The White House Is Haunted By A Number Of Ghosts, Including That Of Abigail Adams

May 3rd is National Paranormal Day.  Each year on this day all people who believe in paranormal activities are encouraged to get together and share their experiences with each other.

• Paranormal is a term used to describe occurrences that can’t be explained by ordinary scientific measures.  They are outside the norm.
• American writer Charles Fort is perhaps the best-known collector of paranormal anecdotes, and he is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, or the study of the paranormal. Fort compiled at least 40,000 notes on unexplained paranormal experiences.
• Reported events that Fort collected include teleportation (a term Fort is actually credited with coining), poltergeist events, falls of frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials of an amazing range, crop circles, unaccountable noises and explosions, spontaneous combustions, levitation, unidentified flying objects, and mysterious appearances and disappearances, to name but a few.
•  The paranormal is used to group bizarre phenomenon like crop circles, poltergeists, and UFOs, for instance. The term has been around since before 1920 and can be divided into two parts: “para” meaning above or beyond and “normal” meaning consistent with common behavior.
• The poltergeist is perhaps one of the eeriest types of paranormal being because although they might toss things around and make a lot of noise—they never appear as a physical presence. Poltergeists have been reported to bite people, levitate objects, and knock on doors. The word is a German one that literally translates to “noisy spirit.” Some people believe they’re associated with the elements: earth, fire, wind, and air.
• One organization trying to debunk ghost stories is the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry who used to call themselves the “Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal,” or CSICOP. The committee publishes their findings in their own journal called the Skeptical Inquirer.
• The countries with the highest percentage of believers that ghosts do exist are Malaysia (57%), U.S. (47%), and Canada & the Phillippines are tied (43%).
• The countries with the lowest percentage of believers that ghosts do exist are Germany (24%), Netherlands (23%), and Brazil (21%)
• Three in ten people claim to have awakened sensing a ghostly presence in their bedroom.
• Seventeen percent of the population claim to have communicated in some way with a ghost.
• A poltergeist is not the same as a ghost. A ghost (typically benign) haunts a place but a poltergeist (mean spirit) creates a bad disturbance!
• Orbs (white spots sometimes seen when ghost pictures are developed) are not considered by most paranormal experts to be an indicator of paranormal activity.
• The White House is haunted by a number of ghosts, including that of Abigail Adams, who has reportedly been seen hurrying toward the East Room, where she used to hang her laundry.
• Psychics believe that President Abraham Lincoln has never left the White House. For more than 70 years, presidents, first ladies, guests and members of the White House staff have claimed to have either seen Lincoln or felt his presence
• The modern Ouija Board got its name by asking the board what it should be called. When the board was asked what Ouija meant, it spelled out “Good Luck”
• It is a legal requirement in New York for a property seller to disclose if the property a client is inspecting is believed to be haunted by ghosts
• There is an island near Italy that was the site of wars, a dumping ground for plague victims and an insane asylum. Poveglia Island is considered so dangerously haunted that the Italian government does not allow public access.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Days of the Year

Factinate

Terrence Zepke

Cutting Edge Haunted House

Ghost-Story