Apr 07 2009
Paranormal State – Lady in the White Dress, Cold Hollow North Carolina
Once again, the infamous lady in the white dress…
This episode of Paranormal State had a few hot ghostly moments. The Paranormal Research Society’s clients, David & John, own a few log cabins in the woods of Cold Hollow, NC. The one they live in and plan to renovate was previously owned by the Rathbone family, who had a domestic abuse history. Naturally they feel it’s haunted. Here’s a snapshot of the events as they unfolded from beyond the production camera, er…um…veil.
The Claims:
David & John – clients - have experienced the following paranormal activity:
- Cabin is always cold inside, despite outside temperature.
- Commonly hear floorboards creaking and the sound of footsteps
- One time, the front screen door opened, when the client got up to pull screen door closed, something pulled back
- Experienced shaking bed
- Client’s sister-in-law has seen a full bodied apparition walking through a wall (lady in white dress with hair in a bun).
Enter PRS:
Chad Calek goes in for a client-led tour of the cabin. In one bedroom they almost immediately hear noises in the ceiling. The client informs Chad there is no upper level. Chad asks the clients to step out of the room, so he could have a word with the perpetrator…? The clients leave the room and Chad asks the ‘ghost’ to make that noise again. With lightening speed, Chad ascertains this is a ghost. No checking the roof. No checking the attic area. Not even a look outside the building to see if there’s a tree limb or anything being blown around in the wind. Remember, they are in the woods…it could be rodents. Yeah yeah, I know, they looked for rodents later in the show and didn’t find any. 1). They didn’t look when they were hearing the noises. Rodents naturally hide from people, for survival purposes. 2). Rodents can be *very* good at hiding. If you prefer to get your information from TV, watch one episode of The Exterminator for an idea.
Enter psychic/medium Chip Coffey:
Right off the bat, Chip Coffey announces the high level of spirit activity and senses the female spirit, noting her hair is in a bun. He walks in the cabin and detects the pacing (footsteps), and a spirit with a “nasty attitude.” Ryan Buell asks, ever so melodramatically, if there were any deaths in the cabin. Coffey informs him of two deaths in the cabin…..and even psychically picks up on a woman yelling “there’s blood.”
Pre-Dead Time Evidence:
PRS tech guru Sergey Poberezhny left two audio recorders running overnight and they picked up a lot of clunking noises, which they deem as significant. Okaaaaay……..?
Eilfie Music, the PRS team’s occult specialist, says its not rodents. This is when the team looks for droppings and comes up empty. Additional research of the cabin’s family history shows that former family (Jesse & Nancy Rathbone) had a history of domestic abuse. When Jesse was ill in later years, he often paced the house.
Dead Time:
The PRS team puts Chad Calek in the same room where he heard the knocking sound during the client-led house tour. As he sat on the bed facing the wall, an angular looking shadow moves past his own shadow on the wall. The shadow’s movement is peculiar, in that it wasn’t fluid at all, but rather staccato, which leads to many skeptical conclusions. Aside from some more knocking sounds, nothing else really happens during Dead Time.
The next day Eilfie goes on a geological survey of the wooded property and finds a lot of quartz and pyrite (fool’s gold) which the team says holds recorded memories (residuals). I’d like to point out a few things here. First, quartz is one of Earth’s most commonly found minerals. It is everywhere, so finding a few rocks of it is not so special. Second, there is no scientific evidence of any metaphysical effects of quartz despite the fact that people have touted its healing effects for years. In fact, one study has been done to show quartz’ placebo effect. The only well documented effect of quartz on humans I have found is that it’s dust particles are carcinogenic when inhaled.
The moral of this story is, research through credible sources can surely be of benefit to a paranormal investigation. Until the next Ghost Hunters review, I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite skeptics, Carl Sagan. From his book The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
“All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their television commercials.”
