Tag Archives: jeff belanger

Podcast

161 – Growing Up Paranormal: A Conversation with MJ Dickson

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Ever since our friend Lisa from Madison Ghost Walks met MJ Dickson from the British investigation group Sage Paranormal on a paranormal cruise earlier in this year, she said we have to have her on the show.  She’s as down-to-earth as a psychic is gonna get and has lots of great stories of growing up in a paranormal family.

Raised all over the world in countries from Zimbabwe  to Greece, MJ  Dickson discovered her special gift at an early age when her and her mother ended up seeing the same spectral figure and she understood that she came from a line of psychic women.

Once her and her husband moved to England, she set up shop in the small town of Henley-in-Arden and started up a psychic reader business. When she started she said the townspeople were suspicious of her weird outsider status, but she says through kindness and patience over the years, she’s as accepted as anyone else.

And an interesting tidbit, she uses tarot cards as really just a prop to help make her customers feel a little more comfortable with the information that she’s hearing from her spirit guides

In 2011, MJ Dickson founded the Sage Paranormal team and we’ve included some of their best evidence from their investigation at The Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower (perhaps the greatest name for a museum ever)!

We discuss MJ’s experiences growing up in a paranormal family, some of her weirdest experiences, her favorite investigations, and of course, her paranormal convention!

MJ is the Founder of Sage Paracon UK which is coming up Sept. 22-24 at Warwick Castle. That’s right, a paranormal convention in a haunted castle with a ghost investigation with some of our favorite paranormal people like Haunted New England‘s Jeff Belanger and the world’s greatest Ouija expert, Robert Murch. Too awesome and we’re completely jelly about the whole thing!

She’s also working on Haunted Road Trip videos that you should be able to see on Allison from Milwaukee Ghosts’ YouTube channel soon! 

In the interview, MJ mentions that a few years ago she was diagnosed with cancer and the first thing that she said was that she’s the kind of person who’s never going to give up. We found that very moving and that combined with the fact that she’s in Britain made us think about those “Keep Calm And Carry On” posters that were put up everywhere over there in World War 2. You have to just keep going in the fave of adversity, whether it’s the Nazis or it’s The Big C, you still have to live your life, waking up every day, eating, dressing, etc…   MJ Dickson’s courage is inspiring so this song is dedicated to her, Sunspot with “Keep Calm And Carry On”.

Don’t hold back,
move forward
and we give
no quarter,
until the moment you’re called upon,
keep calm and carry on.
No yield or,
surrender,
we must hold,
the center,
It’s always darkest before the dawn,
keep calm and carry on.
The earth will turn to hollow,
the seas will rise to swallow,
blackened skies and poison rains,
the forests turn to flames.
everything that we believe,
and will transform into a deceit,
and every little victory,
is ashes in your mouth.
But play the long game,
Your strength lies in your power to take pain.
Over and over again.
We can withstand,
exist, resist,
the blackest urge.
Stand by your principle,
to be invincible.
Don’t hold back,
move forward
and we give
no quarter,
until the moment you’re called upon,
keep calm and carry on.
No yield or,
surrender,
we must hold,
the center,
It’s always darkest before the dawn,
keep calm and carry on.
The stars will flicker and fade
The flora turns to nightshade,
the sun becomes lost in shadow
and the hills crumble below
And those in who we placed our faith,
will throw our trust away.
And all the prayers that you say,
Are ashes in your mouth.
But play the long game,
Your strength lies in your power to take pain.
Over and over again.
We can withstand,
exist, resist,
the blackest urge.
Stand by your principle,
to be invincible.
Don’t hold back,
move forward
and we give
no quarter,
until the moment you’re called upon,
keep calm and carry on.
No yield or,
surrender,
we must hold,
the center,
It’s always darkest before the dawn,
keep calm and carry on.
Podcast

152 – Haunted History in New England: A Conversation with Jeff Belanger

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Jeff Belanger is one of New England’s premier haunted historians. Well known for his work with Ghost Adventures (he was one of the guys who found the haunted places and looked for witnesses willing to discuss their experiences), Jeff also hosted the online show Thirty Odd Minutes, has written fourteen books on hauntings, and was Emmy-nominated for his work on the PBS series, New England Legends (now available to watch on Amazon Prime!)

jeff belanger ghost adventures
Jeff Belanger looking like a total badass!

Growing up in Connecticut near Ed and Lorraine Warren (he even got to hang out at their house!), Jeff found himself fascinated with the paranormal at an early age. He started the popular ghost story site, Ghost Village in 1999 which is easily one of the largest paranormal resources on the Internet. Since then, he’s been writing books, hosting TV shows , and even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (which we get to in this episode).

Jeff Belanger 30 odd minutes zombie t-shirt
Jeff on 30 Odd Minutes, with an awesome t-shirt!

In this conversation Jeff shares his first real-life ghostly encounter in the Catacombs of Paris, some of his favorite New England ghost stories and legends, the inspiration behind his mountain climbing in Africa, and why Sandy Hook Truthers are sadly mistaken.

One of the stories that Jeff told us that really resonated with me was the story of Mercy Brown, a girl who died of tuberculosis in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her mother and older sister also died of tuberculosis and  then brother came down with it, so the people of Exeter believed that there was a vampire that was cursing the family. They dug up the bodies to see, but since it was wintertime and Mercy was being kept above ground (they had to wait for the ground to thaw to bury her), she was not as decomposed as they thought she should be. Also, as her body was more fresh so it still had blood in the liver and heart, which made them believe she was a vampire.

jeff belanger mercy brown vampire ghosts
The grave of Mercy Brown

They believed that they could end the vampiric curse and save her brother by ripping out her heart, burning it, and feeding him the ashes, so they did. And it didn’t work, two months after eating his sister’s burned heart, Edwin Brown succumbed to the disease as well. That seemed like an excellent inspiration for a track, because looking at it from today’s perspective, the whole adventure seems so misguided. All they did was drag Edwin and poor Mercy’s father through Hell by digging up the bodies of the people he loved and make him believe that his daughter was a hellish abomination. Let the dead rest. Things are better left buried in the past. Mercy’s father went through all that turmoil, he made his son eat his own daughter’s burned out heart and it was all pointless anyway. That’s the inspiration for this track, “Digging Up The Dead”.

Rusty nails and rotten wood
And earth in every seam
I spit the dirt out of my mouth
I wake up from a dream to
Be thirsty like I’ve never been
A constant agony
With the black dog that walks at my back
And damns my memory.
Lord grant us mercy from afar,
forgive the prayers we should have said,
Oh you can burn up my heart,
and eat the ashes that are left,
But you’re just digging up the dead.
You’re just digging up the dead.
The things that should be left alone
They’re not for man to touch
The past is just a shallow grave,
That’s best left in the dust.
We keep kicking the pale horse,
’til the blood just turns to rust.
No, you can’t beat the Devil,
By remembering too much.
Lord grant us mercy from afar,
forgive the prayers we should have said,
Oh you can burn up my heart,
and eat the ashes that are left,
But you’re just digging up the dead.