It's The End of the World As We Know It

             And I Feel Fine

It is my personal opinion that if the end of the world "AS WE KNOW IT" is looming in our near future as REM sang about, it will be brought about by addiction and bath salt zombies. 

The economic condition of our country is in the toilet.  The unemployment rates are alarming nationwide, but here in the mountains every couple weeks another large coal company announces it's closing, and laying off or letting go hundreds of employees.   These people who can't find work are turning to any means they can think up to make ends meet.  Every couple weeks the phone lines are out because someone has stolen the telephone lines for the copper to sell for scrap metal.  There was a story in the local paper last week about the sheriff's department busting some guy who had stolen almost 10 military grave markers, intending to scrape off and sell the tiny amount of copper on the markers.

Addiction has long been a problem here in eastern Kentucky.  Drug companies pushed pain pills down the throats of coal miner's. Opiate addiction is a big problem here, as well as the abuse of other prescription medications.  Recent changes in state laws have made it so that general practice doctors can no longer prescribe pain medicine.  I know an elderly man with cancer, who doesn't know what he's going to do next month when he can't get any more refills for his medicine.  The health care reps tell him to go to a pain clinic, where you sit among pill heads who have scraped up enough cash to come get their monthly script.  There are waiting lists to get into these clinics, and patients who have seen their family doctor for years now have to fight the clinic crowd to get the medicine they need. Tightening the pain pill laws will have repercussions.  The pills that people are addicted to are going to be harder to get.  They are going to become desperate and unpredictable. 

A recent article talked about how the rates of heroine related crimes in Louisville had increased tenfold in the last couple years.  With the pill laws making their drug of choice harder to get, addicts have turned to heroine to get their fix.  Heroine is arguably the most addictive drug there is.  The article stated that people have been arrested in possession of heroine in several other counties as well, many closer to home here in eastern Kentucky.  If people think things are bad here now with all the pill addictions, wait until they're cut off and turn to heroine.  Better katy-bar the door, because it'll all be over then.  

The latest drug fad to hit the area is a product marketed as bath salts. They're in no way intended to pour into a tub to soak in.  The drug is pretty much synthetic cocaine. With bath salts already booming locally, if heroine makes it's way into the area as a result of the pain pill cutback laws, things are going to get bad.  Remember when Charlie Sheen was making all those videos wired out of his mind?  Bath salts was responsible for that, and his following court issues and house arrest. 

Bath salts are so new, not much is known about their effects, short-term or long-term.  Many users experience something like a 'bad trip,' and just flip out. One user said, "Some people just can't handle it."  While on the drug, users have experienced radical personality changes, some snorting their way into a prolonged psychosis.  For a while around here it was commonplace to hear about some guy stabbing his girlfriend while on a bath salt binge, or another guy trying to fight five other guys, then slash his wrists. Other towns across the country are experiencing the bath salt boom too.  Along with it come the outrageous tales of the terrible, unexplainable, and just retarded things users have done.

In the little town that I live in, the local grocery store was broken into one night by a guy who was on bath salts.  When an employee arrived the next morning, he found a window broken, and the bath salt guy passed out in the floor, covered in peanut butter and chocolate.  Merchandise was scattered all over the store.  He had a wild night, squirting ketchup and other condiments all over the shelves.  Some reports say he had written out "I'm Sorry" in mustard on the floor.  Local newspapers dubbed him the Peanut Butter Bandit, and he was sent away to the big house.

Shockingly, many of the incidents involving bath salt attacks involve attempted cannibalism.  Guess these are definitely the people who "can't handle it."  In June in Layfeyette, Louisiana forty-three-year-old Carl Jacquneaux was said to have had a domestic dispute with Todd Credeur.  He stormed into Carl's yard and attacked him, biting a chunk out of his face while on the drug. 

Pamela McCarthy, a 35 year old wife and mother from New York was actually tasered to death after a run in with the state police.  Onlookers called police when the naked McCarthy was seen attacking her toddler son and the family dog.  The picture below was taken as the child ran to his father for safety.  McCarthy suffered cardiac arrest after the incident.  She was high on bath salts. 

McCarthy, running naked and going after her son who's dad is holding him, before being killed by the police

 June was a busy month for out of control bath salt users.  On the 26th Michael Daniel was arrested in Waco, Texas.  Cops were called when he tore through his family's home in a rage, then chased the neighbors dog, barking at it as he did so.  When he caught the dog, he beat it, strangled it, then proceeded to eat it.

Also in June a 20 year old man attacked a 77 year old woman with a shovel while high on bath salts.  After finally being subdued with a large quantity of rubber bullets and a taser gun, he told officers he was an alien and that Jesus was telling him to kill the woman.

The case that started the Bath Salt Zombie craze was when Rudy Eugene literally ate the face off of a homeless man in Miami.  The attack lasted 18 minutes before Eugene was finally shot to death by police.  Warning, the following video shows the attack from a surveillance camera.  It doesn't show much detail, but might not be appropriate for the kiddies:    

 

Just as crazy is the story of Michael Daniel of Texas.  Family members called the police when they say he went berserk.  He attacked several family members and friends while running around on all fours and growling and barking like a dog.  Before the cops could arrive, he snatched up the family dog and started biting chunks out of it.

A little closer to home, a 19 year old Charleston, W. Va. man was found in a very bizarre position.  His neighbor had been told by friends that Mark Thompson had stolen a pygmy goat she had bought for her granddaughter.  When police went to question Thompson, they found him in his bedroom, high on bath salts, wearing women's underwear and standing over the dead goat. 

Officers allowed Thompson to keep his bra on for his mugshot

Maybe these individuals weren't the most mentally stable people to begin with, and when they used this new powerful drug, the just couldn't handle it.  Crazy people need to be extra careful when they want to go out and get high.  Lesson of the day kiddos, unless you want to find yourself naked, covered in condiments, biting chunks out of people and animals, Just Say No to bath salts!

For info on more bath salt related attacks, go to the following link: Bath Salt Attacks

Curses! (Foiled Again?)

People love to hear a story about a good curse.  A dark tale passed along resonates with humans and they almost want to believe it, perhaps to mke them feel better about their own situation.  They jump all over it, all it takes is a story.  People will automatically connect any event that is in some way loosely connected with the curse to a series of tragic and horrendous atrocities as a result of said hex.  Maybe it’s because it lets people believe there’s still a little magic left in the world, albeit of the bad voodoo variety.  Some may take comfort in knowing that if there is such darkness lurking out there, there must be a lightness that balances it.  Or maybe for reasons unknown to us some objects are just injected with evil and bound to bring doom to all who encounter it.

Submitted for your approval are a handful of tales about some famous cursed objects:

LITTLE BASTARD

James Dean was killed in a car accident on September 30, 1955 after hitting another car head on in a high speed collision.  The car was a Porsche he named ‘Little Bastard. The car became a thing of paranormal Americana.  It was said to be cursed, and serious accidents seemed to befall a host of people who owned pieces of the car afterward.

The scene of James Dean's fatal crash

 While being to delivered to a later owner, the car mysteriously fell off the wrecker and broke the driver’s legs.  A doctor bought the engine.  The first time he drove with it he was killed in an accident during a race.  The people who bought the tires and the transmission were nearly killed in accidents driving with parts from the car as well.  

Little Bastard was used in road safety campaigns.  While being stored by the state for a public safety exhibit, the warehouse burned to the ground.  The car was not damaged.  Later while being transported from Florida, the car just vanished.  It did not arrive at its destination and has not been located since.

Just before his death, James Dean appeared in a public safety commercial warning teens about the dangers of speeding.  It closed with a close-up on Dean saying, “Remember, the life you save just might be mine.”

THE POLTERGEIST CURSE

Poltergeist was released in 1982.  2 sequels followed it.  Soon after rumors began circulating about a curse attached to the movie.  The stories claimed it had  to do with the fact that actual human skeletons were used as parts of the set.  The story adds to the creepiness of films that caused me to look over my shoulder more than once and maybe even turn on a light a time or two.

The bulk of activities due to the curse relates to deaths of cast members.  While some people like to darken the aesthetic of the curse and tell you everyone in the movies died, that’s not the case.  However 4 of the principal cast members did die a short time after making the films. 

Domminick Dunne, who played the oldest daughter, died in 1982.  She was strangled to death by a jealous ex-boyfriend.  She was 22 years old. 

Julien Beck, who played Preacher Henry Kane, had one of the creepiest looks to him I have ever seen on a person.  He caused me to lose sleep as a child.  I later found out he had that creepy look because he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer before filming Poltergeist, and accepted the eerie role knowing that he wasn’t going to live much longer.  He died in 1982.

Will Sampson’s acting resume included One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest and the Indian who shed a tear in the classic anti-littering commercial.  He played Taylor, a spiritual shaman being who aided the family.  He died of kidney failure and malnutrition in 1987.

On February 1, 1988 Heather o’Rourke, who had starred as Carol Anne, the youngest daughter, passed away.  There is some confusion about the cause of her death because there were so many different diagnosis.  She was initially diagnosed with Crohn’s Diesase, then an acute form of influenza.  She died of septic shock from bacterial toxins in her bloodstream.

Skeptics argue that when you consider the total numbers of actors to appear in the films, this number isn’t statistically significant.  Believers go on to include the reports of several strange happenings on the set.  Crew members walked off and wouldn’t return.  In the scene where Oliver Robbins, playing the son, is attacked by a clown, the prop malfunctioned and was actually choking him.  It had to be removed from the set before he could calm down.  The director didn’t know this was going on and thought Oliver was doing an outstanding performance.

Will Sampson, who actually practiced Native American mysticism, performed a ritual one night to rid the set of its evil spirits.  When screenwriter James Kahn wrote the lines "Lightning ripped open the sky," lightning struck the building he was in and all the arcade games began playing themselves.

Actress Zelda Rubenstein, who played the fantastic psychic Tangina was doing a photo shoot for the movie when she felt a bolt of electricity that stopped her in her place.  When the shots came back a  picture believed to have been taken around that moment showed a strange white misty figure.   Minutes after Rubenstein received a phone call telling her that her mother had passed away.

KING TUT’S CURSE

A famous curse that still holds allure today is that of Tut’s Tomb.  In November of 1922 an expedition led by Howard Carter made what is arguably the biggest discovery in the history of archeology.  Carter made a hole in the seal of the tomb of King Tutankhamun and poked his head inside.  When asked if he could see anything he replied “Yes, wonderful things.”

The dig was funded by George Herbert, the Lord Carnarvon.  While on the site, he was bitten by a mosquito.  He later aggregated the bite and it became infected.  He began suffering a high fever and cold chills.  A doctor was sent for, but he arrived too late.  Lord Carnarvon was already dead.  Some stories add that at the moment of his death all the lights mysteriously went out in Cairo. Some reports include his three-legged dog howling and dropping dead at the moment he died.

Following Carnarvon’s death newspapers soon began running headlines eluding to a curse that was related to the tomb.  Stories varied, having it inscribed on the tomb, its antechamber, and on a stone tablet found inside.  The inscription itself varied, but most versions consisted of something like “Death’s wings will come swiftly for those who disturb the King’s tomb.”

Carter himself seemed to escape the wrath of the curse.  Some argue his curse wasn’t death, but to have to witness those around him falling victim to it.  His pet canary, which was present at the tomb’s opening, was said to have been killed by a cobra. 

Over two dozen men were said to have fallen victim to King Tut’s Curse.  For a complete list, use the following link: King Tut's Curse Victims

THE DYBBUK BOX

A more modern tale of an evil curse is of the haunted item sold on eBay called the Dybbuk Box.  In recent months the auction website has amended its policies to ban the sell of items such as potions, spells, psychic readings, portals to other realms, and haunted objects.  But back in 2001 Kevin Mannis posted for sale a wine cabinet he called the Dibbuk Box.  

The Dybbok Box

 

In a lengthy item description Mannis told the story of buying it at an estate sell.  Afterward he was approached by a young woman, the granddaughter of the woman who had owned it.  She told him about her grandmother having survived the Holocaust, and wishing to be buried with the box.  She had said it contained an evil Jewish spirit called a dybbuk.  Mannis offered to return the item to the family, at which point the young woman became very upset, refusing it back and running away.

A dybbuk is a being in Jewish folklore.  A dybbuk is not a demon, rather the sprit of a deceased person.  They are created to accomplish a goal the person did not accomplish in their life and will not rest until they are done.  These can be good things, such as bringing luck to a business, or malevolent, being used to harm others.  According to tradition, when a person dies, the dybbok box should be buried with them, to symbolize the release of the energy.

He included the story of bringing the box back to his antique furniture shop.  He opened the box and found several peculiar items inside, including locks of bound hair and dried flowers.  He went on an errand, leaving an employee to mind the store.  Alone in the shop, she began to hear glass breaking and thought there was an intruder.  She frantically called Mannis, who lost cell reception.  He raced back to the store to find all the light bulbs in the basement broken.  The employee left and refused to set foot in the store again.

The seller promised to include with the sale sworn affidavits and hospital records documenting the tragedies said to befall everyone who had come into possession of the box.  Mannis gave it to his mother as a birthday gift.  Before leaving the store she suffered a stroke and was left partially paralyzed and unable to speak.  She asked for a pen when Mannis went to visit her in the hospital and wrote “Gift evil.”

Mannis then gave the box to his sister.  She returned it within a week saying the doors wouldn’t stay shut.  His brother and his girlfriend also kept it for short periods, all reporting smelling jasmine and cat urine and having nightmares.  The dreams were all the same, with Mannis having it himself while keeping the box in his home.  In every dream the person would be with someone they knew, and when they looked them in the eyes they would transform into a terrible-looking old hag.  Shadow people were seen by those in possession of the box.

The auction caught attention of the media and the Dybbok Box became something of an internet meme.  One customer bought the box, only to re-sell it on eBay, claiming it caused all the lights in his house to burn out and his hair to fall out.  A skeptic could argue the guy could’ve been cashing in on his investment in the box’s story, but people just love a good tale of darkness and the box continued to be sought after.  Hollywood even caught wind of the story.  Sam Raimi heard about the curse and wrote The Possession, recently released and about a family afflicted by an evil spirit from a box similar to the Dybbuk Box. 

The Dybbok Box’s current owner is Jason Haxton, a museum director.  He wrote a book called “The Dybbuk Box” about the history of the wine cabinet and the strange things that have happened to the people who have owned it.

Mannis’ original eBay description can be found here: Dibbuk Box Story


Coming soon: Curses! (Foiled Again) 2.0 - the sequel

Loretta Lynn's Haunted House

By the time I came along Loretta Lynn was already an icon.  That little gal from Butcher Holler sang her way into American history.  In her twilight years, Loretta has added another chapter to her mythology, her home finding itself on all kinds of “Most Haunted Locations” lists.  

In 1964 Loretta released “This Haunted House” about the ‘ghost’ of a lost love.  A couple years later she and her husband Doolittle were taking a country drive when a huge house caught her eye.  She told Doolittle that was going to be her house.  At the time they didn’t even know who owned the property, but they soon bought it.  The Hurricane Mills Plantation included the mansion, several other houses, a church; years ago it had been its own little town.  A bloody Civil War battle had been fought on the property, the mansion having been used as a hospital. 

The Hurricane Mills Plantation Mansion

 Soon after settling into Hurricane Mills Loretta’s family began experiencing frightening encounters with apparitions.  Her twin daughters, Peggy and Patsy, told her about repeatedly waking up in the night to find a woman watching them.  Curious, Loretta attempted to contact the restless spirits.  She believed one of them was a man she came to call Ol’ Man Anderson.  

It was found that the home’s original owner was named James Anderson.  Loretta felt that he and his wife lingered in her house.  She had a little talk with them, promising to take care of the house and ‘fix it up real nice.’  After that she thought of the occurrences as just Ol’ Man Anderson letting them know he was still around.

One day Loretta arrived home from being on tour.  She looked up and saw a woman standing on the second story balcony crying and wringing her hands.  When she asked who was in the house, she was told no one.  She went upstairs and out onto the balcony.  No one was there, but she looked out onto her property, which included a cemetery, and saw the woman walking there, and then she seemed to vanish.  Buela Anderson was James’ wife, who had died only days after the death of their infant child.  They are buried in the cemetery.

Loretta Lynn has had paranormal experiences her whole life.  She has talked about seeing people who had passed away as a child.  It wasn’t until years later that she realized that everyone didn’t see them.  She awoke one night from a vivid dream in which she had seen her father lying in a coffin.  That night she received a telephone call from home telling her that her father had passed away.  She returned home for the funeral.  She found her father laid out in the same suit and in the same coffin that she had seen in her dream.  Years later she returned to Butcher Holler and saw her dad’s ghost sitting on the front porch of the house she had grown up in.  

 Perhaps she inherited some of her abilities from her mother, who was half Cherokee Indian and foretold her very specific details about the man she would marry years before she met Doolittle Lynn.  Loretta said she and her mother shared a strong connection.  Even on opposite sides of the country, her mother would know when she was feeling sad or depressed, and a letter from her would arrive to cheer her up.  Once while visiting Hurricane Mills, her mother gave her a startling warning.  She told her she needed to move away from there, because there was a lot of water on the property and one of Loretta’s children would drown there.

Years later while on tour Loretta experienced a seizure and was hospitalized.  At the same time one of her sons couldn’t be accounted for back home.  He was soon found dead in a creek on the property.  Once his body was found, Loretta came out of the coma-like state she had been in. 

Both of her sons encountered apparitions at Hurricane Mills.  One of them fell asleep fully dressed one night. He woke to find a Civil War soldier tugging on his boot and his dog barking at it.  The other son has woken up to find a soldier staring at him.  While fishing in the river, they saw a soldier walk across a bridge then vanish.

The family moved out of the mansion and into another house on the property in the 1980s.  The mansion is now a museum.  Visitors often report being touched, and tour guides have walked away from the job because of the paranormal occurrences.  No matter how often they’re straightened, Loretta’s album covers that hang on the walls are said to be found crooked on a regular basis.  One visitor saw someone in period clothing standing behind a tour guide.  When they asked who it was the person disappeared and the tour guide was mysteriously pushed down the stairs.  

Loretta Lynn

While many were unnerved by the incidents, Loretta came to regard the spirits in her home as part of the family.  She has said she feels a connection to them, and a responsibility to take care of the house.  Hurricane Mills is on the top of my list of dream places to ghost hunt.  Loretta, if you’re reading this, give me a call!

A Quick Introduction to Doppelgangers

Soon I'm gonna show you how doppelgangers showed me how to use string theory to scientifically explain their existance.  This showed me how to scientifically explain the Paranormal.  All encompassing there, but that's a big project. Here, I just want to start with the beginning, where this started. 

What we have come to call Doppelgangers have been around in cultures and ideologies for centuries.  A doppelganger is a tangible, touchable double of a living person.  It is often said to be an omen of impending doom, although some cultures see the time of day of the encounter as telling of whether the event will have positive or negative outcomes. 

A FETCH is a physical double of a living person in Irish folklore.  The Vardøger is a sort of Norwegian spirit predecessor.  Encounters are like deja vu, but reverse in nature, called jamais vu.  Egyptians said that the human soul had a double, or Ka, and there was always a special tomb prepared for the Ka when a person died.

Broken down, doppelganger is the German word for 'double-walker'. Entities purported to be related to such phenomena are Wraiths.  A wraith is the projection of a person as a result of bilocation.  I'm feeding off Prue Halliwell's Charmed power of astral projection to digest this concept.  Bilocation just meaning being in two places at one time.

In my last post on the ghost of Abe Lincoln, I talked about an instance in which the president encountered a doppelganger-like figure.   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an 18th century German poet was riding his horse down a lane one day when he saw another rider coming from the other direction.  He noted the rider bore an uncanny resemblance to him, and the other rider seemed to him to be equally puzzled or wondering. The rider he met wore a gray suit outlined in gold.  Eight years later, Goethe was riding down the same lane, coming in the opposite direction he had been going when he had the first encounter.  He saw another rider approaching.  Upon passing him, he noticed again that eerie resemblance between them.  Looking down, he realized he was wearing a gray suit outlined in gold.

Goethe

Mary Shelley wrote the classic Frankenstein.  Her counterpart, Percy Bysshe Shelley, encountered his doppelganger on a beach, the double pointing to the Mediterranean.  Shelley drowned sometime later in a small boat in 1822.

Perhaps the most classic, well-known account of a doppelganger encounter(s) is the case of  Emilie Sagée, a french woman teaching in Latvia.  Emilie was liked by the faculty and seemed to be a wonderful teacher, but strange whisperings about her soon began circulating.  It seemed she had a double that would randomly appear here and there, near and not so near to the actual Emilie.  

One day a class of 13 students witnessed the double stand beside Emilie, who was writing on the blackboard.  The double mimicked her movements exactly, but held no chalk. The double was often seen in one place while Emilie was somewhere else entirely. Once all the kiddos were gathered in a hall, and Sagée could be seen through a window,  tending to flowers on the grounds.  When the supervising teacher in the hall left the room, Sagée's double entered, sat in her chair, and appeared listless.  Sagée could be seen right outside gardening.  After reports of her double were made, Emilie reported feeling 'drained'. 

Scientifically speaking, tests have been done in some country I want to say was Sweden that have produced doppelganger-like perceptions to volunteers who are subjected to electrical stimulation to specific areas of their brains.  

Stick with me, come along for the ride.  String Theory will explain to us that ghosts are just like us. Just in another quark dimension perhaps. In the meantime, if you're walking down the street and happen to walk right past yourSELF, let me know.  I can't guarantee that I can tell you what it means, but I've got a really good idea about it.  Worst case scenario, the old omen of death belief is true and you don't have much time left alive.  Could prove my string theory notion and open the doors of perception.  Either way, I can get some great documentation to further the pursuit of knowledge.  Be on the lookout........ 

Good Vibrations Flow Project

The White House Ghost

With the GOP and Democratic national conventions over and the November election coming up, I thought it would be fun to explore the ghostly goings on in the most famous address in the country.  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is reportedly home to a host of spirits, with one of the most famous presidents in our history topping the list.

The home of the Commander in Chief is no stranger to the paranormal.  Jimmy Carter once reported seeing a UFO.  Nancy Reagan regularly cosulted astrologists.  The ghost of Abigail Adams has been seen more than once, hanging wash out to dry.  Most commonly reported, and by some quite notable witnesses, is the ghost of Abraham Lincoln.  It has been seen so often, it has came to be referred to as simply the White House Ghost.

While in office, Lincoln and his wife Mary dabbled in Spiritualism.  They routinely held séances to try and contact their son Willie, who had passed away in the White House.  President Lincoln also received advice from spirit visitors, such as the specter of the deceased Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster, who urged him to continue his fight to free the slaves.  

Just prior to his assassination, Lincoln encountered a doppleganger-like figure in a mirror.  Seeing one's doppleganger is in some cultures an omen of impending death.  While lying on a couch Lincoln saw his reflection as having two distinct faces.  He rose and went to the mirror, finding his reflection normal.  Returning to the couch, he saw the strange reflection a second time.  He said this time, one of the faces were noticeably paler than the other.  A few days later he attempted to recreate the event.  Sure enough, it came back.  After several more attempts, however, Lincoln was never able to make the doppleganger image reappear.  He tried unsuccessfully to have it appear before his wife.  Mary was very concerned.  She saw the doppleganger as a sign that Lincoln would be re-elected to a second term, but would not live to see the end of it.

On the day of his assassination, John Kennedy remarked to his wife and friends, "If someone is going to kill me, they're going to kill me."  Several eerie coincidences connect the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations. See the video below for more on that.  Days before his own assassination, Lincoln told of a dream he had, in which he found himself wandering about the White House.  He could hear sobbing.  Following the noise, he entered the East Room to find a body laid out before mourners.  Soldiers stood guard around it.  Upon asking who was dead, a soldier replied, "The president, he was killed by an assassin."  A full account of the dream can be found here: Lincoln's Dream

 

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth.  He suffered a gunshot to the head and died hours later.  Since then, apparitions of his spirit have been haunting the executive mansion.  Calvin Coolidge's wife reported on several occasions seeing the ghost of Lincoln standing at the window of the Oval Office, hands clasped behind his back, staring out across the Potomic where the bloody battlefields of the Civil War once were.  

Paranormal events linked to Lincoln were reported frequently during FDR's administration.  It's been theorized this is related to both presidents being in office during times of great war.  Eleanor Roosevelt used the Lincoln Bedroom as a study and although she never saw an apparition, said she often felt as though she was bring watched and believed it to be Lincoln's presence.  A clerk for the Roosevelt administration saw Lincoln's ghost sitting on the edge of a bed pulling his boots off. 

Abe Lincoln: Ghostbuster

Ronald  Reagan's spaniel, Rex, often barked at the door to The Lincoln Bedroom and refused to enter it.  Being at the height of the Cold War, he had his staff check into it when he began to wonder if the Ruskie's might be sending some kind of high-frequency signal into the White House.  He dismissed this notion when no evidence was found, and decided it was paranormal in nature after his daughter Maureen along with her husband saw Lincoln's ghost several times while spending the night in the Lincoln Bedroom.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands was spending the night in the White House when she was awakened by a knocking on her door.  She answered the door to find the specter of Abraham Lincoln standing before her.  She was so frightened she fainted.  When she awoke the ghost was gone.

During WWII Winston Churchill was spending the night at the White House.  He liked to take a bath and have a cigar before retiring to bed.  Retuning to the adjoining bedroom in his birthday suit, Churchill discovered Lincoln's ghost standing by the fireplace.  “Good evening, Mr. President. You seem to have me at disadvantage,” he said, as Lincoln was fully dressed.  

Several other Presidents, First Ladies, and White House visitors have seen or felt the presence of Abraham Lincoln.  His ghost is also said to be spotted at Ford's Theater where he was shot, and in Springfield, Illinois at his gravesite.  A ghost train, identical to the one that carried Lincoln's body across much of the country following his death, is said to be seen in several places along it's original route, sometimes carrying a skeletal band playing music that cannot be heard.

Mary Todd after Lincoln's death.  Taken by spiritualist photographer later proven to be a fraud.