I think it was George Bruno of Perkasie who told me, maybe even while walking through the Perkasie train tunnel, that once a person hears a house is haunted, they are much more likely to feel as though they have experienced some sort of supernatural occurrence within that home.

That's what keeps me from wanting to believe that whatever happened to my camera this afternoon at the Grey Towers Castle on Arcadia University's campus was the result of some supernatural experience.

I was walking through Grey Towers Castle, at around 1 p.m. today, with Media Communications Manager at Arcadia University, Donna Whitlock, who was showing me several areas in the 19th century Castle which had been mentioned in Arcadia's ghost story folklore. She had shown me the steps where a little girl, as the story goes, accidentally hung herself when her scarf got caught on the banister. Donna also showed me the "Red Room" where Mrs. Harrison, the former owner's wife, had conceivably murdered one of her husband's mistresses.

But there was one room we entered, which Donna said was once the admissions office of the University, where upon entering the room, my camera's battery suddenly died. At first I thought nothing of it. Then I replaced the batteries in the camera with four I had recharged the night before.

Those were dead too? "That's strange," I thought.

Let me tell you something about myself. I always keep fresh batteries in my camera bag and I am absolutely obsessed with keeping rechargeable batteries charged. It's like my dad and his obsession with keeping the family cars clean, it's just this little tick I have.

So when I pulled out the third set of batteries and the camera remained, well, dead, I began to wonder whether or not something in that room had wanted to let me know that they were there.
While researching for the "Haunted?" feature, I read "Do Dead People Watch You Shower," by Concetta Bertoldi, a medium who consults regularly with the English Royal Family. This woman claims to have spoken with the dead her entire life and I must admit, it is one heck of a page-turner. But what she says is that some spirits just want you to know that they are there and both Concetta and Carol S., of last week's "Resident's Report Podcast" say that when you speak to spirits they do respond.

With this in mind, before entering the castle I did say "whoever lives here, do not harm me but show yourself through this camera." This was merely a thought, like when you're at your child's sports game and you say to yourself, let my child play well today. It was so subtle and yet I don't want to push away the idea that my dead camera was a message from, as I said, someone who lives in the Grey Towers Castle.

I'll be heading back to Arcadia tomorrow with another set of freshly charged batteries and hopefully, this time, I'll be able to get the footage I need for Wednesday's edition to the Haunted? multimedia section. In the meantime, I'll be tweeting more of my experiences and blogging here.

Labels: andy stettler, Arcadia University, George Bruno, ghosts of perkasie, Grey Towers Castle, Haunted?