What’s Hot and Haunted this Summer

Group Channeling Parties are something people have been asking me to do for a long time. I am now booking these sessions for groups of eight to twelve people. If you want something completely different to do with your friends and family this summer, try a group channeling at your home with me as the host. Check out more details here.

It’s a Paranormal lecture! It’s a Ghost Investigation! It’s a book signing… and It’s HAUNTED! On Friday the 13th of August at 8 PM, I will be hosting a spooktacular event at Historic Cold Spring Village in Cape May!

Join me for a lecture about the ghosts of the village and then disembark on your own ghost hunting tour of some of the haunted dwellings that have been gathered at this wonderful old historic site. Cold Spring Village is home to many ghosts. Some came with the buildings when they were moved to the village, other ghosts arrived from nearby Cold Spring Cemetery, not content to be dead and buried. After the tours I will be signing books at the County Store in the village. Historic Cold Spring Village is a great place to meet both history and the paranormal. To read more about the haunts, click here.

To purchase tickets go to the HCSV website here.

Now that summer is here, it’s time to start thinking about some great places to stay that also happen to be haunted. Of course, Cape May is the first place that comes to mind. The ghosts of Cape May are waiting for you. Maybe it’s my love of this old seaside city, or maybe it’s the fact that I have written four books about the ghosts at New Jersey’s southern tip in haunted Cape May. One thing is for sure, when it comes to ghosts at the Jersey shore… Cape May has the market cornered!

Cape May ghosts are some of the most interesting in the country. You can read more about these haunts in my four books, available in stores around Cape May, online booksellers and through the link below. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite places to spend my summer vacation…that also happen to be haunted.

COLUMBIA HOUSE - Not every place to stay in Cape May is a Bed and Breakfast. There are many wonderful old Victorians which have been converted into “guest suites.” This is basically a series of apartments, like condos, that one can rent a few days or a week at a time. These suites are usually divided up into floors. Columbia House, at the corner of Ocean Street and Columbia Avenue, has wonderful guest suites and is a block from the ocean and also has a ghost. Actually, two ghosts.

The house was built after the great fire of 1878 by local baker William Essen. Essen lived in the house until he became wheelchair bound and eventually died from complications of diabetes. An ironic death for a local baker and confectioner. Essen’s bakery was on Washington Street, now the site of la Patisserie, a fabulous French bakery on the mall. Somehow Essen’s spirit has managed to live on for almost a century in the old house. He is very good with electronics and managed to reset my room air conditioning unit (which has since been replaced) up to 90 degrees and down to about 48 degrees! He also managed to change the microwave display from the time to the word “Hello” surrounded by icons that looked like flowers.  The most activity for me was on the second floor. We watched a chair back away from the kitchen table as I sat on the other side with friends and tried to communicate with Mrs. Essen. I also recorded some good EVPs on the second floor, although I have recorded some on the third floor as well. The third floor turret suite is also one of the most magnificent suites in town, by the way!

For you animal lovers, Columbia House is home to Alex, the ghost cat of a previous owner that feels and sounds just like a real cat…at three o’clock in the morning…when it decides to snuggle up next to you in bed. At least that’s what happened to me one night. Thinking it was my own cat, I reached over to pt the purring, walking on the covers feline, only to put my hand into empty air. I soon realized the cat in question was not a cat at all, but a ghost cat. People do not have a monopoly on being ghosts, animals can be ghosts as well. The ghost kitty is quiet friendly and perfect for people with cat allergies as he has no hair… or no body for that matter.

If it is, in fact, the old baker William Essen haunting Columbia House, the ghost is that of a man who was well loved in town. Even though I complain his ghost had an attitude, he is by no means a bad ghost. He is just a guy/ghost with a good sense of humor.  Right before the air conditioner  in my room reset itself to a balmy 90 degrees, I had exclaimed aloud that I knew it was he who was haunting the house, and I had heard he had quite an attitude toward the former owner.  That’s when he hit me where it hurt…in the climate control department. I detest heat and humidity when I am trying to sleep, and he decided to warm things up for me a bit. Then again, he was a baker. What an appropriate way to get back at me. Maybe I was asking for it…just a little.

A ghost host, ghost cat and some wonderful ghostly goings on…if you are lucky. You will love Columbia House, ghosts or not. Columbia House can be reached by clicking on the picture. Tell Laura, the owner, Craig sent you.

To read about more summer haunts click here.

Click on the picture below to order my books through my storefront on Amazon.com.

©2010 ChannelCraig, Inc.

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