DIARY OF A GHOST HUNTER

Egyptians called the shadow khaibut.  TheY believed that the khaibut was one of seven souls that each person had.  The shadow was an integral art of the whole person. The Roman word for shadow was umbra , also meaning ‘the shade’ or the ghost of an individual who went to a place called the Land of Shades.  The land of Shades was believed to be underground or part of an Underworld and after the person died, their shadow went there. Again it was part of the person - not separate. In Greece, people were known to dedicate their shadows or give them over to a God. This was considered to be a marvelous sacrifice but at the same time fearsome. For instance, it was believed  that if a person went to the temple or sanctuary of Zeus Lycaeus, they would lose their shadows. For those who do not know, Lycaeus was believed to be the origin of Werewolves and from this particular story, maybe some of the lore concerning werewolves became born and still lives on t...

Last night we conducted our first ghost tour/investigation of Stroud. As usual with a new tour I was feeling very anxious. Would it go well? Would people like it? Did we have enough to keep everyone interested and engaged? I really had little idea of what was going to work for this tour as, although we do have a set format that we run to, it is only as good as it is when the group is vibrant and interested and the ghosts connect. Each night can be totally different. Well, it turns out, that I had nothing to worry about! We were overwhelmed and so were our participants. Our group ranged from total skeptics to believers to a lot of people who had had personal experiences but, almost no one had been on a ghost tour before. Stroud is a township about an hour's drive from Newcastle in NSW. It was a town settled in the 1820's just after the area was opened up to free settlement. It was specifically created by the Australian Agricultural Company (formed by rich pa...