Posted on 10/25/2009 7:40:30 AM PDT by CurlyBill
Neither the hot film Paranormal Activity nor TV's popular Ghost Hunters can compete with Miami-Dade's historic Deering Estate at Cutler.
Ghost trackers investigating paranormal activity on the site say they recently found more than 60 disembodied voices coming from the county-owned estate -- once the home of wealthy industrialist Charles Deering, of International Harvester fame.
One voice captured on a digital recorder seems to say, ``We're trapped here.''
Don't believe it? The Deering Estate is opening its doors to the public Thursday evening for its first-ever Ghost Story Tour. And two days before Halloween, the Palmetto Bay site will allow ghost hunters to bring in their own equipment -- aura cameras, pendulums, EVP recorders -- to snoop around.
Investigators say they found two ``full-body apparitions'' on the grounds of the estate at 16701 SW 72nd Ave., in Palmetto Bay.
The images were of translucent human forms, a male and female, by the boat basin on Biscayne Bay -- with photographic evidence for naysayers to ponder.
``This is what we consider the holy grail in paranormal investigation -- a full-body apparition is not a common finding at all,'' said Colleen Kelley, from the Coconut Grove-based League of Paranormal Investigators (LPI), which spent two days on the estate in August.
Even seasoned ghost tracker Atena Komar pronounced it ``severely haunted.''
Deering scored a 58 on LPI's point scale, which assigns a value to digital recordings, photographs and eyewitness accounts in determining whether a space has spirits. Any figure 30 and above suggests haunted. LPI had never recorded higher than a 29.
``Any ghost hunting group may have one in all of their collection in all of their years of doing it,'' said Kelley, artist by day, ghost hunter by night.
``We had two.''
The 444-acre Deering Estate once was the domain of Paleo-Indians, North America's earliest human inhabitants, who lived more than 12,000 years ago.
Charles Deering built the two main houses -- the 1896 Richmond Cottage, the last surviving structure of the town of Cutler, and the 1922 Stone House -- as his retreat. He died there in 1927.
His heirs owned the home until 1985, when Miami-Dade and the state of Florida jointly purchased it and turned it into a historic site.
Over the years, staffers spoke of hearing noises and witnessing odd occurrences, such as elevators moving on their own.
In August, estate administrators commissioned an investigation.
Jennifer Tisthammer, the estate's deputy director, says there are places on the grounds where she'd have a sense of foreboding, and other places where she'd feel happy.
``I've been on this estate for three years,'' she said. LPI's paranormal search validated her own feelings, she said.
Psychics picked up on the presence of a young woman wandering about the boat basin. They felt she was frantically searching for someone to save from drowning.
The Miami Herald reported in a November 1916 article that an explosion on the estate killed five Bahamian workers dredging the channel.
A photo of what LPI says could be an apparition reveals a female figure, headless, and clad in white Victorian-era dress. She's hovering above the water, with arms crossed. The shot was taken with a camera pointed at the basin, with its shutter wide open.
``If someone walked through that shot, you'd see a blur of someone moving, not someone standing there,'' Kelley said.
``We couldn't debunk it,'' Kelley said. ``We tried several times.''
Komar and partner Ed de Jong formed the nonprofit LPI out of their Coconut Grove home in February 2008.
In its first year, the firm handled about 20 cases. Business grew -- from homeowners seeking guidance to nonprofits asking for spirit assistance. In the first six months of this year, LPI already has fielded more than 20 cases, from Miami to Lake Worth.
Fueling the interest are popular television programs like A&E's Paranormal State, ScyFy's Ghost Hunters and the Blair Witch Project-like Paranormal Activity movie.
But not everyone's a fan. Skeptics abound, like James Randi, who founded his nonprofit James Randi Educational Foundation 13 years ago in Fort Lauderdale to promote critical thinking on the supernatural.
He calls such talk ``a farce, with no evidence.''
His foundation is offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can provide solid, irrefutable evidence of a paranormal event.
Just because someone doesn't take the prize doesn't mean they don't have proof, Randi said. ``But until they do, and offer evidence, there's no proof either way.''
To a degree, Kelley concurs.
``We don't conclude,'' she said. ``It's always a maybe. Without a doubt, [Deering] is haunted. We can say that for sure. But by whom, we can't say for sure.''
Ghost Ping!
Ghost Ping!
Ghostly bump!
Let’s see....it’s county-owned...it’s beginning tours for the public...there’s no such thing as ghosts...hmmm, does anybody smell a rat? hello? fraud!
ACORN is probably down there registering the spirits votes.
request to be added to “ghost ping” list? thanks
The Deering Estate has been open to the public for years. I used to go to the Cutler Deering estate all the time when I lived down there, and my wedding reception was at the Deering estate in Coconut Grove (aso open to the public for decades). I never saw any ghosts, though.
I’m from South FLA - toured the Deering estate, AKA “Vizcaya” many, many times. A aerial shot of the estate was featured in the movie “Airport ‘77”.
Maybe someone could help me understand this.
They talked about seeing an Inca dressed man in one sighting and someone pushing a person in a wheel chair in another sighting.
I can wrap my head around seeing dead people floating around. But where do they get historic clothes, why aren’t they naked and where do they get a ghost wheel chair from?
Cool!
I believe the Deering Estate and Vizcaya are two separate entities. Vizcaya the home of James Deering, and the Deering Estate the home of Charles Deering. Vizcaya is where Reagan met with Pope John Paul II.
Man at Elevator: What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?
Dr. Peter Venkman: No, we're exterminators. Someone saw a cockroach up on twelve.
Man at Elevator: That's gotta be some cockroach.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Bite your head off, man.
Dr Ray Stantz: [Entering elevator] Going up?
Man at Elevator: I'll take the next one.
If you don't believe that is alright, one day you might get to see a spirit..or smell them or hear them..
When we first moved into our house (it was our weekend lake house) my wife was on the 3rd floor ironing. Our poodle woke up, perked up her ears, and barked at the bathroom. The light in the bathroom clicked on. It was one of the old switches that makes a loud click. We couldn’t get it to stay in a “neutral” position, no matter how hard we tried. We frequently had doors open and close by themselves. The guy who owned the place committed suicide (not in the house) when his business went south. It has been a long time since anything strange happened, and we never felt threatened. Could be shifting foundation or some such.
“I believe in Spirits that never move on..”
That’s why they are referred to as “familiar spirits”.
http://www.gotquestions.org/familiar-spirits.html
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