Education
Jeff Belanger graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
(This book is an objective and journalistic journey into t...)
This book is an objective and journalistic journey into the history and practice of spirit communication devices. Practitioners, scientists, clergy, and psychics all weigh in on the various means and materials used to make contact with the spirit world.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564147932/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AABCIJU/?tag=2022091-20
(What is legend tripping? There's a good chance you've alr...)
What is legend tripping? There's a good chance you've already done it. Remember sneaking off into that cemetery at night as a kid to see if there were any ghosts? What about hearing there was a monster lurking in that old abandoned building and wanting to check it out? Or reading about a UFO landing site and wanting to plan your next vacation in the area so you could stand where the craft was said to have left its mark? That's legend tripping. But it's also so much more. Any television program you've ever seen that explores haunted places, ancient mysteries, UFO sightings, or strange creatures is legend tripping. First there was a story: a legend that was born and grew because people had unexplained experiences and shared what they saw, heard, and felt. In Picture Yourself Legend Tripping: Your Complete Guide to Finding UFOs, Monsters, Ghosts, and Urban Legends in Your Own Backyard, you'll learn how to find, explore, and document these amazing, and often paranormal, occurrences. And you don't need expensive equipment or training, because this book will show you how to have an incredible adventure in your own backyard this weekend. Bring your open mind and your sense of wonder. Get ready for legend tripping! Interview with Jeff Belanger Lee Prosser, author of Missouri Hauntings, interviews Jeff Belanger about his new book, Picture Yourself Legend Tripping. Lee Prosser: Jeff, it is a pleasure to interview you about the topic of legend tripping! You have certainly written an intriguing book. The research involved must have taken some time... Did you find the research more involved than for your previous books? Jeff Belanger: Picture Yourself Legend Tripping has been many years in the making. This is not a new idea, of course. The concept goes back for thousands of years. The idea is to actively pursue legends. Folklorists have been using the term "legend tripping" for many years. It originally meant ostension--to sneak out, break the rules, and try to tempt something paranormal. I'm redefining the meaning. This time we do have permission, we're not breaking rules, but we are still having a bold adventure. The concept of legend tripping is the evolution of my views on the paranormal, having studied this field for 15 years now. I was getting frustrated with the drama and problems I saw becoming so prevalent in the paranormal community. Legend tripping is my own return to all of the elements I love most about this subject: the story, the legends, talking to others about their brush with the unexplained, and my own experience once I'm inside the legend. What inspired you to create this special, highly readable "guide"? I want legend tripping to be a movement. Something that resonates with a lot of people, that spurs them to get out and dive into the legends that are lurking everywhere. Every movement needs a starting point, so the book is that. Plus I launched a new Web site to support the movement. The response so far has been incredible. My hope is that other authors will write books about legend tripping, that television shows will form around the concept, and people will be proud to identify themselves as legend trippers. I can't make a movement on my own. The book is just the first step in an endless journey. Were there some parts that sparked your interest from past investigations? Sure. All of my past investigations helped shape who I am and what I believe. I thought a lot about my first time exploring the Catacombs of Paris, France. How I went in alone. No ghost hunting gear, just me, the history, the sights, the sounds, smells, and the human experience. And I actually saw something. I want most of my legend trips to be like that... and there's no reason they can't be. I get excited by looking for this stuff. You have a knack for coming across all things macabre and curious. Were you born with this talent, or did it develop along the way? I've always had a love for the weird. But I'm especially interested in the human experience--my own and that of the eyewitness. After doing this for a bunch of years, I've developed an eye and ear for these kinds of stories. Plus people know I'm out there doing this and so I've become a magnet for strange stories. I think I have the coolest job in the world. You would say, then, that everybody can become a legend tripper, if they wish? If people are reading this far, my guess is they already are legend trippers. But yes, anyone can be a legend tripper. Just look into a mirror and repeat after me: "I'm a legend tripper." There you go, now you're in the club. Anyone who has ever even watched a paranormal television show is legend tripping, albeit the most passive form of the pursuit. To discuss a legend or to study its origins is still legend tripping. But for the full experience, you need to get out there and walk where Bigfoot was said to walk, you need to crawl through that creepy haunted building, and you need to talk to the witnesses. Finally you need to breathe in the legend for yourself and see what happens. No equipment is necessary beyond what you have on you right now. To me, personally, chapters two and five held great appeal because they concerned ghosts and UFOs. Did you find UFOs a difficult section to research, or was there an abundance of material available? UFOs have always fascinated me because it poses a big question: Are we alone in the universe? There's an abundance of research out there, so finding the information was not that difficult. But redefining the quest for UFOs within the realm of legend tripping took some work. For the book I interviewed some folks from MUFON--the Mutual UFO Network--which is an amazing and organized group. BUT... while I applaud their thoroughness of data collection, I feel like they sometimes miss the point and overlook the story, the legend, and the human experience. I love stories of UFOs and abductions. I want to see the photos and videos. But I also want to go to the landing sites and talk to the witnesses myself because the legend of that sighting doesn't end when the flying object disappears. The legend goes on for as long as we talk about it. A Look Inside Picture Yourself Legend Tripping Legend Tripping Equipment No, you don’t need thousands of dollars in gear and fancy equipment to go legend tripping. You don’t need night vision, nor do you need handheld meters that measure electromagnetic forces—that stuff looks cool on TV, but it weighs you down. Bring this: • Pen • Notebook • Backpack (you don’t need a briefcase--you’re a legend tripper, not a lawyer) • Camera (film, digital, video, whatever you have will do) • Audio recorder • Bug spray • Snacks • Water • Boots • First aid kit • Extra batteries • Some great music for the car ride • Your favorite caffeinated drink for those late nights Urban Legends Here's a popular version of the "Bloody Mary" story: Many years ago, a beautiful young woman named Mary Worth suffered a horrible accident that left her face completely disfigured. Her family feared she wouldn't be able to handle the sight of her own reflection so they hid all of the mirrors in the house. One day Mary's curiosity got the better of her and so she went looking for a mirror. When she uncovered a hidden looking glass and saw the face before her, she screamed in horror. She wanted her old image back so badly that she walked into the mirror to search for it, and vowed to attack and disfigure anyone who should ever go looking for her. That's just one account; there are many others. Spend an evening reading some of these accounts before attempting your own summoning of Mary Worth. Though none of us would expect anything to happen, I defy you to tell me it didn’t at least cross your mind that you might see a disfigured face coming toward you from the other side. These stories are powerful and touch nerves deep inside of us. The Bloody Mary urban legend has been around since roughly the 1960s, but it speaks to issues that date back centuries. The "sin" of vanity, of loving one’s reflection too much, of summoning spirits, and exacting revenge on the innocent all hover over the Bloody Mary legend like a morning fog. UFO Legends Joe Ferriere was in Cumberland, Rhode Island, around 6:30 PM on July 3, 1967. For three days prior, he had been fielding three or four phone calls per day about a large cylindrical UFO in the area of the Pawtucket Reservoir, so he had to look for himself. With camera in hand he pulled in to an area west of Diamond Hill Road. He walked along the trail beneath the power lines. According to his written account in Probe magazine, Ferriere found a clearing about 700 to 800 feet from the road and began searching for physical evidence of something out of the ordinary. He admits he didn't know what he was looking for and that he could have walked right over something and not known it. Forty-five minutes in, he was about to call off his search when he turned northwest and froze in his tracks. He saw a large, cigar-shaped craft moving silently toward his position. He estimates the craft was 75 to 100 feet in length and flying about 150 to 200 feet above the ground (given that the tallest trees in the area were about 60 feet tall). He described the object as being a drab gray in color, and it had four circle-shaped lighter spots running along the length of the craft. He also observed a "piston-like apparatus" that slowly moved in and out of one end of the craft. The third distinguishing feature was a trap-door-like form on the bottom. Ferriere got to work taking pictures with his camera. Clicking a picture, advancing the film, then sometimes running (and almost falling) to another position to try and take more photos. While he was watching this silent craft, the hatch opened and he saw a shiny object launched from inside at a high rate of speed—faster than any jet plane by his estimate. Ferriere clicked more photos of the cigar until it accelerated and passed out of sight over the hill. Then he saw a disc-shaped object that had been ejected from the main craft hovering above the tree line. He also captured a photo of that craft before it quickly accelerated in the same direction of the larger ship. Ferriere said: "As I recall I was rather calm about the whole thing. There wasn't a feeling of fright or anything, it just felt perfectly normal for this to be here and for me to be watching this he laughs. "This was one of many many sightings that took place in the whole East Woonsocket area in 1966 and '67. In fact there were busloads of people who would come down from Boston and points north to sky watch. That's how many UFOs were being seen. "There was a mindset of that time: All things are possible, the impossible just takes a little bit longer."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1435456394/?tag=2022091-20
(We spend a third of our lives sleeping, with much of the ...)
We spend a third of our lives sleeping, with much of the night filled with dreams. Peculiarly vivid, disturbing dreams leave behind impressions that are hard to dismiss. But what are nightmares? And what significance do they have for the dreamer? Questions like these have been asked and answered in all time periods in all of the world's cultures. The Nightmare Encyclopedia examines ideas about bad dreams found in different parts of the world, in different periods of Western history, in recent clinical research, in current theories of the occult, and in popular films. Most of the world's traditional societies are taught that our souls leave our bodies and travel to other realms when we dream, so maybe nightmares are the result of getting lost in one of dreamland's bad neighborhoods. In medieval Europe, it was thought that demons could attack and rape human beings in their sleep. In contrast, modern psychologists tend to view nightmares as repressed conflicts that return from our unconscious to haunt us in our dreams. This book also includes interpretations of dream symbols found in nightmares.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564147622/?tag=2022091-20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FIXVZWU/?tag=2022091-20
(Packed full with first-hand battle accounts, Ghosts of Wa...)
Packed full with first-hand battle accounts, Ghosts of War will leave readers on the edge of their seats as they encounter the ghostly evidence, historical records, and facts about battles and colorful military figures (such as Mad Anthony Wayne and the Revolutionary War) and the phantoms who have been seen where heroes' lives have been lost. The battle stories and the ghost tales attached to the sieges described in this book will provide students with an engrossing melding of exciting military history and unforgettable mystery.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1435851773/?tag=2022091-20
(Ghosts of War is where history and mystery meet. Phanto...)
Ghosts of War is where history and mystery meet. Phantom U.S. Civil War regiments still march through Harpers Ferry, West Virginia before vanishing into the evening sunset. The beaches of Normandy, France still echo with the cries of the men who gave their lives storming the beaches on D-Day. The disembodied clip-clop of horse's hooves and the clank of swords from the British Civil War battle of January 25, 1644 are still heard in Nantwich, Cheshire. Wherever battles were fought and people perished, ghost legends have followed. Ghosts can be found wherever tragedy left its mark. Where men’s and women’s lives ended so quickly that their spirits may not even realize that they're dead. Where soldiers, focused on duty, still patrol the front lines of long-finished wars. The world's battlefields are imprinted with the passions, fears, and horrors of the soldiers who took their enemies’ lives and often sacrificed their own. Battlefields are still rife with spirit activity, centuries after the last cannon was fired and the last casualty lost. Ghosts of War is a history book told through the eyes of witnesses who have experienced the ghosts who still haunt these locations. Featuring nearly two dozen battlefields from around the world and throughout the centuries, each chapter includes first-hand accounts of the battle (where available), important facts and dates, historic and ghostly photos of the site, and first-hand ghost sightings and supernatural experiences that still occur.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1564148890/?tag=2022091-20
(The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places is the first directory...)
The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places is the first directory to be written by dozens of the world's leading paranormal investigators. Research notes, location background, first-hand accounts, and many anomalous photographs featuring ghostly manifestations comprise the hundreds of haunted listings in this directory. For years, paranormal investigative groups have been studying their local ghosts with scientific equipment as well as with more esoteric methods, such as psychics and séances. This directory is a repository of some of their most profound cases. From across the United States, Canada, and many spots around the globe, ghost investigators tell of their sometimes harrowing experiences, share their research, and give readers an overview of both well-known and obscure haunted locales. From private residences to inns and restaurants, battlefields to museums and libraries, graveyards to churches, The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places will offer supernatural tourists a guide to points of interest through the eyes of the ghost hunters. This reference also offers names, addresses, phone numbers, and Web addresses to each location covered. Feeling brave? You may just want to stop and visit some ghosts on your next trip.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601630824/?tag=2022091-20
Jeff Belanger graduated from Hofstra University with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
(Packed full with first-hand battle accounts, Ghosts of Wa...)
(The Encyclopedia of Haunted Places is the first directory...)
(This book is an objective and journalistic journey into t...)
(We spend a third of our lives sleeping, with much of the ...)
(What is legend tripping? There's a good chance you've alr...)
(Ghosts of War is where history and mystery meet. Phanto...)
