William Hope: The Father of Paranormal Photograghy

 

William Hope was born in the year 1863. William began his career as a carpenter when he was a young man. Soon William rose to a certain level of fame with the "spiritualist" circles of the day. William had a certain knack for capturing the images of spirits in his photographs. William Hope produced the first paranormal photo in 1905. Soon after this feat, he created a new group which he called the Crewe Circle Spiritualist Group. Soon after, William began to rise to fame as being able to capture the images of loved ones in photos. 

This was the age of Spiritualism. Spiritualism was at its height in popularity between 1804 and 1920. Spiritualism was a religious type movement. Its belief system stemmed from the thought that the spirits of the dead existed and could if they so chose to communicate with the living. At its peak in 1897, it is said that more than 8 million followers in both the U.S. and Europe practiced some for of spiritualism. The core of its followers were upper and upper-middle class society. Spiritualism grew and spread for almost 50 years without formal groups or organization. This was made possible through periodicals, tours, and lectures. 

In 1905 William Hope produced his first ghostly image. This launched him into fame as something of a medium, not to mention later being called the "Father of Spirit photography". The only problem with all this, William was a total fraud! During the early age of photography, the development process was not commonly known. William used this to his advantage to create his fame and dupe the public.

William used a technique commonly called "double exposure". During this process two different exposures or images are layered on top of each other creating the ghostly image. Once word got out about William Hopes ability to capture the ghostly images of loved ones it gained the attention of the Society for Psychical Research based in the United Kingdom. This group set out to conduct organized research into human experiences the challenged the contemporary model. They were the FIRST group of individuals to research paranormal claims. 

In 1920 William Hope ran into his first bit of trouble. Edward Bush laid a trap for William by using a fake name. Edward Bush sent a letter to William Hope with the name  of "Wood" and sent a photo of a living person whom he pretended was his dead son. Edward Bush then attended a sitting with William Hope and Hope produced a photo of a spirit which happened to be the same photo that was sent to Hope. The phrase "Dear friend Wood" had appeared on the photo. Researchers with the SPR concluded that there was sufficient evidence to prove William Hope as a fraud.

In 1921 a gentleman who was a close friend of magician Harry Houdini attended a sitting and found the unusually dark conditions of the room were ripe for suspicious activities. He also suspected Hope of switching the photograph plates during these sessions.

In all, the Father of Spirit photography was a fraud. But his actions inspired the possibility of capturing spirits on film. Pushing the field of research into a new direction not thought of before. If it was not for William Hope and his fraudulent photos, we may have never began to think of capturing the spirit world through the lens of a camera.

Why did I become a paranormal investigator?

First thing, I did not want to try and be the next Jason Hawes or Grant Wilson. I never intended to be something I would consider a "superstar". I did not want a TV show or a podcast. I did not do this for the self notoriety or the so-called fame. I did this because I wanted answers to questions and situations that I myself experienced. 

I see a lot of people and teams out there calling themselves EXPERTS. I have never called myself this. I have always referred to myself as a "ghost hunter". I have never put a title or a moniker to the explanation other than "ghost hunter". Everyone is SELF TAUGHT in this field. I did not go to school for this unless you included the School of Hard Knocks. 

I see so many folks loosing their way, wanting to be the next Ed and Lorraine Warren. I do not want that level of responsibility. To claim this level of achievement and all you have done is a few hunts, that is so immature. 

Some folks do an event or two and forget their roots!! I will NEVER forget where I started or why I began this journey. Once the pressures outside my control begin to try and dictate my actions, it is time for a change! I will NOT change who I am or what my group has become. I will not compromise my ethics and morals for someone else! 

The last few years have been fun, that is no lie. Even with the current public health situations we have had a blast investigating a few locations. I need to refocus MY efforts back to my roots. I am investigator. I enjoy the dark and damp locations that others think "too dirty" to investigate. I LOVE the silence of a building, to feel the historic pressures and to be able to experience the natural paranormal energies. I want to get back to my roots!! The REAL reason I became a ghost hunter, I want to experience as many paranormal situations as possible and try to answer the age old question:

ARE GHOSTS REAL???

Why ghost hunts are not free?

 There are a lot of factors that go into a good ghost hunt. The most important is the location then the equipment. Neither are cheap. Most of these popular locations charge a rental fee to gain access for a night or weekend. Some only allow you on the property for a limited period of time. You don't even get a full 24 hours for your money! Some locations require a lot of up keep and maintenance. This translates into cost of operation, which means .. you got to pay!!

Some of the places do a very bare minimal to accommodate their guest and do minimal cleaning. While others make their location as clean as possible! In order to keep these locations suitable for investigations they has to be a property manager ( again CO$T of operating ). 

My most FAVORITE place to visit, Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville! OMG!! This place is sooooo clean. They have it all!! Ghosts, sleeping accommodations, a FULL kitchen, restroom and shower!! So places do not even have a toilet for you to use and STILL charge you an rathe large amount of money.

 A lot of folks are always asking "when can I go with you on your next hunt?"  and my response is usually the same. " I'm sorry but at this is a team member investigation only." Most of our investigations are residential and require a "soft" approach. But when we do offer the public its always the same as well. "Oh, you mean we have to pay?" or "Maybe next time, let me know when you go"

When you say there is money involved the interested seem to disappear or the say "hold 3 for me till this Friday please!!" Then when Friday hits and you message them, they NEVER respond. This is why I do not hold tickets any longer. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE!!

There are a lot of costs involved with hosting a ghost hunt. You don't want people walking away from an event you hosted saying "dang, that's it?"  For the most part, that is what a lot of groups do too! You pay, you show up and you walk around with that team until the time is over. But I want to give an experience that I would want and that costs money! Perhaps its $40 per person, but you are gonna get to investigate a REAL HAUNTED LOCATION, use REAL equipment, bottled water, snacks, and perhaps even pizza for FREE! There are teams and groups that will charge you EXTRA for this!!

So when you see a team or location out there posting about an event and charging for it, they are not trying to pay their light bill or water bill. They are trying to off-set the out of packet expense that they are paying for your benefit! You have been begging to go and they are giving you that opportunity. The chance you have been waiting for is $40 or $50 away. That money goes to assist in the location rental, to assist in buying the bottled water, snacks, food, batteries and even perhaps a gift bag if your lucky enough. 

So do not be so snub when you see a group posting about "charging" for a ghost hunt. Do not be so rude to make comments that are negative. If you can not go, sorry, but don't comment saying "why so much" or " I can't afford that" or "not everyone can afford that".. it just shows your contempt and lack of knowledge on what all is involved with that process. Be better than that and say "have fun" or "maybe next time"...... DON"T BE A KAREN!!! lol

World's Largest Ghost Hunt 2020

 Let me first say a HUGE "THANK YOU" to Debra Fawcett and Lisa Mihalik Franks for allowing my group, Liberty Independent Ghost Hunters of Texas, to host this event at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville, TX. This was an amazing opportunity for us and I sincerely appreciated it. Not to mention being dubbed the "House Band" and being asked to host many more events!

What can I say, that I have not already said about the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail? Each and every time I have ever investigated this historic location, I have came back with yet another paranormal experience and PROOF that this place has earned the moniker "Most haunted jail in North America".

This years WLGH ( World's Largest Ghost Hunt ) wasn't all too different from how the intended plan was supposed to play out. This year has been rough for social gatherings. They cancelled the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, then toilet paper disappeared like a 15 yr old does when you ask them to take out the trash! But things got more hectic and frantic when public disturbances started to pop up and threaten the communities.

But thanks to the wonderful ladies of the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail, the WLGH202 marched forward!! We had sold out the event in UNDER 24 HOURS of posting the sale of the tickets on Facebook. We started the planning and logistics since January 2020. We visited the 4th annual WLGH hosted by a different team and we did not like what we seen or experienced. As we stood in the parking lot we discussed several aspects to ourselves and what WE would want to experience from an event like this and what we would have done differently. 

So we booked our very first solo visit in January 2020 and WOW, what an experience!!! Within the first several minutes of us investigating we could heard FOOTSTEPS!!  We received MASSIVE REM pod responses, EMF "hits" audio EVPs and the very loud and "FAMOUS" loud bang that we caught on video.

So, as me and my wife sat one day at lunch, we discussed the event and how we would have done things differently. Then I started kicking the idea of L.I.G.H.T. hosting the event and I thought... why not ask! So I sent Debra a message asking if she had any teams in mind to host the event in 2020 and that we would like to throw our name into the hat for consideration. Well little did we know they had already been kicking the idea of us hosting the event between themselves! 

So fast forward!! We had 15 wonderful guests buy tickets and unfortunately 5 did not show for various reasons. But we had a BLAST!!! We set up a hand draw mural by Staci Hemmenway and her daughter Keali for folks to take selfies. We had a banner to commemorate the event, signs, and even made personal event badges for each guest with their names on them. 

I wanted the guests to get the experience that WE DID NOT GET!! They paid for a ghost hunt and that is what I wanted them to get!! Last year some of the guests never even got a chance to enter the building and it was NOT for lack of trying or the managements fault. The team last year just did not have the planning nor the team work to accomplish that task. There was in-fighting amongst them, public cursing matches, so sad. Another thing we did that the other team REFUSED to do, is we ENCOURAGED the other teams that came out with us to WEAR THEIR TEAM SHIRTS!! I wanted to not only represent the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail or the World's Largest Ghost Hunt, but I wanted those individuals to represent THEIR TEAMS AS WELL. Because like the motto said, TONIGHT WE COME TOGETHER AS ONE!! 

Why shouldn't they get to wear their shirts? This event was not a platform or stage for me to elevate my group or showcase them. It was the GUESTS that were important, it was Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail that was important. I wanted the guest to feel as if they were the main attraction and we DID!!! I am so proud of my team and the way we all worked so hard to make this happen. Our guests were so happy they actually got to investigate!! Last year we were made to stand around and WATCH the hosts investigate, we were told that we could NOT bring in our our gear, that we could NOT take pictures or video. 

Our ONLY request was for our guests to not live stream or to make a video that would interfere with other people investigating. If they wanted to do that, then we provided a 4 hour block of time for them to free roam the jail and shoot all the video and live stream they wanted. I made sure that team got what they paid for!! The jail provided snacks and bottled water, so did we... we didn't charge folks for water like the other team did last year.. SMH

My goal was to host an event that people would LOVE returning to and it worked!! Several of our guests said they could not WAIT for next years event, that made me VERY happy. Then Debra Fawcett said "oh, your already booked, you signed a lifelong contract"! HAHAHA, talk about feeling good about your accomplishments.. To be invited back in a matter of minutes after the conclusion of the event. I am so excited!! But...... IT. GETS. BETTER!!!

We have also been asked to host several other events at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail. For starters, May 1st, 2021.. First Responders Appreciation night, Assisted Ghost Hunts and tours, both day and night!! Of course, the 6th annual World's Largest Ghost Hunt 2021 and more ghost tours and hunts!! So as we sit right now, we have 4 planned public events at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail, possibly 5!!

So if your wondering and I know you are!! YES, you too can book the jail for yourself!!    https://www.facebook.com/lcj33/     Just follow the link!!!

Its the best decision you'll make!! 

If you want to follow our groups adventures?? Follow the link!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/LIGHT2018/

I can not say how big of an honor it was to host the WLGH for the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail and to be asked to host it again and many more. Founding  Liberty Independent Ghost Hunters of Texas is probably one of the most memorable things I have done and there is SO MUCH more ahead for this group!! I hope you get to book a stay at the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail for your self, you will NOT regret it!!

                      As our motto say, 

                                                       YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!!

Camera being knocked over by ghost

Paranormal Kinetic Force - Is this the begining of an understanding?

Several weeks ago I made my second visit to Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail and one of my personal goals was to see if we could get a replicated noise we experienced. During this time I have pondered long and hard about HOW this noise was created without a physical or corporal body. Then I began to think of HOW these entities can move objects such as doors, cabinets and other physical items.

I went back to the smartest man I know for help. Albert Einstein, I went to his theory of relativity, especially the Special Relativity past. This sections is where his famous equation of E=MC(2). In this section he describes how energies are transformed. Einstein's theory of special relativity states that the express fact that mass and energy are the same physical entity and can be changed into each other. The equation, E=MC(2), the increase of the relativistic mass (M) of a body multiplied  by the
speed if light squared (c2) is EQUAL to the kinetic energy (E) of that body.

In simple terms... energy has mass, and how fast the energy travels can determine how MUCH mass is delivered onto or toward an object, thus creating ( what I call ) Paranormal Kinetic Energy (PKE) which in turn is transformed into (again my term) Paranormal Kinetic Force (PKF).

This energy can be focalized upon an object of interest by the entity. Therefore, allowing this entity to move or touch an object. The amount of energy focused on an object and at the speed of which it is focused created the PKF.

Einstein stated that all things are energy and that energy can not be created or destroyed, it simply takes a different form. If this is true, then we are all nothing more than containers of a specific energy that transforms into another form of energy.

So here is my definition to these two new phrases I have came up with... (I think)

Paranormal Kinetic Force - A phenomenon created by an unexplainable energy that manipulates a physical object to cause said object to spontaneously move or create sound by exerting said energy upon a tangible object for the purpose of creating sound.

I know I am not a physicist nor am I an expert of relative energy. This is just something I came up with is response to my experience and how I am able to wrap my mind around what occurred.

I am still trying to create a reasonable definition from the PKE - Paranormal Kinetic Energy.

Well, at least I am trying to contemplate a rational and theoretical explanation for these phenomenon.

Paranormal Powerhouse: Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail

I have been a paranormal investigator now for 14 years. In that time I have been to a lot of locations that boast the moniker of " MOST HAUNTED" before their name. In those travels I have been sorely disappointed in what I would call a "misrepresentation" of the actual validity of their paranormal activity. Of all the locations and homes I have investigated the one location that truly is one of the "most haunted" does not even have the phrase in their name.

This place has earned a spot in Haunted Journeys list of the Most Haunted jails and prison in North America. Read that again!! Not Texas, Not the U.S.  ……..  BUT NORTH AMERICA!!

I am talking about Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail in Hallettsville, Texas.

Tucked away in a sleepy little town, this place is THE most active location that I have ever visited. There is not one room or square inch of this historic location that does not have paranormal activity running through it. So many have come before and after our visit that have documented so many paranormal encounters. From strange and unusual noises to seeing full-bodied shadow figures walking the hallways. Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail is one place that will either reaffirm your belief in the paranormal or turn you into a basket case from the overwhelming fear you experience from its ghosts.

With 120 years of service to the community as the county jail, this building has seen its fair share of horrific events. There are numerous documented inmate suicides that have occurred in the jail cells and countless cases of inmate upon inmate physical assaults. With this much pain and anguish in such a compact location, its not hard to image why there is so much paranormal activity here.

The silver lining in this spooky place are the property managers, Debra Fawcett and Lisa Mihalik Franks. These two wonderfully gracious ladies make everyone who visits feel like family. They go above and beyond to make the paranormal investigators who visit feel as comfortable as possible. Not only do they give you a tour of the facility, but they give you the entire 411 of this historic location. They are more than just the care takers of this property, they are its life line to the present. They are constantly cleaning the jail, constantly renovating, constantly preserving the history of this magnificent building.


I have had the pleasure of visiting HOLCJ twice as an investigator and once as a guest to the World's Largest Ghost Hunt. Each and every time I have been greeted with a smile and a hug!! This is just how they are, they are beautiful people with warm hearts. So if your not ready to be greeted as a life long friend, get ready to be!! Their straight forward no nonsense approach to the paranormal and their willingness to share their own experiences in the jail is why I LOVE coming here! Well, besides the fact that it truly is HAUNTED!!!

In closing, if you are ever out and about looking for some "Stay-cation" adventure, look up the Haunted Old Lavaca County Jail and see if you can catch one of their tours or even book your own overnight paranormal investigation. If you do, when you see Debra and Lisa , tell them I said hello!!