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Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
On July 4th, my fiancee Erin and I took a ghost tour to the Grove at Gettysburg. When we were there last year, our guide had told us to not enter the Grove. This time, the guide did allow us to enter. While in there, he told us of a story about a ghost that had been seen there recently. It was the spirit of a 13 year old girl named Elizabeth. She was a mentally disturbed girl who wandered away from home shortly after the war, traumatized by the fighting that had occurred there, and committed suicide. Our guide reported that he had seen her on two occasions. The first time, he shined his flashlight on her, and she hissed at him while moving her body into a lunging position. The second time he said she was seen while he told a group the story about his first encounter, and this time, she was just pacing back and forth in the woods behind him.
Erin and I had already been planning on going out later that night on our own to explore the area. It was Erin's idea to go out around dead time (3:00 AM). We went down to the grove, and as I approached the woods, something inside the trees threw something at me. Erin ran and refused to go in any further. I snapped some photos, which I just now looked at.
If you look at the pictures, you can see the shape of what appears to be a woman in spectral form, somewhat skeletal in appearance.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
It's like Blair Witch Project meets Gettysburg
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
Looked at one, not looking at the rest. Unsettling.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
If, in death, I end up roaming through the woods for hundreds of years scaring ghost seekers, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
Maybe it's because I believe there is no such thing as ghosts, but I don't see a thing.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
Sava,
I used to give Ghost Tours in Charleston, SC. I can tell you from experience that half the stories are made up. Personally, I loved it when someone thought they had something on their camera. That made the tips roll in! That is not say I'm a total non-believer. I've just been in enough situations to know; people see what they want to.
Furthermore, I read through the story about the girl's suicide. That certainly sounds like a ghost tour fabrication. We told a story about how Castle Pinckney in Charleston Harbor burnt to the ground killing all inside during the Civil War. We told the tour that the soldiers staying there we're burning alive and throwing themselves into the harbor only to feel the sting of salt! And then we would say, "you could smell the burning flesh from the lavish homes in Battery Parl." It was the most elaborate and detailed story we had. The truth was Castle Pinckney did burn to the ground, but in the 1950's, and no one was inside when it happened. In fact, the only thing signficant about Castle Pinckney was the fact it was taken by the Confederates before Fort Sumter. The Union troops moved from the island to Fort Sumter for better protection.
Truthfully, the only reason we took people out there was to ensure they got a nice breeze in July coming off the ocean.
It would stand to reason that this grove you speak of is probably just a nice place to tell a great story. If it's not historically backed up, I wouldn't believe it.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
forfreelin04
Sava,
I used to give Ghost Tours in Charleston, SC. I can tell you from experience that half the stories are made up. Personally, I loved it when someone thought they had something on their camera. That made the tips roll in! That is not say I'm a total non-believer. I've just been in enough situations to know; people see what they want to.
I've been ghosthunting for years. I don't want to come off as a kook, but I've had encounters with spirits, and moreso with demonic entities. I didn't want to believe for a long time, in fact I try to be as skeptical as possible, but I've experienced too much. Maybe there is nothing there in the photo, but something did throw something at me from in the woods.
For the record, I was wearing a Union slouch hat entering an area that was occupied by Confederate soldiers 146 years ago.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
Well, in the video game thread, we've got some guys working on their ghostbusting techniques, so maybe they should check it out. :)
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
Dom Heffner
If, in death, I end up roaming through the woods for hundreds of years scaring ghost seekers, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
Maybe it's because I believe there is no such thing as ghosts, but I don't see a thing.
It seems lots of people don't believe in ghosts until they experience something. My best friend used to always give me crap.... until he lived in Arizona for 6 months. He didn't believe in any God or after life or anything before he moved out there. After his experiences in the house he lived in, he is certainly a believer now.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
I also managed to capture this image during the daylight while hiking Big Round Top. It resembles the image of a soldier. Don't know how to explain it. I know it wasn't a tree.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
Looks like possibly a brown leaf hanging from that tree right by you. It doesn't look like the image is far away depth-wise. When you zoom in on it, of course it looks a little weird, but I think based on that first picture that it's just a leaf.
Now those night pictures at the beginning of this thread, I have no idea.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
I grew up in a Victorian era house and that will make a believer of anyone. Crazy, crazy things happened to me as a child and teenager. I always wondered if I was crazy until my wife-to-be was visiting my parents (I had told none of them of my encounters) experienced the exact same presences I had growing up. I was comfortably asleep 2,500 miles away in California and had not warned her what was in store if she slept alone in my bedroom. It unsettled here, and she was far from a believer. She is, in fact, a die hard atheist and skeptic. But she believes in her experiences and they continue to this day in the same location, though they no longer unsettle her as much.
Are ghosts real? No one can say conclusively What I can tell you is that I can walk into a location and give you a fairly accurate portrayal of those who have lived there and events that have occurred there. I can not explain my ability but it is certainly there and it is something I've grown comfortable with. The only downside is that people always want to take me to old, decrepit buildings and have me tell a story. The truth is, what I have for them is just usually not that interesting, much like everyday life. When a "psychic" or "parapsychologist" has a wild yarn for everything I get suspicious. It doesn't fit with my own very real encounters and I get suspicious that they are just milking it for money.
I have been to many civil war battlefields. Sava, I don't know what you encountered but let me say I've had some chilling experiences. Now, proceed to call for my straight jacket folks. :)
Edit: I agree with BuckeyeRedleg about the pictures.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
Dom Heffner
If, in death, I end up roaming through the woods for hundreds of years scaring ghost seekers, I'm going to be pretty disappointed.
Maybe it's because I believe there is no such thing as ghosts, but I don't see a thing.
I agree. I don't see squat.
Does anybody else have a Cry Baby Bridge where you live? You know - the story where a mother left her baby on a railroad bridge, and it died, and at night you can hear the baby crying. We seem to have several of them. :p:
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
BuckeyeRedleg
Looks like possibly a brown leaf hanging from that tree right by you. It doesn't look like the image is far away depth-wise. When you zoom in on it, of course it looks a little weird, but I think based on that first picture that it's just a leaf.
It may be a brown leaf. That was my first thought as well, but then I thought that if it was just a brown leaf, then why don't I see any other brown leaves besides just that one in the entire section of forest?
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
It may be a brown leaf. That was my first thought as well, but then I thought that if it was just a brown leaf, then why don't I see any other brown leaves besides just that one in the entire section of forest?
Because a squirrel broke a small branch causing it to die?
Because a recent thunderstorm caused that branch to break causing it to die and turn brown?
Because the tree has recently been infected with some sort of insect and that's the first branch to die?
Could be any number of explanations. I have singular dead branches in a number of my trees. Not sure why.
ETA: Even if it's not a dead leaf/branch in the tree, it doesn't look anything like a dead union trooper to me.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
It may be a brown leaf. That was my first thought as well, but then I thought that if it was just a brown leaf, then why don't I see any other brown leaves besides just that one in the entire section of forest?
It looks like you took two pictures, right?
If so, what caused you to take two pictures of trees and brush or did you think you saw something weird in the first place?
I'm just trying to figure out if you were looking for something when you took the pictures or just later noticed it when you got the pics developed. If you noticed it later, I'm still wondering why you took two pictures of the same thing (from slightly different angles).
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
In the first set of pictures I don't see a thing. They are just black to me. In 2nd set,I'm not sure what it is. It could be a leaf like someone else said or something else. I have never experienced a ghost or haunting but I leave open the possiblity that things like that do happen. Me and my wife have visited Gettysburg a couple of times. One time when driving around the park late, about dusk, my wife said she got a really eery feeling when we passed some spring (I don't remember the name). She said she felt like if there were spirits there they were in that spot. It did look kind of creepy in that area but I didn't sense anything other than that. I've been wanting to go back since its been a long time since the last time we were there for any legth of time. May have to pay a visit soon. I only live about 1 1/2 hours from Gettysburg.
The History Channel shows The Ghost of Gettysburg every so often. There are two shows of ghost stories and some pretty chilling tales of peoples experiences with them that live in that area.
Thanks for sharing those SAVA. I find these experiences of people with ghosts fascinating.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
My favorite haunted spot is the road in Oxford near Miami University where you can pull over, blink 3 times, and then a dead motorcyclist will start driving toward you. Supposedly a long time ago a cyclist hit a little boy on a bike while on a night time trip to see his girlfriend whose parents forbid them to date, perfect haunted love story, ehh? You see the headlight, then the reflectors of the little boy's bike.
It actually DOES work, but I'm convinced that it's just a car coming down a distant hill, bright lights on, which from a distance appear as one headlight... and then I'm guessing it makes a turn, where the breaklights become "reflectors". (I have noticed once or twice the headlight seems to become two headlights the closer it gets, leading to my car theory). But, as I said, it DOES work and makes for a fun night, especially when you're bored.
As far as other stuff is concerned, I usually go out of my way NOT to have any kind of encounter with spirits or anything like that. Part of me does believe in that stuff, part of me doesn't. I'd rather keep it that way.
I did have one odd experience as a kid though. I was walking on my dad's back (he had a bad back and I was maybe 35 pounds at the time) in our basement, and as I looked up to the ceiling, I saw a whitish cloud/mass go IN an HVAC SUPPLY vent while the A/C was on!
At first I thought maybe it was smoke from one of dad's cigarrettes, but then I later realized that it was a supply vent and the air was on. My theory might have held water had that vent been to a return duct. It kinda creeped me out.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
I also managed to capture this image during the daylight while hiking Big Round Top. It resembles the image of a soldier. Don't know how to explain it. I know it wasn't a tree.
looks like a brown rag in a tree to me
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
I've been ghosthunting for years.
Been hunting and studying for years myself (since 1977 or so), pretty interesting stuff out there. I do think that the one pic looks like something hanging in the tree.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
dougdirt
It seems lots of people don't believe in ghosts until they experience something. My best friend used to always give me crap.... until he lived in Arizona for 6 months. He didn't believe in any God or after life or anything before he moved out there. After his experiences in the house he lived in, he is certainly a believer now.
If your friend lived anywhere near Phoenix, I bet he just saw an old person. ;)
That brown thing looks like either a leaf or a bat to me, Sava.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
GAC
I agree. I don't see squat.
Does anybody else have a Cry Baby Bridge where you live? You know - the story where a mother left her baby on a railroad bridge, and it died, and at night you can hear the baby crying. We seem to have several of them. :p:
We have one just outside of Troy. My friend's parents used to own the house and property right next to it, and they told me there were several times they had to run people off their land late at night who were trying experience the crying baby. They lived there for over 10 years and never heard a thing.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
I also managed to capture this image during the daylight while hiking Big Round Top. It resembles the image of a soldier. Don't know how to explain it. I know it wasn't a tree.
HAHA are you kidding me? You have to be joking with this one :laugh:
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
Id say double digits of people have died in my home before, and the only thing I hear or see at night is cars driving past my house.
My home is over 150 years old.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
I do believe that some people see things, though.
My personal opinion is that ghosts and things like that are probably all demonic forces masquerading as whatever it is the person is seeing or encountering. For those who don't encounter them, they probably aren't seen as a vulnerable (or usable) target to whatever it is. But that's getting pretty close to a religious discussion so I won't divulge much further.
I know people who claim to have seen things, though. A friend of my brother had an uncle commit suicide in their house, and ever since that time all kinds of odd things happened in that place. They would see light phenomena float through the house. Windows would mysteriously open. Walls of empty rooms would be tapped on, stuff like that. I've never experienced anything like that, and I can say for sure that I don't ever want to.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
This stuff makes for good stories, but I could never be convinced.
It's fun to be scared, an altogether different thing to acutally believe any of this is true.
My Mother is really into this stuff, and we give each other grief back and forth.
I always like where people see the ghost wearing clothes. What determines what outfit the ghost is wearing?
How does one become a ghost? Once you are a ghost, do you ever stop being a ghost?
And- do you really just hang around the same places making noises for eternity?
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
Dom Heffner
This stuff makes for good stories, but I could never be convinced.
It's fun to be scared, an altogether different thing to acutally believe any of this is true.
My Mother is really into this stuff, and we give each other grief back and forth.
I always like where people see the ghost wearing clothes. What determines what outfit the ghost is wearing?
How does one become a ghost? Once you are a ghost, do you ever stop being a ghost?
And- do you really just hang around the same places making noises for eternity?
Let me first say I'm a believer. Not one of the ones like you see on TV, but someone who tried not to believe but experience told me otherwise. That said, I'm not sure ghosts are spirtis/demons, etc. I think there is quite possibly a natural explanation for them, or that there is some part of some of our brains stuck in a different stage of evolution. It is also possible that they are spirts, and it is of course very possible they aren't there at all. I'm open to anything...when someone says they could never be convinced one way or another, that is a very closed minded and unscientific position. Here is an excellent article on just that topic.
http://skeptoid.com/episode.php?id=4134&comments=all
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
GIDP
Id say double digits of people have died in my home before, and the only thing I hear or see at night is cars driving past my house.
My home is over 150 years old.
Double digits? So someone dies in your home roughly every 15 years? I hope you haven't been there for long. :eek:
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
wolfboy
Double digits? So someone dies in your home roughly every 15 years? I hope you haven't been there for long. :eek:
My house is a former doctors office.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
The Cresent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is pretty famous for ghost sightings. We went there last October and though I didn't see any ghosts, a buddy of mine showed me a weird configuration on the digital screen of his camera. He would take a picture but it wouldn't show up.
These are not my photographs so I can't claim they are real.
http://www.crescent-hotel.com/ghosts/photos.htm
In the 1930s, a man named Norman Baker used the building as a cancer ward. He advertised miracle cures but was really in it to make money. He would have patients write a series of letters when they would first arrive. He would then mail them to the patients' homes on a weekly basis after the patients would die. This technique made it possible to keep billing the hopeful families.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
minus5
Been hunting and studying for years myself (since 1977 or so), pretty interesting stuff out there. I do think that the one pic looks like something hanging in the tree.
Me too, pretty hardcore stuff also, mostly private homeowners and businesses, dozens of them over the last 5 years. I treat it pretty confidentially since I'm in a sort of visible professional position where I work, but suffice to say, there's a lot of things happening all around us we don't yet understand....not that that isn't obvious. People have real problems with this stuff.
Separating fact from fictional stories and whatnot is always the hard part.
I live in an historic Victorian home, built in the late 1800's, I NEVER believed in "ghosts," until I experienced things here for the last 3+ years.
Photos are never really good evidence or convincing at all, at least video provides some frame of reference other than a split second capture of something. You'll capture things in the IR spectrum, as well, that you won't see with the light your eyes are able to see naturally, flying all around you if it's an "active" spot. It's pretty freaky stuff until you get used to it.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
The Operator
My favorite haunted spot is the road in Oxford near Miami University where you can pull over, blink 3 times, and then a dead motorcyclist will start driving toward you. Supposedly a long time ago a cyclist hit a little boy on a bike while on a night time trip to see his girlfriend whose parents forbid them to date, perfect haunted love story, ehh? You see the headlight, then the reflectors of the little boy's bike.
It actually DOES work, but I'm convinced that it's just a car coming down a distant hill, bright lights on, which from a distance appear as one headlight... and then I'm guessing it makes a turn, where the breaklights become "reflectors". (I have noticed once or twice the headlight seems to become two headlights the closer it gets, leading to my car theory). But, as I said, it DOES work and makes for a fun night, especially when you're bored.
You want to be freaked out? Take several people with you. Have them get at different stages of the road and all be on the phone at the same time (three way calling). Flash your lights. You won't see the light coming down the road unless you are at the end of it (at least from my experience). The people on the road up ahead won't see the light at all (again, from my experience... done it three times. Same results every time).
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
jimbo
We have one just outside of Troy. My friend's parents used to own the house and property right next to it, and they told me there were several times they had to run people off their land late at night who were trying experience the crying baby. They lived there for over 10 years and never heard a thing.
There is one around Covington, as well - a covered bridge that was also supposedly "Devil worship central". I grew up around there, and visited the old bridge quite a bit. Never heard a baby, saw a ghost or ran into a devil worshipper.
Did run into a guy later who admitted he and his brother painted stuff on the bridge in attempts to heighten the "Devil worshipping" legend.
I also live in a house that is almost 200 years old. I've never seen or heard a suspicious thing.
And, I did take a look at one of the night photos. Honestly, I really didn't see that much, even when looking at it under different brightnesses.
I have always wondered one thing, though: Why do ghosts take their cloths with them to the afterlife? I can almost rationalize a the human mind being a dimensional entity in itself which has occasion to want to return to its old, physical world (almost rationalize...but never enough to buy into it).
But how would it manifest the cloths? That is not part of the "spirit". And how does it chose what it wants to wear?
I'm a ghost, you're seeing me without pants.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
BuckeyeRedleg
It looks like you took two pictures, right?
If so, what caused you to take two pictures of trees and brush or did you think you saw something weird in the first place?
I'm just trying to figure out if you were looking for something when you took the pictures or just later noticed it when you got the pics developed. If you noticed it later, I'm still wondering why you took two pictures of the same thing (from slightly different angles).
I was taking random pictures of the wall area. There was also a rock overhang, not actually a deep cave, but a little rocky inlet in the area that I was shooting pictures of, just because Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of the 20th Maine who fought at Little Round Top is my personal hero, and I wanted images of the area. It was only later when I put the pictures on the computer that I noticed the images.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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when someone says they could never be convinced one way or another, that is a very closed minded and unscientific position.
I could never be convinced the tooth fairy is real. Am I closed minded? ;)
In all seriousness, I can certainly clarify my earlier statement and say that I could not be convinced without scientific proof, and good luck getting some of that to me.
Photos and eyewitness accounts regarding this type of thing are as useful as a fork in tomato soup.
And all the believers ever offer up is that they know someone, they saw it themselves, or here's a picture.
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
There are times when I wonder if it is actually spirits that I'm experiencing, or an energy source left over from a different time, or perhaps alternate dimension. Energy remains after death of all organisms. Perhaps it is possible that in a place where 15,000 people died, there is enough energy still left over to manifest?
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
GIDP
or its nothing
You can believe what you want, but trying to antagonize me on an internet message board isn't going to make you seem cooler in the real world. ;)
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Re: Ghost in the grove at Gettysburg?
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Originally Posted by
savafan
You can believe what you want, but trying to antagonize me on an internet message board isn't going to make you seem cooler in the real world. ;)
Im not the one that thought a dead leaf is some union soldier in some star wars cloak or something.
Or think that some white stuff taken by a camera which has glass, been in your hands all day, and uses a flash is a skeletal woman instead of just some smudge, or the flash reflecting off something out of focus.
I guess I just have to look at it from a "the least likely option" for us to see the same thing.