Jasmine Lady

The story goes that a lady once frequented the Mineral Springs Hotel to 'get it on' with her lover. One day her husband followed her and caught her with said lover and confronted her. He fought with her and pushed her down the stairs of the hotel killing her, where her spirit still remains. She is called the Jasmine Lady because the scent of jasmine is in the air of the hotel a lot, esp. after sightings, sounds and unexplained happenings.
This picture is in the room where her and her lover last stayed and she was confronted by her husband.
Note the orb on the hood of my co-workers jacket. She smelled jasmine all evening.

BAAAD MOJO

SO, We went further down the tunnels into this room that is now I guess just used as a storage room for the people that live in the apartments. As I stood inside the door way I felt my lips and left side of my face tingle. I just thought it was from the hike we had taken up the hill four blocks and then around the building, down the steps and maybe the lack of O2??? Well, the girl standing next to me was from the "Paranormal Society" of Chicago and she says "Wow, "THEY" are really strong down here, my whole left side is tingling." GULP. I didn't say a word. I just stepped a couple of steps away from her and a little closer to the door.
I had my Dad's digital camera to take all of these camera. I took a picture of this room (which was very dark-only could really see with flashlights) as I was trying to review this picture my camera went off. I thought I hit a wrong button because I don't know this camera very well. But, paranormal girl says "Did "THEY" just zap your camera?" HUH?!@#! At that exact moment her very, very large flashlight went out. SOOOO, our tour guide then suggests that we move along a little quicker because apparently the spirits here don't like the fact that we have disrupted them and if we have cell phones or anything battery operated we should turn them off because "IT/THEY" were taking all the power. He did NOT have to tell me twice because as he was saying this and I was trying to get my camera back on to view the picture. My hand that was holding the camera was shaking. So, I took it as a good sign that I needed to get my big ole ass out of "IT'S" domain.
Back outside everyone's phones, flashlights, and my camera came back to life. The battery was drained and I had to put new batteries in it.
The real kicker.........no picture. It is not on the memory card. The first group that went in got pictures!

Haunted Tour Part 2

So, next we went up the hill towards this beautiful mansion that was turned into a TB asylum at some point. As, we stand outside he tells us that a little girl was also brought here to live because she was being abused by her family and she died here at a young age but she was very happy here because she led such a happy life being here rather than with her abusive family, how sad!
He explained to us at this time about the whole idea that spirits/ghosts are mostly believed to come from the point when a person dies and your soul leaves your body and your guardian angel/spirit guide/what ever you believe/ comes to take you to the other side "misses" and the two of you don't meet. Therefore, the spirit ( I will call it) is left to roam around. It is left the age at which it dies and it wants us to know it is still around. That is why some people are able to see them, smell them, feel them, or hear them. (sometime all 4) The majority of spirits are harmless and just pull "pranks" to let you know they are with you.
O.K. Got a little off track there but I got a whole new perspective on spirits that night and am totally enthralled, except when he brought up the fact that when we were about to go into the basement of the old mansion/TB asylum that there was also a cat spirit in there and that people were know to have heard it and that don't be surprised if you felt something rub up against your leg. This brought a loud "OH, HELL NO! " out of big ass mouth. But of course I went on in.
Under the mansion/TB asylum are also tunnels once thought to be used for the underground railroad. LOTS of orbs down there
AND SOME BAD MOJO............
(note that all the pictures taken in the tunnels are taken in the dark and the orb ont the space heater is there on the way into the tunnel but not on the way out---if you can click on the pictures and make them bigger the orbs appear better--same with last post--you can really see the mist above the fence on the last picture if you enlarge it)

Haunted Tour Part 1

This last Sat. I got to got on a haunted tour of Alton IL. It is one of the most haunted cities in the U.S. One of the ladies I work with lives in Alton and runs a tour on the weekends. Her web site is www.mineralspringshauntedtours.com Anyway we had a beautiful clear night. It started at 7:30 with dinner and a lecture of some of the history of Alton. First let me back up because one of the girls went downstairs to use the bathroom (alone) and came back and said there was a really bad smell and to be careful because the exhaust fan could suck you up alive! So, when the tour guide was done talking he brought out some crushed jasmine for us to smell. The girl who had gone down to the bathroom said "That is the smell I smelled on my way out of the bathroom, but there was something awful before it, I thought you had pot pouri in there" He said "No, she's already here." And so he told us the beginning of the story of the Jasmine lady. Her spirits lives at the Mineral springs mall now. It was once a thriving hotel where she and her lover would come. Her husband followed her one weekend and found out about them and pushed her down the staircase where she died. She followed us around the hotel ALL night. I smelled her myself. (more later)
My first pictures were in the dining room, random shots, a few orbs here and their. I really didn't see them that night when I reviewed them.
Then we went outside to start the tour. We went down Main street and our tour guide told us about some of the (now antique shops) places along the way that are said to have spirits inside. Things happen like merchandise is moved around at night, computer are on in the morning, etc. We went across the street towards a beautiful mansion that had been turned into a TB asylum. This is where I took a picture and saw my first orbs and mist.