America's Haunted Road Trip

Now that my new book, Ghosthunting Ohio: On the Road Again is in the bookstores and available from online booksellers, I'll be touring Ohio throughout the month of October, speaking at libraries and other venues and signing my books.You can see where I'll be by checking www.JohnKachuba.com (Author Tour). Please stop by and see me when I'm in your town. I'd love to meet you.

Thailand is an intriguing, mysterious, and spiritual country. The two months I spent there, the people I met, the places I visited, the things I experienced will always be in my memory. No doubt, I will write about them again sometime.

There are, however, so many other wonderful metaphysical sites around the world that The Metaphysical Traveler needs to set out down the road once again. So, stay tuned to this blog for more new locations.

One final word from Thailand, though. Paul Taitt sent me this photo taken in Thailand. The couple in the photo swear that they were alone. Really? Then how do we explain the man in the background?

The Metaphysical Traveler on the Air

 August 24

 Tonight's the night! I'll be making another visit to "Coast to Coast with George Noory" radio. Check out http://www.coasttocoastam.com/ for a radio station near you. Click on "Stations."

The Thai Ghost House  

So, now that I had purchased the amulet that was supposed to attract ghosts, and had already paid visits to both the ghost house on the Silpakorn University campus and the ghost village on the grounds of the Sanam Chan Palace, I was ready to test out the amulet.

Two nights before I left Thailand for home, I put the amulet in my pocket and stepped out into the dark, humid Thai night. It was late and there wasn’t a living soul around—I paused as I crossed the bridge over the canal to gaze into the dark waters to see if I could detect any of the dead souls Dr. Jundi had told me about. There were things that I could not recognize moving beneath the surface and I hoped they were only fish.

Dogs barked in the night as I continued my walk to Reun Prakumsakkee, the ghost house, the amulet weighing heavily in my pocket. Wrapped in complete darkness, the house was little more than a shadow to me. I walked cautiously through the high grass around the house, fearful of water monitors but even more fearful of cobras and pythons. I didn’t know if my amulet also had the ability to ward off dangerous snakes.

I wanted to climb up into the house but in the darkness I risked becoming a ghost myself if I had tried to negotiate the rotting wooden stairs, so I contented myself with getting as close to the house as I could and slowly circling it several times, listening, waiting. . .

I had my camera with me and I took several photos of the house, pointing the camera into the darkness, always surprised by what the flash illuminated. Things rustled in the grass and a night bird called from a tree. My camera flashed again and again.

After a few minutes, I felt a heaviness come over me and the sense that I was not alone. Perhaps, I was being watched by any one of the million Thai critters that come out at night, I don’t know. All I did know was that I was finished there and so, thanking the spirit of the house for his hospitality, I walked back to my quarters.

Eager to see my photos on the computer, I downloaded them right away. On at least one of them appeared a glowing white orb of light. Some paranormal investigators believe that such orbs are the spirit energy of ghosts. Those orbs may not be ghosts at all, of course; they may have rational explanations, but considering all that I knew about the house, and the rituals that had been conducted inside it, was it inconceivable that I had been visited by the ghosts of Reun Prakumsakkee?

What do you think?

If you missed my TV program on the Sundance Channel on July 12, fear not. It will be on all this month ad nauseam. The show is called “Love/Lust, The Paranormal.” Here’s a link to the programming schedule: http://www.sundancechannel.com​/love-lust/schedule/

I hope you'll tune in and post your comments here. Enjoy.

Thai Ghost Village

So, after exploring the ghost house on the campus of Silpakorn University, I became curious about the abandoned village just beyond the canal from the ghost house. I could see the dark windows of the forlorn houses looking at me from beyond the trees but I could not get to the village. There was a rickety old footbridge that would have taken me across the canal but access to it was blocked by a chain-link fence with a padlocked gate.

Once again I turned to my friend Pom, who by now I had come to regard as Mighty Mouse, since he was always there to “save the day.” Together, we walked to the Sanam Chan Royal Palace which bordered the campus, thinking we could get into the village from there. And we did. Oh, it wasn’t easy, since the village is off-limits to the public but Pom smooth-talked us through a phalanx of soldiers, policemen, and security guards until we gained admittance to the office of Teerasak Changpet, a public relations officer who was more than happy to give Pom and I a private tour of the village.

The three of us wandered through the village. Teerasak told us that the village was over 100 years old and that, at one time, served as a military post for local militia; he pointed out the buildings that had been used as barracks.

We came to a house that looked small from the front, but extended to the rear quite a distance. Teerasak paused before the house—at a safe distance—and told us that a strong spirit occupied the house. I asked if we could go inside and he said we could but before we did, he said a little prayer to appease the spirit of the house. The three of us climbed up the dilapidated stairs and went inside. The house was divided into two large rooms. Weak light filtered in through the open windows. Clothes and garbage littered the floor.

While Pom and Teerasak were in the front room I walked into the room at the rear and stood there awhile, absorbing the silence of the place. I felt as though something was there, something not unfriendly, but mysterious and beyond my approach.

When we left the house Teerasak told us that some people had seen the ghost of an old woman there, but he had his one ghost story to tell. He was patrolling the grounds from a motorcycle one night and when he drove by the house he saw a man wearing what he described as the “traditional clothes of an official.” He was surprised because there wasn’t supposed to be anyone on the grounds but also because the man was visible only from the waist up. That’s when Teerasak realized the half-man was, in fact, a ghost.

I would like to have returned to the village at night but was unable to do so. I did, however, return to the ghost house on the university campus one night. Read more about that next time.

Thai Ghost House – Part I

After Pom helped me obtain an amulet that was supposed to attract ghosts (see previous blog), all I needed was the right opportunity. To my surprise, I found it on the campus of Silpakorn University where Mary and I were living while in Thailand.

The old, abandoned traditional Thai house on campus is called Reun Prakumsakkee. I discovered that, in 2010, an Italian visiting artist named Alessandra Campoli gave a mixed media performance titled Haunted in the house. By email Alessandra told me that it was necessary to perform a two-day ceremony at the house in order to get permission of the resident spirits to hold the performance there.

I also heard stories about people seeing a ghostly woman wearing old-style Thai clothing at the house as well as the ghost of a little girl who reportedly fell off a swing and died.

Kanyarat Vechasat, a professor of Thai literature and folklore, serves on a committee that protects and preserves such old buildings on the campus. She told me that, at one point, university officials were thinking about relocating the old house. She went to the house and prayed that, if there was a spirit residing there, it should send her a sign. After praying, Kanyarat saw two pythons at the house, entwined and standing upright (almost five feet high!). She took their presence as a sign from the spirit of the house. She told university officials about the snakes and they said that other people had reported the same phenomenon. The officials decided that a spirit did, indeed, live in the house and it was not moved.

I walked to Reun Prakumsakkee and stood there for awhile looking at it. The house stood in a lot with grass deep enough to hide cobras, pythons, or the ubiquitous water monitors that crept up from the water. The wooden house was weather-beaten and faded, the shutters over the windows ajar, the windows like empty eye sockets. Raised on pilings several feet above the ground, a splintered wooden pallet leaned against what was left of the stairs, obviously placed there to prevent anyone from entering the house.

So, of course, I climbed up the rickety pallet and up the rotting steps, fully believing that I would fall through at any time. I didn’t. Reaching the porch, I opened the door and went inside. Gray light filtered in through the open windows and profound silence settled over the rooms like a shroud.

As I walked through the rooms noticed offerings made to the spirits during the 2010 ceremony, including a statue of a Hindu deity riding on a garuda.

Photographs of the Thai king and queen and of a mysterious young girl hung on the walls.

Some empty liquor bottles stood in a rank upon a shelf.

Clearly, the ceremony to appease the spirits had been an elaborate one.

Then it struck me that the spirit still remained in the house.

Stay tuned for Part II