Season of Shadows Blog

The title for today’s entry reminds me of a spooky spot I’d love to visit somewhere in the deepest, darkest of woods. However, Autumnforest isn’t a location you can go to physically, but instead, she’s a person who’s created the virtual equivalent of that spooky spot amidst the woodlands. Comprised of all the things I hold dear: Halloween, the paranormal, and the creepy; Autumnforest’s Ghost Hunting Theories is a fantastic blog for Halloween buffs, horror fans and supernatural aficionados alike. While I could write a lengthy entry describing her knack for crafting amazing tales of horror, or talk about her mind-opening theories that shatter antiquated concepts regarding the paranormal; in this post, I’m focusing on her ’09 Halloween haunt/party.

Being a fellow inhabitant of the Southwest, Autumnforest knows just how challenging it is to transform desert landscape into autumnal scenery. Capturing the more commonly associated feelings of fall and Halloween, amidst cactus and rocks, isn’t always easily accomplished, yet she manages to pull it off without a hitch and is a great hostess to boot! I’m busy enough tending to my yard haunt on Halloween night, but she manages to find time for decorating the yard, taking care of trick-or-treaters and entertaining party guests. I wonder if she’d like to bring her talents to New Mexico on October 31st? I could always use an extra hand.

In all seriousness, her haunt has a lot of great elements — the graveyard scene and haunted doll room being two of my favorites. I know she has plans to expand even more for Halloween 2010 on the scary doll stuff and I can’t wait to see exactly what she has up her sleeve.

Whatever you do, whether you’re in the mood for Halloween, horror or theories on the supernatural, you gotta swing by Ghost Hunting Theories. It’s indeed the virtual equivalent of that sweet, spooky spot way back there in the forest.

Borrowed from the book and movie, Pay It Forward, Ghosting It Forward embraces the concept of doing a good deed for at least three people, and then asking them to do the same — all via a Halloween theme. The purpose of Ghosting It Forward is to generate positive, random acts of kindness for friends, family members or even total strangers during the month of October. It’s called “ghosting” because of Halloween and the kind act is meant to be anonymous, sort of like a ghost.

Here’s an example of “ghosting” in action, taken from the Ghosting It Forward website:

“What a fun time we had ghosting the neighborhood! I filled three pumpkin buckets with candles, a Halloween potholder, a Halloween dish towel and candies. Sherilyn filled her three bags with assorted goodies. Sherilyn and I decided to go ghosting together, along with our kids and my husband, [who] drove the getaway van.

“We stopped close to the driveway, while the kids ran to the house and rang the doorbell. We laughed so hard as the kids scampered back to the van, sometimes losing shoes, tripping, or screaming at the barking dogs. It felt like a night of trick-or-treating in reverse mode!

“I am hoping this will inspire others to take time out of their busy schedule and have as much fun as we did!”

Personally, I love this idea, as I try to make performing small, random acts of kindness a regular thing throughout the year anyway. I usually receive a lot of odd looks while performing most kind acts, but then again I’m already accustomed to getting odd looks. However, Ghosting It Forward has inspired me to take it new a whole new level, especially this coming October.

Here’s a vid from YT user, KNecromancer explaining Ghosting It Forward and why she participates:

For full details on the ghosting project, be sure and checkout ghostingitforward.org.