Saturday October 08, 2011
Thomas Freese
After working the previous weekend working on a USC student film, I was back on the show, with tonight's guest being author and storyteller Thomas L. Freese.
Henry called him in via Thomas's landline, and I emailed him the chat room URL so he could log in. Somehow we were delayed getting online with the show for a few minutes. Then somehow Skype lost Henry's audio, but we were all still connected. In the chat room I mentioned that I hoped this won't be a Chat Room Only edition of our show. Henry tried calling back, but still... no Henry audio. Dave via the chat room asked Henry if he wanted Dave to call-host, to which Henry affirmed.
After a couple of promos, another show began playing, Henry came back, but after a few moments said, "Here's what were going to do..."
And then he vanished again.
Dave came on, understandably baffled as to whatever technical issue must be causing this (but the presence of mind to send me a Skype Contact Add Request). Dave contacted Henry in the chat room and said we should disconnect, and that Dave would call us all back in, which he did, and set us in through the show.
So we went in with having "lost" the first twenty minutes...
I introduced him from some of the text from the bio info on his website.
He's open to all sorts of stories, even from children as such lack locked-in concepts and ideas (he also speaks of nearly all crytozoology... except Bigfoot).
Thomas got into the paranormal at 12 by hearing a Bump In The Night, which woke he and his brother. The next day he asked his mother about anything Unusual, and after a hesitation she relayed how her horse Babe stumbled at a cemetery when she saw a man by the headstones, who vanished within moments as she got up. He's worked as an intuitive and Tuning In to the spirit world; he doesn't Look For Proof as all he needs to do is close his eyes to Know there's more than just what he normally perceive. Thomas has experienced presence/s in hotel rooms in which he's staying whilst on the road on tour.
Thomas regaled us with various, numerous stories and such from his six books (book title links below). A highly sensitive friend his, Dorothy Cress, walked along a war between the states Stone's River battlefield (aka battle of Murphysvillie). His son could hear what he thought was flies, when what they were were ghostly bullets flying past; a cannon went off without re-enacters, and a psychic-imprint of a father-son ghosts emerged and replayed their death/s. The tourist center to which they reported the vision chuckled that they get dozens of reports of that scenario being replayed out.
These are the stories he collects: very personal and family-intimate.
Henry asked about haunted bed and breakfast/s. Thomas spoke of Maple Hill Manor in Springfield, Kentucky even has chains rattling in the cellar (one of the spots one can not go, due to the ghosts' understandably anger who were chained up down there at the time they were alive).
One ghost didn't like a woman's second husband, as the ghost was her first husband who was not thrilled the current living husband was abusive. She asked for scissors, and several sets appeared within her bed, all pointing inwards, symbolically indicated sleeping with danger...
Henry asked about a haunted battlefield in Sacramento, Kentucky, as Henry had never heard of that town. Thomas conveyed they did They do night-time ghost tours there.
Thomas detailed one of the almost "ghostly hitch-hiker" type story after which Henry asked, as well as the Witch's Rake, Dust Bunny, and a haunted Closet stories from his Strange and Wonderful Things book.
Craig asked if he'd gone with a ghost hunter group to see what it was like; he been on a "low key version" type, with some limited equipment, etc. Thomas has used dowsing rods as an experiment, but he's not one to piss off a ghost.
Henry reported tonight's listeners were from the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Other.
Asking about a chat room comment Thomas made about Under the Bed, Thomas retold a story about House Clearing/s. Psychic Bonnie Philipps went to one home with her daughter Amber in Louiseville: a couple had two kids, the Younger of whom was special needs, the boy had own room was the one being freaked out in his own room, with a possible portal beneath his bed. The Cleansers went out, and were told to take with them the pets and all, and once inside she heard from under the bed hissing and growling. She went out to admonish them leaving their pets inside... but they didn't own any pets...
Another story contained child had an "Imaginary Playmate," but sometimes another voice could be heard as the child's mouth didn't move.
He spoke of the book Don't Call Them Ghosts: The Spirit Children of Fontaine Manse, A True Story by Kathleen McConnell,
Thomas spoke of some of the haunted homes, some being B&Bs, such as Joanne Hobbes's Homestead Bed & Breakfast in Bardstown, Kentucky, Cynthia Cook's Bashford Manor and the Historic Tyler House.
Thomas did indicate having an upcoming book being a new edition, updated version of his original Shaker Ghost Stories book, making the original a collectable as that one would go out of print.
(Plus, Thomas learned that the original name for Halloween, Samhain, is not pronounced as it's "spelled:" that it's actually pronounced SOW-inn...)
Thomas gave out his website, his email address (to which people can send inquiries, provide ghost stories, et al), and that's he's a Storyteller For Hire...