Many great scientific minds, including Thomas Edison, have long theorized that energy is indestructible.
By Rebecca Nidey
Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House
The great psychoanalyst and parapsychologist, Dr. Nandor Fodor, felt that any truly haunted house soaked up energy from its former occupants, especially from unpleasant events. If those concepts are true then it is not too far a reach to say that energy can saturate other inanimate objects (such as vehicles) and provide a means to create a haunting.
The history of ghost stories is replete with tales of phantom and haunted vehicles. Some are well documented because of their fame and may even be National Historic Landmarks. Others are just local legends. As a world filled with travelers; the stories of haunted vehicles is as varied as the kinds of vehicles involved.
One of more famous that I have run across is the story of the Queen Mary. When she started her journeys, the Queen Mary was a luxury liner. Throughout that time she lost a total of 41 passengers and at least 16 crewmen to accidents and illnesses. During World War 2 she became part of the war effort and transported American troops. More lives were lost as the result of a terrible accident when she accidentally ran through her escort ship, the HMS Curacoa, resulting in 239 crew deaths (99 were rescued). After the end of the war, she once again became a cruise ship and then became permanently docked in Long Beach, CA in 1967. Since that time she has been opened to tours. Many of those involved in her current manifestation have observed apparitions, heard disembodied voices, moving objects and unexplained lights. One sound that has been reported often is the sound of grating metal that could be explained as the sound of the Queen Mary crashing into the HMS Curacoa.
The battleship USS Hornet is now retired but apparently some of the crew didn’t get the message. There have been sightings of the “dress white ghost” as well as other crew members. Cameras malfunction and cold breezes are felt by visitors. A film crew doing a documentary on the HMS Eurydice filmed some apparitions but the footage disappeared from their film before it could be viewed. There is even a report of a haunted German submarine from World War 1. One of the UBlll class submarines (name unknown) that had deaths involved from the time it was built till its destruction by an American submarine. Five builders were killed during the building process, several crew members died during the testing process and 9 of the crew (including the captain) were killed in various freak accidents. There were reports of all of them wandering the sub. The entire crew requested a transfer but a replacement crew would not man the sub till an exorcism had been performed. It may not have worked though as the submarine exploded, supposedly from a torpedo hit from an American sub. Oddly, the American captain later reported they had not had time to fire their torpedo before the German sub exploded.
The vehicles that I have found to be most haunted are cars. The limo that carried Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the time of his assassination was not haunted in the normal sense of ghostly activity. Instead it became the harbinger of death to many of its owners. After the death of the Archduke, the Graf & Stift was owned by 15 different people and was involved in 6 accidents and 13 deaths before it went to the War History Museum in Vienna.
James Dean’s Porsche 500 Spyder has much the same history since his death. Parts from it were sold to other drivers who used them in racers. One was killed and the other badly injured. The rest of the wrecked car was given to the California Highway Patrol where it was involved in a garage fire, another fatal accident, and many injuries. Somehow it vanished on the way back to a former owner and has not been seen since.
The limousine convertible that JFK was riding in at the time of his assassination is now retired to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. An apparition wearing gray has been seen standing near the car, especially around the anniversary of the shooting.
Although air travel is a fairly safe way to travel, we are all fearful when we hear of a plane crash. The tragedy of September 1, 2001, although not caused by pilot error or mechanical failures, has indelibly left a fear in all of us. Even in tragedy there are stories of courage. One of them is the crew and passengers of Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA. The crew and passengers overpowered the hijackers and crashed the plane rather than allow it to continue to Washington, DC to hit a major government target. Security personnel around the crash site started reporting paranormal activity in the area almost as soon as it was secured. Full apparitions were spotted and some even attempted to speak to the living there before they faded away. Whether their spirits were in shock and lingered or it was residual hauntings caused by the immense amount of energy expended there, the reports continue to roll in of much activity.
In December, 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into a Florida swamp. There were no survivors in the usual sense. There were the usual reports of apparitions and other incidents while recovery was going on. Later, there were more unconventional reports of hauntings. Many of the working parts of the plane were recovered and fitted into other airliners. The ghosts of two of the crew members of Flight 401 were sighted on many flights on planes that now used those reclaimed parts. Not only were they visible, they carried on conversations with the crews of those planes. Before one flight the ghostly crew member informed the current flight engineer that he had already done the pre-flight check. Before another flight, the crew was advised that there would be a fire during the flight. Sure enough, the flight had to cancel the last leg of the trip because of an engine fire. It seems that crew members never stopped serving their airline.
In doing research for this column I found many references to hauntings centered around railroads as well as the trestles, stations and cars in use or retired. Phantom trains are a common sighting in ghost stories. Passengers who are mere apparitions are also often reported. I guess that death does not stop the urge to travel. The most famous of these phantom trains is the steam engine that carried the funeral cars carrying the body of Abraham Lincoln on his final tour of the United States. Although the coffin is now seen since it is lying in state in one of the cars, the Union soldiers guarding the body can often be seen as well as all the details involved in a funeral of that time such as the black bunting.
As I gathered information for this column my thoughts went to other vehicles that, because of their usage and history, seemed to be ideal for hauntings. Any vehicle that is used in war or emergency services is involved in the energy of death. Whether they are dealing death or trying to save someone from it, the intensity of the situations they are involved in creates energy. I found very little true evidence to confirm this, but I did find many rumors and tales. Many were of apparitions of those who died in the vehicles. The rumors especially involved what a friend of mine who is a vet called “combat train.” Parts from disabled vehicles are refurbished and installed in working equipment. In the way that the parts from Flight 401 created hauntings in other airliners, the parts involved in the armed service vehicles can do the same. Apparitions, machinery malfunctions and numerous other activities may occur. Because most emergency workers and members of the armed services that I have come in contact with are highly superstitious, most of the evidence remains quiet stories told only to those others involved rather than made public.
A haunted vehicle need not involve many people or be large. One of the most memorable investigations I was involved in was of a small two man fishing boat. The current owners lived on a farm that served as a horse rescue. The boat was stored in an open shed right by the corral where the rescued horses were penned up. Although we normally try to gather information before an investigation, the only info I had was that the former owner had drowned in a boating accident. When doing an investigation, you must use all of your senses, including smell, since odors can give clues to the causes of hauntings. One of the first indications of the cause of the drowning was an over powering smell of beer. It was extremely cold as we did this investigation and we were in close proximity to a large number of horses so that should not have been the most over prevalent smell. Sure enough, the gentleman who had owned the boat and died in the boating accident had fallen overboard while drunk. He apparently was not happy about it because he caused problems with the boat, outboard motor and other surrounding machinery. Although the horses welcomed our attention, they became jumpy about the time we smelled the odor of beer.
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions after reading these stories. My belief is that it does not have to be a building or a piece of land that can be haunted. Other possessions have been proven to have spirits attached to them. A possession such as a vehicle can also absorb the energy of events that have occurred within and surrounding it. I do not believe that those events have to be traumatic to cause a haunting, though. I have heard stories of people taking pictures of family cars, old or newer, and seeing deceased family members in the developed photo patiently waiting to travel with their loved ones. In the Henry Ford Museum, there is one of the original cars his factory produced. A picture was taken of it (long before Photoshop was developed) that shows an apparition that looks quite a bit like old Henry himself. Tragedy may be one cause of a haunting but I think that love can also do so. Hug someone you love today (and it doesn’t matter if it is in your car). You never know when they might become an apparition in your sight or your heart.
About the Author:
Through her work on the investigative team for the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters, Rebecca Nidey has an understanding of the paranormal, spiritual, and metaphysical worlds and how they work together.
Rebecca has trained in the Healing Touch technique (a form of energy healing). She is a certified Psychic Medium trained by Belle Salisbury, and she is a certified Paranormal Researcher.
Rebecca is the associate editor for Bellesprit Magazine and also writes a column titled Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House. She has been a co-host of several radio programs for the Haunted Voices Radio Network and HeyZ Radio Network highlighting the Paranormal, metaphysical and literary fields.
To learn more about Rebecca or to schedule a reading you can contact her at https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.nidey.
