I believe in God. I also believe in ghosts. My belief in the former was actually facilitated by the multiple experiences I had with the latter. It proved easier to have faith in God once I believed in ghosts, especially after my college education had destroyed Young Earth Creationism in my mind. As I've made clear in the past, I primarily believe in both of these things due to personal experiences, of events that I strongly believe actually happened to me. This does not mean that I consider myself gullible or easily fooled. I try not to make any firm conclusions prior to at least a minimal preliminary investigation. In fact, I am quite skeptical about fantastic claims and somewhat reluctant to make them myself, especially without some form of corroboration. A good friend of mine was involved in a number of my personal ghost experiences and verifies to this day that my recollections have been accurate, if not even conservative, so I am somewhat comfortable in saying my own ghost stories are true. Before I wrote about Scott Patterson's alleged supernatural experience at the New Mexico State Prison, I watched a lengthy documentary about the violence that took place during the infamous riot. While I cannot attest to the veracity of his ghost story, I can verify that the events he claimed that happened during the riot did indeed happen. Actually, the obscene violence during riot was even worse than what Patterson described. However, that does not necessarily mean that Patterson's story is true. It merely lend some credibility to the back story of his … [Read more...]
Celebrity Ghost Stories
Scott Patterson’s Celebrity Ghost Story
After landing the role of an Army captain in charge of the prison in the movie The Boys of Abu Ghraib, actor Scott Patterson (The Gilmore Girls) reached Albuquerque around midnight, arriving on a late night flight. A producer on the new film greeted him at the airport. Instead of heading for his hotel, Patterson accepted the producer’s offer to take him for a late night visit to the site selected for filming the interior prison scenes -- the abandoned, former maximum-security New Mexico State Penitentiary, located just outside of Santa Fe. Also at his producer's suggestion, Patterson decided to visit Death Row. He intended to sit in the chair inside the gas chamber itself for “the experience.” At this point in his story, I’m thinking to myself, Is this guy absolutely insane? As the two men made their way underground three levels toward the gas chamber, Patterson noted a spot on the floor where the concrete had been marred by what appeared to be hacking marks. Further along the way, he saw a blackened spot on the floor that he didn’t understand, uneasily noting it took the vague shape of a human form. When they reached the viewing room for the gas chamber, the two men found a lit small candle standing upright in a chair. By Patterson's account, the producer looked terrified and claimed to have no knowledge of how the candle got there. He expressed an interest in leaving at that point, but Patterson said, “My training is such that I don’t back away from such experiences.” So he insisted on continuing on until he actually sat in the gas chamber chair. … [Read more...]
