writes:

>This is a wonderfully intriguing story, but I'm left with a couple of 
>questions.  First, did you ever follow up on what your sister told you 
>about "hearing voices?"  Did she ever tell you exactly what she thought she 
>was hearing?  Did *you* ever hear anything?  I'm also curious about the 
>motivation to have the door open.  Was there ever a story about something 
>happening in the attic (I'm wondering if someone was ever locked up there 
>accidentally or something).  Have you ever really explored the attic for 
>possible clues to all of this?  I ask because I lived in a house that had 
>an attic that was more than a little odd--and it had a decided "history."  
>I'm convinced that's why we heard as many weird things as we did from 
>overhead.
>
>Andrea 

Well,

	As for the noises in the hall, my sister Dana thought they were 
"an old man mumbling or something" but she had always put it off (being 
at least as much of a skeptic as I )   I didn't think of it as important 
because it wasn't personal experience, but her boyfriend at the time got
freaked out by the "hall voice" a few times as well.  Once he even yelled
at me for scaring the daylights out of him one night, I was completely 
baffled.  I never heard the "hall voices" it's possible that they were a 
feature of my sister's room only or something.  So "old man mumbling" is the
best I can do....  As for investigating the rehabed attic, I suppose 
there could be some history there, but I don't know what it is.  The
"funeral room" is the extent of my knowledge about the previous owner/
owners.  Possible I suppose that someone was locked into one of the
"closets" but they were rather new, and I would guess than any
such lore would be available... I heard none.  I did check the closets
themselves carefully a few times, even hid in one for awhile to see
if anything would happen... they were pretty uninteresting, not much space
for anyone to lurk around in with all the equipment in there, but enough
to get a few people locked in without much trouble.  Again, the reason I
resort to the explanation I do (and incidently the reason the story 
appears here) is because I have no idea how to explain it otherwise.
To my knowledge, what I saw happen in front of my own eyes defies the laws
of physics....  I'm really at a loss for any explanation other than the 
supernatural and it would seem a very human thing to do to open a deadbolt
lock and allow a door to swing open TWICE.  
Explanations?  Your guess = mine.

uni@acs.bu.edu

























Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From:  (Skarn)
Subject: Re: My Very Own Street Light Story
Followup-To: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Organization: Inst. for Geologi, Univ. i Oslo
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 16:55:25 GMT

In article <5OCT199210451329@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov>,
devol@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (WILLIAM DEVOL) wrote:
> 
> It happened!  While I was on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, my wife and I were 

etc., y'all read it

Anyhow, I've experienced this street light thing.  It's been happening to
me for a number of years.  It was most common the last place that I lived. 
I used to get up early each morning to jog through an unsuccessful
industrial park (so the streets were all lit, but no cars used them). 
There was one light that went out approximately 90% of the times that I ran
under it.  Two more lights on my route also went out, but with less
frequency.  In a semi-scientific test, I would watch other joggers run down
the same roads, but the lights never went out until I ran under them.  I
think this rules out the weight-theory (whereby the weight of a pedestrian
causes vibrations in the light emitting structure to the end that the light
fails to operate properly).  Before anyone gets smart, the other joggers
were both lighter and heavier than me.  As no cars use the road at that
hour, the headlight-theory is also out.

Additionally, near my current place of employment is a street-car
turnaround.  Over this is a grid of lights suspended from poles along the
perimeter of the turnaround.  One of these lights often goes out for me,
and I certainly don't cause as much vibration as the street-cars (which are
closer to the poles, anyhow).

In summary, I think this is really cool.  My guess is that it has something
to do with electromagnetic flux coming from the human body - some people
got more or different frequency than others.  It is more common on cold
nights/mornings and with mercury-vapor lights, in my case.  My physics is
kinda rusty, so someone else figure it out.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: kamata01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: CANDYMAN == Bloody Mary/Mary Worth ??
Date: 9 Oct 92 16:15:22 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville

> In article <hgvzm+h@rpi.edu>, Matt Garretson writes...
>>Have you seen the TV ads for the new film CANDYMAN? It seems like an alternative
>>take on our own beloved Mary Worth story. "Look into the mirror. Say it once
>>for fun..."  But you damn well better not say it five times!
> 
> 
> What in the world are you taking about?
> 


Candyman is a movie that is going to be released soon.  

I haven't exactly figured out what it is about yet.  It does remind me of the
old Bloody Mary stories.  Something about standing in a dark bathroom, in front
of the mirror and repeating "Bloody Mary" so many times (either three or
something like that).


Kymberli
From: rajag-h@acsu.buffalo.edu (Hema Rajagopalan)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: Greek ghosts
Date: 15 Oct 92 22:06:29 GMT
Organization: UB

Hi, i'm new to this newsgroup and i would
like to know if any one of you could help
me out with a problem i have..
i am incredibly afraid of the supernatural.
i am from asia...and tho my country
is pretty modern and advanced there
are still some people who do
believe in the supernatural and magic..
I have myself seen and heard of 
stories that are unexplainable..
they have to do with black magic
, etc...
i'd like to to know if anyone of you
could help me stop being scared of ghosts, spooks..
etc.
i'd be undoubtfully grateful.
thanks a lot :)
and by the way..i do believe greatly in god and pray.. :)
Xref: sparky alt.folklore.ghost-stories:672 alt.horror:4411
From: wright@latcs2.lat.oz.au (Michael G. Wright)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories,alt.horror
Subject: Re: LOVECRAFT'S GRAVE... WHERE?
Date: 11 Oct 92 09:54:22 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, La Trobe Uni, Australia

alvalent@husc10.harvard.edu (Alvin Valentine) writes:


>Where is it?  In Salem, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island, or
>elsewhere?

Isn't it in Dunwich?

-- 
Michael Wright            _-_|\     Peg- "Al, can I have a thousand bucks?" 
LaTrobe University,      /     \     Al- "Why sure honey, have you got change
Melbourne, Australia.    \_.-_*/          for a million?"
wright@latcs1.lat.oz.au       v                Married with children. :-)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: st1dg@rosie.uh.edu (Wilkinson, Damon E.)
Subject: Candyman - Boody Mary stuff
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 07:11:00 GMT

Guess I wasn't cllear - my question is not about the Candyman stuff,
but what the hell does Bloddy Mary / Mary worth mean?
i said it - I may just be missing the pun -
thats what I am asking about - not the movie
e
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: Matt Garretson
Subject: CANDYMAN == Bloody Mary/Mary Worth ??
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:39:12 GMT

Have you seen the TV ads for the new film CANDYMAN? It seems like an alternative
take on our own beloved Mary Worth story. "Look into the mirror. Say it once
for fun..."  But you damn well better not say it five times!
From: ccooke@gems.vcu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: WHO/WHAT IS CTHULHU?
Date: 8 Oct 92 18:37:49 -0400
Summary: JUST WANTED TO KNOW WHAT ALL THE FUSS WAS ABOUT.
Keywords: CTHULHU
Organization: Medical College of Virginia

I am new to netnews and am interested in ghost stories, folklore, etc.  In 
reading the postings in this section I have encounted all this uproar about 
something or someone called CTHULHU.  Could someone please fill me in?  I hate 
walking in to the middle of a movie.  I could not find a reference that 
explained what/who CTHULHU is/was.  Thanks.  I would really appreciate some info.

-Cookie
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: sfjr@wam.umd.edu (Steve Russell)
Subject: Re: cthulhu
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 20:27:47 GMT

In article <98249@bu.edu> uni@acs.bu.edu (Shaen Bernhardt) writes:
>In article <1992Oct10.180813.3063@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA> bchapman@spartan.ac.BrockU.CA (Bruce Patrick Chapman) writes:
>>apparently this newsgroup will be less plagued by cthulhu etc...i was greeted
>>by the new cthulhu newsgroup on entering rn today.
>>BTW: I DO NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS CALLED. I DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO IT.
>>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>This is forwarded mail.  Please send all comments etc. to the following
>>		address: <9005904@mcmaster.bitnet>
>>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>May such good fortune find us repeatedly.
>
>uni
>

Great!  Can we get some actual ghost stories now?  Like in the name of the
newsgroup? *chuckle*  They were good:0

SFJR

Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: pingleto@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Mike Pingleton)
Subject: Here's one
Originator: pingleto@mars.ncsa.uiuc.edu
Organization: Nat'l Ctr for Supercomp App (NCSA) @ University of Illinois
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 22:53:25 GMT

Here's one of my experiences:

When I was eight years old, we (parents, 3 siblings, and me) lived in a 
rented 3 bedroom ranch-style house in La Puente, California.  It was in 
this house that several occurances took place; looking back now, I don't
remember being frightened at any of them.  If they happened to me now,
I think I would be a nervous wreck.

First Incident.  One summer night I awoke, not sure what it was that woke
me.  As I lay looking up at the ceiling, I heard what sounded like someone
walking across the roof, directly over my bedroom.  The sound was a thump,
followed by creaking as if weight was being placed on the rafters, like 
someone was struggling up the slope of the roof.  As I listened I became
aware that the sound was moving, crossing the room, and then fading as it
reached the wall (on the other side of which was my sister's bedroom: I
wonder if the sound crossed her room as well).  Then I would hear it return,
and cross the room to just over my window, about face, and start over again.
This went on for what seemed like a long time, and then I guess I fell 
asleep.
Mom dismissed all this to an overactive imagination, but I woke to hear
the roofwalker many more times.

Second Incident.  After living in the house for two years, we were getting
ready to move to St. Louis.  This wasn't a very happy time for us; none
of us, including Mom and Dad, wanted to leave.  Anyway, one night we were
sitting in the living room, watching television, when we heard the jangling
of coathangers coming from a small closet in the living room.  Mom got 
up and opened the closet door, and we could see from the sofa maybe half
a dozen coathangers, still swinging.  Since we were moving, this closet
was completely empty save for the hangers.  Mom shut the door and tried 
to laugh it off.  I remember not being particularily frightened by this.
We went back to watching TV, and later it happened again.  Mom opened the
door again, and the hangers were swinging again in the same manner.  Dad
was at work, and the rest of us all present and accounted for on the sofa.

Third Incident.  This occured the next night after the first hanger incident.
Dad was off work, and the whole family was sitting in the living room,
watching TV.  A whirring sound suddenly came from the kitchen, and Mom got
up to see what it was.  I followed her into the kitchen to see, too.  Mom
had one of those Hamilton Beach mixers on a stand, the kind you flip back
to put a bowl under.  The mixer was on.  The dial was set to the highest 
speed.  Mom turned off the mixer, and then she unplugged it.

We moved just a few days later.  I wonder if our leaving upset whatever or
whomever.  I don't ever remember being frightened by anything happening
in that house.  It wasn't until I grew up that I felt frightened by a
presence of some sort, but I'll save that story to post next time.

Mike "I came up with Betty" Pingleton


Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: hillnr@hamlet.uncg.edu (Norman Hill)
Subject: Re: Tucson Ghost story
Organization: North Carolina State University
Distribution: world,local
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 15:32:55 GMT

In article <8kvzhxj@rpi.edu>, Matt Garretson writes:
|> In article <marleyt-071092094951@scarlett.ccit.arizona.edu> marleyt@ccit.arizona.edu (Marley Treadwell) writes:
|>  [story about ghostly hitchhiker deleted]
|> >The old woman stated that the
|> >young woman in question had been dead ten years and was hit on that highway
|> >and died. The trucker then showed her the scarf she left and she said that
|> >it happens all the time. 
|> 
|> Is it the same scarf each time? Or does the ghost have a collection?  :)

Actually the same story occurs repeatedly. :)  I have heard this story in
North Carolina and in Kentucky with different place names from unrelated 
people.

  Norman

-- 
Norman Hill, Systems Programmer        Internet: hillnr@hamlet.uncg.edu
UNCG, Greensboro, North Carolina          Voice: (919) 334-3338

"Nothing is easier than fault-finding.  No talent, no self-denial, no brains
 are required to set up in the grumbling business."   -Robert West
From: mdouglas@cad067.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Maria Douglas ~)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
Subject: Re: sources of ghosts
Date: 7 Oct 92 17:39:21 GMT
Organization: Intel Corp.


-- 
Joel and fellow hauntophiles,

I found your emotional playback theory very interesting.  When I was studying theatre,
I often found the stage to be literally "thick" with emotional residues.  I also have
the fortune (or misfortune) of being rather "sensitive," so I would often leave the
stage with some very distinct feelings, as it were.  It's difficult to explain, but
after reading your last post (I missed the original), it made me wonder about these
emotional recordings, as well.

Another theory I've played with (though I admit it's not well thought out) is the
idea that specific events (emotionally traumatic or not) open up certain wormholes
in time, perhaps causing time to move circularly within a certain space, in this
case the theatre.  I guess you could call it "derailing" time, or at least tying off
a certain thread back onto itself.  Although I'm a religious person, I'm not convinced
that everything we think is supernatural is actually connected to the spirit realm.
How can we know?

Anyway, just an idea.
--
Maria E. Douglas	(408) 765-4728		    
Intel Corporation	mdouglas@cadev6.intel.com  


I don't speak for Intel.  Period.
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: jbjorklu@aton.abo.fi (Joakim Bj|rklund INF)
Subject: Re: CANDYMAN info and a personal ghost story
Organization: Abo Akademi University
	<1992Oct9.121522.1@ulkyvx.louisville.edu> <2+wzya+@rpi.edu>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 19:05:09 GMT


Barker's story "Candyman" is from "The Book of Blood 5". You were right about
the "Candyman", he was some sort of supernatural killer. If I'm totally wrong
about these things, please correct me. (I read the story some months ago.)


Joakim Bjorklund, Finland
jbjorklu@aton.abo.fi
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: casmith@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (CatherineArnott Smith)
Subject: Re: sources of ghosts
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston Illinois.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 20:41:47 GMT

I've always wondered about this myself.  My father, who is now dead himself,
was a great lover of ghost stories and always said he had seen two ghosts in
his life.  The first was his own father, who died of a heart attack at 53.  My
dad saw HIS dad from the upstairs window of his home in England--walking
around the corner of the house towards the flower garden where he liked to
spend his free time.  Grandpa's ghost looked up at my dad watching him from
the window and WAVED.  (This would have given ME a heart attack).

The second ghost I won't go into here.  I just offer this as an example of the
"recording"-type phenomenon.  My grandfather was evidently just hanging out in
the place he felt comfortable ... no suicide, no unfinished business (as far
as I know) ... although the suddenness of his death fits with some other
theories about why ghosts are.

Catherine Arnott Smith
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.ghost-stories
From: peten@iat.holonet.net (Pete Norton)
Subject: Re: WHO/WHAT IS CTHULHU?
Organization: HoloNet (BBS: 510-704-1058)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 21:44:10 GMT

You did not find any reference to Cthulhu because this entity has nothing to
do with folklore or ghost stories.
It is a character created by the fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft and used by him
in his horror fiction.