Which means when we’re looking for something new to talk about Christmas, it takes a little bit of work. The thing about Christmas is that it’s been around so long, it means that there’s a whole world of traditions out there to explore. So, when we were doing research and discovered Catalonia’s marvelous Tió de Nadal (the pooping Christmas log) we knew we hit a jackpot for starting off a conversation about more weird Christmas traditions around the world. Every country that has Christianity has their own way to celebrate and they’ve got hundreds of years to develop their own unusual traditions.
Anybody got any toilet paper?
So in this episode, we get to talk about stuff like:
Famous Caganers (pooping figures) for your Nativity scene, Vladimir Poopin’, am I right, fellas?
So, if you think you’re family is weird on the Holidays, rest assured you are not alone!
The Sunspot song for this week is a weird instrumental version of the Christmas classic, “Sleigh Ride”. Although it does include a traditional instrument, acoustic violin, we twisted in some odd synths and arranged it in a 6/8 time signature instead of the typical 4/4.
Old St. Patrick’s Cemetery is an old cemetery located in Wadsworth, IL that dates back into the 1800’s. This cemetery may be small but it’s potent (see Google Map picture). The supposed resting place of Bloody Mary Worth. You remember her legend don’t you? )You look in the mirror and say her name three times…Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody …….. well legend has it a “witch” named Mary Worth owned a farm nearby and tortured run a way slaves during the civil war. She was hung by the locals and she is the supposed origin of Bloody Mary. It may well be just another incarnation of the story ‘Bloody Mary’ but there is a huge filed stone in this cemetery that is believed to be hers. However, there are no burial records for her. If that isn’t enough to raise an eyebrow or get your heart pumping the woods (just to the north west of the cemetery) is what locals call the “Devil’s Pool”. Supposed satanic cults do animal sacrifices at night back there at night.
There’s a wooded spot back behind the cemetery, covered in no trespassing signs that is resting place of what the locals call Devil’s Pool. Evidently, according to the local children, satanic sacrifices happen back there.
(Mike’s Note: I’m always skeptical when I hear stuff about satanic sacrifices because it seems that every small town has a cult hiding behind every corner, but it’s even on the Foursquare page of the cemetery LOL.)
OUR INVESTIGATION:
On Saturday, May 10th, 2008, investigators Jay Bachochin and Paul Gasper went tu Old St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Wadsworth, IL to check it out.
******* DISCLAIMER ***** While this investigation happened 8 years ago, the little side park next to the cemetery has since been blocked off with cement barricades and police patrols are very heavy today. Since there wasn’t any signs posted in 2008 of hours of visits, we felt like we were not trespassing. However, surrounding neighbors have grown quite tired of seeing teenagers with flash lights in the cemetery and have asked the help of the Wadsworth Police Department to do frequent drive bys. We do not recommend to try and investigate this cemetery at night.
Our investigation began like all new investigators do …. in a cemetery. Since nobody knew who we were there wasn’t any request for investigations so a cemetery was our mission this night. After saying a ‘prayer’ before entering the cemetery we caught an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) (check out EVP 2 below). 25 seconds after this EVP we caught another (EVP 3). We didn’t know we caught these until the next day during review of our digital voice recorders.
We would take several pictures in a row so we could review each one if we caught anything paranormal on camera. In the middle of the cemetery it is complete dark with just a street light far off on the street. As we were walking to the other side of the cemetery I heard something in front of me, maybe just 2 feet in front of me !!! It was a raspy laughter from out of nowhere. It scared the bejesus out of me. (Check out EVP 1 below and hear it yourself!) After getting my bearings we pressed on to take more pictures. So we kept snapping picture after picture after picture without looking at the LCD screen. We figured we’d look at the hundreds of digital pictures the next day.
Not much happened after that except the chills of being in a cemetery at midnight. We left the cemetery around 12:45 a.m. and reviewed the audio and photos the next day. What we found on the photos we took defied logic and quite frankly validated a lot of ghostly claims.
EVIDENCE:
Black Mist Photo: What intrigued us the most about this photo is that we couldn’t figure out what it was. Maybe the blackness was the brim of my hat in front of the camera lens somehow? No, it couldn’t be because you can see the green leafs at the top of the photo. The brim of a hat would cause total blackout. Could it have been a blur from movement where I caught my finger or hand somehow? No, it couldn’t be because everything else on the photo is crisp and clear. So what is it? Something moved in front of our camera lens unnoticed and we have no way to prove or disprove what this was.
Orb Photo: What is a ghost orb? You may have seen them in your own photos. Sometimes large, sometimes small and sometimes there are multiple transparent orbs. Most likely, those orbs are a false positive. A false positive is that the orb is actually debris such as dust, dirt, moisture, sun flares, the list goes on and on with natural causes. However this night we captured the logic defying flying orb. It’s solid white sphere with a white tail showing you it’s moving. So what is an orb? 99.9999% is a natural piece of debris obstructing the lens with a flash. The .0000001% is paranormal in nature.
Ectoplasm Photo: What intrigued us about this photo is the little loop-de-loop electro discharge on the right hand side of the photo. We couldn’t debunk this as hair for I have short hair. Could it have been the tether of my camera? No, since I removed the tether 12 months earlier. So what else could this phenomenon of a glowing worm be?
EVP 1
EVP 2
EVP 3
CONCLUSION:
We have no way of telling what these phenomenon are. We can say with the EVPs we captured are in fact a voice from beyond. We can also say that the photos we took were from spirits long since passed on. However, it’s only by theory, speculation and opinion of what a ghost is. Our Hunt Continues …………
WPI Hunts the Truth was established in March 2007 by Jay and Katie Bachochin due to their love and passion of the paranormal.
Jay and Katie were both so intrigued by the paranormal evidence they’ve seen in their lives. Ghosts, UFOs and Unknown Creatures. We took an interest in researching as a husband & wife team in 2006″.
In later March 2007, they founded The Wisconsin Paranormal Investigators while networking with some friends that shared the similar passion. They all believe there is more to their everyday normal lives. Do ghosts really exist? Are those lights in the sky just a plane? Is there really an 8′ tall undiscovered primate hiding from everybody? Is all this simply suggestive thought or mass hysteria? They needed to find the answers for themselves and share what they knew with other like minded researchers. This is how their mission Hunt the Truth was born.
They combined their organizations acronym and their mission statement to simplify who they are and what we do. Jay and Katie are WPI Hunts the Truth.
Taking the Internet by storm this week, it’s the “Charlie Charlie” game! Is it really summoning a Mexican demon? Ummmmmmm, probably not, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a fascinating origin and relationship to teenage supernatural party games. A little mix of the Ouija Board (which, don’t worry, will get its own show sometime soon!) to Bloody Mary, “the pencil game” started off as something relatively harmless and became a crazy sensation on the Internet over Memorial Day Weekend of 2015.
So, who do we have to thank for that? Well, it’s been a slow news week and Americans are going on vacation. That’s exactly when the media decides to indulge its weird side and talk about hashtags. So #charliecharliechallenge became a quick Vine video that a million teenagers could do this past weekend.
Here’s Mike asking the question, “Charlie Charlie, Can You Play?”
Mike and Wendy discuss the origins of the game and how it’s not really a Mexican demon (because why wouldn’t it be #carlitocarlito?) and how the original game is based on trying to talk to the sport of an abused child. But why do the pencils move? Well, that’s explained by the most powerful force in the universe (well, the second most powerful, we all know the most powerful is Hulkamania, brother.) So, that leads them into a discussion of the classic game, Bloody Mary!
Derived from an early twentieth century game where a girl walks up a darkened staircase backwards with a candle and a mirror and will supposedly see the face of her future husband, the legend of Bloody Mary (or Mary Worth) became a popular game in the 1960s and has been played at sleepovers and middle school parties ever since.
There’s a reason that the adolescent mind is fascinated with the paranormal and the conversation turns to science for a second as they discuss the developing mind and why these games are so popular for that age group.
Mike and Wendy then tackle “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” and how it’s a game that’s been played since at least the 17th Century. In fact, the famed English diarist, Samuel Pepys talks about it, as a ritual performed to protect against the plague in London. And that’s not the first time that sacred rituals have been turned into children’s games…
So Bloody Mary has influenced pop culture in a big way as well. First of all, in a few not really good movies, except for Paranormal Activity 3, which Mike helped promote as part of his Madison Ghost Walks haunted history tour. Here’s Wendy with a t-shirt, along with one of the sound guys at our favorite bar, The Frequency.
Then, Mike and Wendy talk South Park, Candyman, and Beetlejuice, as some more Bloody Mary influences on some of our favorite movies and TV!
Oh Charlie Charlie,
can you tell me if you’re here?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
can you be my secret seer?
Charlie Charlie,
what is the meaning of it all?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
what am I deserving of?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
will I ever fall in love?
Charlie Charlie, show me the writing on the wall.
Oh Charlie Charlie,
was your innocence destroyed?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
does it all come down to Freud?
Charlie Charlie,
what is the meaning of it all?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
did you have a sick father?
Oh Charlie Charlie,
why do you even bother?
Charlie Charlie, show me the writing on the wall.
Are you an angel,
are you a devil?
Or are you just a soul who got lost along the way?
A little game with the great unknown,
to play for what the future holds,
I’m frightened but I just can’t look away,
So Charlie Charlie can we play?
