Someone in a "paranormal research" group I belong told me that the segment of Orianna Street below South is haunted. He said there was a massacre of Native Americans there and one of them put a curse on the spot. Further, he said psychics avoid it because one can be "spirited away" to Colonial times if one is there between the hours of about 10:30pm and 2am.

So I mentioned this place to some friends a few weeks ago to see if anyone wanted to go there with me. One did so, and as we approached it he told me he sometimes is psychically sensitive, but only in the company of others who have psychic ability. Out of a sense of ethical obligation, I told him about the possibility of disappearing into the pre-Revolutionary past there, but not about the massacre.

When we got to the middle of the street, he closed his eyes and walked up and down it some distance to see what he would "see" with his eyes closed. He said he saw what looked like human figures in Colonial garb, walking around oblivious to us. He speculated that they weren't ghosts, but people of a different period that was visible to him there. I saw nothing out of the ordinary, with eyes either open or closed.

After we'd left this street, we found a place to sit down and tried some thought sending on each other. I wasn't impressed with the results, but he thought I had definite psychic ability.

Only after this exercise did I tell him about the massacre at the spot we had visited. I pointed out that what he'd thought he'd seen -- people in period (European-American) dress, but no massacre or Native people -- was consistent with what I'd told him before our visit there, but not with the lore of that place in its entirety. Notwithstanding this, he continued to speculate that he was sensitive to seeing other time periods that evening.

It's worth noting here the oft-cited finding that people who say they've had psychic experiences or abilities are usually found to have more "fantasy-prone" personalities than those who don't. I must confess, however, that I don't know the criteria used to characterize someone as fantasy-prone in the first place.

Eric Hamell
Gondwanaland -- http://stripey7.blogspot.com

there wasn't a massacre there and that's why your psychic friend didn't see anything.

One thing I find interesting about the massacre story is the cursing. I'm not sure that is consistent with Native American culture. Native Americans are largely Shamanic so they had one individual to perform such tasks as communing with the spirit world. I'm not sure if cursing is part of his job.

Bruce

Even so, it's noteworthy how well what he "saw" corresponded to what I had already told him -- that there was allegedly a time portal there. Hence he "saw" living people rather than ghosts, and saw them in European-American garb because I'd mentioned "Colonial" times but not mentioned Native people. And even if there'd been no curse, if there'd been a massacre a paranormalist would expect that to leave an imprint.