Guest Author Sam Baltrusis!
WBCA Podcasts
City Talk with Ken Meyer (Sam Baltrusis)
(upbeat music) - WBCA radio is proud to present CityTalk, where fascinating conversation is alive and well, with your host, Boston radio veteran, Ken Meyer. - Hello everybody, welcome once again to CityTalk. If you love the paranormal and ghosts and goblins and everything else, this show is right up your alley because we've got a real expert. His name is Sam Baltrusas, and he has written so many books on the paranormal, I can't begin to tell you how many or what they are. But Sam, it's great to talk with you and I've always been fascinated with this. Now, tell me when you first experienced anything paranormal in your life that got you turned out to this field. - Hi Ken, it's great to chat with you again. So yeah, so I basically was a journalist for about 20 years or so. I've always wrote about paranormal themes, stories for Halloween. So it was always like the spooky stories of Halloween, but my first experience actually started when I was a child. I grew up in Florida and there was a moment where my grandfather passed and I actually saw him sitting on the corner of my bed and I was almost like the kid from the shining. So I had a gift to communicate with spirits at a young child, as a young child, but then I got scared and I put on what we call paranormal blinders. So I spent about 20 years being afraid of the paranormal, being afraid of ghosts. I had experienced soon after seeing my grandfather that terrified me and I just kind of just, I put on the blinders and didn't deal with ghosts for many years, even though things that happened to me, we're still, I still had ghosts and counters, even though I didn't want to believe that they were actually like something inexplicable. So yeah, it's been an ongoing process, but when I started writing my books back in 2012, so it's a 10 year anniversary of me writing paranormal themed books, I just said, you know what, it's time to accept it. And I started writing very cautiously 'cause I was a journalist and I didn't want to lose that credibility as a journalist. So you'll see the words alleged a lot in my first few books, allegedly haunted Hotel in Boston, as opposed to the very haunted Hotel in Boston. - Now, in the meaning that we had when we were all together through Perkins, one of the things you mentioned was that you were somehow related to Lizzy Borden. Do you think that that had anything to do with any of your ghostly experiences? - I personally think that I was called to New England. I think that I saw Grepon, Florida. I moved here in the '90s for college and I always was kind of pulled to the Salem Witch Trials as a historian and also to the Lizzy Borden murders. Pulled to it, but also a tentatively kind of scared by it as well. I thought really connected to it and almost to the point where I would have dreams and just really was afraid about the Lizzy Borden case most of my life because of those haunting dreams. And so I felt like that I was being called by the spirits to New England and it took my whole life to kind of figure out the connection. So I actually didn't realize that I was related to Lizzy Borden until about two and a half, three years ago. And I'm also related to the Putnam family who were the major accusers during the Salem Witch Trials. So I have multiple connections to people in New England. I just knew that I was being pulled to New England and I didn't really know why I was being pulled to New England. - Now, I don't want to get off the track, but the Lizzy Borden murders are often discussed, I guess, by a lot of people. Why do you think she did what she did or did she do it? - Yeah, it's to the point now where I've done multiple TV shows and written multiple books about the case. And I think that the thing that I always try to stay away from is the who done it part of it. I try to focus on why the why done it. Like why did this double homicide take place on Fall River in 1892? And I strongly feel that after doing the Carcel Lizzy Borden which was a documentary that I filmed for Discovery Plus that there may have been something more sinister at play. And when I say that, you know, she could have also had obviously psychological issues like this associated disorder going on. But I'm pretty confident that my cousin Lizzy actually did take an axe and give her father and stop mother 40, you know, the wax as we know from the nursery rhyme. But why did she do it? Was it sexual abuse? Which a lot of people believe that's the case. Was it for money? Was it for, she just snapped and she had, she was a sociopath. Those are things that I'm interested in. I'm pretty confident that she did commit the murders. But did she act alone? Were there other people that were there with her and that participated in the murders? So that's the stuff that I'm more interested in as a relative. - All right, let's talk about this book that I read, "Ghosts of Boston." There are so many places and so many things that are very surprising, like hotels. Like the Amn, the Parker house, for example, is amazing at some of the stuff you're right about in there. Like Charles Dickens and others who have experienced, there's a story in there about somebody cleaning a mirror and there's condensation on the mirror. And they believe that it was Charles Dickens breathing on the mirror. - Yeah, I can. So in addition to writing books, actually, so I'm an immersion journalist. So I try my best to spend a lot of time at a location or locations before I write about them. So I actually, one of the first tours that I gave, and I ended up giving tours throughout Boston, tours in Salem, tours in Boston Harbor. But the first tour I gave was actually at the Parker house. And so Parker house and also around in the Boston common as well. And yeah, so that I actually had a personal experience. So there's that, what is it known as the Charles Dickens mirror, which is on the mezzanine level of the Parker house. And the legend is if you say Charles Dickens three times something weird will happen. Well, I would say that on my tours, I would say Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens, and nothing weird would happen. But one time I was actually shooting a photo with "For the Book Ghost of Boston." I was standing in front of the mirror. My back was facing the mirror. And my photographer, Ryan Meiner, was shooting the photo, and he's like seeing a book behind you. And there was breathing on the mirror as if someone was inhaling and exhaling on the mirror. And he was totally shocked. And actually that was the last photo shoot that he and I worked on 'cause he was so scared by what happened. So I do think that there is a lot of energy, a lot of residual energy at the Parker house. Charles Dickens did stay at the Parker house twice. I mean, he loved Boston, he absolutely loved Boston. And the mirror was actually taken from the suite that he stayed at when he was at the Parker house, which is the oldest continuously operated hotel in the country. - You also talk a little bit about Stephen King. (clears throat) - Yeah, so Stephen King, the one of the, I've actually have seen Stephen King in Boston 'cause he loves the Red Sox. So he comes to Boston often, you know, he lives as we know, he lived in Maine. He actually I think is in Florida now. And I, you know, I've been a long time Stephen King fan. When we would tell our tours about the Parker house, there was a whole legend associated with one of the rooms that supposedly was a crime scene where a salesman was either murdered someone or he committed suicide. And there was been reports of a kind of like a nefarious kind of a salesman who supposedly haunts the room on the third floor. Well, being that the investigator that I am, I actually reached out to Stephen King. And I'm like, you know, can you actually confirm whether or not that this story inspired your short story that turned into a movie, "1408." And I reached out to Stephen King. He didn't get back to me, but his assistant did. She was lovely. And she told me that that is a legend that is actually not true. And so he, even though he has stayed at the Parker house and has stayed in Boston often, that story that turned into a movie where John Cusack actually is not based on his personal experiences at the hotel. - I was surprised and gratified in reading this book. You mentioned two people that I actually knew very well when I worked at WBC and worked with a guy named Larry Glick. Someone either called us or sent us a letter about two people that lived in Monroe, Connecticut, that were psychic investigators. And they were Ed and Lorraine Warren. Did you know them or have any experiences with them? - Well, I, first of all, like the names Ed and Lorraine Warren are so important in the paranormal community. So did I know them? No, but I'm really, I'm good friends with their nephew, John Zafis. And I'm friends with a lot of people that they have, that they worked with over their amazing career as demonologist in the community. So I have not met them. I corresponded with Lorraine. I actually feel really connected with Lorraine. She passed recently, but I still felt connected to her because I feel like that my skill set as a clairvoyant is very similar to her skill set. So I do think that you can know people without really have known them. And I know that sounds kind of creepy, but I really feel connected to both Ed and Lorraine Warren, not only by their legacy, but by the people that they knew and interacted with and just their lingering energy associated with many cases that I've worked on. - Can you talk about any of the cases that you both have worked on with Lorraine? - Well, so I am a producer for a TV show called A Haunting. And so I was actually on the 100th episode of A Haunting. I can't really give too many details, but I will say that I, as a producer, I have revisited some cases that Ed and Lorraine worked on as a producer, currently in development. So I can't really give any details, but I will say that I have worked on projects and I've met with people. Another person that I know very well is Andrea Perrin. And actually I can't talk about this because we're just friends. But Andrea Perrin was living in what was called the Conjuring House in Rhode Island. And I interviewed Andrea for my book called Mass Murders. And Andrea was, as a good friend, and she was actually one of the children that were featured in the case, the Perrin family haunting from the 1970s. And then Lorraine famously covered that. In fact, it became the basis for the movie, the first Conjuring movie. - Okay, let's talk about Ouija boards. A lot of people use them, I guess. Are they a good way to contact spirits or have seances? And have you ever participated in any seances that have been successful? - Okay, so I, the TV show that I worked on called The Curse of Lizzie Borden. I was actually on camera talent for that show. The finale of the show actually is a seance. We did not use a Ouija board for the seance, but we did connect with the spirits. I channeled the Liza Borden, who was related to us, not through blood, but through marriage. Her name is the Liza Borden. And she actually murdered her children back in 40 years before the murders. So the murders took place in 1892. And she actually lived right next door to the Borden family, Andrew Borden and Abby Borden. So we had a seance. It actually was great for television. It was very terrifying to be a part of it. My co-lead that I worked with is named Dave Schrader. Dave Schrader started automatic writing and started connecting with the spirits during the seance. My colleague Lou Anjali started again taking over by the negative energy in the room. So I'm in a school that if you're going to use seances, you have to be very, very careful. I do not recommend seances. Ouija boards, I'm very much personally against using spirit boards. I just did it. There's a show that I worked on called "The Haunting," but the episode that I worked on just aired last night called "Interdemons." And they used a spirit board. And every case that I've seen that involves a spirit board turns into something dark. So I'm personally against spirit boards. However, I have seen people use them and use them without issue. But I think that you get a lot of newcomers to the paranormal wanting to connect with spirits and that's what they use. They use a spirit board for communication and it goes dangerously awry really fast. - Now, when you say that, can you give examples of that? - Yeah, so when you look at the cases involving spirit boards, what happens is you're communicating with something. So a lot of times their spirits will present themselves as a child, you're talking to a child, or a loved one is coming through the spirit board. And that's fine, but what if it's actually not your loved one communicating, but something darker, something more sinister trying to communicate through the spirit board? So it's taking the guys of a loved one and you think you were talking to your uncle or your grandfather or your grandmother, but you're actually talking to something negative. So I've seen that happen time and time again. So what you think you're communicating with actually opens a door to another dimension perhaps or to a darker entities that you see on a lot of these television shows. And so I think that it's like a portal. So it can open up something that you don't know how to close. - Are you familiar at all with the ghost of flight 401? Does that run a bell with you at all? - Not really, but can you refresh my memory? I'm sure I may remember. - It's a story about, and it was a true story about an airliner, an Eastern airliner that left New York and crashed in the Everglades in Florida. And supposedly the captain and the co-pilot haunted subsequent Eastern airline flights. And they used a Ouija board with the co-captain's wife and they asked the Ouija board, she asked the Ouija board when they thought they were connected with him what his favorite beer was. And she was the only one that knew the answer. And the Ouija board spelled it out. - Yeah, I mean, the thing is to be able to use a Ouija board, you have to be able to put your hands on it. So I do think a lot of times that, if she was actually touching the plan chat to move it around, maybe she actually was maneuvering it to make it say what she wanted it to say. Not to say that I don't think that people are actually legitimately connecting with spirits because I do, but I am in a school that I don't need spirit boards to communicate with the ghost or with the spirit realm. And some people do. So if they're able to do it successfully, then so be it. But I've seen over and over again, can spirit boards being used? And they open a door to a dark force and a dark force takes them over. So I've seen it more negative and more positive to be honest with you. So you really believe that there are negative forces out there that can be started or communicated with through a Ouija board 'cause I know people that have told me that, but I never believed it. - Absolutely. I mean, getting back to Ed and Lorraine Warren, Ed and Lorraine Warren were very much against spirit boards. And I mean, they were die-hard Catholics. So that makes a lot of sense. You're kind of trained not to open up doors that you can't close. And so Ed and Lorraine Warren were very much like everything that you're talking to through a spirit board was potentially demonic. I'm a little bit more liberal when it comes to, I don't think everything you talk to is demonic, but I do think that darkness does exist. And if you talk to Ed and Lorraine when they were alive, they were very much like, that was their mission in life to say the devil does exist. I don't necessarily know if I believe in sort of the biblical demons that they talked about and they dealt with. I do think that there has been darkness that I've encountered. And if you watch "The Curse of Lizzie" board and the show that I was on, we confronted what I can only say is potentially something really dark. It really was a negative force that we were dealing with. I was almost in over my head on that case. But I've seen it firsthand, whether or not I wanna say that it's actually a demon, I'm not sure I can. But I think that I'm in the school, maybe it's something interdimensional. So it's maybe from another dimension, but I don't know if I necessarily think it's a demon or demonic. - Okay, if somebody decides they want to go to a science, tell me what happens when it starts, how long it starts, what the process is, et cetera, et cetera. - So as someone who has done a couple of seances myself and has led seances, the first thing you wanted you is you wanna gather in a circle and you also all hold hands. You usually have candles on the table in front of you. So you usually have three candles and you also sometimes have a bell to kind of like communicate with the spirits. So when I've done seances before, I don't use spirit boards. Some people do. They wanna use the spirit boards as a form to communicate with the spirits that enter the room. So you start holding hands and then I'm big about protection. So I actually do start off with raising the crystal shield of protection, I call it. And I do sort of like a chant where I imagine a white lighter protection around me and the people around. But we're also opening up to the spirit realm too. So we're kind of, we're putting a shield around us, but we're also asking the spirits that we wanna communicate with to come into the room, but to keep the bad spirits out. So then we will do what is called lifting the veil. When you lift the veil, you lift the veil between the living and the dead and you basically kind of chant, you lift the veil without a doubt, the good spirits and the bad spirits out. And you basically ask the good spirits to come into the room and you say this three times and you say with a lot of passion. Then you hit the table and you start holding hands again and then people in the circle start communicating with spirits. But a lot of times you have to have people that are more on the gifted realm can to be able to communicate with spirits. But I've seen people who are complete skeptics actually get taken over during a seance. So I think it's, again, I think it's very dangerous. I don't recommend it unless you are very knowledgeable in the field of the paranormal field. - I've always heard that midnight is the best time to try anything like that. Is that true or can you do it anytime in the daytime or the evening? - You could do it anytime during the daytime or the evening. If you want to lift the bell between the living and the dead, then you actually see, they call it the witching hour. I think it's more superstition than anything. I've also had more paranormal experiences at three in the morning. I worked the overnight shift at a hotel and actually had a haunted hotel and a conquered mass. And so I think that you have more experiences during, actually at three a.m. for my personal experience than you do at midnight. But they believe that's when the bell between the living and the dead is the most than us. They also believe Halloween is also when the bell between the living and the dead is then as well. But I've done, I've done, I've lifted the bell between the living and the dead during the day as well. So for me personally, it doesn't matter, but it's a lot more spooky at midnight. - Yeah, like I said, I love this stuff, but I've never done anything. I've always been curious about, I mean, I've heard stories of people that have been in cemeteries after midnight and turned on a tape recorder. And when they play the tape back, they could hear voices. Do you know anything about that? - Yeah, so that's called electronic voice phenomenon. And that is when you're investigating a lot of these haunted locations, that is what we actually used for spirit communication. So we'll ask questions like, is there anybody with us here? And you, you can do what is called a burst session. You play the question, you give it some time for the spirit to respond, then you play it back and you can sometimes hear a voice on the recorder. It doesn't have to be a cemetery, it could be a haunted location. But a lot of the shows that I've worked on, that's what we do. So it's, so use it a recorder. I like to use old school tape recorders, but a lot of the kids in the paranormal, they use sort of like the digital tape recorders for the burst session. So I, yeah, so that's definitely something that we do as a paranormal investigators. - Let's talk about the difference between psychic hunters and psychic investigators. What's the difference? - Is it psychic hunters? - Yeah. - Yeah, so I don't really know the difference between, so I always think, it's like there's a show called ghost hunters. And I personally, I never hunt ghosts, ghosts hunt me. So I don't have to hunt ghosts. It's like, they come to me, like they don't, I don't really have to hunt them. But I also think that the word hunting is really kind of, you know, it's disrespectful to the spirits. I mean, these are a lot of the spirits that I deal with were humans that have passed and they don't know that they're dead. So I think it's disrespectful to hunt ghosts. But as someone who identifies as a clairvoyant and also a paranormal investigator, paranormal researcher, I think that definitely like when you interact with spirits, if you show them the respect, they will respect you back. So if you go in with an open heart and you really wanna tell their story and tell their story correctly, they're gonna respond to you. So that's what I try to do. I try to communicate as someone who, you know, connect strongly with those who have been, who have been marginalized by society. So a lot of the spirits that I interact with for my books, like my recent book called "Ghost of the American Revolution," I didn't wanna talk to George Washington or Ben Franklin. Even though I did feature them in my book, I wanted to talk to the others, the ones that were marginalized by history, the ones that African American soldiers who fought during the American Revolution, who fought for their freedom and there were not given their freedom, even though they fought valiantly during the Revolutionary War. For the women, the women who were caught in the line of fire, who lost loved ones during the Civil War, the Revolutionary War. So I wanna give a voice to those who are often forgotten by history. - Now, one of the people that you and I briefly talked about was somebody that I've always been fascinated with and that was Harry Houdini. Now, he spent a lot of time trying to debunk spiritualism, but yet people tried to contact him to get him to try and come back to life. And there's a recording that I have heard of his wife actually trying to do this, and they did it for like 10 years after his death in 1926. Is the interest in spiritualism and that kind of thing, has it increased or decreased over the years? - I think the interest in spiritualism, so spiritualism is a little different than what you see on television now, paranormal investigation. Spiritualism was a movement in the late 1800s, it involves psychics and a lot of, there was a lot of hoaxes involved. I mean, there was a lot of like table tables, like vibrating and the Fox sisters kind of like knocking on the window, knocking on the table for responses. So there was a lot of hoaxes involved with what we know as spiritualism. It doesn't mean what they were doing was an actual spirit communication, but what I have seen though, is sort of the evolving of paranormal or spirit communication since Houdini and a lot of times, a lot of the paranormal investigators actually don't allow psychics in their investigations. So, you know, like I know how to investigate without being a psychic, I can turn it off and go into an investigation as a historian and still use the methodology to be able to communicate with spirits using tools as opposed to my gifts as a clairvoyant. So I think that what the popularity actually is way more now because of pop culture, you look at the Travel Channel, which I'm on a lot, all the shows are paranormal shows. You look at shows like ghost hunters, you look at ghost adventures, you look at the laundry list of paranormal themed shows and now you look at the movies that are out and the popularity of those movies like the Conjuring franchise, everybody's talking about ghosts. And I think that, so the popularity is actually through the roof and you also see that the percentage of people who believe in the paranormal is a lot higher than it was back even 10 years ago, Ken. When I first started writing about the paranormal, I did lectures at the like Boston Public Library and I remember that one of the first group of people that bought my books, like they were really interested in ghosts, like my first book goes to Boston that you read, but they didn't want people to see them with my book. So they asked to put my book in a brown paper bag like it was like ghost porn 10 years ago. And so they basically, they have grown a lot since then and a lot of it's the acceptance and pop culture towards ghosts and towards the paranormal investigators that you see on television. - One of the things that you talk about in here is the Charles Street Jail in Boston. Can you talk about that? - Yeah, so I've written now, I'm up on 15 books. That was my first book. So remembering every little bit, like a little piece to the Charles Street Jail. So I think that Charles Street Jail, is it the jail that now is the Liberty Hotel? - Yes, yes. - Okay, yeah, so the Charles Street Jail was an example of a location that should be haunted, but according to the people that I talked to at the Liberty Hotel that it's not. However, they did have, so there was the Charles Street Jail had a lot of notorious gangsters that stayed there. I know Harry Houdini would also do, he actually was not at the Charles Street Jail, but he would do a lot of his promos at the Salem Jail, for example. So, but Charles Street Jail is not where he was at, but you had the Boston Strangler stayed there, De Salvo, and you had gangsters stay there as well. So it was kind of like the go-to place in Boston for the high profile criminals. And so that was converted to a posh hotel, the Liberty Hotel, and a lot of people that go there, they love it because it has this mobster themed vibe to it, including some of the original bars from the Charles Street Jail, still where you can actually touch them and interact with the jail cells. But what they supposedly did is they had Buddhist monks come in and do a cleansing before they converted it to a hotel, and they say they haven't had any negative paranormal experiences at that location since the cleansing. And I have to disagree, I mean, I've heard multiple stories, but when you have management say that they haven't had any experiences and they want that to be what you put in your book, then you have to go along with it. - All right, is there or have you talked with people that have had verbal communications with ghosts? I know you talk about instances where people be on a tour and someone would take them by the shoulder and give them a shove and they'd look behind him and there was nobody there. But what about verbal communication? Have you ever had any examples of that with people? - Yeah, so I identify as Clairvoyant. So Clairvoyant actually is where you use, so it's to, you see spirits and you, sometimes you see it in your mind's eyes, sometimes you see it out in the, you know, actually see them physically manifest, the only difference is they don't have feet. There's some people what are known in the Clair family, known as Clair Audient, and they can actually hear spirits communicate to them and talk to them. And sometimes they're actual, like there weren't, like they have full sentences. So you can hear the spirits say, "Oh, they're saying this." Like, "Hi, Sam, are welcome," which is what I experienced at the Ami Parker house when I walked in. I heard the word welcome when I walked in. Sometimes you hear tones and the tones are sometimes high-pitched tones, which I'm actually getting right now, Ken talking to you. So it's a high-pitched tone. Usually it's in your right ear and you'll base, like it's a form of higher, like you could say maybe angels or spirits trying to communicate with you and they'll communicate in a higher-pitched tone. And trying to figure out what they're trying to say is the mystery as someone that, you know, even as a clairvoyant, I'll get messages, visual messages, but I'm not really sure what they're trying to communicate to me. - What's the most terrifying thing that has happened to you other than your grandfather, if any? - Well, I've had a lot of terrifying experiences. If you follow my career, it's like one terrifying experience after another. But I mean, it's not like I've been looking for a Ken. I mean, a lot of, when I started writing my first books, goes to Boston and goes to Cambridge and then goes to Salem, I was very much on the, not involved with the investigations. I would talk to people who actually investigated. So I was kind of chicken, I guess, like the paranormal chicken that, so I was afraid to kind of go and actually communicate with spirits. But then I started, people want to mean it to like, well, what are your experiences? And I'm like, you know, I'm scared. So that started off, and I started actually immersing myself at the location and actually turning my recorder from people to the ghosts and actually asking ghost questions and actually they responded. But then things started getting darker for me. The more and more I went in that realm, the darker they got, I had, I worked on the US to Salem and Quincy Mass for about a month and a half. And I saw so much, it wasn't, I was terrified for other people on my crew getting attacked by an unseen force. So it's been, I'm not really worried about me personally. I know how to protect myself. I'm worried about people who are novices and the paranormal who may be with me getting attacked and me witnessing them getting attacked. So to me, that's the most terrifying. Seeing the helplessness of loved ones, like my, I've had female friends who I've been with, who I see get scratched or being chased off the US to Salem which happened when my friend Colleen. So it's more about seeing that and being helpless and not being able to help them 'cause it's an unseen force. - All right, when you say you protect yourself, what do you mean by that and what does one have to do? - Well, I've learned to do a whole ritual of protection because because of seeing what happens to other people. So I do a crystal shield of protection and it's kind of like a chant. I do, I basically raise a crystal shield and I do a chill, ura shokrio, ura shokrio, ura shokrio, shakare, shakare, shakare, sahiki, sahiki, sahiki, protection, protection, protection. And then I do zonar, zonar, zonar, and I send it out around me. So create a bubble around me. But what that does, it doesn't block out all spirits. It allows the good spirits to come in and the bad ones to stay out. So I do that on the field. I do palisanto. I have selenite harmonizers that I use. They're actually really large crystals that I use to help build a crystal shield. So actually every time I go to a haunted location, I raise a crystal shield. My problems have been when I haven't done that and see, I'm at, like I had a situation where I was being filmed for a TV show. I was in Salem and actually got attacked while I was filming. And I started channeling something and I didn't want to channel. It was actually talking about the history of Salem and not the ghost. And watching that, like not protecting myself and knowing that I should have protected myself before doing that. So I suggest, I basically try my best to protect myself every time I go to a location with the crystal shield of protection, with the white light of protection, with the palisanto and with working with a shaman. If I ever get anything attached to me, which I have, I have a friend, Michael Robishaw, who's a shaman who will remove the negative energy from me. - I used to listen to a gentleman named Art Linkletter and he used to have a radio show called Art Linkletter's House Party. And he had somebody on the air once who told a story about being in a supermarket and her eyes were drawn to this woman and she followed this woman. She whatever had this compulsion to follow her and all of a sudden the woman disappeared into thin air. And this lady went home and told her mother about it and she said, "You've just described your great grandmother "when you have never seen before or met. "You ever heard any stories like that?" - Yeah, my whole life. I mean, like that's like the story of my life. I definitely have experience and heard multiple stories of people seeing their loved ones. Sometimes a lot of times I think that loved ones, especially, are wary of coming through because they know that they will scare people. So the idea that she saw her grandmother at a store and she was following her is kind of similar. I think that maybe they will show you what you can handle. And I know for me, 'cause I was so scared, once my grandfather kind of revealed himself to me, I know he was been with me for most of my life. He's my spirit guide now, but I was afraid. So he's not going to freak me out 'cause he loves me. So I think that the spirit, a lot of times you'll hear people talk about dreams and dream communication with their loved ones. And that's because they can handle it in their dreams. They're less terrified when they're in their dream state. But actually seeing something when you're in a store or in a location that does it, it's not threatening. It's definitely something that a loved one would do versus something more negative. - How about psychic photographs? Do you know about those or had experience with any of that where you take a picture somewhere and the relative of, I don't know exactly how it works, but I've heard of it. Do you know about that? - Yeah, so that was a hoax that happened in the 1800s. His name was Mumbler. He would actually take pictures of, and that's during the spiritualism movement as well, where he, and he actually was Boston based too, but he would take a picture of a loved one and there would be the spirit of their loved one next to them. The famous one of course is Lincoln and his wife. She was actually sitting there and then you can see the ghost, the Lincoln behind her. So yeah, I mean, I think that that spirit photographs from the 1800s actually did set, probably influenced people like Harry Houdini to be skeptical of psychics and of the spiritualism movement. And I'm definitely cautious of it too. I mean, with someone, like that's blatantly a hoax. However, it did give peace to people and it did kind of serve, it made Mary Todd Lincoln, it made her happy. So I don't know, so I do know about the spirit photographs, I know that they are definitely 100% of hoax. - Have you spent time in haunted cemeteries after midnight and had any experiences? - So I'm kind of a chicken, Ken, so I really am. I mean, everyone's like, did you do this? I don't hunt, I kind of accidentally fall into really, really kind of crazy situations. I actually wrote a book called "13 Most Haunted Cemeteries and New England." So I did go to some of the most haunted cemeteries for that book, but I also, I have gone in the cemeteries after midnight because I'm being called out there. Concord, Massachusetts is a perfect example of me being called out to a cemetery. It's actually, so there's a cemetery in Concord, but there's the North Bridge that I was called to. I actually had an experience at North Bridge, which is where the Battle of Concord, in Lexington took place during the American Revolution and a lot of stuff happened there. And it actually led to me writing my book goes to the American Revolution. So yes, I have spent late nights and cemeteries, but it's not because I'm looking for something, it's because I'm being called there. - One of the things you talk about in this book that I read, which is really scary, are elevators that will go to a floor where they're supposedly like in the Omni house or the Parker house, Charles Dickens used to stay on the third floor and elevators will go there or go past there and people are not allowed to get on the elevators. - Yeah, so some locations and I did talk a lot about elevators in my book and I'm scared that elevators too can like like elevators. I've never had a ghostly encounter in an elevator, but I have been stuck in an elevator and like that to me is like my greatest fear is to be stuck in an elevator. But yeah, like there's been a lots of reports of elevators having a mind of their own. I actually had a situation in CELOM. So I do work overnight at hotels and I was working at an overnight hotel in CELOM. That supposedly was not haunted, but I saw what looked like a black cloud or black smoke go into the elevator and then go, to kind of take an elevator ride down to the basement. Now the weird thing is to be able to go down to the basement, you have to have a special code. So I don't know how this black cloud or black smoke got into the elevator, it opens up and then it takes the elevator ride down to the basement when there's no way to get down to the basement unless you hit a special code. So I've seen weird stuff with elevators. I know when I was giving my tours at the Parker house that we would always say Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens, Charles Dickens. And then the elevator would mysteriously open right when I would say Charles Dickens the third time. And we were like all freak out. 'Cause it would open up right when we would say Charles Dickens three times. So yeah, I mean, I've seen weird things happen. I've seen, I definitely have experienced creepy elevator rides and where you know that there may be something else in the elevator with you while you're going to upper floors. And also just being scared of elevators, period. I just, I'd rather take the stairs. - No, I've never been afraid of elevators. Although after I read this book, it does feel a little weird the next time I get into an elevator. Only been stuck in one once or twice at City Hall in Boston, but luckily it wasn't for a very, it wasn't for a very long time. Now, again, when I worked with Larry Glick, one of the people that we used to talk to a great deal was Edward Rose Snow. And he wrote a book called Ghosts, Gales, and Gold. Are you familiar with that or did you know Snow at all? - Yeah, so Edward Rose Snow is another person that I look, majorly look up to. I never met Hemi actually pass before I started writing my books. But I also felt like because I've given tours in Boston Harbor, so a lot of his legacy still lingers within my books. And so I have a lot of his books that have been signed by him that I've gotten through like eBay or through friends giving me signed copies of his books. But yeah, he to me single-handedly saved the tourism industry in Boston Harbor. He unfortunately, a lot of people are gonna get up and stop me saying this, but he created the ghost, the Lady in Black on George's Island. But there was reports for many years before Edward Rose Snow talked about the Lady in Black and kind of giving her a whole backstory, Melanie Lanier. But there were reports of what looked like a black mask on George's Island in Fort Warren before that. So he didn't kind of pull it out of thin air, but he did create a whole character that turned into kind of like a tourist attraction. And then it's single-handedly saved Boston Harbor, going all the tours going to George's Island to see the Lady in Black. - I have never been to the Salem Witch Museum. Have you been there and what would you be in for if you went? - So I actually worked shortly at the Salem Witch Museum. I think a lot of, there's a lot of stuff in Salem that has been around for many, many, many years and kind of needs an update. It's like, you have a lot of stuff that's been around since like the '60s and the '70s. I will give the Salem Witch Museum is a really great spot for people who have never been to Salem and they want sort of the tourist experience in Salem. Go to the Salem Witch Museum. They do a really great job factually telling what happened in 1692 when 20 innocent men and women were accused and executed for witchcraft. So if you want to know the basics about the Salem Witch Trials then go to the museum. I will say that some of the wax figures are a little hokey in the recreation, but they're historically accurate. So I think that that's definitely something that I support. - Did you ever know a lady, at least when I came to Boston, who was very famous, Lori Cabot? - Yeah, so basically I interviewed Lori Cabot, who was the official witch of Salem a few years ago for my book Wicked Salem and she definitely was the highlight of my career talking to her. And while we were talking, she doesn't actually believe in ghosts, but she, while we were talking, we actually heard what sounded like knocking on the wall and she was like, oh, that's just my Cornish knockers. Apparently she believes in fairies, but she doesn't believe in ghosts. So all this really bizarre things happened while we were talking and it just was a magical interview. - So she's still alive and well? - She's still alive and well. I know that when I interviewed her, she was smart as a whip. A lot of people were saying, oh, Lori's sick and Lori's, look, she was, I mean, she of course is, she's older. So she definitely had to come to her and to her office, but she was smart as a whip. I will say that, and this was only a few years ago. - Did she ever talk about or believe in literally being able to cast spells? Somebody asked her to do that? - She's very much in her, she to me has been an advocate for the wicking community her whole life. I mean, she basically has fought the stereotypes of the witch on broom stereotype and silhouettes and the kind of like the witches that you see in movies like Wizard of Oz and, you know, throughout pop culture. So she's really big about dispelling the myths and misconceptions associated with witchcraft. But however, she does do spells. So yeah, she could, she does spells, but she doesn't, we talked about cursing. Like does she actually curse anyone? And she's a, her whole philosophy as a witch and as someone who is a high priestess and has actually trained hundreds of people in her tradition is that everything that you put out comes back to you three times. So you will never curse anyone because that will come back to you three times and you don't want to be cursed three times. So she's like, what kind of, she believes in karma. It's like, don't what goes around comes around. So you don't, you actually do spells to help people not to hurt people. - One other thing I'd like to ask you about that we had a brief discussion of a week or so ago and we tried to put this thing together, was and is the Amityville Horror. - Yeah, so the Amityville Horror case is the iconic case and actually was one of the first cases that I remember reading about and watching television and hearing the case when I was a young child. But yeah, Amityville Horror is famous because of the movie, because of the book, because of the time it came out, it was during the era of what we call Satanic Panic. And also the fact that Ed and Lorraine Warren worked on that case as well as Hans Holzer, who's another one of my idols in the paranormal field. So it's a case that evolved, there was the murder of the Defeos happened at that house. And one year later, the Lutz family moves in. They supposedly experienced all sorts of insanely crazy things in the house and then they flee the house in terror and Lorraine Warren come and they validate what they picked up, including seeing, capturing a photo of what looks like a little zombie kid, which oddly looked a lot like one of the boys from the Defeo family that were murdered in the house. So I do think that when you have something as horrific as a son killing his entire family is gonna leave a psychic imprint at the house. So I do think that there is lingering energy at the house. Do I think it was as intense or demonic as it's portrayed in the movies? I don't, I don't think it was that bad, but I wasn't there. So I can't judge, I will say that I trust Lorraine Warren and I trust what she picked up and I trust that she picked up something negative. - All right, is there a way that people who might be interested can contact you? Do you have a website that you could give out? - Yeah, so can I have a website called sandballtruces.com as S-A-M-B-A-L-T-R-U-S-I-S.com? You can also go to Amazon and you type in my name and I have up to 15 books available. My goal is to have, and also, Ken, this is something really important to me for the side impair community to have more of my audio books available for that community because I think it's important for access for everyone. - All right, listen, I have thoroughly enjoyed this. I don't know about anybody else's listening, but my hair can stand up on end listening to some of these stories. This is very fascinating. You are a fascinating individual. And I thank you so much for giving of your time and patience and discussing stuff that is kind of weird. - Well, Ken, it was a pleasure talking to you. And again, it was an honor to be on your show. I know your whole backstory and your history as a radio announcer, so I definitely have a lot of respect for you. - Well, I appreciate that. And that goes double for me. Anybody that can deal with the stuff that we talked about and still be able to live a normal life, my God, congratulations to you, sir. I really admire anyone. I don't think I've ever talked with anybody as closely connected other than Ed and Lorraine Warren with the paranormal as you. - Actually, I did. The guy who wrote the book that goes to flight 401 was won a pilot named John Fuller. And so I did talk with him about that book. So I have talked with other people, but I'll tell you that book is very scary. If you want a good book, I would grab that and read that. - Well, it sounds good. And now I'm going to read it. - Thank you again, Sam. I appreciate it. That will do it for this edition of City Talk. - Thanks for listening to another great conversation with Ken Meyer and friends. You can contact Ken by email. He addresses KJMyers7@gmail.com. That's KJ-M-E-Y-E-R7@gmail.com. Tune in next time for more conversation with Ken Meyer on City Talk. (upbeat music)