The Mystery Ghost Bus Tours of South Africa - Pretoria - 29 March 2014

Here's the itinerary for the tour we went on:

Eat & Drink at Starting Pub at 6pm, meet Coach at Shell petrol station next door to pub at 7pm (The Dros, Atterbury Road, next to Town Lodge). Introduction – History of the Paranormal (outside the castle), Erasmus Castle a.k.a. “Die Spookhuis” - (all off bus, exterior of castle). UFO of Erasmus Kloof, EVP recordings part 1 - (all on bus). Huckleberry’s at Magnolia Dell, Science of the Paranormal, Dowsing Rods audience participation - (pub stop, all off bus). Dramatic recording classic old radio style “Spook Wagon of the Spokeveld” (on bus). Mea Vota’s Poltergeist, Melrose House, Pretoria Station, Victoria Hotel - (all on bus). Church Square with Paul Kruger’s statue, Palace of Justice, “The Old Mint”, Capitol Theatre (interior), “Die Raadsaal” (interior) with Dark Haunted Room - (all off bus). Personal Testimony recording, Pretoria Academic Hospital - (all on bus). “Die Sinkhuisie” (or alternative pub) with Scientific Explanations of the different Types of Ghosts - (pub stop, all off bus). EVP recordings part 2 (on bus). Church Street Cemetery (off bus). Return to Starting Pub with bonus dramatic recording of “SA’s Most Famous Ghost” (on bus).

Now for the story, with pictures... 

Firstly... Bought the tickets... DUH!

Cindi and Andrè

Me!

Play with the camera, so you know it works ;)

Let people play with their cameras to test it.

Let the creepy stuff start!

The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") has many differing meanings and connotations, most of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. The word spirit is often used metaphysically to refer to the consciousness or personality. The notions of a person's spirit and soul often also overlap, as both contrast with body and both are understood as surviving the bodily death in religion and occultism, and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. a manifestation of the spirit of a deceased person.The term may also refer to any incorporeal or immaterial being, such as demons or deities. In Christianity "the Spirit" (with a capital "S") specifically denotes the Holy Spirit.

We only saw this a while after the photo was taken. Look closely!

The term orb describes unexpected, typically circular artifacts that occur in flash photography—sometimes with trails indicating motion—especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras.Orbs are also sometimes called backscatter, orb backscatter, or near-camera reflection.

Call it what you want... It's a GHOST!

And a magnificent red orb!

Probably the most beautiful picture I've ever taken...

My sister...

More orbs

The soul, in many religious, philosophical, psychological, and mythological traditions, is the incorporeal and, in many conceptions, immortal essence of a person, living thing. According to some religions, including the Abrahamic religions in most of their forms, souls - or at least immortal souls capable of union with the divine - belong only to human beings. For example, the Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas attributed "soul" (anima) to all organisms but taught that only human souls are immortal. Other religions (most notably Jainism and Hinduism) teach that all biological organisms have souls, and others further still that non-biological entities (such as rivers and mountains) possess souls. This latter belief is called animism. Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle understood the psyche (ψυχή) to be crowned with the logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to firstly excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence (The Apology 30a-b). Anima mundi is the concept of a "world soul."Soul can function as a synonym for spirit, mind, psyche or self.

Another beautiful orb

By the way, this is the Melrose house ;)

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost (sometimes known as a spectre (British English) or specter (American English), phantom, apparition or spook) is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic - are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Parapsychologists attribute haunting to the spirits of the dead and the effect of violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide. More scientific explanations for the perception that a house is haunted include misinterpreting noises naturally present in structures, waking dreams, suggestibility, and the effect of toxic substances in environments that can cause hallucinations.

The Victoria Hotel in Pretoria CBD

A demon, daemon or fiend, is a supernatural, often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, fiction,mythology and folklore. The original Greek word daimon does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of the Koine δαιμόνιον (daimonion), and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root.In Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an unclean spirit, sometimes a fallen angel, the spirit of a deceased human, or a spirit of unknown type which may cause demonic possession, calling for an exorcism. In Western occultism and Renaissance magic, which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic, Jewish demonology and Christian tradition, a demon is a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled.

The State Theater in Church Square... Full of orbs!!!

  

Animism (from Latin animus, -i "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena), possess a spiritual essence.

8 Volunteers where blindfolded and put in "solitary". Something breathed on me and I had visions of France.
Maybe I'm delusional, but I went to experience something, and I totally got it!

Ghost hunting is the process of investigating locations that are reported to be haunted by ghosts. Typically, a ghost hunting team will attempt to collect evidence that they see as supportive of paranormal activity. Ghost hunters often utilize a variety of electronic equipment, such as the following types: the EMF meter; digital thermometer; handheld and static digital video cameras, such as thermographic (or infrared) and night vision; digital audio recorder; and computer.Traditional techniques such as conducting interviews and researching the history of a site are also employed. Some ghost hunters refer to themselves as a paranormal investigator. Ghost hunting has been criticized for its absence of scientific method; no scientific body has been able to confirm the existence of ghosts. Ghost hunting is officially classified as apseudoscience.

“Die Raadsaal”

See the white orb on the curtain? That's the old man that walked past the window upstairs from where we were sitting, I was watching him the whole time, in darkness, he was what seemed like floating white smoke.

Electronic voice phenomena (EVP) are sounds found on electronic recordings which resemble speech, but are not the result of intentional recording or rendering. EVP are commonly found in recordings with static, stray radio transmissions, and background noise. Recordings of EVP are often produced by increasing the gain (i.e. sensitivity) of the recording equipment.
Parapsychologist Konstantin Raudive, who popularized the idea, described EVP as typically brief, usually the length of a word or short phrase.

Interest in EVP surrounds claims that they are of paranormal origin, although a number of natural explanations have been offered including apophenia (finding significance in insignificant phenomena), auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in one's own language), equipment artifacts, and hoaxes.

Pareidolia (/pærɨˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-doh-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant, a form of apophenia. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit, and hearing hidden messages on records when played in reverse.The word comes from the Greek words para (παρά, "beside, alongside, instead") in this context meaning something faulty, wrong, instead of; and the noun eidōlon (εἴδωλον "image, form, shape") the diminutive of eidos. Pareidolia is a type of apophenia, seeing patterns in random data.

In psychology, schizotypy is a theory stating that there is a continuum of personality characteristics and experiences ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to more extreme states related to psychosis and in particular, schizophrenia. This is in contrast to a categorical view of psychosis, where psychosis is considered to be a particular (usually pathological) state, that someone either has, or has not.

The phrase "mind's eye" refers to the human ability for visualization, i.e., for the experiencing of visual mental imagery; in other words, one's ability to "see" things with the mind.

Bottom line is, I did experience something, and it was awesome, whether I imagined it, or whether it really happened, doesn't matter.

I had a great time and I will always remember that night.

Thank you to the host, the paranormal investigators, and the psychics!!!

GO CHECK IT OUT!!! http://www.mysteryghostbus.co.za/

XOXO