Synchronicity

Hello everyone,

We apologize for the delay since our last update. Both Ben and I have been going through significant life changes, as well as each of us moving to new locations in the country.

Today I want to bring up a personal tale of synchronicity, as it does relate to Cemetery Gates overall mission of anything and everything paranormal.

I don't believe in coincidence, the universe is smarter than that. We are given messages and signs frequently and it is up to us to use our intuition and notice them.

My Uncle, Gary Bogue is a columnist for the Contra Costa Times newspaper in California. He has been employed there for decades and writes quirky, fun feel good stories about animals and wildlife. Nothing whatsoever to do with the paranormal.

As you are aware, The Cemetery Gates has an RSS feed in our right sidebar for Paranormal News, provided by Bonnie Vent, the Spirit Advocate. Upon logging in to our site this AM there in the RSS feed to my astonishment was the following:

The bottom most feed is an article my uncle Gary Bogue wrote in 1982 about cats and the strange things they see, but we humans can not. The odd thing about this popping up on our site besides the fact that as mentioned my uncle does not write about the paranormal is that I was just speaking of my uncle, whom I have not spoken with in some years, this very day. Also, much to my surprise at the very moment I was reading the article my cat Georgie was intently bouncing around the room chasing some hidden bogie, spirit or something else I didn't see.

Maybe I am reading too much into the whole incident, maybe coincidence does exist and there is no higher beings injecting little signs into our lives, but that isn't what I believe. I bet if you take the time you will start to notice things like this happening in your life. Magic is out there, you just have to open your mind up to accepting it.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cememtery, Oakland, CA in August 2009.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Pasadena, California in March 2008.

Cemetery Photo of the week

Photo taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Sleepy Hollow, New York in October 2007.

Cemetery Photo of the Week

Photo taken at Highgate Cemetery, London, England in April of 2008.

If you happen to be in London I highly recommend visiting this cemetery.

Swain's Lane
London N6 6PJ, United Kingdom
020 8340 1834

Cemetery photo of the Week

Photo taken at Etna Cemetery, Etna, California in January of 2010.

New structure found at Stonehenge

Exciting news out of England this morning!

"Archaeologists have discovered a wooden version of British prehistoric monument Stonehenge at the same site, the project's leader told Reuters on Thursday. Using radar, the archaeologists found a circular ditch less than one kilometre away from the iconic stone circle, which is thought to date back to the Neolithic period 2,000 to 4,000 years ago.

"This finding is remarkable," said project leader Vince Gaffney, professor of archaeology at the University of Birmingham.

"It will completely change the way we think about the landscape around Stonehenge."


Head to MSNBC for the complete article entitled Archaeologists find new structure at Stonehenge

Story courtesy of MSNBC.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California in August of 2009.

The Creeper: Wall Sculpture

The folks over at Design Toscano are selling a creepy wall sculpture titled The Creeper, designed by artist Liam Manchester.

"Drawing upon the rich stories of the ancient druids who once lived near his English manor home, British artist Liam Manchester created this sculpture to appear as if it is floating mid-air! What you don’t see is as important as what you do with the stunning effect of “negative space” balancing the matte black, textured interior. Cast in quality designer resin and ingeniously hand-painted exclusively for Toscano."

Check out Design Toscano for this and other spooky sculptures!

Paranormal TV - Ghost Hunters International: Season 2 resumes Wednesday

GHI Season 2 resumes tonight, Wednesday July 14Th @ 9/8 central on Syfy channel. See below for a sneak peak of Episode 214: The Spirit of Robin Hood!



For more information on GHI including team biographies, behind the scenes video footage, and an episode guide visit the official site here.

"Zombies" crash in Portland, Oregon

An odd story out of Portland, Oregon from Friday July 10th! If anyone has a picture of this please send it to us!

"PORTLAND, Ore. -- A car full of people dressed as zombies crashed on Interstate 84 near downtown Portland on Friday, causing initial confusion by people who witnessed the crash.

Portland Police said the car was swerving in the eastbound lanes of the freeway just east of the Lloyd District just after 9:30 p.m. when it rolled over and crashed onto its top.

Emergency crews took five victims from the crash to area hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police said that in their investigation they learned that the people inside the car were dressed as zombie costumes and they were headed to a party at the time of the crash.

Sgt. Greg Stewart said people who witnessed the crash initially thought the victims' injuries were much more serious, because of the zombie costumes.

"We're glad that everyone is alive, despite being 'undead'," Sgt. Stewart said, referring to the costumes.

While everyone in the car was taken to the hospital, Stewart said crews are investigating the possibility that more people were in the car at the time of the crash but fled the scene on foot.

The crash halted traffic in the eastbound lanes for about an hour, reducing travel to just one lane. All eastbound lanes were opened at around 11 p.m."


Story courtest of KGW on MSNBC.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, in Sleepy Hollow, New York in October of 2007.

Paranormal TV: Haven

On Friday July 9th, 2010 Syfy debuted Haven, a new show based on Stephen King's novella The Colorado Kid.

"The series follows the shrewd and confident FBI agent Audrey Parker (Rose) who has a lost past, and arrives in the small town of Haven, Maine on a routine case. Before long, her natural curiosity lands her in the epicenter of activity in this curious enclave, which turns out to be a longtime refuge for people that are affected by a range of supernatural afflictions.

As the townspeople's dormant abilities begin to express themselves, Audrey helps keep these forces at bay while discovering the many secrets of Haven — including one surrounding her own surprising connections to this extraordinary place. "

For more information on Haven, including photo's, video blogs, and full episodes visit the official page at Syfy.

Haven, Friday nights at 9/8 central only on Syfy.

Paranormal Activity 2: Official Trailer

Now, I saw Paranormal Activity in an almost empty movie theater and I was looking over my shoulder through the entire film. For it's low budget old school filmmaking, I was impressed. It really worked. I recommend the first film to any fan of the horror genre or filmmaker interested in learning old school movie making. The effects were fresh and simple. At times a little near the cheese factor, but with disappointments like the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, it shows a little know-how and storytelling can go much further.

Hopefully, Paranormal Activity 2 can pull off what Blair Witch 2 couldn't.
Paranormal Activity 2 releases in theaters October 22.

Cemetery photo of the week

Photo taken at Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, CA August 2009

New weekly series: Cemetery photo of the week!

Today on Cemetery gates we debut a new weekly article: Cemetery photo of the week!

Throughout our business and personal travels we always manage to stumble upon a beautiful cemetery, and while we may not always have time to investigate each cemetery's very unique paranormal experience or haunting, we always keep our cameras handy!

We hope you enjoy these weekly photos as much as we enjoy taking them.

Photo taken at Highgate Cemetery, North London, England in May of 2008.

Obscure Horror Films that should be on DVD, or better yet remake!

While Blu-Ray gets cheaper and standard DVDs become coasters on out coffee tables. There are still many great horror films that never even made it to our DVD shelves. First off is one of my childhood favorites called Sleepy Hollow with Jeff Goldblum and Dick Butkus. I know this has been remade before by Tim Burton with Johnny Depp, but this Washington Irving adaptation has a place in my heart and should be on DVD.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1980



BLOOD BEACH, 1981

Another campy film from a post-Jaws era about a creature under the sandy beaches of California sucking down unsuspecting beach-goers into the sand. It stars John Saxon from the classic Black Christmas and Burt Young from the Rocky films. Who knows what you'll find under the beach.



GARGOYLES, 1972

This is not your kiddie Disney-esque film about gargoyles on church tops saving the day. Oh no! This is a live action film about gargoyles trying to save their race from extinction by taking a human woman captive for their leader when his mate is hit on the highway by a passing 18-wheeler. It has a Roger Corman feel to it with impressively surreal effects for it's time and monster make-up that made me keep the nightlight on for months.

Ghosts at Disneyland!

Disneyland in Anaheim, CA has long been rumoured to have several haunting at it's famed Haunted Mansion attraction, and after spending significant time in there over the years I have often times felt what I can only describe as a "real "ghostly" presence there. After all it is the perfect place for a real haunting to occur when all of the unsuspecting mortals are expecting to see the Haunted Mansion's "999 happy haunts."


Thanks to the folks over at Ghost At Disneyland (You Tube channel) we may now have some evidence to show that these specters don't just haunt the Haunted Mansion!

Each of the 3 videos appear to be authentic security and maintenance camera footage of ghosts popping up in empty seats on various attractions, or seen wandering around the park. As I am a former Disney employee I can attest that these feeds appear to be valid locations of where the camera's do exist. What do you think? Real? Or more Disney "Magic?"

If I should come back as a ghost, I would absolutely visit Disneyland, and however cliche it is, I would spend a great deal of time in the Haunted Mansion scaring my formal mortal brethren!

Happy Birthday George Noory!

At The Cemetery Gates wishes George Noory a wonderful 60th Birthday, today June 4th, 2010!

George, the long time main host of Coast to Coast AM is a constant inspiration to us here at the Gates.

We hope you have a great day George!

"Dance of Death" Drawings

A wonderful article with pictures from Bibliodyssey!

"After beginning his working life as a printer's apprentice, Louis Crucius (or Crusius) completed the necessary requirements to graduate as a pharmacist in 1882 and a doctor in 1890 in St Louis, Missouri. While he was studying he worked in a pharmacy and made humorous sketches that were placed in the window of the store. A collection of these drawings was published in 1893 ('Funny Bones'). He lectured in histology and anatomy and eventually came to be a Professor of Anatomy but died in 1898 from kidney tumours.

Although he gave most of his drawings away, Crucius sold a number of them to the Antikamnia ('opposed to pain') Chemical Company which had been established in St Louis in 1890. They produced antikamnia medicines containing the coal tar derivative, acetanilid, an anti-fever drug with pain relieving properties somewhat related to paracetamol, but which would be later shown to be a toxic compound not to mention addictive. Antikamnia was mixed with substances like codeine and quinine to enhance the pain relieving effects.

30 of the Crucius 'dance of death'-inspired drawings were used to make 5 years worth of Antikamnia Chemical Company calendars - between 1897 and 1901. They had a fairly aggressive marketing campaign in which the calendars (aimed at the medical fraternity) as well as postcards and sample packs were distributed to doctors in the United States and overseas.

The Antikamnia Chemical Company were eventually prosecuted for failing to disclose the source of the active ingredient on their packaging: U. S. v. ANTIKAMNIA CHEMICAL CO., 231 U.S. 654 (1914).

Check out a fantastic selection of pictures from the calendar!