Episode Summary: Paranormal Investigations and Ghost Tours in Downtown Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Being a professional paranormal investigator and ghost tour guide sounds like an amazing job. But does it come with risks? Because this is the type of job where you don’t want to take your work home with you, no matter how badly your ghostly coworkers want to follow you back to your house.

Today, we speak with lead paranormal investigator Diane, who works at both the Crescent Hotel and Basin Park Hotel in Eureka Springs. She’s had quite a few encounters both on the clock and off the clock, and she’s sharing them all. Let’s hear about some haunted hotels and ghost tours in Arkansas, today, on Homespun Haints.

About the Guest: Diane Newcomb

Diane has been leading paranormal investigations at the Basin Park Hotel and Crescent Hotel for years. The pair make up the most haunted hotels in the state of Arkasas. She’s such a fixture on these sites that the ghosts follow her home looking for her when she tries to take time off.

Diane has curated a vast collection of photos sent to her mostly by tourists who caught ghosts on camera during her tours at the two historical buildings. She was a fabulous guide for the Basin Park Paranormal Investigation, energetically sharing fascinating history and people’s true ghost stories despite the late hour. We loved her style from the moment the haunted doll greeted us at the beginning of the investigation. We were honored and thrilled when she offered to come on our show and tell some of the real ghost horror stories she’s collected over the years!

How to protect yourself from ghosts while paranormal investigating

This is a topic many a paranormal investigator has felt was very important to bring up in past interviews. We have heard many suggestions for how to protect against spirits. The methods Diane uses include a “spirit dump,” which we’re picturing is like a colonic for dead things that may be clinging on to you or intend to follow you home.

She also taught us an Aramaic prayer for protection, which one of her investigation participants shared with her. We found the following Hebrew version at keysofenoch.org: “KODOISH, KODOISH, KODOISH ADONAI ’TSEBAYOTH.” That website translates this prayer as “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts.”

Sorry, but your princess is in a different castle

Interestingly, many of the ghosts at the Basin Park Hotel are actually not haunting the Basin Park Hotel, per se. Diane could not confirm if anyone has ever died on the property in its current iteration. Before the hotel was built, a lodging called the Perry House stood at the same spot. Well, where the South Wing now stands, at least.

Diane tells us that newspapers at the time reported that nobody perished in the fire that claimed the Perry House. But that doesn’t mean there were never any deaths on the property. If any cowboy died on the land to become one of the numerous ghosts photographed at the modern day Basin Park, they would’ve likely done so during the Perry House years. Given the time frame during which the Perry House stood, it’s a lot more likely someone would’ve died due to accident, injury, illness, or even murder, while lodging at the Perry House. The many ghosts that tourists spot walking through walls on the current property supports this idea. There’s a theory that, when an earthbound spirit walks through a wall, it is actually passing through an area that would’ve been open and passable during that person’s lifetime.

Healing water and snake oil

Diane tells us that the healing waters that founded the town were actually well-known to the Osage people. Once word spread that the waters could cause miraculous cures for multiple illnesses, the wagon stop became a tent settlement, which then became a town. Given the rampant risks and shenanigans that happened in 19th century medicine, it’s no surprise that sick people were willing to travel by wagon up a windy mountain road just to drink some spring water. Hell, people still do things like that.

At the height of the expansion of Eureka Springs, enter the Crescent Hotel. At a budget several times what a normal luxury hotel would cost, in a remote, mountainous area almost impassable in the icy dead of winter, the Crescent almost instantly became somewhat of a money pit. It repeatedly changed hands, and even purposes, attempting to stay in the black. The most notorious part of its history was the late 1930’s. The so-called Baker Hospital subsumed the entire hotel. This serial fraudster claimed a 100% cure rate for all forms of cancer. It wasn’t until very recently that the details of the ruse finally came to light.

In 2019, excavation on an undeveloped part of the hotel grounds lead to the discovery of both creepy human remains and the actual formulas used in their cancer treatment. Diane tells us that the first people to really get their hands on these new discoveries were the guys from Ghost Adventures. Analyzing the nearly century-old samples, local university labs found ingredients like corn silk, red clover, ground watermelon seeds, and carbolic acid.

Diana has a little more to tell about it in her recent stay at the Basin Park Hotel:

Wait, those supplements sound familiar.

Now, to be fair, as only a couple generations removed from Appalachian granny witches, we do appreciate the value of nutraceuticals. According to clevelandclinic.org, corn silk is a traditional supplement that is traditionally used for fighting inflammation. (Fun aside: corn silks are basically corn fallopian tubes! We like how corn just lets it all hang out like that.) Red clover does actually contain isoflavones that can influence sex hormones, according to nccih.nih.gov, an imbalance of which could be related to several forms of cancer. The lycopene in watermelon seeds also influences sex hormones and is currently undergoing research as a potential anti-cancer agent.

So these “cures” weren’t just a random assortment of cheap local plants that someone blended together haphazardly. The continued modern use and study of these exact nutraceuticals supports the notion that, at some point, someone at the Baker Hospital potentially had good intentions and a justifiable plan to enact those intentions.

You know what we appreciate more, though? That it’s illegal nowadays to claim that a natural supplement has a 100% cure rate for cancer. Bizarrely, some of the nutraceutical components Baker used may have potentially been sincerely beneficial in some ways. The accompanying lies, secrecy, and abuse were pretty obviously not.

It’s not a tumor

And all the strange human tissue samples in bottles labelled as “tumors”? Those were apparently displayed in the lobby of the hospital. They served as “proof” to visitors that the tumors were no longer inside the patients. But all treatments performed at the hospital were non-surgical (thank you, Jesus). So…how’d those tumors get out, then? Perhaps they were remnants from psychic surgery? If so, what do you think they really were?

Would you stay in a hotel room haunted by a cowboy ghost?

If you’re planning a trip to Eureka Springs, and you want to stay in a haunted room at the Basin Park hotel, book in advance! None of the most haunted rooms were available when Diana visited. Diane suggests you stay in one of the following.

• Room 310, which the spirit of famous cowboy John Chisum haunts, and where kids see ghosts of other children.
• Room 308, where guests report getting touched.
• Room 408, where the notorious “ladies’ man ghost” may give you a sexy foot massage.
• Rooms 514 and 515, where more nameless cowboy ghosts apparently share a suite.
• The entire third floor, where the paranormal investigators get constant readings on their EMF meters all over. The rampant beeping and flashing suggests the presence of some sort of fear cage on the floor. A fear cage may cause false positives in ghost hunting. It is also thought to feed spirits energetically.

In fact, Diana stayed in room 506, and two nights of her stay, a loud furniture scooting sound woke her up right around the witching hour. The sounds were coming from the floor above, which was unoccupied and locked. In fact, right above her room was a locked-up, apparently haunted bathroom. So no matter which room of the haunted Basin Park Hotel you stay at, you’ll probably have a spooky day!

The post The Building Full of Cowboy Ghosts appeared first on Homespun Haints.

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Episode Summary: Different Types of Ghosts

What sort of energy have you put out into the world throughout your life? Have you ever wondered what happens to it? What about anger, trauma, pain—can negative emotions manifest into something dark and menacing? Can that thing become sentient, self-aware, hungry for more pain, hungry for lost souls?

Today, we speak with celebrity psychic medium April, the Psychic Housewife of New Jersey, and hear about some of the more sinister things she has experienced throughout her life and through the work that she does. And this interview may change everything you think you know about ghosts as April explains the four different types of ghosts and how they may not be what they seem.

Listen to “Episode 73: The Psychic Housewife of New Jersey” on Spreaker.

About the Guest: April Busset

Today’s guest April is a celebrity psychic medium and a shaman. She has been featured as an intuitive on The Holzer Files, and worked with many paranormal investigators and read for many celebrities. Our recent guest, Daryl Marston (whom April knows through her work with Paranormal Warehouse), is a skeptic of mediums in general, and he gave her a glowing review after receiving a reading from her.

It only takes 10 seconds on April’s website, intuitiveapril.com, to get a sense of her bubbly personality. This Elle Woods of psychics breaks the mold of her traditionally spooky and mystical profession. She even admitted to us that she has turned down opportunities where the producers wanted her to dress in black or act macabre.

As weirdoes who dress in black and act macabre by nature, we can really appreciate her dedication to being her authentic self in a profession steeped in clichés and expectations. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @psychichousewifeofnewjersey.

An innocent visit from this type of ghost can cause a permanent change.

We’ve heard some differing opinions from psychic mediums on how exactly one becomes a medium. Some believe they are born with a gift. Some believe they just have more spirit guides than the average person. Yet others believe that everyone has medium potential, and that honing and nurturing it results in greater psychic ability. Their origin stories are as varied as those in the Marvel Universe. April believes that a visit from her recently departed father to her childhood bedside opened some sort of portal. Because after this formative event, April was able to sense and communicate with spirits.

What type of ghost would impersonate a child?

Children have an easier way into our hearts than adults. It’s just human nature to love little kids. This human tendency has been famously exploited by evil entities. In the story of Annabelle, the doll became possessed when an evil entity posed as a little girl and tricked the doll’s owner, playing upon her pity, into inviting the entity to reside in the doll.

April told us that children are too open and un-calloused to stay earthbound after they pass away, and will immediately cross over.

This knowledge also opened up a box of brain worms. What if any haunting by a child ghost is some sort of forgery? In other words, the ghost child cannot be a ghost of an actual deceased child. It is much more likely to be an evil entity posing as a child. But it may not just be the sinister type of ghost that impersonates a child ghost. Perhaps you’re interacting with a deceased person who was an adult when they passed away, but prefers to manifest in their childlike form because that’s how they identify.

If you are really interacting with an actual child spirit, it could be one who crossed over. Yes, apparently, spirits who have successfully crossed over can, by April’s testimony, come back to interact and communicate with the living again. This concept alone blew our minds. Or, the child ghost could be part of a residual haunting. Which brings us to…

The four main different types of ghosts…or ghostly/haunting entities.

Do you ever wonder; what different types of ghosts are you seeing or sensing? April helpfully summed up human-ghost interactions into four main categories for us.

• “The earthbound” are the most classic type of ghost, according to western lore. These are spirits of the deceased who have decided, for whatever reason (usually one founded on trauma), to remain on this plane of existence after death instead of crossing over. They may behave erratically and interact with the living in various ways. April tells us the longer they stay earthbound, the more confused they get. This might be why they require intervention to cross over.
• “The residuals” are hauntings that play on a loop, like a recording. These entities do not ever interact with the living in new or unpredictable ways, because they are not sentient. Some people believe that certain rocks, like quartz or limestone, can record events and replay them in a way that’s possible for the living to witness.
• “The crossed-over” are spirits which have departed this realm and moved on to another plane of existence. Whereas these aren’t technically “ghosts,” April tells us this type of ghost can visit and interact kind of like the earthbound if they so desire.
• “The shadows” are something different. They never were a living human at any point. While April says these are far from “demonic,” they are negative or evil entities. Some of the shadows function as soul collectors. This means they attempt to keep other spirits earthbound, maybe to use as slaves, or perhaps to vampirize for energy.

Can ghosts make you sick?

Everyone and everything has a vibrational frequency. April tells us that spirits have erratic vibrational frequencies, whereas the living have somewhat consistent frequencies. The clash of these different frequencies co-existing in a dwelling leads to…something we don’t fully understand. Maybe it misaligns your chakras, like some kind of reverse reiki? Either way, April says any type of ghost can harsh your vibe and cause physical effects. Which is why it was so unsettling when April confirmed that there’s a ghostly presence in Diana’s house.

The science of vibrations and health

There are indeed frequencies out there that have an extreme effect on the physical body. For example, a big rig truck engine chugs along at a relatively slow ~4.5 hz vibrational frequency. This speed happenstantially causes the soft tissues that connect the skeleton to change into a more semi-liquid state of matter after just minutes of exposure. E.g. it will loosen a body up, kind of like the warm-up before a workout. This can be an occupational hazard to the lumbar intervertebral discs of a truck driver who sits atop this engine all day in a poor ergonomic position. Yet the same frequency, applied with force in a different direction, can also act as a physical therapy to help heal those same tissues.

Similarly, a cat’s purring also has a healing effect. Cats sometimes purr when they sustain a trauma or injury, confounding human observers who correlate purring with a happy cat. Astronauts who have lost bone density from long stints in zero-gravity can rebuild it by standing on a platform that vibrates at ~50 hz. For some of our typical speculative banter, check out this episode we did about the vibrations of quartz, and how its use in watches might help substantiate its reputation for healing.

What does this have to do with ghosts of any type?

So it’s not too far-fetched to entertain the idea that constant contact with a haunting will have some sort of physical effect on the human body. Perhaps that means all different types of ghosts can make you sick. Anecdotally, Diana’s experienced some medical issues while living in places that have evidence of supernatural activity.

April says the only way to resolve these issues are to have a shaman help the spirit responsible for the haunting cross over. She also cautions not to just go with any old shaman, but to select one who belongs to a tribe. If ghosts make you sick inevitably, Diana really needs to get on this.

Thank you for listening to our show!

We were so honored that April took the time to talk to our little indie podcast. If you found us through April, we hope you enjoyed the show! Let us know what you think by dropping us a comment or joining the conversation on social media. Until next time, have a spooky day!

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