The McNutt House in Vicksburg, MS

Sometimes MGCP does more than just investigate. Sometimes we're lucky enough just to have some fun! 

Earlier this year held a double adventure for MGCParanormal.org. 

Not only were we invited to accompany Geek-O-Nomicon 2015 to the Twisted Carnival Red Carpet Event, the screening of indi film THE DOCUMENTARY OF OZBO THE EVIL CLOWN, an additional treat was that the screening was held at The McNutt House, reputedly THE most haunted house in Vicksburg, MS!

MGCParanormal Team Members Lois and Deb with Ozbo the Evil Clown

MGCParanormal.org actually spent the night inside the McNutt House, where we privately investigated the stories of its haunting!

Some of the cast and participants at OZBO'S Red Carpet Event

Zombie CEO Ian, repping Geek-O-Nomicon 2015

Steampunk well represented!

 
While there we had a great visit with Lost History Paranormal of Vicksburg, MS. We want to send a special shout out to Tre, one of their members, for the wonderful welcome he gave us. MGCP Team Members Bobbie and Lois loved  investigating with him as the resident child ghost, Maggie, revealed herself at her favorite play spot! We got some cool hits with the K-II's and temp guns in answer to questions during EVP sessions, and MGCP Team Member Terry captured some great evidence with the thermal video cam during the late night investigation in the house itself! 


Julie of Geek-O-Nomicon 2015 participated in that indoor session, and we thoroughly enjoyed her assistance. Even if one of the resident ghosts made its way through our rooms, one by one, startling us awake early the next morning ....

Julie also had her own encounter during a scheduled public investigation that involved the Civil War soldier whose grave is in the McNutt House courtyard , with photographic evidence!



MGCParanormal Team Member Deb kept us all organized. But we admit to doing anything to be on the receiving end of that smile!

MGCP Team Member Deb keeping us organized!

We even got to ride on a float during Vicksburg's Mardi Gras celebration. That float won a trophy for Best Throws thanks to Martha of MGCParanormal providing a massive quantity of beads, Julia and Ian of Geek-O-Nomicon 2015 providing cool frisbee throws, wrist bangles, and beads, and Lois providing genuine Voodoo dolls! The crowd loved everything that came their way! (If you want your own Voodoo Blessing Doll visit our on line store! http://www.mgcparanormal.org/mgcparanormal-store.html) Enjoy a couple more pictures of our time there. You can tell we had fun. 

Yes, MGCParanormal is going back to do a private, in depth investigation! McNutt House is definitely going to be included in our book of southern haunted places! 

MGCP Team Member Lois getting into the Mardi Gras 'spirit'!

Everyone prepping for Vicksburg Mardi Gras Parade

YOUTH GHOST HUNT COMING TO BEAUVOIR IN BILOXI, MS!!!

YOUTH GHOST HUNT SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER!!

Psst....have some cool breaking news! 

Kids and parents, have you been wanting an extra special adventure to share? Here it is! 

Mississippi Gulf Coast Paranormal and Beauvoir in Biloxi, MS are hosting their 1st YOUTH GHOST HUNT on November 7, 2015! 

In an event geared towards youth, they can be part of a real paranormal investigation....Learn proper investigative techniques.....Get hands-on experience using the tools as seen on all the TV shows.....

Full details available soon! Spots will be limited, so visit us often at www.MGCParanormal.org and check the BEAUVOIR YOUTH HUNT page link for more information!

Is there another ghostly world around us? We investigate because we want to find out. 

Happy ghost hunting from all of us at MGCP!

Comments welcome and encouraged! 

Visit our online store for t-shirts, white sage, blessing kits, and more! http://www.mgcparanormal.org/mgcparanormal-store-1.html 

Visit us at www.MGCParanormal.org

Follow and Like us at facebook.com/mgcparanormal 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/MGCParanormal
Follow our live investigation feed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MGCParanormLive 

Will Paranormal Investigation Ever Become a Recognized Science?

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION AND SCIENCE

Paranormal investigation has long been considered a "fringe" effort, and hardly a science. Add to that the negativity of show hounds out to sensationalize and take 'hooey' to an entirely new level---no matter how entertaining it may be---their actions haven't done serious investigators any favors. 

We are in no way disparaging those out there with true gifts; they exist and do much to aid us at times. An example of the unhelpful type would be those in the company of ones who tell visitors to Marie Leveau's tomb to "make a wish, spin around three times, spit, knock three times, then kick Marie's vault five times".  Kick someone's resting place?? Really? Not a single word of that ridiculous instruction is based on Marie's Voodoo practices. And how would they feel if strangers spent the day clustered around  the family grave site, impersonating Whirling Dervishes, spitting, banging, and kicking their mother's tombstone? Have to admit a part of me gleefully fantasizes a scenario where Marie jumps out and kicks them back five times. Then once more for good measure. Now THAT would be nine kinds of entertaining!

It's that type of utter disrespect toward the deceased that raises our ire. It pushes us to remain professional, respectful, and employ logical testing processes to debunk or prove what we find. 

In recent years paranormal investigation is slowly being aided by the realm of science in the form of technical tools, and with these tools is gaining credibility. When people come at me with derision or denigration, I remind them of Ptolemy and Galileo. Ptolemy was the mathematician who first put forth the theory of the galaxy and rotation of the planets in set orbits around a single celestial body.  Brilliant fellow, Ptolemy. And he almost had it right.

But then came Galileo who had the nerve to suggest our galaxy revolved around the sun, rather than the planets revolving around our Earth as Ptolemy’s theory set forth. (We sure are a self-important bunch, aren’t we?) Poor ol’ Galileo suddenly found himself imprisoned by the Church for heresy. Had to be rough on the old boy to serve prison time, particularly with his being right. All the while publicly labeled a non-believer and heretic by the Pope. Now we would never in a million years compare our efforts or ourselves to Galileo. We only wish we had his mental capacity. But if such a misunderstanding could happen with someone as brilliant as him, it could happen in other situations. All we ask is that you keep an open mind. Knowledge increases every day; even if it makes us uncomfortable at first

 And I can’t help it, that whole Ptolemy and Galileo thing keeps hovering at the back of my mind . . . .

Is there another ghostly world around us? We investigate because we want to find out. 

Happy ghost hunting from all of us at MGCP!

Comments welcome and encouraged! 

Visit our online store for t-shirts, white sage, blessing kits, and more! http://www.mgcparanormal.org/mgcparanormal-store-1.html 

Visit us at www.MGCParanormal.org

Follow and Like us at facebook.com/mgcparanormal 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/MGCParanormal
Follow our live investigation feed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MGCParanormLive 

What is a "FEAR CAGE"?

FEAR CAGE

Our paranormal investigation group has been handling some really interesting cases, so we thought we’d share some investigative techniques with you, starting with the Fear Cage and its typical detection tool.

We always try to reiterate legitimate paranormal investigators are first and foremost debunkers. It’s never a case of blind acceptance of seeming evidence. We go at any suspected paranormal activity every way we can to disprove it. And usually we do. Disprove it, that is. Only for approximately 2% of all documentable evidence can we not find a physical reason for its occurring. Takes a strong sense of humor when forced to admit we suffer a lot of self-inflicted disappointment, and a lot of self defeat. But when we can’t disprove something after subjecting it to every conceivable test  . . .  that’s when the hundreds upon hundreds of work hours invested become worthwhile!

In paranormal investigation what is a Fear Cage? And how do we recognize it?

A bit of explanation first. One of the tools we use is an EMF detector, a hand-held device that accurately measures electrical flux in the environment, called Electro Magnetic Fields. We sweep for and log static (constant) EMF’s where we find them. Only randomly occurring or wildly spiking EMF’s are attributed to paranormal activity. To scientifically explain the effect EMF’s can cause with the neurons of the brain would take too long here, so suffice it to say people--as well as their pets--can be susceptible to electromagnetic fields. Exposure for long periods of time can trigger psychological reactions such feelings of as anxiety and paranoia. For some it can trigger physical reactions such as headaches and nausea, with even pets affected to the point of illness. The constant bombardment of high EMF’s can actually trigger brain activity, producing visual and audio hallucinations. In a minute number of individuals, even mild EMF’s can trigger them. 

There have actually been documented cases of EMF’s concentrated strongly enough to produce mass hallucinations, such as those on a ranch in Arizona, where guests were jostled from a dead sleep, woken nightly by loud repetitive booms. Yet audio recorders set out recorded no such sounds; neither did seismographic equipment set up to detect physical tremors register anything. So that means when most reported paranormal activity repeatedly occurs in a single specific spot, we have to consider the possibility we’re dealing with someone susceptible to EMF’s.

These fields can be naturally occurring, or created by many things. Innocent seeming things. If someone experiences unsettling sights and sounds only in bed, we meticulously examine that environment for high EMF’s before going further. It’s possible for the bedside electric alarm clock on one table, CD player on the other side of the bed, and ceiling fan overhead to produce a distinct triangular electromagnetic field. The person in the bed is in the middle. When this particular type of static field occurs, since the person is literally “caged” by the electrical influence and it produces frightening hallucinations, it’s referred to as a Fear Cage. Quite often Fear Cages can be found in basements where the main electrical box, heat/air conditioning unit, central vacuum, and large appliances create a high concentration of EMF’s.

Is there another ghostly world around us? We investigate because we want to find out. 

Happy ghost hunting from all of us at MGCP!

Comments are encouraged and welcome!

Visit our online store for t-shirts, white sage, blessing kits, and more! http://www.mgcparanormal.org/mgcparanormal-store-1.html 

Visit us at www.MGCParanormal.org

Follow and Like us at facebook.com/mgcparanormal 

Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/MGCParanormLive 

Pareidolia -- More Commonly Known as Matrixing

Matrixing/Pareidolia

Matrixing–or pareidolia–is the name given to the way the human brain sometimes fools the eyes into seeing things. Or as explained in scientific terms:
 
Pareidolia (paeri'douliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse.

The word comes from the Greek words para (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead [of]") in this context meaning something faulty or wrong; and the noun eidōlon (εἴδωλον "image, form, shape"), the diminutive of eidos. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, seeing patterns in random data.

                       

Does the image above seem to be moving? I can guarantee you it isn’t.  Believe me; I printed it out to be sure. You’re welcome to print it out as a test, too, if it makes you feel better. Frankly, it’s one of the best examples of matrixing I’ve encountered. 

In the world of paranormal investigation, however, matrixing is a double-edged sword. It is one of the debunking tools applied to possible paranormal photographs. Particularly when those images involve glass.

The paranormal is a world we at MGCParanormal love to get elbow deep into a few times a month. Using infra-red video, digital cameras, night vision video cameras, temperature change/thermal detectors, EMF detectors, audio recorders placed in numerous locations, and even wind chimes sealed in a jar; these instruments are all a means to investigate houses or buildings with suspected paranormal activity. It’s easy to get excited when we seem to have captured something authentic. Yet anyone in the field has to stay on constant guard to keep an open mind, open eyes and open ears. So we employ matrixing software and the help of professional photographers to validate or debunk our photographic finds.

We want you to look at the next image. Closely. Tell me how many figures or faces (if any) you can find in it. We’ll get back to it in just a moment. Please suffer through a little science first; it will give you a better understanding.

Examples of matrixing you may recognize are the Face on Mars, in the image below.

Or car designs. Automotive grilles are often deliberately manipulated to make a vehicle appear more ‘friendly’ or ‘aggressive’ for marketing purposes. And no one who’s ever seen a Studebaker at an antique car show will disagree: it looks like a Ford that sucked on a lemon. (Sorry about that one. I plead a strange sense of humor.)

“Holy” figures in surprising places or shapes in clouds are occasionally considered matrixing,  But, (and we love this one!) what most people don’t know is even the scientific community uses a sort of directed matrixing: Rorschach ink blot tests. Surprised you there, didn’t we? And that one’s not a joke.

The most basic explanation we can come up with for matrixing is that recognizing other humans (particularly faces of parents) is the first skill a baby learns. It’s so deeply ingrained in the psyche–and maybe our DNA–that it remains operative on an unconscious level throughout our lives. Pattern recognition of this sort is also a survival tool; it allowed earliest humans a way to spot predators in hiding.

But not everything can be explained as matrixing. Some things are truly unexplainable.  Take one more look at the window image above. It’s from a house formerly used as a Civil War hospital. After you’ve studied it take a quick look at the final image of today’s blog. I'm including a second image to show it’s a shot of a second story window, taken from the ground. There was no possible way to produce such a proportionate reflection from anyone standing near me at the time it was taken (as suggested); neither was anyone in the room. Since it’s my picture, I can guarantee there has been no photoshopping, no enhancements whatsoever. It’s exactly as it is on the digital smart card. I’ve simply enlarged it here for easier viewing.  

    

The picture is a shot of the window on the upper left, the one with red curtains. In the final picture (below) I took the liberty of outlining forms a number of different individuals consistently noticed in the frame. One seems to be an older gentleman sitting with forearms on his thighs (left, with upper part of his head above middle window divider, appearing to be in what resembles a medical coat), and the full face of a woman on the red cloth at the right side of the photo. If you look between the two pics again, (this face I didn’t outline) there seems to be a young child, her face looking downward, slightly right-profiled. She has a broad forehead that is part of the woman’s chin and lower face to help find her in the first, and unmarked photo. 

              

                                                                                                                                  

So, what do you think? Are we matrixing? Put on your Paranormal Investigator hat and go through the check list for photographs. I just felt a shiver....
                 

What do your goosebumps say?

Tell you what. If we get FIFTEEN (15) COMMENTERS before midnight Wednesday March 4, 2015, one will be chosen to receive an MGCParanormal t-shirt! So please, feel free to share this post! Good luck!

 Until next week, happy Ghost Hunting!

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