Yes, I know there hasn’t been any new updates in months. So, I am looking for people who are interested in posting information relevant to our theme. Just email me at ghosthunters.chat@gmail.com .

I have decided not to remove the newsletter and not use a CMS for the website. The CMS I was considering was too restrictive for the needs of the website. So, I will continue to raw code the website, such as it is. At least the website will have the freedom that is best for it’s needs.

I’m considering closing the newsletter and moving all articles current and future to the main website. This won’t happen right away. I want to know who reads this newsletter first and if they have any suggestions.

In the event that the newsletter closes, I will open a new place for articles to be placed and read. I will have to post the articles myself since I currently raw code the site still. I am considering using a CMS (Content Management System) in the future, I just need to review my options before I pick one.

So, if anyone has ideas or an opinion, feel free to email me at:
ghosthunters.chat@gmail.com .

Different authors and people in the paranormal have their theories as to what a shadow person is, and these ideas come from all fields of study and belief, ranging from metaphysics, religious ideals, parapsychology, cryptozoology, even the occult and demonology. Others have ideas that shadow people are thought forms, ghosts themselves or sometimes even demonic forces.

A thought form, by the way, as most people are familiar with the basic ideas of what a ghost and demon may be, is a manifestation of mental energy from a thinker or person into a semi corporeal (physical) form. They called tulpas alternatively and the idea for them comes from Tibetan and Hindu mysticism.

Further speaking of the tulpas, there is a book called Thought Forms by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, which is essentially study on the power of the nature of thoughts. They state as their premise that thoughts have two effects on the physical world, a “radiating vibration” and a “floating form” and going further, they break up their classification of thought forms into several different categories:

*Thought forms that take the image of the thinker

* Thought forms that take the image of a material object

* Thought forms which take the form of a unique entity all of its own, expressing its inherence qualities in the matter which draws around it.

The book also examines the effects of music, emotion and colors in regards to thought forms as well. Some people feel that shadow people are creatures from another plane of existence that overlaps ours. Oddly, others believe that shadow people are two dimensional entities that reside or pass through our three dimensional reality and are somehow tied into Grey Aliens. This explanation is often tied into deep and twisted conspiracy buff theories and I personally don’t hold much to it.

I personally prefer the tulpas theory for most shadow people experiences. Remember, at any given time there may be more than just your own thought forms in a given area if that theory holds true. Tulpas may also be present during poltergeist outbreaks when people believe they are seeing demonic forms and monstrous creatures…if a thought form takes the form of your thoughts, and you are angry, distressed or worried, one must consider, what would anger look like given form? Or fear? Or passion?

I can almost bet it wouldn’t be pretty.

Of course, these are all possible and none confirmed. Now that we have explored the paranormal possible causes, we also need to be balanced and examine logical explanations as it always best to eliminate all possible rational explanations first before jumping to paranormal conclusion. Many different scientific principles can explain the effects experienced during shadow people encounters, including hallucinations and optical illusions brought on by different physiological or psychological conditions, drug use and or the interaction of external agents on the human body.

Also, images seen in the peripheral area (edge) of vision can be caused by what is termed pareidolia, which means in simple terms, when your brain incorrectly interprets complex lines, colors, light or shadow or texture that may appear to be something familiar…the common term used by us and the majority of other researchers was coined by Grant Wilson, matrixing.

Hypnagogia, what is known as “waking-sleep” is a condition in which a person is half way asleep and half way awake. While in this state, people can be conscious and aware of their environment but also at the same time in a dream like state, where images from their own subconscious may be perceived. People who have been in this state often report lights, and shadows moving around them, or faces in the dark as well as a heavy feeling of impending dread. This is one of the effects of sleep paralysis, as you noted earlier with the paralysis part coming from your body’s natural tendency to paralyze itself while in REM sleep to avoid reacting to internal dream stimuli.

Sleep paralysis is another good possible explanation or even lucid dreaming, while rare, may be occurring in which it would almost be a waking dream.

So in the end, Shadow People are as mysterious as ever and they are just one further reason to keep your eyes open and always be vigilant.

The scariest movie ever made.

That tagline used to belong to William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist.”

Not anymore

Now it belongs to a surprise smash hit that has stormed the country titled simply, “Paranormal Activity.”

Made on a budget of 15,000 dollars, the movie is filmed in a documentary style and is the brain-child of director Oren Peli, the plot revolves around a young couple living in a suburban home in San Diego CA, named Katie and Micah. Katie tells Micah that she has been followed since she was a young girl by an entity. Micah, a day-trader, purchases a video camera to attempt to document the entity and record its manifestations.

At first, little to nothing happens. Katie seems to tolerate Micah’s behavior up until the point that things begin to happen. After a self proclaimed psychic visits the home, small things begin to happen at first; objects moving, electronics malfunctioning, and it slowly escalates to larger and more terrifying events, such as doors slamming, horrible slamming footsteps and inhuman roars and growls.

As time progresses, Katie and Micah’s relationship becomes more and more strained as Katie looses sleep and begins to have prolonged sleep walking episodes and her fears about being harmed by the activity rise.  Katie repeatedly asks Micah to stop filming as she fears it will make things worse and finally, Micah asks to bring in an Ouija board to communicate with the entity after capturing some disturbing EVP’s.  Katie vehemently objects to this and after a heated verbal fighting match, Micah promises to not bring one in.

Despite Katie’s objections and trust, Micah brings a board in and uses it, to get no results. They leave and while they are gone, Micah leaves the camera on to film the board…and the camera catches a very eerie occurence, during which the board itself comes alive and the planchette beings to draw out a pattern, eventually bursting into flame.

Of course, Katie is furious with Micah and a titanic fight occurs, further driving up the stress in the home.

The pattern of activity escalates and finally the film attempts to climax in a  fashion that I won’t reveal here for spoilers sake but that is where the problem comes in; the film builds up a good level of suspense and delivers more than its fair share of genuinely scary spook attacks, but fails to live up to the hype in the end by nose diving into cheese…a large vat of ectoplasmic cheese that the Blair Witch Project fell into and never came out.

As an investigator, and an author myself, I attempted to set aside my investigators instincts and just enjoy the story and I did, but again, the ending ruined the whole piece. There is no exposition, no explanation, no reasoning, not even a believable or plausible ending. The film also overlooks key factual points in true demonic assaults. The acting is well done and believable, the special effects are quite good for a budget the size that it had and over all the story is solid but the ending should have packed more power, more of a punch and gave a better resolution.

It is like a roller coaster that climbs and goes up and up and then instead of an adrenaline rush as gravity throws you back in your seat….you get flatlined. The odd thing is, it is not the fault of the actors or the director but rather, strangely, Spielberg who altered the films ending. I honestly feel that if he had not done this, the film would have been much more coherent and packed a far more potent punch than it did.

With that being said, how did I finally score Paranormal Activity?

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst and 10 being of course, best, I feel that Paranormal Activity scored a modest 3 out of 10.

Murder.

Death.

Satanic rituals.

     All of these play vital roles into the folklore surrounding one of our most popular “spook” areas, here in the foothills of East Tennessee. In fact, few locations inspire such fear and dread as the name Sensabaugh Tunnel.

Many local residents feel the tunnel is a place of great evil and is to be avoided at all costs. Usually, these individuals belong to the younger generations and in fact, the story is strongest amoungst the teenagers of our area.

Sensabugh Tunnel long ago entered our folklore in our region as a place where demonic apparitions appear, where car engine’s die and the screams of babies and women trapped for eternity echo forever within its concrete walls and dark spaces.

Now, for the first time, we will present to you the truth behind the infamous Sensabaugh Tunnel, and we will reveal why the mystery of Sensabaugh Tunnel, is far more perplexing than any urban legend.

     First, what is the urban legend about Sensabaugh Tunnel?

What are the reported phenomena? What is the story?Here, pulled from Ghosts and Spirits of Tennessee,  which is a very good local website containing encyclopedia like entries on local ghost stories and collections of folklore, are the most popular legends concerning the tunnel:

“…..Sensabaugh Tunnel is located just off Big Elm Road in Kingsport, TN, not far from Rotherwood Mansion. It was constructed in the 1920s, and today it sits in a state of disrepair. There are cracks in the cement, and graffiti is everywhere. The road that passes through it is only used by locals, and not often by them. The tunnel is most notorious for a murder that occurred there many years ago.

There are several versions of how the murder transpired. All of them involve a baby. One version is that many years ago, a hobo wandered to the home of a fairly prominent family named Sensabaugh. They welcomed the hobo into their home. The hobo, however, started to steal jewelry from the family, so Mr. Sensabaugh grabbed his pistol.

The hobo then grabbed the couple’s newborn baby, which he used as a human shield, and ran. The hobo was able to outpace the father, and ran into the tunnel. He didn’t know what to do with the baby, so he drowned it in the stream that runs through the tunnel.

The other two versions do not involve a hobo. According to one, Mr. Sensabaugh lived with his family in a house near the entrance to the tunnel. One day he went crazy, and murdered them all, including his newborn baby, and threw their bodies into the creek in the tunnel. Other account says a young pregnant woman was kidnapped and murdered in the tunnel.

If any of these accounts is correct, there’s no doubt that a tragedy occurred here years ago. And that tragedy has found it’s way into the lore of the region. Today, the tunnel is a typical “lover’s lane,” where young couples go to enjoy each other’s company in private. And of course, the tale of the tragedy always sparks the interest of those present.

The baby who was killed here is said to haunt the tunnel. It is said that you can hear the baby cry if you drive into the car, and cut off the ignition. It’s also said that the ignition will not start if you kill it in the tunnel. Other people claim you can hear Mr. Sensabaugh’s footsteps echoing in the tunnel, and see him approaching the car in your rearview mirror. That would be quite unsettling, indeed, if your car won’t start! ……”

     So, there we have the most commonly repeated urban legend about Sensabaugh Tunnel. There is one far more obscure legend that is not often heard and one that we have not been able to validate elsewhere beyond the blog that we found it on whilst research the Tunnel. Here it is, presented in its entirety. The blog where this can be found at is: http://johnnorrisbrown.com/paranormal-tn/blog/2005/04/sensabaugh-tunnel.html

“….Datkat wrote: Now, here is a really scary phenomena associated with the tunnel. Terribly mutilated corpses of people who had been attacked by the Long Dog phantom of the River Road (Big Elm). Zombie-like creatures that are and then are not; who look like previously known victims of the Long Dog.

It wasn’t common, of course, for a human body to be found torn to shreds or the clothing badly torn and the body severely lacerated. However, there were some common threads sometimes, when these things did happen, when accounts of some such deaths were compared.

If the local police agencies couldn’t solve the mystery they might offer bear attack or wildcat attack as possibilities. Often the deaths went unexplained, except by those who knew of the horrible creature said to roam the woodlands of East Tennessee. Those who knew had no doubt about the meanings of the common threads in the deaths.

And in those deaths, there were indeed common pieces of evidence:

Always, there were very few signs of a struggle; as if the victim had been immediately overwhelmed and unable to fight the attacker with any prowess.

The scene of the attack indicated that the beast or attacker had slung and dragged and thrown and whipped the victim around over the ground in the killing, in perhaps a ten-foot circular area, in a violent rage of attack.

Furthermore, the torn body and the attack scene usually reeked of a terrible odor; some say a “sulfur-like”, almost acrid stench. Some say the odor was like that of highly concentrated skunk spray.

Also, if any humans had been anywhere in the general area, there were usually reports, after the fact, that low, guttural, moaning sounds had been heard, off somewhere in the woods during the night of the killing. Not screams, not loud wails, but powerful as to be easily heard in the quiet nights. Grunting as from a wild hog, but maybe more like the low growl of a huge lion, eerily close but at once somewhere off in the distance. Usually, those who reported hearing the sounds said they had not related the sounds at the time to an attack or anything like that, but having been told later that an attack had occurred, they suspected the legendary creature had been in the area and then they began to think aloud that it had done the killing and that that is what they had heard.

The common threads of evidence in these killings always matched tales of a mysterious creature sworn to exist and sworn to have been seen from time to time by most of the people living in the valley, up and down the river along the River Road, now known as “Big Elm Road”.
The creature was legendary even before the first white settlers moved into the area.

Cherokee Indians called the creature “Oolonga-daglalla”, roughly translated as “spirit with knife teeth” and knew it as a ghostly, spirit-like creature that roamed the river valley at night, moaning and bellowing and sometimes killing solitary natives at random. Over time, the name was corrupted by the white man into “The Long Dog”.

The name “Long Dog” was fitting, in the minds of the white people, because of the common description of the creature by those who had seen it but escaped attack.

The creature was said to lope when it ran, much like a wolverine moves. That is to say, it’s leaping movement brought its hind legs up under its front legs and its back arched at each stride, not unlike the movement of an inchworm. The creature moved this way at slow movement or on the run. The scariest, most terrifying sight was to see the creature moving along in its hideous lope, off to the side, parallel to your path but gaining on you even as you stepped faster and faster to get home before it caught you.

Also, the creature was quite long; some say as long as five or six feet long, fully outstretched. So that seemed to fit the corrupted Cherokee name. It had perhaps the length of a large, stout panther, but did not look like a panther and with a much shorter tail. This creature was said to have yellowish-red, glowing eyes that were clearly fiery looking, glowing in the night. Its breath, and it’s difficult to know how someone smelled its breath and survived, was said to have the acrid smell of burning sulfur. Its hair was not sleek and shiny like a panther; rather it was matted and oily. Tracks found along the riverbank showed great, long, sharp claws.

Yet, even though signs and evidence ascribed to the creature were like those of a living beast, it was known to appear and disappear; to take the form of the “Long Dog” sometimes and yet sometimes transform into a spirit-like, ghostly shape; like that of a “living dead zombie”, or vice versa, for lack of a better description.

Sometimes, a person would come up missing and never be found except that a smelly, torn-up attack scene would be found. Legend told in stories by the people along the River Road said that some victims were transformed into zombie-like creatures that also roamed the night, although that was probably just local folklore. They said that when someone encountered and somehow escaped the clutches of one of these zombie-like creatures, they sometimes reported that the spirit or zombie had a face very familiar, sometimes resembling that of one of the missing victims. Also, many reported sightings of these “things” often matched descriptions of sightings reported in and around the Arch (later named Sensabaugh Tunnel by area ghost story thrill seekers).

Reports of these transformed “zombie-like” creatures were rare, however. Most reported sightings described the oolonga-doglalla, or Long Dog creature.

We knew of the Long Dog’s existence when we lived on the River Road in the late 1940s and early 1950s. I had heard the sounds of the creature at night; my older brother Ed had told me what it was and the sounds scared me so badly that I would cover up my head in bed and shudder and cry, even get sick from the fright. I know that local adults were terrified by its possible nearness too, but my parents would seek to comfort us and assure us that it was just the pigs rooting out in the hog lot but we were never allowed to be outside the yard after dark and we were kept inside when the sounds or odor were sensed.

Ed was either brave enough or crazy enough to walk home from Kingsport late at night sometimes and often told of having seen, heard or even been confronted by the Long Dog. He swears he barely escaped the creature one night as he ran home.

Ed was a teenager, about sixteen years old. He was a bit of a rambler and out of the house lots of days and evenings. We had lived many places before we moved to the River Road, including the Long Island neighborhood, downtown Kingsport, Cherokee Village, Old Kingsport, Howard Hill, Bear Town, Nelson Town and other areas. He could easily walk back to those neighborhoods and pal around with his old buddies all of a long Summer’s day and, as might be expected, he would often stay too late in the day and be forced to walk back home as it was getting dark and end up walking all the way up the River Road in the almost pitch black darkness of night along the river.

Sometimes he would go to see a movie at the Gem Theater in Kingsport and if he still had a dime he would ride the city bus out of Kingsport, out Highway 11W to the Rotherwood Mansion, which was there over the west side of the river and just south below the highway, where the River Road took off from the highway and led up the river a couple of miles to our house.

It would be dark and tales of the ghosts of Rotherwood would haunt him and make his hair stand on end and he got off the bus and walked home. He could hear the wailing of long-dead slaves being tortured in the old manse. In his heightened fear he could swear he was seeing the wisps of the ghost of Rowena Ross approaching him, beckoning him. He couldn’t run; the graveled road was full of ruts and chuckholes and he would fall down. He couldn’t run because the road was pitch dark and so he literally had to feel his way along the road.

He said he heard the Long Dog may times, smelled the sulfur of its breath; even saw glimpses of its undulating form breaking through the trees along the river, and its glowing eyes, sometimes getting closer and closer to where Ed was trying to rush along the dark road home without being heard of seen by the creature. He tells about it being after him one such night and almost had him but Ed was close enough to the first house of our settlement, the Nards, and some of that family had a fire going down by the river and were cooking some food over the fire and spotted Ed and as Ed ran up to them the creature turned back down the road toward the Arch and Ed made it in safely that night. Ed was lucky.

Knowing what I do now about the Long Dog, I am stunned that Ed was never one of its victims.

But, the creature somehow would not come near homes and settlements but it would get as close as the nearest woods or where thick underbrush grew and attacks occurred there, not on peoples’ clearings. It came close enough though, as one of the more notorious attacks is said to have occurred at or not far from the mouth of the Arch (now erroneously called “Sensabaugh Tunnel” by thrill seekers). Present-day ghost story enthusiasts say that you can hear the screams of the man who was killed by the Long Dog there, if you stop there just after twilight in the dark stillness.

People outside the River Road area made fun of us for our beliefs, and the fact is that county lawmen never believed the tales and usually would not respond to them, so little or no investigation ever happened.

I do believe that because they were constantly fearful, that was the reason Mom and Dad moved us away from that settlement and back into Kingsport as soon as they could sell our house and property.

If you are silly enough to want to risk your life, walk down the River Road just after twilight some summer night, from Rotherwood and on up past the Arch (“Sensabaugh Tunnel”). See if you can brave the odd happenings around Rotherwood, and along the River Road, and by the Arch. But don’t stay too long; maybe that moan, somewhere near but maybe just off in the distance, isn’t a farm animal in a nearby barnyard. That rustling through the brush and, that feeling of something lightly brushing your cheek … maybe that isn’t the wind. And that faint figure you thought for a moment you saw approaching; maybe that is more than a warm mist rising from the stream running through the Arch and maybe that form you see isn’t that of a mortal being. Maybe the Long Dog will get you if you don’t watch out.

I can tell you that I return to my childhood home in East Tennessee from my present-day Indiana home, every couple of years. As I have grown older, I have given up the thrill of folklore ghost stories. I don’t believe ghost stories or in the supernatural, or the so-called “paranormal”. Yet, I often wonder as I travel back in time and space; “How did the Cherokees know the same creature centuries before we heard sober white men relate its existence? And, when I do go back, should I ever let myself be alone at night, along that dark, gravel road, along the river, near the Arch?

Finally, you don’t have to take my word alone, as to the haunts of the River Road (“Big Elm Road”). Go on the Internet and use such keywords as wordridden.com, then go to the top of the screen and click on “The Scribe” and go down the page to: “L.D; Scaring Myself as a Kid”. I don’t know who wrote that article but it sure is about the same creature. Or, go to “Rotherwood Mansion” or go to “Sensabaugh Tunnel”. At these sites you will see why my brothers and sisters and I still shudder when we remember that, fifty years ago, as small children, we lived within the haunting.– DAVO. “

Of course, there are hundreds of subjective accounts of people hearing voices, seeing shadows and even being attacked, of their car engine dying and not starting and even, of having handprints appear on their car or seeing a terrifying man sized apparition with red eyes.

So, after six months of research and investigation in 2006, more investigations in 2007 and yet another one as recent as September of 2008, have we at SSPRS been able to confirm any of these reported events?

The answer?

No.

But what about all the stories of babies and women and families being butchered and the red eyed apparition?

Simple.

Not one single story about any murders, deaths or attacks at Sensabaugh Tunnel by living people who supposedly died in the Tunnel are true. After exhaustive research both by interviewing locals, spending weeks at a time at the Kingsport Public libary, pouring over newspapers and periodicals, we found that absolutely not one of the stories about the baby being killed, or Mr. Sensabaugh going insane or the hobo were true.

There were embellishments and fictional creations of the “friend of a friend” complex that started years ago as the location became famous as a lover’s lane. What unsuspecting girl, told the most horrifying tales about the location and taken their by her boyfriend, would not scooch a little closer to her lover as he told her bone chilling fright stories of murders and grisly apparitions.

The facts we found out were that the land was purchased for the contruction of the tunnel by the Clinch Field railroad from a one Mr. Edward Sensabugh in the 1920s. Mr. Sensabugh lived in a house just west of the tunnel exit. (That house still stands today and is a white frame house and is currently occupied. The residents do NOT welcome visitors when visiting about the tunnel).

Mr. Sensabaugh and his family were hardworking people, who spent most of their days in the fields, on the farms and living a simple God-fearing life. When the Clincfield bought the money for the tunnel, they carved a V for a road bed to allow cars to pass through the tunnel.

At this time, it was common practice to use migrant labor, specifically, Chinese and Italian laborers. These laborers were poorly paid, poorly treated and not respected. They labored long hours building for almost nothing.

There was a man named Francisco Anatolio, a migrant worker, who worked on Sensabaugh Tunnel, along with seven of his friends during the early construction in the 1920s. There is a record of his account at the Kingsport Public Library in the local legends folder, which the reference librarian will be happy to locate for you.

According to Anatolio, one morning during some blasting on the road bed, there was an accident, during which the resulting explosion killed seven men, all of which Anatolio knew and was friends with. The men died a horrible bloody death in the violent dynamite accident.

Anatolio further notes, that being Catholic, these men were to be buried in consecrated grounds and he states that the Railroad, buried the men in unmarked paupers graves in the cemetery at Ross Campground Methodist Church. 

We could find no record of the burials but these deaths are confirmed and they are the only ones to have occured at the Sensabugh Tunnel on Big Elm Road.

What is curious is the fact that Anatolio stated the men were buried at Ross Campground Church, when in fact, the common practice of the day for migrant workers killed on the job, because it was too expensive to cease work, was to bury them along side (or even inside) the construction site. We were not able to confirm if this was done in this case, but it does provide food for thought.

After the tunnel’s completion, Edward Sensabaugh lived well up into the 1950s. The tunnel quickly became a magnet for vandals and lovers looking for privacy. Ed did not take kindly to these defacers or eager hormonal lovers.

You see, Edward had a talent for mimicry, so said his relatives, for creating animal sounds and throwing his voice. So, to scare off these misbehaving kids, Ed would hide in the tall grass next to the tunnel’s mouth, where the sound would enter the tunnel and carry, and would make noises to scare off the intruders or vandals.

It worked magnificently, because if you have visited the tunnel, you are well aware of how easily sound echo’s inside its walls. The whole construction is like a giant echo chamber.

Edward Sensabaugh died an old man and he never once killed anyone, let alone his entire family or a baby.

As for the hobo story, again, absolutely false. No modern deaths have been recorded since the deaths of the workers in the 1920s at Sensabaugh Tunnel, baby, hobo, family, woman or otherwise.

Urban legend, as you will know, is a tough thing. It often dies a long hard death, and the same is true with Sensabaugh Tunnel.  Even after the story about the crazy Mr. Sensabaugh nearly died out, the teenagers of the area came up with another version. That of the woman and her baby who were killed by either a murderer or a supernatural demonic force inside the tunnel.

The story goes something like this:

During a violent thunder storm during the 1950s (an exact date is never specified, nor is a first or last name of the woman in question, nor the make or model of her car or anything else specific mind you) that a woman was driving along Big Elm road and was having car trouble. To seek shelter from the storm, she pulled into the tunnel, where her car suddenly died.

Frustrated, she put her keys on the dashboard and got her baby out of the back of the car, and intended to walk the 384 feet of the tunnel to the old Sensabaugh house on the far west side. Apparently, according to the story, this young mother never made it out and died a mysterious violent death in the tunnel..baby included.

The story goes that she was murdered by a transient hobo and the baby was drowned in the stream that goes through the tunnel or that the vengeful spirit of Mr. Sensabaugh himself (who was still alive at the time the story took place, though getting on in years) appeared and..well…you get the idea.

After searching newspaper after newspaper and every record we could reach in the Tennessee archives at the Kingsport Library, we could not find a single shred of proof this murder or death ever happened. You would think the sudden violent deaths of a mother and infant would make news…apparently we either have inept news editors (which by the way, they are very good) or you have yet another fictional urban legend.

So? What about the Long Dog legend?

Again, nothing was ever able to be proven that this is an actual Cherokee legend that pertains to the tunnels or the areas around them. In fact, we have not yet been able to find a concrete origin for this story.  In fact, the blog entry was the only telling of it that we could find.

But, wait, there is more!

We have noticed that if you debunk Sensabaugh Tunnel, avid believers will dive immeaditely to the lesser known river culvert known as River Tunnel, which is often mistaken for Sensabaugh Tunnel. It is a smaller tunnel built also by the Clinchfield to allow  the Holston River to drain under the rail tracks above. It is not passable by car, and only on foot.

It is not as spacious as Sensabaugh Tunnel, but has a far more evil reputation for demonic attacks and violent supernatural manifestations.

Upon enter the culvert, which at night, does have a very chilling atmosphere due to the fact that it is absolutely pitch black, one sees that the walls, like Sensabaugh Tunnel are covered in grafitti and half hearted attempts by teenagers seeking a scare by tagging up their names or incorrectly made Satanic symbols.

The area is known for drug trafficking and drunks. It is also a popular lovers lane. Absolutely no stories about this tunnel are true as far as the urban legends go and as far as manifestations go, we have not yet gotten anything from this tunnel to convince us its demonically possessed.

However, Dr. Nancy Acuff, noted folklorist and historian and former FBI profiler did accompany us on our first investigation and told us a very intriguing story.

She told us that the supposed haunting at the River Tunnel was the true haunting and that it was caused by slaves who were butchered by a cruel slave master who resided in or near Rotherwood Mansion, the site of another famous and violent haunting just up the road.

She refused to name the man who supposedly killed these slaves because she stated the man’s relatives still lived in the area, and were ashamed of their family’s past. She also mentioned that a Civil War skirmish had been fought on the land where River Tunnel would later be built and along the shores of the Holston River.

We were not able to confirm this and have not yet found evidence for a battle on the land near the area of Big Elm Road. If you do have evidence, please feel free to email us below.

She did mention that the Cherokee often fought on this land and held it sacred as well as nearby Long Island.

Again, nothing concrete,only faint trails and empty leads.

So, what about all the “evidence” teams of “investigators” and thrill seeking teens bring back from the tunnels?

As far as photos go, we have orbs, and you should know how we and especially, I, feel about orbs by now. If not, please see the research article section and read “Orbs: Debunked!”

The EVPS that have been captured in the two tunnels by teams are almost nearly useless due to all the background noise generated in the river culvert and the echo-chamber like sound properties of Sensabaugh Tunnel.

Some have claimed to have captured screams, voices and babies crying; (these sounds by the way, are most often heard in River Tunnel and are caused by the rushing water hitting the rocks. SSPRS was able to find one large rock in particular that if moved, changed the quality of the “voices” ). Of all of these claims, not a single “investigator” or thrill seeking teen has yet come forth with a single shred of proof of these EVPS, nor will they submit them for detailed analysis. Hmm…sounds awful like no evidence to me.

For those of you who like your local haunts and legends alive and well, do not fear. There IS evidence of paranormal activity at Sensabaugh and River Tunnel. On our first investigation, we captured what appears to be an ecto-plasmic mist inside the Sensabaugh Tunnel on Hi-8 video. However, I hestiate to call this evidence due to the water. It could have been fog.

The last two pieces of possible evidence of paranormal activity at the two locations are two EVPs that SSPRS recently captured whilst on a trip to the tunnels on September 19th, 2008.

They are both available on this website under the EVP section and we do not understand why these EVPs are here because by all means, nothing has ever occured at the tunnels for a woman’s voice to be there saying “please don’t hurt me”. The other EVP, collected at River Tunnel seems to say ” We can/will find them”. The second EVP is a low class B, a C a best, and not very clear.

The first EVP however, is Class A crystal clear and totally unexpected.  Here is the catch: both EVPs were captured outside their respective tunnels. One was captured as we re-entered Sensabaugh Tunnel on foot ( yes at night ) from the Sensabugh House side.

The second occurs in the “foyer” area of River Tunnel, where the branches of the trees overlap and make a shady spot, where people often sit. Any explanation or viewpoint is welcome on these two recordings is more than welcome. Unlike other teams, we are hard enough on our evidence to be able to present it without fear of having egg on our faces, because you should always be most strict on your own recordings.

These two recordings suggest that there is some type of low-level paranormal activity at both tunnels, but the origin of this activity is completely unknown to history.

We have never encountred anything demonic or harmful at the tunnels and we have debunked the car engine myth over and over and over..please dont get your pants in a wad about that one, oh local teens of little faith in investigative technique.

So, in conclusion, here is the skinny. All the urban legends about Sensabaugh Tunnel, the hobo, the woman and the baby, or anything presently told as “fact” about the tunnel’s is either entirely fiction or standing on extremely shaky ground at best in the case of the Indian story and unsubtantiated, in the case of Dr. Acuff’s claims.

Whenever you hear these tales, know they are untrue and that the real mystery of Sensabaugh Tunnel and River Tunnel, yet remain unsolved and beckon for us to probe the dark corners of history, to find the truth, for here, in the mist mountains and in the land of Haints, we must always know our own past…lest we repeat the mistakes we made and forget our heritage of myth and wonder.

Many people in the field of the paranormal have encountered the infamous phenomenon known simply as “cold spots.”

Numerous theories have been put forth as to why these places of thermal variance are encountered, but to date, no one has really set them down beyond basic statements and in general terms. Recently, I was studying the laws of thermodynamics for a case, and I believe that I may have came up with a hypothesis that would fall in line with the known laws of thermodynamics and may explain a cold spot in scientific terms.

First, we should define what thermodynamics is.

Thermodynamics is the field of physics that describes and correlates the physical properties of macroscopic systems of matter and energy and their interaction and transference of energy in the form of thermal energy. A macroscopic system (also called a thermodynamic system) is a geometrically (measureable in three dimensional space time) notable piece or pieces of matter in coexistence with an infinite imperturbable environment.

For most people, that is a mouth full. In short, it is the study of how heat energy is transferred from matter to matter and the laws governing those exchanges, called thermodynamic processes. 

There are four laws that govern thermodynamic processes in these systemic exchanges. We will examine in turn to get a better understanding of the basic principles of macroscopic system interaction. So, onto our first concept. Temperature.

Temperature is generally defined as the heat or lack/loss of heat of an object, since cold does not scientifically exist. The Zeroth Law describes what temperature is.

The Zeroth Law states that when two systems are in equilibrium with a third, the first two systems must be in equilibrium with each other. This shared property, which can be measured and a definite numerical value ascribed to that measurement of the property. This measurement of the property is called temperature. This is a more precise definition than that used commonly.

So, if this is the definition of temperature, what is the definition of heat? Heat as a concept is very interesting indeed as it means something entirely different that what most people think of. Heat is commonly known as the opposite of cold, but thermodynamics gives us an entirely different definition of heat. Let’s look at it now.

Encarta Encyclopedia states that heat is ” in physics, is the transfer of energy from one part of a substance to another, or from one body to another by virtue of a difference in temperature. Heat is energy in transit; it always flows from a substance at a higher temperature to the substance at a lower temperature, raising the temperature of the latter and lowering that of the former substance, provided the volume of the bodies remains constant. Heat does not flow from a lower to a higher temperature unless another form of energy transfer, work, is also present. “

Energy and Work also have very different definitions than most investigators and people attach to them. Again, according to Encarta:

“Energy is capacity of matter to perform work as the result of its motion or its position in relation to forces acting on it.”

While work is slightly more complicated and is defined thus:

 ” …Is a product of a force applied to a body and the displacement of the body in the direction of the applied force. While work is done on a body, there is a transfer of energy to the body, and so work can be said to be energy in transit. The units of work are identical to those of energy.

If, for example, an object is lifted from the floor to the top of a table, work is done in overcoming the downward force of gravity, and the energy imparted to the body as work will increase its potential energy. Work is also expended when a force accelerates a body, such as the acceleration of an airplane because of the thrust forces developed by its jet engines….”

While this is interesting in and of itself, the next part of the definition is far more interesting from a  paranormal perspective when you are not dealing with purely mechanical forces:

“… The force need not be simply a mechanical force, as in the case of lifting a body or accelerating a plane by jet reaction; it can also be an electrostatic, electrodynamic, or surface-tension force…”

In layman’s terms, energy is the ability to do work and work is defined as going against another force, for example gravity and heat is the result of energy being transferred back and forth from system to system until equilibrium is reached. So what is equilibrium?

Equilibrium is the condition of a system in which competing influences (variables) are balanced evenly. When a macroscopic system shifts with an irreversible reaction, equilibrium is reached and no further change in the system is possible.

A variable, by the way, is a factor used to describe a macroscopic system’s state of equilibrium and include things such as temperature, pressure, volume, density, etc, in relationship to the environment.

Heat and work therefore are the mechanisms by which two or more systems may exchange energy, which leads us to the next law.

The next law of thermodynamics is perhaps the one most often quoted (and mis-quoted no less) by investigators as proof of survival and while it does have bearing on that notion of the human soul, is it more appropriately fitting to the concept from which is was pulled: the transference of heat energy from one system to another.

This law states ” …because energy cannot be created or destroyed, the amount of heat transferred into a system plus the amount of work done on the system must result in a corresponding increase of internal energy in the system.”

In simple English, this means energy (heat in this case) cannot be created or destroyed but merely transferred from system to system, creating an equal and opposite reaction in the corresponding systems, with an increase in one, (the receiving system) and a decrease in the other (the transference system).

Following this law, is the next rule of thermodynamics, which precisely defines the property of entropy. Entropy could be thought of as a measurement of how close a given system is to equilibrium; it can also be thought of as a measurement of a system’s amount of disorder. Interestingly, nature itself seems to prefer chaos and disorder as opposed to a true equilibrium, with each external system balancing out the other in a system of chaotic checks and balances.  Chaos theory describes this fascinating set of interactions and patterns but more on that later in another article, perhaps at another time.

The law itself states that ” the total entropy of any isolated system always increases over time, approaching a maximum value.”

What this means is that a system will continue in disorder until it finally reaches balance or equilibrium and as stated earlier, once a system reaches this state, it cannot change. This law shows in that in the absence of work, heat cannot be transferred from a region at a lower temperature to one at a higher temperature, however it would be possible for a higher temperature system to give energy (heat) to a lower temperature system.

The last law of thermodynamics that we must understand before moving on to my theory is that the previous law suggests the existence of an absolute zero of temperature and the last law itself states:

“….absolute zero cannot be obtained by any procedure in a finite number of steps and can only be approached arbitrarily closely but never reached.”

What this suggests is that temperature can be reduced or increased by taking energy out of a system by making the motion of molecules at the molecular level speed up (increase of heat) or slow down (loss of heat).

So?

Is everyone on the same page?

It’s a large amount of information to process but you are now going to see how I used the laws of thermodynamics to describe how a cold spot is formed in a hypothesis that I call the Thermodynamic Macroscopic Transference hypothesis.

With the preceding statements and facts in mind, let’s for a moment hypothetically state that we have three isolated systems in a given environment: a living human and a non-corporeal entity, aka a ghost and the air between them. All of these are forms of matter, one solid, two not. The entity in question could transfer heat energy from the human by slowing down the molecules in the air and speeding up the molecules on the human (work) thus creating friction as heat is transferred into or to the entity, drawing it from the human, creating an increase in entropy in all three systems…the human, the ghost and the air.

The decrease in heat from the human would create a feeling of intense cold, while the warmer air between the ghost and human would act like a storage battery for the ghost to use while it draws the heat from the human to itself to use as energy to do work aka, manipulate the environment.

This entropy would continue until the human moves out of the range of the entity in question or disrupts the transfer, which would destabilize the increasing entropy and restore the natural equilibrium in all three systems. If a ghost has taken its fill of heat energy stores and utilizes them to make a physical change in its environment, then the expenditure of that stored energy to do work would drain it away, also restoring the native entropy and equilibrium in the entity.

This may help explain the bone chilling cold that some victims of paranormal encounters are unable to shake or the sudden dense pockets of cold air as the entity uses transfers thermal energy to itself from its environment in a thermodynamic process between the two (possibly three) systems.

While this may go some way towards explaining the mechanics, the process by which an entity would do this remains unknown but outlined above, it is fully in line with the laws of known thermodynamics and thus should be possible…of course this assumes that a non corporeal entity could exist and use heat (energy).

—-Anthony Milhorn, SSPRS Founder, TAPS Family, TN.

Hundreds of curious,fearful people surrounded the little house in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Some tried to burn it down, convinced it harbored a witch. Others threw garlic, an ancient protection against witches, onto the front steps. For very strange things were happening in this house. It was occupied by Gerald Goodin; his wife, Laura; and their adopted daughter,  Marcia, 11. They often heard tapping, banging sounds. Lights would go on and off. So did the TV. This was just a warm-up for terror.

Early one morning, Gerald Goodin noticed that a large refrigerator had turned from iuts unusual position. The kitched table began to flip up and down. Chairs fell over. He heard a crash from his wife’s bedroom. A religious pucture had fallen off the wall. An even louder crash came from Marcia’s room. Her bureau had fallen over. Wearing only nightclothes, the Goodins fled out into the street. A policeman lived nearby, and he went into the house, but left when the refrigerator began teetering back and forth. All sorts of explanations were offered – an earthquake, an underground stream, the house settling. Police came to the house to guard the Goodins. Experts on hauntings flooded in from all over the country. Among them was a Conneticut man named Boyce Batey. He talked with many witnesses, and saw and heard many of the strange things himself. The turning point in his investigation came on New Year’s Day, 1975, when he was sitting in the Goodins kitchen.

A stereo set moved, and a table went up and down with a bang. Actingon a suspicion, he ran into Marcia’s bedroom. The girl was lying on the bed, face down. “That didn’t seem right to me,” Batey says. “When a loud sound is heard, the tendency is to go towards it.” A picture in the bedroom fell from the wall, scattering glass across the floor. Marcia still lay motionless. Batey and other investigators began to develop a theory: the commotions were not being caused by a ghost or demon, they were being caused by Marcia.

It is becoming well known that some people can cause things to move without touching them. They can cause raps and bangs without hitting anything. This is called “parakinesis”. It happens particularly when people are emotionally disturbed. Often these people are teenagers or slightly younger, for this is often a difficult time of life. And Marcia had more than her share of problems.

 The Goodins had had a young son who had died. They had adopted Marcia, a Native American Iroquois from a reservation in Canada, in an effort to lessen their grief. They were so protective of Marcia that she had almost no outside life. Batey says, “This girl was a very normal child. She was intelligent, artistic, gentle,sweet.” But she had almost no social contact. Mrs. Goodin walked her to school and back. Some children taunted her about her Native American heritage. One kicked her in the back so severely that she was forced to stay home for weeks. It was when she was almost healed and was about to be sent back to her scary school life that the heavy poltergheist activity – things moving around- began.

Bately felt that initially it was Marcia’s way of expressing her anger at her parents and the world.  Afterwards, she wanted to keep the excitement going and the company coming. The police in the house made afuss over her. Her little game had brought social life into the house. Bately recalls: “One time, Marcia and a policeman were playing a game of checkeers, and he won. Withing three minutes, a bedroom bureau fell over, and a TV set fell onto the floor. Marcia had been disappointed by her defeat, but was too gentle to express it in an ordinary way.”

So it would seem that not all poltergheists come from another world. Some come from ordinarily harmless people who are very much part of this one.

Many small children can see ghosts that the adults around them cannot see. Usually, they do not speak of these visions, for they have learned that grown-ups will rebuke them, will tell them they are making things up. Irma was five years old in the summer of 1936. She and her family were staying at a resort hotel in the Canadian Rockies. One day two beautiful young people checked in. The man was tall and solidly built. The woman was short and slim. They seemed very much in love. The gossip went that they were on their honeymoon.

Irma was told they were champion swimmers, and had to come here to put the final touches on their training for the Olympic games, which were to be held a few weeks later in Berlin. They would go off every day and swim in the surrounding lake and rivers.  One morning at breakfast they mentioned that they were going to swim to a small island not far away. A waiter, who lived year-round in the area, overheard them and warned them to be careful. There was a very strong whirlpool near that island, with a poweful undertow. Over the years, several people had been drowned there, he said. The young man merely smiled, and glanced about the table as if saying, “These local people always have their stories.” A few minutes later, they left  the hotel in their swimsuits, laughing, as though they didnt have a care in the world. An hour later, the man came stumbling back alone. He seemed exhausted, and in such a dire emotional state that he was weeping and throwing up. He gasped out a tale that his wife has been caught in the whirlpool and that he had bveen unable to find her.

The whole hotel was thrown into a frenzy of anguish. A search party was organized, but the young woman’s body was never found. Little Irma had a question all her own, For when the man returned, she could see his young wife stnading behind him. She was wearing a wet bathing suit and was doubled over as if in pain. She was crying, “How could you? How could you?

Irma tagged along with the search party, and all the time she could see the drowned woman behind her husband, tears running down her cheeks. Even when the group returned to the hotel, the little girl could see the young woman a few feet from her husband.  This continued all summer for Irma. She could stand on a high place near the hotel and look across the water at the island. She could see the young woman on its shore, bent over as though in pain, as though she had been hit in the stomach. And even at that distance, Irma could hear her cry:

“Why did he do it? I loved him!”