The Bell Witch

The Bell Witch Legend
In the early 1800s, John Bell moved his family from North Carolina to the Red River bottomland in Robertson County, Tennessee, settling in a community that later became known as Adams. The Bells quickly made many friends and gained prominence in the community. Nearly 17 years later on their farm the Bells began hearing "beating" sounds on the outside walls of their house.
These mysterious sounds continued with increased force each night. The noises were soon followed by more problems. The Bell children began waking up frightened and complaining of sounds. It wasn't long until the children began complaining of more terrifying things--having their bed covers pulled and their pillows were tossed onto the floor by a seemingly invisible force.
As time went on, the Bells began to hear even stranger noises. The encounters escalated, and the Bells’ youngest daughter, Betsy, began experiencing physically brutal encounters with the entity. The evil disturbances escalated over the next year. As word of the Bell disturbances spread throughout the community, so did the entity's antics.
Word eventually spread outside the settlement, even as far as Nashville, where one Andrew Jackson became interested.
Jackson and John Bell had a long discussion about the Indians and other topics while Jackson's men patiently waited to see if the "spirit" was going to manifest itself. One of the men in Jackson's entourage claimed to be a "witch tamer." After several uneventful hours, this man decided to "call" the "spirit." He pulled out a shiny pistol and made his intent to kill the "spirit" known to all that were present.
Almost immediately, the man began screaming and moving his body in many different directions. He said he was being stuck with pins and being severely beaten. The man quickly ran out the door
Jackson, a hero in the Battle of New Orleans four years earlier, was quoted as later having said, "I'd rather fight the entire British Army than to deal with the Bell Witch." Jackson later became the President of the United States.
Today, the "Spirit" which haunted the Bell family nearly 200 years ago is believed by many to be the source of numerous manifestations in the area where the story took place. The faint sounds of people talking and children playing can sometimes be heard in the area. The cause of the Bells' torment nearly 200 years ago and today's unexplained manifestations has remained a mystery.

Check out the link, and click on the trailer for the movie of The Bell Witch. I don't know about you but it gave me the chills.

http://www.thebellwitchhaunting.com/legendpage.html

HAUNTED! The Benton Homestead

So here’s the info I promised on one of our upcoming investigations.

There’s an old farmhouse in Tolland Connecticut that was built in 1720.

The history surrounding this house includes a tragic love story, captured Hessian Officers, a son back from the Revolutionary war (bringing with him smallpox) and the dead buried right in the front lawn!

The rich history of this place is well documented and while I plan on getting into the details at a later date, I thought for now I’ll offer up the more recent freaky tidbits.

The first time I experienced the Benton Homestead was when some friends of mine wanted to show me a Haunted house in Tolland. I was only 13 years old at the time. We all piled into the car of the only friend we had at the time who was old enough to drive. It was a dark and chilly night as we drove down the winding back country roads. We pulled up in front of the house and dared each other to get out of the car. Of course none of us had the guts to do it!

Now this old house sits really close to the road as is typical of many old New England farmhouses. We could plainly see through the bare windows that there were portraits on the walls in the upstairs bedrooms. With our faces pressed to the car windows we watched the eyes in the paintings glow red! We were freaking out! "Did you see that?!" we were screaming at each other. "GO, GO!!" "DRIVE!!" we screamed at the driver.

We were scared out of our wits. So we burnt rubber out of there but as the road was a dead end we had to once again drive by the house! Our friend who was driving decided to stop in front of the house on the way back. This time a light came on in one of the upstairs rooms. We again freaked out and begged the driver to go. The thing is here folks. . . No one lived in the house. At that time there was no electric lighting. There were no wires going to that house!

This was only the beginning of what would be many spooky experiences with this Haunted house.

I’ve been back many times since and have brought others to see these haunted happenings. We’ve yet to be disappointed.

One occasion that comes to mind is when a group of us went up to investigate during the day.
It was a bright sunny Summer afternoon and there was no one around but us. We walked around the house peering into windows and checking out the graves in the front yard. This time we weren’t scared at all and it seemed to be just another old abandoned farmhouse.

I recall looking through a side window and seeing a room that was fully furnished in colonial period furniture. Right by the window was a small wood cradle with a baby doll tucked in with blankets. Its little eyes closed tight, forever sleeping as plastic baby dolls do.

One of my friends called me over to check out this old well on the other side of the house.
I told her you could see into this room really good by standing on a rock and that she should come check it out. When we went back to window where the baby doll was, I saw something that to this day makes the hair on my neck stand up. The Baby had been turned over face down and the blankets were removed!! THERE WAS NO ONE IN THE HOUSE!! NO ONE LIVED THERE!!

That was just another example of the bizarre things that happened at this place.
It is now open to the public as a historical museum. Although you are not allowed to go upstairs.
Unless of course your name is Seeker and you happen to convince the curator on a day that no one else is there but you and him. ;)

The second floor is by far the creepiest place in that house. A very narrow crooked stairway takes you to a small hallway with a couple of bedrooms. The first bedroom on the left had some of the original furniture from the Benton’s. Including a sampler hand stitched by the very Woman who now haunts that place with a passion. The tragic Jemima Barrows. She was the forbidden lover who while not allowed to marry the Benton’s son was allowed to care for him in the house while he suffered from smallpox.

There I stood in her bedroom. I could feel her eyes on me as I examined the detail of her work.
Why did they hide her things away up here? The floors seemed unstable as I walked down the hall to the second bedroom. This room was used as storage for the museum and didn’t feel active in any way.

Downstairs you can see the window where they removed the body of their son to his final resting place in the front yard. He was so contagious they didn’t want to carry his body through the house so they pulled him out the window!

In the basement you can see the fireplace that warmed the souls of the Hessian officers and still barely make out where they carved the word "Hessian" and the date 1777.

Yes I have a knack for "feeling" ghosts. She didn’t want to follow me into that room. She stayed behind in her bedroom. She’s still there now I’m sure. She never fails at showing her presence to me whenever I return to visit. Much to the dismay of those who brave the trip with me.

The Seeker team is planning a new trip to the old Homestead and we’ll be sure to capture her and her departed love on film. That is unless the old Benton senior ghost doesn’t scare us off!

Here’s a link with more spooky info on the Homestead.
http://www.curbstone.org/index.cfm?webpage=110

Mind May Affect Machines

For 26 years, strange conversations have been taking place in a basement lab at Princeton University.

No one can hear them, but they can see their apparent effect: balls that go in certain directions on command, water fountains that seem to rise higher with a wish and drums that quicken their beat.

Yet no one hears the conversations because they occur between the minds of experimenters and the machines they will to action.

Using random event generators -- computers that spew random output -- they have participants focus their intent on controlling the machines' output. Out of several million trials, they've detected small but "statistically significant" signs that minds may be able to interact with machines. However, researchers are careful not to claim that minds cause an effect or that they know the nature of the communication.

http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68216,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5

THEY

8/10/03
1:47am

I have had a headache for most of the day and all evening. I left Seekers and came home (10:00ish) and went to bed. I have been feeling different, hard to explain.

Laying in bed I started to feel small and then big and fold inside myself. I know instictively that it's coming through, I cannot name what is coming, I have no name for them but "THEY". My sides feel the pressure and my stomache is aching. I have felt this before , many times before, but this is different it is a stronger feeling, I have felt it this strong only a few times. The last time was in St. Louis at a hotel I was staying at with a boyfriend.

Sug (my daughter) has crawled into bed with me, she had said that there was something in her room. I surround Sug and myself with a Protective Cirlce three times .

I know THEY are coming, I can feel THEY. The bells on my wand are chiming, there is no breeze strong enough to make them move, besides the fact that they are laying flat on my altar. Two times more they chime without a breeze.

THEY are here. I feel THEY moving around us, but THEY can't come near. Sug is talking in her sleep, she says "there's a 4 and a squigly line" I ask her what she means, she repeats "there's a 4 and a squigly line". *Right now the air is thick* It's happening again!

The lines on my paper are widening and then dissapearing. I feel the thundering but there is no storm outside. I say thunder but it is different then the thundering of a weather storm, it is not Mother Nature.

I can see the energy all around me it is getting thicker and I can see the forms coming through, though I cannot make them out. Every hair on body is at attention and the ache in my stomache has moved to my back. It is getting stronger and I can feel the messages coming through but they make no sence.

'Indian worrior'
'Irish blood'

I think to myself, I am of European blood, no Indian or Irish blood.

'Blood of many seers, it is your history.'

I am spiraling, spiraling, I feel myself spiraling around though I sit still.

'You make Harder'
'Circle protection'

The energy is rolling harder and speeding up, I am not sure if they are trying to break my circle or need more energy to comunicate, but I will not break my circle.

'Changes good'
'Fates take care'
'Fates on your side'
'Seeker feels it - messages - puzzles - THINK WITHIN (this comes through in a whispered shout)
'See more'
'Question not'
'Feel puzzle'
'You know -Seeker knows - Grammy knows'
'You special in blood'
'Strong you are - stop fearing - open more'
'Remember work with energies - helping - have no fear'
'Messages Fates'
'Graces'
'Everything changes'
'Remember energies'
'Guardian Angels always here - open eye - you know - no fear - rule to veil opening - visit when THEY like - does not close'

The messages are still coming in and I keep writting. I know that THEY are not what I want to think THEY are, not the Spirits that roam our plain and yet I do not know who THEY are. It is deeper than that. I have felt, seen and comunicated with the Spirit world all of my life and this is different, deeper.

When THEY are done, when THEY have gone it is 2:40am. Only an hour has passed and yet it has felt like hours had passed. When I looked at my clock I expected it to be 5-6 o'clock in the morning.

I cannot really explain how I hear these messages, the only way that I can explain them to you is like hearing voices but in fact I do not hear them, it is more like feeling their words, their messages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am happy that Seeker is ready to begin a new chapter. I have had an inner calling to continue what we started years ago, some things are meant to be. And we are meant to investigate and to communicate with all who want to and need to be heard.

So Mote It Be
Euphrosyne
7/17/05

Australian cricketers 'saw ghosts' at hotel

London, June 22: After four consecutive defeats in a week, Australian cricketers have started seeing ghosts.


All-rounder Shane Watson was so scared at the prospect of spending the night in the Lumley Castle Hotel in Chester-le-Street, where Australians are staying before tomorrow's NatWest series game against England, that he moved to his team-mate Brett Lee's room, according to a newspaper report.

"I saw ghosts. I swear I’m telling the truth. I closed the blind in my room before I went to bed. But when I was awoken at 4 am by my phone the blind was open again.
"I looked out the window and saw a procession of white people walking past. It was amazing, very scary. I know I wasn’t dreaming because I wrote down the message from my phone and the time. Certainly when I started to tell my story a lot of them didn’t want to know the details," Watson said.



The hotel, said to be haunted by the ghost of a 14th century aristocrat murdered by catholic priests, also spooked the West Indies cricketers when they stayed there five years ago. Three of them had moved out then, a report in today's The Guardian said.
The Australian squad's media relations officer said: “several of the players were uneasy, although a lot of them in the morning said they were fine. But maybe they were just trying to be brave."

http://www.expressindia.com/cricket/fulleistory.php?type=ei&content_id=49292

Night of the Crusher

The waking nightmare of sleep paralysis propels people into a spirit world

















"As a college student in 1964, David J. Hufford met the dreaded Night Crusher. Exhausted from a bout of mononucleosis and studying for finals, Hufford retreated one December day to his rented, off-campus room and fell into a deep sleep. An hour later, he awoke with a start to the sound of the bedroom door creaking open—the same door he had locked and bolted before going to bed. Hufford then heard footsteps moving toward his bed and felt an evil presence. Terror gripped the young man, who couldn't move a muscle, his eyes plastered open in fright. "

Science News explores the creepy world of sleep paralysis. Boogeyman or Biology... you decide.

Link http://sciencenews.org/articles/20050709/bob9.asp

Horrors!

( A Seeker drawing in pen and ink)

July 13, 2005

It's been about five years since I last updated the Seeker web page. So last night I thought I'd play around with it. All I managed to do was update my e-mail address on the WHO page.

Hey it's a start!

As I sit here sipping my morning coffee, I'm thinking about Blogs and ghosts.

Blogging- I wonder if this is just another wacky craze like the hoola-hoop. I have some real fear that this stuff wont be around for as long as some may think. The Seeker web site once had a very slick, Free guest book where the team and I could interact with other Seekers of the unknown. One day it just disappeared without a trace. That was a bummer. Now, I'm a tad jaded but willing to give this thing a try.

What good would it be to have the Seeker site without feedback?

I still need to link up this Blog with the site, so for right now I feel like I'm scribbling notes to myself in some dark and dusty corner of the web. Can anyone see this? Am I alone? Is this how a wandering spirit feels? It's a little spooky to think that until some Blog hunter stumbles into this little dark corner, this Blog is hidden from the world.

It's a good thing I love the dark.

Is there anybody . . . Out . . . There?!





I thought I heard something.

Pictures from Union Cemetery - Easton, CT

Pictures from a trip to Union Cemetery in Easton, CT (1998)

(Junction of Stepney Highway and Sport Hill Road)

In the light of day













In the dead of night.











Anamoly surrounding our photographer.














Globular with vapor trail.











Could this be the infamous White Lady?













Ghostly jet in the top right corner.














Globs galore!












At the Gate.









Strange Globs

A Trip to Dudleytown!

Below is a post from July 1999 on a trip to Dudleytown, CT. Enjoy!














Dudleytown (located in Cornwall, Connecticut), while deemed haunted, as well as cursed, remains to this day a place of fascination for those that dare to be scared!
There are differing legends as to how Dudleytown became a virtual “ghost town”, as well as continuing controversy over which stories are true, the fact remains, Dudleytown captures our imagination.

In the1700’s settlers began to build a small community in a place that would seem to defy colonial logic. What made them want to live on top of a rocky mountain with poor soil and nothing but dense forest? One can only speculate, however impossible it must have been to clear the land, something drove them on. Imagine there high hopes and hard work crumbling around them as they realized their crops wouldn’t grow, their live stock kept disappearing and the plague and consumption was spreading among them. Did this slowly drive some to madness?

There was talk of Demons, strange hoofed creatures and missing children. Was General Swift’s wife struck by lighting because the curse befell her too? Why would one God fearing woman decide to hang herself and many years later another wife kill herself too? How did a town last for over 100 years and then simply cease to exist?

The ancient legends and their origins remain a mystery but I can assure you that the Legend of Dudleytown lives on!

Whether you call it a curse or just plain bad luck, Dudleytown and its dark remnants are affecting those that dare to seek it out. In our own time there have been stories of visitors experiencing strange phenomena, hearing un-earthly sounds, capturing spirit photography and worst of all bringing home their own dose of the curse.

On July 11, 1999, The Seeker team traveled to Dudleytown to investigate the site and document our own findings. With cameras and a VHS recorder we found our way to Dark Entry Road (now called Bald Mountain Road) at 11:30 a.m. The weather was beautiful, clear and unseasonably cool. Rumors had it that we would experience either an eerie quiet or incessant owl screeching. We found Dudleytown to have all the appropriate sounds one would find on a hike through the Connecticut hills. There was no shortage of stone walls and we were quick to find our first root cellar.

Overgrown with new growth trees and hidden by years of leaf compost, a little searching and we managed to find the foundations of several houses as well as two school houses, bridges a dam and a possible mill foundation. The amount and size of the stones used to shore up the cliffs on the old fire road were impressive; a good example of that Ol’ Yankee ingenuity. One legend we now know to be right on the money is the Darkness! High noon on a clear sunny day and in some areas we needed flash on our cameras!

There were no hoofed creatures that we could see but there is an air of sadness there you won’t find on an average hike through the woods. Perhaps its looking at the emptiness and the sign of hard work gone to waste. Looking at the stone walls and imagining the farms they once contained you could almost see the sheep grazing. Or standing in the foundation of a school house hearing the children scratching out their lessons on the local slate. Its not such a hard stretch to imagine that the dedicated country folk that were so determined to see their dreams produce, would stay on, after parting their worldly existence. After all, this town existed against all odds and must have taken a rare amount of courage and endurance to create a life in Dudleytown.

The Seeker team spent four hours trudging around Dudleytown but it wasn’t until we left that the bad luck hit! At the intersection of Cemetery Hill Road, a local truck driver crashed into our car! As our driver slammed on his brakes, we noticed the driver coming at us as if we were invisible! There was nothing we could do but brace ourselves and hope for the best.
After waiting over an hour for a State trooper to come and investigate the crash, the truck driver admitted that he never even saw us! He was issued a ticket and as no one was hurt and the car was still driveable, we headed for home. On our way a dog running up the road seemed not to see us either and almost got hit! Coincidence or Curse? We’ll let you decide!

~ THE PICS ARE IN !! ~

No Parking after DARK!! Entrance to Dudleytown.













Strange mist on left hand side.












Three very dense anomalies. Does it look like smoke to you? (I don't think so)













View from Dudleytown path.












Seeker investigator says "I am Durga the Demon slayer!" Guess they didn't like that!













In this unusually dry Summer, the falls are nothing more than a trickle.












The mill is long gone but the dam remembers!












Shaggy the skeptic tapes the scene.













Bridge over troubled waters!













Retention wall Vs mountain road. The mountain is winning.












A few minutes out of Dudleytown and we're documenting our own CRASH scene! The guy leaning on the truck is the local who hit us.












Hey! It's not the "Mystery Van" But it gets us around. 173.000 miles without a dent, that is until now! Good thing the guy that hit us was going slow!












We have added links that will take you to other sites with information pertaining to Dudleytown.
If it’s the Oooogy Booogy stuff your interested in check these out….

Haunted Places
Paranormal Research Society

If it’s the modern day calamities associated with Dudleytown then bookmark our page as we will add updates as we receive them. If you decide to take your chances with a visit we’d be glad to tell your tale.

If the Dudleytown mystery doesn’t satisfy your craving for fear, then be sure to check out the up and coming horror movie The Blair Witch Project. This is a completely fictional movie, but the similarities to Dudleytown are uncanny. After seeing this movie you might just decide to cancel your next trip to Dudleytown. Or will you???????

WARNING: The Dark Entry Forest Association owns the property and is having anyone who trespasses arrested. I was told the fine is $75.00.

This association is shrouded in secrecy and will seemingly stop at nothing to keep people out of Dudleytown. However, try as they might, They weren’t able to stop an author (who was doing research for a book for National Geographic) from going there. He entered Dudleytown via the Mohawk trail. You can read about how they tried to stop him and his Dudleytown experience by clicking the following link. http://pages.cthome.net/rwinkler/dudleytown.htm


Check out this review By Casey Hailey, CPNet.com Staff
Another great review By Susan Wloszczyna at USA TODAY

Blair WitchProject
vs.
Dudleytown

DUDLEYTOWN	BLAIR TOWNSHIP
Actual Town, actual Legends	Fictional Town, Fictional Legends
Dudleytown established 1700's Edmond Dudley be-headed and he and his kin are cursed by Witchcraft... Dudley brothers Abiel and Barzillai bring their inherited curse to the Cornwall Connecticut mountainside.	Blair Township established 1700's Elly Kedward the accused Witch is banished in the dead of winter and curses the entire town. Tied to a tree and left to the elements, she is presumed dead.
Town plagued by mysterious deaths and disappearances. Thomas Dudley found hacked to death in Dudleytown; murderer never found.	Town plagued by mysterious deaths and disappearances. 8yr.old Robin Weaver is reported missing, her search party is found disemboweled; murderer is never found.
Children vanish residents fear curse John Brophy's 2 sons disappear and his wife dies of unknown causes. 1901 Brophy lives in solitude as the local hermit. He would speak to know one, though when he did venture off the mountain the locals claimed to hear him mumbling tales of Demons with a crazed look in his eyes. Later Brophy's house burned to the ground, neither him or his remains were found.	Children vanish residents fear curse 7 children abducted and later found murdered by local hermit. Rustin Parr walks into a local market and tells the people there that he is "finally finished". Police find the seven missing children. He is quickly tried and hanged.
Deserted, the town becomes a proverbial "ghost town" reclaimed by the mountain and its thick forest, nothing but stone walls and foundations remain.	Also deserted and reclaimed by the mountain, Blair lays silent and waits.
Years later new residents try their luck. 1930 Dr.William Clark builds a summer home and the curse awakens from its sleep. When returning from a business trip he finds his wife alone and laughing hysterically, she had gone completely Insane! They quickly moved away from Dudleytown.	Years later new residents try their luck. 1824 Blair becomes Burkitsville here too the curse rekindles and eleven witnesses testify to seeing a pale woman's hand reach up and pull 10 yr. old Eileen Treacle into the creek. Her body is never found.
1990's Seeker as well as other Paranormal organizations document their mysterious findings and keep the Legends alive.	1990's Montgomery College Students set out to document their own findings and end up becoming part of the legend. They are never seen alive again.

Seeker is back...

... And Bloggin'.






I've decided to round up the crew and hunt down some more ghosts.
It's been awhile since we offered up any new spirited samplings of the truly bizarre, so we're well rested and ready.

Are you?

I'm hoping to give all you Seeker fans what you really want; The truth about what really lurks under your bed at night!

Stay tuned, as we'll soon be visiting a local haunt that should prove to be frightening and enlightening. I'll post some background info on the place later. Until then . . .

Sweet Dreams,
Seeker