I just wanted to take some time to thank all of the amazing guests of CT Haunted History Tours in 2015.  I can't say enough what a pleasure it was driving with you through the history and haunted places of Connecticut.  You all added much to the experience and taught me a few things along the way. A few of you even scared me, which is saying alot at this point, honestly! It's always a good sign when you can give goosebumps to the lady leading the tour, lol.

A special thanks to those of you who added anecdotes and stories of Fairfield Hills. My stories from this amazing haunted location are few and far between, and so it is quite exciting to hear what your friends and relatives (and sometimes you!) experienced there. If any of you are comfortable putting me in touch with those people so that I may get first hand accounts, I would be forever grateful!

I hope you'll keep tabs on CT Haunted History Tours this year. I'm hoping to add a few more options for tours, including that blasted South Haunted History Tour, which has seemed impossible to get to. Any suggestions or thoughts you may have about the locations best to visit on this tour would be most welcome as I live in Fairfield, and what research I've done has not yet turned up many places. I am specifically looking for stories, legends or haunted locations in the following: Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Rowayton, New Canaan, Wilton, Norwalk, Ridgefield, Redding,  and maybe even Westport. Any first hand accounts or leads on places we could potentially even go into (what an amazing thought!) are also most welcome.

In addition to haunted tours, I'm hoping to expand into the realm of the living (can you imagine?) with Connecticut Vineyard Tours, Connecticut Brewery Tours, as well as good old fashioned American History Tours of Connecticut. I will keep you updated as to these changes as they come about.

Again thank you so much for sharing your stories with me. It's so wonderful to hear how you all have had the otherside touch your lives in some capacity, for good or bad! (Hopefully more good, though). I've said it before and I'll say it again: I do believe that there is much about this world that we don't understand and I am humbled and grateful for what I've experienced and am most grateful for the people who have made all of those experiences so much more fantastic.

May the light protect and guide you in the new year! Happy 2016!

Is fear itself...

Or is that accurate?

It's hard to know with the way media treats spirits and ghostly visitors.  Often, we only really see one perspective of how interactions with the dead can go (think Paranormal Activity, The Haunting in Connecticut, etc.) 

That's why I like movies like Hocus Pocus so much.  Benign spirits are much more the norm than poltergeists or things with evil intent.

Most cultures, dating back centuries, have some sort of relationship with what we term "ghosts."  In Egypt, and Greece, for example, these spirits were said to have unfinished business.  That's why it was so important that a deceased person receive a proper burial and all of the rites.  

The first written ghost story we have comes from Pliny the Younger, written sometimes between 50 AD and 100 AD.  It's a wonderful story, and we talk about it on the tour.  The original version of the first written ghost story can be found here.  

In the story, a Roman philosopher goes to Athens to purchase a home to find that the home is haunted.  He waits up at night for the ghost and, when it beckons to him, follows it through the house.  When the ghost disappears, this philosopher places an X on the ground, and the following day, has worked come to dig in that space.  Unsurprisingly, they find a body.  The body is laid to rest in the proper fashion, and the philosopher goes on about his life without bother.

So, sometimes I wonder whether or not ghosts are in fact really all that scary.  When I think about the experiences I have had - lights turning on, feelings of unwelcome, and etc. - Nothing was outright threatening.  I don't really believe that spirits enjoy being a circus attraction, and more or less, want to be left in peace.  Otherwise, I believe they need help to move on, as in the story above.

In many ancient cultures, ghosts weren't things to be feared, but were things to be helped.  It was a grave situation (no pun intended) when a spirit didn't find it's way to the afterlife.  

This is the attitude I take on the tour.  I think that a spirit's attachments from their life can sometimes cause unwillingness to leave in death.  If they had a child, or a loved one they feared leaving, if they felt like they had left something undone, or if they felt they had done something wrong and needing to make amends - all of these things may be reasons why a spirit stays on after death. 

So, in my work I make it a goal to always be respectful and to help where possible the spirits that are open to moving on, while simultaneously keeping myself protected from entities that do have more sinister motives.

There's a wonderful story about this from the Cosmic Society's Donna Kent in which she helps out a man named Mr. Peet move on to the afterlife.  If you want more information, I suggest looking up her book, Ghosts of Southwestern Connecticut.