Publication: The Paranormal Insider
Friday the 13th | |
Subscribe FREE to The Paranormal Insider by clicking here.
Issue date: Saturday, October 14, 2006
------------------------------------------------------------
P A R A N O R M A L I N S I D E R
------------------------------------------------------------
Hello, Everyone!
Seeing as we just survived a Friday the 13th (well, I hope
we did but I AM writing this the day before!), I thought
it would be fun to explore the origins of this widely known
superstition. In much of the world, Friday is considered
unlucky, and combined with the ominous number 13, a Friday
the 13th is seen by many as a double-whammy of ill fortune.
Called 'paraskevidekatriaphobia', the fear of Friday the
13th is quite prevalent, with many people in North America
and Europe refusing to leave their homes, fly in airplanes,
or attend social gatherings on this day. According to the
Macmillan English Dictionary, the term
'paraskevidekatriaphobia' was first coined in the early
nineties by Dr. Donald E. Dossey, an American psycho-
therapist specializing in phobias and stress management,
and is based on the Greek words paraskevi (Friday) and
dekatria (thirteen) with -phobia as a suffix to indicate
'fear'.
Studies show that in spite of the decline in travel and
general activity on a Friday the 13th, the incidence of
hospital admissions due to accidents is actually higher on
these days. The wariness about Fridays being ill-fated can
be traced back through Christianity. Adam and Eve were said
to have eaten from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, the
Great Flood is supposed to have begun on a Friday, and of
course, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.
Some traditional superstitions about Fridays include: Never
change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. Don't
start a trip on Friday or you will have misfortune. If you
cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Ships
that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck.
Historically, sailors (a superstitious lot to begin with)
have feared this day as one of extreme bad luck and often
refused to set out to sea on a Friday. In 1791, the British
Navy commissioned a ship called the H.M.S. Friday in an
effort to quell the superstition. The crew was selected on
a Friday, the ship was launched on a Friday and stranger
still, the ship's captain bore the name James Friday. On a
Friday morning, the ship set off on its maiden voyage --
and was never seen or heard from again.
Some historians also point to the church's opposition to
pagan religions as a root of the widespread Christian
distrust of Fridays. The English word Friday is derived
from the name Frigg (Old English: frigedaeg)', the Norse
goddess of love and sex. The male-dominated church was
threatened by such a strong (and passionate) female icon,
and to fight against this influence, Frigg was characteriz-
ed as a witch, thus also vilifying the day named after her.
Fear of the number 13 has its roots in many ancient
cultures. In ancient Egypt, life was considered a quest
for spiritual ascension, and there were 12 earthly stages,
with the 13th being afterlife. Thus, later cultures began
to associate the number 13 with death.
In Norse mythology, 12 gods were at a banquet at Valhalla.
The evil god, Loki, The Trickster, had not been invited
but he crashed the party anyway, bringing the number in
attendance to 13. Loki ended up inciting the death of the
beloved god Balder, causing great grief and trauma.
Hindus also believe that it is unlucky for 13 people to
gather at dinner, and of course, Christians are ever-
cognizant of the fact that the Last Supper had 13 people
present (Jesus and his 12 apostles), with Judas, the
apostle who betrayed Jesus, being the 13th member of the
party to arrive.
Historically, Friday was the preferred day for public
executions, and legend says that 13 steps led up to the
hangman's noose. Also of note: it was on a Friday the 13th
in 1306, that King Philip of France burned the Knights
Templar at the stake.
While most of us recognize that a Friday the 13th is
logically no more inherently 'evil' or ill-fated than any
other day, I think many of us still wouldn't tempt fate on
this day. And apparently, the 'big' Friday the 13th that
we all would have to worry about is on Oct. 13th, 4772,
which is the date the world will end according to some
interpretations of the Mayan calendar. I won't worry about
that just yet:>)
Carpe diem
Zsuzsana Summer
------------------------------------------------------------
Shiver Me Timbers... Let Your Pirate Flag Fly!
Store Price: $19.99
DEAL PRICE: $5.99
Release your inner Pirate with the colorfulJolly Roger
Pirate Flag. Designed to strike fear into the hearts of
potential victims, the mere sight of the Jolly Roger flag
sent chills down the spines of many a captain and crew.
* 2 brass grommets for flag pole
* Measures 3' x 5'
* Water Resistant
* Durable Nylon
And for just $5.99 you can truly be like the pirates of
old, except for the eye patch. Get your flag at:
Jolly Roger Pirate Flag - $5.99
------------------------------------------------------------
From Our Mailbag:
Hello. My sister sent me this link to write to you about a
trip we took in 1998 to England. I was raised in Ohio, and
I had a reoccurring dream of a large house with all bed-
rooms, and a ghostly looking older man who I figured knew
where I was, but as I tried to reach him, he would disappear
in bedrooms, or around a corner (and there were many). I
told the dream to all of my family, and had the same dream
for a good 30 years. I even went so far as to write it
down, and got tired of writing the same basic entries, so
I finally knew for sure it was the same place, same dream.
In 1998 my sister and a few cousins went to the UK for a
vacation. I was on a cane and had a hard time getting
around, but did OK. We finally got to a motel in Sheffield,
England, at night, and we were given room number 69. I
laughed about that as I am dyslexic and couldn't remember
any of our room numbers up to that point (and we had stayed
at least 4 motels before that one). I knew I could remember
that number and thought that was funny. My sister and I had
been bunking together, so off we went, key in hand to our
room. On the way there, we passed through a freezing cold
pocket of air. I said it was a ghost (play the twilight
zone theme there) and we all laughed quietly. As we
approached our room, I stopped in my tracks. I saw a spiral
staircase ahead. I saw a corridor to my left and our hall-
way ahead. I just stopped ... then I said, "I Know where I
am." My sister asked how as we had never been here before.
I said, "That spiral staircase doesn't go anywhere." She
looked at me like I was demented, and she walked up to the
stairway, went up a ways, and reported back, "IT DOESN'T!
It's a dead end" and I said that was because it isn't
supposed to be there. I then explained that I needed to go
down the hallway to our left, that is where you go up some
stairs and there's a dumbwaiter at the top and a room
where the floor caves in, and that is where the dream gets
scary because someone is after me, a man, and I try to
climb into the dumbwaiter to get away, knowing if I can get
through this small wooden door, I can reach the attic and
hide, but I wake up every time it gets to that point. My
sister said, "Let's put our bags in our room, it's right
here!" We did, then off we went to check out this hallway.
As we were walking, I said "This is a door to the basement."
I reached, opened the unmarked door, and there were the
stairs going to the basement. My sister couldn't believe
what was happening, I was so sure of everything, I had
dreamed it so many times, it was as if I was home. There
were plenty of unmarked doors. Then all the other doors had
numbers, and you might walk 3 steps ahead, have to go down
2 steps, two steps forward, then 3 steps up, it was so
strangely put together, but I knew my way. We went around
corners, up and down small sections of steps and finally
reached THE staircase! It was located at a T type inter-
section, with a hallway to the left, a stairwell to the
right, a room ahead to the left and the grand stairwell
ahead on the right. The stairs went up along the wall, then
a small landing, then the steps went back over our heads
from where we were standing. The light switch on the wall
was one of those early 1900's double push button style
switches, but we didn't turn on the light, we began the
climb. At the top of the stairwell was a DUMBWAITER, the
first one we had seen during our travels (and the only one
we saw). I popped the door open and inside, just as I said,
was a small wooden door but we tried to open it, and it
was as if a huge spring was attached and we could not pull
it open. An ice cold slow rush of air crept up my hand to
my shoulder, and I quit trying (it sort of gave me a
scare), then we proceeded to the room. The room had been
abandoned; papers scattered everywhere. The floor was
there, but was soft to step on; you could see it give, so
we did not enter all the way. I had to know why this room
was there, I needed answers. That was the right room, that
was the bad room in my dream.
I went to the lobby and questioned the night manager, an
older man in a gray suit (sound familiar? Yep, that guy
in my dream I never could catch up to) and he said the
residents wouldn't stay in that room, it had problems,
like birds coming in and they put bars on the windows so
they couldn't get in, but they were still getting in, and
other strange things, strange sounds had happened in there,
and they decided it was haunted. They then decided to use
the room as an office, but the employees were frightened
by something and no one would go back in to get the papers
and equipment. They abandoned the room. The place is called
the Rutland Inn in Sheffield England. I had been tracing my
family tree, and I came to a dead end for awhile, until I
got back to the USA, and I found my Dowell and Wilson
lineage came from Sheffield England area. Isn't that weird.
Now, back to Rutland Inn for a brief thing worth mention-
ing, The hallways all had names like Captain Halsey... My
hallway had a weird name, and I didn't notice these names
above the doorways until we were ready to check out, but
our hallway was called YULE GREIVE.
I have this on video! It is still a mystery to me, I think
I have a memory cell passed down from an ancestor. This
gets into Quantum Physics, but our bodies have DNA that
make our nose the way it is, our eyes the color they are,
our features that are passed down in the family, etc., so
why not a brain cell memory?
Anxious to hear from you.
Judy Dowell Bundschuh
a 50 year old female and very sensitive to the other side.
------------------------------------------------------------
The #1 DVD Rental Site Just Got Even Better...
Check out Netflix and see why now is the time to join:
- Only $5.99 a month. - No Late Fees.
- Over 65,000 Titles. - Free Trial.
And of course shipping is always free both ways. Get more
info and browse the more than 65,000 titles by visiting:
check out Netflix
------------------------------------------------------------
I have had several ghostly experiences and one I believe
is a flashback of a former life. The latter was a dream I
used to have as a little girl, ending about age 5. I was
burned to death in the false bottom of a buckboard where
my parents had hidden me during an Indian attack. My
parents were (I suppose) killed and the wagon train set on
fire. I have since read that reincarnation occurs faster
when the person has met an untimely or violent death.
Ordinarily it is about 300 years and I suspect the reason
most don't remember is because it is in the distant past.
Referring to the ghost experiences, there were two I
remember clearly. One was when my future father in law
passed away and I stayed at the family home to babysit
all the children. My impression is of a voice more than
a visual sighting and I was told to be sure and remind the
family to cut the limbs off the fir trees in the front
yard before they damaged the siding. He was never very
fond of me but perhaps he figured since I was there he
would give me the message to pass along.
The second time was in my neighbor's home where I was stay-
ing with him as a caregiver. I had obtained a hospital
bed for him downstairs as he was too feeble to climb stairs
safely. I was sleeping in his bed and felt the other side
of the mattress depress as though someone has just lain
down. I said, "Mac, you aren't supposed to be climbing
stairs." I got no reply and then turned on the light and
there was no one there.
Sue
------------------------------------------------------------
JUMBO POP-UP HAMPER
Normal Price: $4.99
DEAL PRICE: $1.99
Okay, I LOVE these. And I use them for just about every-
thing. With the warm weather coming, they are great for
outdoors. I love to put all the pool toys in them. It
allows for them to dry after being in the pool and it
keeps them all together.
Get a few of them. You can use them for so many things.
Ideal for college students, holding toys, and all the
laundry you can fit. The best part is the nylon
construction that makes this light as a feather.
It folds down to 6" and pops up to hold TWO (2) FULL LOADS
of LAUNDRY.
Store it in the closet or in the corner of the room. We
guarantee this will help keep the kids' rooms tidy. This
is one of the best products we have ever carried and the
lightest hamper you will ever carry.
Get A Great Hamper for Just $1.99
------------------------------------------------------------
Following is a small selection from the many letters I have
received asking for opinions and advice. Because I can't
possibly answer so many emails (as much as I would like
to), I am publishing some of the questions here for our
readers' responses. Please post any responses or advice
you have to our forum at: Paranormal Insider Forum
Paranormal Experiences
Hello, my name is Mike and I live in Southwest Florida.
Last year I went up to Debuque, Iowa to visit my dad. The
guestroom was down in the basement and one night while I
was sleeping, I woke up in the middle of the night and all
of a sudden, I felt 2 warm hands on my neck choking me and
I could not breathe, move, or speak for that matter. When
it finally stopped something caught my attention and I
looked straight ahead and saw this demonic shadow man (like
someone else had said in the last article you guys sent
out) and it reached the height of the top of the doorway.
I just kept looking at it until it finally started slowly
fading away. What could this mean or be? What was it? I
have looked on the internet for related situations on
message boards, search engines and more and couldn't find
anything. So maybe you can post this on the next article
so hopefully someone can read it and tell me what it was
because it still happens to me every so often ever since I
left Iowa. Thanks.
"Keep Your Stories Haunted"
*****************************************************
I have been a reader for about two years now and this is my
first time writing in. I've yet to read about anything like
this and I was wondering if anyone else could explain it or
has had a similar experience.
Ever since I was little, I've seen this figure out of the
corner of my eye at times. It's a man, always the same one.
He has black hair and is wearing a purple T-shirt. I always
see him before something bad happens but he gives me a feel-
ing of comfort. For example, it was storming one night and
I was driving home from college. I caught a glimpse of him
in the rear view mirror. So, I pulled over and waited for
about 15 minutes for the rain to slack off a bit. When I
began driving again, I made it maybe 20 miles and there had
been a wreck. There's a good chance if I hadn't stopped, it
would have been me. I've about decided that this "man" is
perhaps a guardian angel. However, a few nights ago, as
I was pulling into my drive way, I caught a glimpse of
another face in my rear view mirror. I have never been so
scared in my life. It wasn't a body just a face. The eyes
were slanted and the nose was nothing more than slits, like
a bat kind of. It was ghostly white but not transparent. It
looked as though I could have reached back and touched it.
I've since seen this face at other times. It's now even
started showing up during the day, like I'll look and a
mirror and see it over my shoulder. This is really scaring
me and I just wondered if anyone had any ideas or similar
experiences with this kind of thing.
K.
*******************************************
Hello Zsuzsana,
I have been enjoying the Paranormal Insider for quite some
time but have never emailed you before.
I would like to share an experience that I had with your
readers. First, let me explain that my teenaged daughter
is a Pisces and as such she is considered a 'Mystic of
the Zodiac'. She is far more sensitive than I to the
paranormal, and has had many experiences. I have only
recently started to explore my mystical side and am very
much into gemstones with their healing qualities.
One day we decided to check out some of the haunted sites
in our town. Some of the sites are historic and have quite
a history of frequent paranormal occurrences.
We decided to check out a Maritime Museum downtown (it
used to be the old court house building where a famous
'hanging judge' sentenced people to hang for their
transgressions) because we had heard many stories about
strange things happening in the building. Historical
stories have said that bodies that were unclaimed after
the hangings were subsequently buried under the flagstones
of the Square.
Now let me tell you that I have never experienced anything
quite like what happened that day in my life, and if my
daughter hadn't had the exact same experience at the same
moment, it would have cast doubt in my mind that it had
occurred at all.
Upon our climb to the second floor of the museum, we had a
horrible experience on the landing of that floor. While we
stood there looking over the many displays on the floor,
both of us in the same instant felt like we had suffered
some kind of very painful electric shock and the hair stood
up on the back of my neck. Immediately we both felt intense
heat like we had walked into a furnace. The feeling was so
strong I looked at my daughter...her eyes were huge with
shock. I saw one other visitor standing by the far wall
of the floor looking at a painting on the wall. I wanted
to scream and tell her to run, but I couldn't get the words
out. The feeling eventually passed and left me feeling
dizzy. I all but ran out of the place.
There are many objects in that museum that were salvaged
from ancient ships over the years, I wanted to touch many
of the items but just as I reached out to touch them, my
daughter would reach out suddenly and grab my hand. She
seemed to feel some kind of negative energy coming from
some of the objects and refused to let me touch them.
I wonder if you can shed some light on what happened to
us?
Gillibunny
**************************************
If you wish to send me a story for publication, please
email to: paranormal@zsuzsana.com. Please post responses
to today's column or our readers' letters to: Paranormal
Insider Forum
Take care and see you next week!
Zsuzsana Summer
------------------------------------------------------------
GopherCentral's Question of the Week
Should Dennis Hastert resign?
Please take a moment to share your opinion, visit:
Question of the Week
------------------------------------------------------------
Do you have questions...comments...leads...stories you'd
like to see in print? Send an email to:
Email Paranormal
P.S. You can discuss this issue or any other topic at the
new Paranormal Insider forum. Use the forum to chat with
other readers or leave your comments.
Check it out here...
Paranormal Insider Forum
------------------------------------------------------------
ARCHIVES: PARANORMAL INSIDER Archives
------------------------------------------------------------
End of PARANORMAL INSIDER - Another Gopher Central Publication
http://www.gophercentral.com
Copyright 2006 by NextEra Media. All rights reserved.
 E-Mail this issue
Subscribe FREE to The Paranormal Insider by clicking here.
|