New England vampires, White House hauntings are prominent in Jeff Belangers Halloween virtual events, but he – MassLive.com

Jeff Belanger spends all year researching and telling stories of ghosts, vampires and witches. But his stories arent just to scare listeners.

I believe in my heart of hearts that these legends will save the world, Belanger said.

Belanger, author and paranormal investigator, is telling these stories through virtual events in Massachusetts this month. Currently, he said, theres a lot of interest in vampires and the White House.

One of the stories Im telling a lot this fall is stories of New England vampires, he said. And theres several prominent stories, probably Mercy Brown of Rhode Island is the most famous.

Vampires, he said, are often said to came around during times of plague, something that has been on peoples minds during the coronavirus pandemic.

When medical science didnt have a good answer for you, when your religion didnt have a good answer for you, folklore always has an answer, he said. Its incredible the parallels that we can look at between then and now.

New England legends has also created an app to help people find these spooky sites near them or to take a fun social distanced road trip. The app includes a map with information and a podcast about each haunted site. Belanger hopes people use the map to go to some of these places and enjoy the podcast in the car while there.

You dont have to believe in ghosts to be haunted by these stories either.

The real reason we continue to tell the story of Lizzie Borden isnt because everyone believes the location is filled with ghosts, he said.

Two people were murdered in that house. No one was ever convicted or punished for the crime, he said. We do not like people getting away with murder in our state, town, city, region, country, whatever. We dont like it. It haunts us. And we know it could happen again.

So, we allow these ghosts from the past to haunt us, because these are issues that we still worry about, we still think about, he said.

Belanger grew up near Ed and Lorraine Warren, known for The Conjuring, in Connecticut. Hes always found these stories interesting. But with the pandemic he needed to find a new way of sharing them.

Now hes telling them through virtual events on Zoom and through his app and podcast.

In fact, because things have gone virtual due to the pandemic, he said hes able to reach more people than ever before.

Theres people that just cant get to some of the venues and now I feel like Im reaching more people than ever, he said.

Typically he has the same or similar talks at various locations throughout the season. But because the events are virtual, people are attending more than one. So, hes had to adapt to make sure hes telling different stories each time.

But dont worry, he said, theres plenty of legends. And hes always finding more.

During in person events, its common for him to turn the floor over to an attendee to talk about their experiences with the supernatural. Sometimes he even writes down tips from those stories to chase later. But Zoom makes that part of the talk difficult.

Instead, he encourages people to share their stories on another of his websites called GhostVillage.com.

I usually recommend if you want to get it off your chest, just write it up and well just publish it, Belanger said. And theres this sort of like relief that comes in like, Alright, I said it. Its out there. Other people have had the experience too, and I can sort of deal with that better now.

Although, this is a busy time of year for Belanger. He said the scary stories that surround Halloween have nothing on Christmas.

Halloween, he explained, is the time when the veil is thin between the living and the dead. Typically that just involves ghosts meddling in our affairs, he said. But Christmas monsters can kill you, Belanger said.

Like you could die from the monsters and folklore that surround yule and Christmas, he said, talking of Krampus, Belsnickel and the Yule Lads. Dear Lord, stay inside. You are not safe at Christmas.

In the end though, theyre all the key to understanding our world, he said.

Theyre a glimpse into who we were and who we are and who we will probably become, Belanger said. Because when you talk about ghosts, what youre really asking is, Is there life after death? And when you talk about aliens, what youre really saying is, Are we alone in the universe? And when you talk about Bigfoot, and lake monsters and things like that, youre really asking, Do we know every creature that walks the earth with us? These are the big ones. Those are the big questions humans have asked for thousands upon thousands of years."

You can tune in to one of Belangers events through various public libraries in the commonwealth this month. Or download the app and enjoy your own ghost hunt.

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New England vampires, White House hauntings are prominent in Jeff Belangers Halloween virtual events, but he - MassLive.com

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