Mystery of Mysteries: HALLOWEEN: A Mystery Hidden Behind A Mask; Fun & Fear.

Once again it is my favorite season of the year: Fall Equinox; Halloween/Samhain 2014!

Samhain, is an ancient holiday that goes back 3,000 years. All the way back to Ireland, and it's Celtic beliefs.
Halloween has wore many masks through it's ancient history and is more popular today than it's ever been.

Spirit manifestations, ghost stories, eerie noises, thumps,bumps in the night. All seem to heighten as the boundary between the world of the living & the spirit world, (the gateway) is thin. So thin that the souls of the dead could roam freely back & forth.

I love Halloween and still do and enjoy telling spooky campfire tales. When I was young, me & my cohorts would gather in my backyard porch to tell bone-chilling, creepy strange happenings. Like, "Bloody Bones," "The Hook," Bloody Mary," and "LA LLORANA!"

We loved being scared "almost to death." (Oh and by the way, thank you cousin Alice for the scares You loved it and so did we!)

Anyways... for this Trick or Treat I will share a couple of TRUE Supernatural stories from my own encounters and those of family and close friends.

My first ghost story has to do with my grandmother's house, my childhood home, where ghostly phenomena were a common occurrence.

My grandmother had purchased her home in the 1950's, in Lansing, Michigan. It was said that "old money" was buried there somewhere on the block grandmother resided on. AND--that was "WHY" these manifestations occurred.

My first tale begins with my uncle and his first wife that had moved in with grandmother. Albeit, grandmother says she "never" encountered spirits or bumps in the night, my uncle & his wife did.....OOOOOooie.

In the early hours of a summer morning my aunt was awaken as she sensed "something." She sat up. She turned to see a man in a dark suit, hat, standing next to their bed. Frighten, she tried to wake my uncle, but to no avail and then without warning, the ghostly apparition dissipated.

Another uncle & his wife who moved in temporarily had an unexpected ghostly experience. Grandmother had an old dresser/bureau with a huge mirror in the first bedroom, the one closest to the stairs.
One night my aunt was sitting at the bureau combing her hair looking in the enormous mirror when suddenly the reflection of a flaming skull appeared. Terrified, my aunt screamed and hurried downstairs to tell my uncle and grandmother.

Another happening on a very hot summer night this time to the uncle who lived there. He was in the bathroom shaving. Now the bathroom, is set off the hallway that leads upstairs to grandmother's living area.
As he shaved he was very conscious of his surroundings; the kids outside, his wife also with my mom & neighbor engaged in gossip and grandmother gone to her bible studies.

Suddenly he heard a car pull up into the driveway. He heard his wife, my mom & neighbor greeting my grandmother. He then heard the front screen door open, and shut and through the corner of his eye he saw his "mother" swiftly walk past him.

He bid her "hello" but she did not respond. Puzzled, because she always answered him. He stopped shaving and listened as her footsteps climbed the stairs. He then decided to go and check on her. When he approached the bottom of the stairs he listened... he heard the shuffling of her feet going from one bedroom to other.

He called up to her...waited for her response but no answer. So he went upstairs. He looked in both rooms and didn't see her at all!

Baffled & scared he try to hurry downstairs and no sooner had he gotten there he heard a car in the driveway and the women outside greeting someone. As grandmother opened the door and walked into the house he had a look of disbelief!!! He said he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up!

I too had a similar encounter as my uncle did thinking grandmother was back from church but to my surprise it was not her either. Very eerie, I have to say, but it did not stop me from spending most of my time there upstairs.

My next experience has to do with me & my first OUIJA BOARD. Back in 1968-69 I talked my mother into buying me one. The Spirit Boards popularity was growing again so that helped to convinced her.

I was happy as I, like many of us especially back then, were so fascinated with the Supernatural.

So I had my first talking board.   Now I needed an accomplice and I knew exactly who! My cousin Juney who was just as curious and willing as "I"............................................

And so began our obsession-sessions with "Ouija" on a regular basis usually after school.

During this time in our quaint "Hamlet" (or so we thought) our city, Lansing, had a terrible tragedy.

The Mayor's daughter who had a part-time job after school at a local jewelry store was working with another woman. It was almost closing time when a young man walked in with a gun. He demanded money, struck the older woman, AND abducted the Mayor's daughter.

Our quaint Hamlet was devastated and marked! Of course everyone was hopeful, optimistic that she would be found, "unharmed."

While the city waited, Juney & I grew more and more curious....so we asked Ouija. We placed the board on our laps, fingers on the 'mystic hand' and began to question if "IT" knew the whereabouts or what happened to the Mayor's daughter.

It began to glide and the word it spelled out was "M-U-R-D-E-R" We both gasped in disbelief! "No way!" It then responded and answered, "YES."

Of course we went to my mother and told her what Ouija had said and of course she didn't believe and told us that the Mayor's daughter would be found, "Safe."

AND told us not to believe the Ouija, what it says, and maybe we shouldn't "play" with it anymore.

Well a few days past and the Mayor's daughter was indeed found, but sadly she had been "Murdered."

After that, we decided that maybe we should put the board away. So to Juney's basement we went and began our last session with our spirit board and to bid it "Goodbye." But as we spoke to it and made clear that we were going to stop communicating with it, the planchette kept gliding to "NO," "NO," over and over.

This went on for a few minutes and then it started going in circles faster and faster. Suddenly for no reason at all it stopped--just stopped!  We looked at each another scared and baffled.

We spoke to it but it would not answer. We tried to force the planchette to move but it wouldn't budge!
It felt as if we were going against some magnetic field. Akin to identical magnetic poles as if trying to force them together.

Then suddenly the basement became very ominous... very quite...very still and "WE BECAME VERY AWARE...VERY AFRAID...."

THEN, the circle, the eye of the planchette POPPED OFF!!!

Juney screamed, I yelled and we both ran up the stairs and outside leaving the board there on the bed.

Never again did we use that board EVER!

I also heard to this day, Juney STILL doesn't go down to her basement. Lol.  They say she goes to the laundry Matt instead to wash.

Lol. DAMN...  And that happened 45 years ago!

Funny... but yet not, ya know.

And so like Halloween my life is filled with fun & fear and the "spooky campfire stories" I am passing down to my grandchildren in hopes they will embrace it and especially LIFE and all that it has to give.

I pray they walk through many doors as they grow.

To use their adventurous minds.

To be wide-eyed, wild hearted explorers, albeit, with caution.

And not to be afraid of, or let anyone make them afraid of living, (as my mother taught me to be afraid.)

If anything, only to be afraid of the UNLIVED LIFE. That's the SCARIEST.

Now a favorite particle quote from my favored poet, Edgar Allan Poe: "Tis some visitor, I muttered tapping on my chamber door---Only this and nothing more."