Ghostly goodbye!

I have enjoyed writing about ghosts and sharing stories to online readers. I hoped that I have sparked an interest about ghosts into the curious minds of students at Sweet Briar. If you haven’t learned or become fascinated with ghosts after reading this blog, then I hope you remember one thing: that ghosts are everywhere, be weary, and maybe they’ll spook you just as they have spooked me!

Friends share their spooky stories

Many of my friends have had spooky experiences here at Sweet Briar, and Daisy seems to be the main culprit of these creepy happenings. Her spirit lurks everywhere from Meta Glass to Benedict. The following are personal accounts from students who have had encounters with Daisy. Beware…this may frighten you!

Ann Dowdy:
“One day in my Spanish class I had my first encounter with Daisy. The door on the front side of Benedict in our classroom flew open and you could feel movement come from one side of the room to the next. All of a sudden the classroom door flew open and then closed immediately. Daisy evidently was passing through our class. Also, randomly when I am in my room our blinds flutter up and down. It is so scary, but Daisy is obviously sending messages with her random visits. Jeeze, she sure is scary.”

Gravesites on Campus

Sweet Briar’s campus is home to many gravesites. The Monument Hill gravesite, named by Elijah Fletcher, is the most recognizable gravesite on campus. In the late 19th century this cemetery was known as “Woodruffs’ mound” (named after the previous landowner at the time). Along with the previous landowners, the Woodruff’s, the Fletcher family is also buried. If you hold Sweet Briar very close to your heart, you as a member of the Sweet Briar community can also be buried on the hill in a Cinerarium.
Another gravesite on campus is the “Oak Tree Plantation Cemetery.” The school is uncertain who is buried in this particular cemetery, but they believe that it was most likely a cemetery for enslaved field- hands that worked for the Fletchers.

Lynn Rainville, a professor at Sweet Briar has done many field studies and research regarding this particular cemetery. Her website features pictures of the featured gravesites at Sweet Briar, along with a brief history of slave cemeteries during the ante- bellum period.
“Slave Cemetery during the ante- bellum period, enslaved African Americans were often buried on plantations, commemorated by un- inscribed locally available fieldstones. The largest slave cemetery at Sweet Briar, the Sweet Briar Plantation Burial Ground, contains over 50 gravestones. These stones mark the final resting place of several dozen individuals. Efforts are on- going to preserve and protect this sacred site.”

Above is a sketch of the Slave Cemetery. You as a Sweet Briar student should take this opportunity to venture out and explore this fascinating burial ground.

How to hold a séance

I am not going to lie. Séances are very scary, and hard to pull off. Full concentration and a calm state of mind are needed. If you are interested in performing one, Sweet Briar has a handful of locations that would be ideal for holding a séance. There is living history. Whether it be the slave cemetery, the President’s house, Monument Hill, a dorm room, or anywhere on the property, someone had previously lived, played or maybe even died there.
Below are directions and tips on how to hold a successful séance.

How To:
There are three main factors that are necessary for a successful séance.
1. purpose
2. quality of the sitters
3. location

There must be a conducting medium. This is the person who presides over the séance. They must have already had experience in conducting séances. However a séance can still be performed even if no one has had experience, the outcome might not be as successful. The mediums job is to keep order and control throughout the entire séance.

Purpose:
The purpose for the séance must be decided before the meeting. All of the sitters must have the same thought in their minds of who they are trying to reach in the spirit world. You must rid your mind of all other thoughts and distractions. The most important thing is that you must maintain a “single energy”.

The sitters:
All sitters must want to participate. They must have the desire to want to be at the séance.
Silly people who giggle a lot are not good sitters, they must be positive and uplifting people. The sitters must also not “be grasping and groping for the connection, but rather, subjective and patient for whatever comes.” Love is also a key feature to a successful séance, there must be no hatred within the group.

Location:
There are two best types of location.
1. In a neutral location, free from outside disturbances, noises and interference.
2. In a location that has purpose. For example in the house of a deceased family member that you are trying to reach

The format of the Séance:
1. Everyone should be sitting in a close circle holding hands. The lights should be low, but not turned all the way off.
2. Playing some soft music in the background helps to relax participants. While the music is playing the medium should remind “all present that the love vibration carries communication and to invoke it now.” The medium should then read the purpose of a séance aloud.
3. Participants should be told that they do not have to accept any message or information that frightens them or is silly.
4. Allow 20 to 30 minutes for all participants to relax and think about loving remembrance. The medium then tells them aloud to open their eyes.
5. After a couple of minutes all participants should be alert. The medium should start anywhere in the circle and encourage everyone to share their experiences. “What you are looking for are profound information that has evidence of a connection within it. Look for duplicate messages, visions or feelings which are confirmations of a connection with a spirit.”

One thing you must remember is that you cannot expect a voice to suddenly speak to you. Relax, and wait for the spirits that want to communicate.

( this information is from www.newagedirectory.com/sixth/séance.htm)

Spookily yours, Anne Porter

Daisy and Indiana Fletcher

Being a student at Sweet Briar gives you the chance to experience and bring back spirits who once roamed this property. Many ghosts frequent Sweet Briar, Daisy and her mother Indiana Fletcher, are the two most commonly seen ghosts on campus.
There have been multiple documented sightings of both.
Many of the sightings have occurred in the extra bedrooms at the Sweet Briar house. Reportedly many years ago some faculty members resided in some of these extra rooms and frequently reported seeing and experiencing “visits” from both Daisy and Indiana.
One night in particular a faculty member was sitting in the west parlor of the plantation. While sitting in the parlor the faculty member said that the overhead chandelier began to turn on and off. She was reading using a floor lamp and had never turned on the chandelier. Over a dozen times the chandelier kept turning on and then immediately off. Aware of Daisy’s frequent hauntings the instructor immediately said “Daisy, stop playing with the lights!” The activity stopped immediately. The eerie thing about this story is that Daisy was known to have been a very obedient child.
This spooky story is one of many ghostly experiences documented. Now it is your turn to creep around and experience a spooky occurrence of your own.

Spookily yours, Anne Porter

Séance on Monument Hill

I am not the only girl at Sweet Briar that gets spooked by the ghosts meandering around campus. All my friends have had at least one situation where they have been too scared to get out of bed to run to the bathroom-- freaked out that Daisy or some other sketchy spirit would grab their ankles as they jumped out of bed. Our first encounter with a ghost was in the fall of last year. My friends and I decided to go "ghost hunting". Being avid ghost enthusiasts we research online how to properly communicate with the spirit world. We took the literal route, bringing exactly what this online site told us to bring along for a successful séance. The following was a list of items packed for our adventure:
1. Ouija Board
2. Candles
3. A printed off “how to” pamphlet on séances, which included a mantra to read out loud that would let the spirits know that we wanted to contact them
We were preparing for the ultimate séance.
It was around 9 pm on a random weeknight. Walking up to monument hill was one of the most nerve racking and seriously freakish experiences. We all walked as fast as we could, staying close to each other. When we reached the gravesite we all began to hush each other, making sure the security officers wouldn’t see our flashlights. After a blanket was laid down, the preparation for the ghoul fest began. Sitting in a tight circle around the Ouija board lit only by candlelight, the four of us held hands and listened to Melanie recite out the pamphlet. The pamphlet read something like this: make sure to take deep breaths and calm your thoughts…clear your mind and be open for spirits to enter. Giggles were rampant for the first couple minutes. Skeptical that we would ever be able to concentrate, let alone call a ghost, became a possibility. Finally Melanie took charge and began to recite the mantra, and thus began our séance.
To intensify and truly illustrate our spooky experience I interviewed Alexis Parker. Below is her account of the séance.
"I started having verbal diarrhea and I felt like I was really drunk or something...It was weird. There was a really weird glow coming up towards us so we all screamed and ran like hell away from the Ouija board and candles. We were all laughing pretty hard thinking how ridiculous this was until we got back to the Ouija board and the candles had been blown out...That was probably when I started believing in ghosts around here."
Alexis' experience was a bit intense, and perhaps the “weird glow coming towards us” was a exaggeration. However what happened at Monument Hill that night was frightening. Lets just say that there are ghosts around here, and they love to make themselves known.

Spookily yours, Anne

Welcome...and BEWARE!

Little of the College's Campus has changed since the days when the Williams and Fletcher families inhabited the beautiful landscape of Sweet Briar. Buildings have been built and students now occupy their old plantation. However the spirits of the deceased, as well as supernatural happenings have continued to occur. You as a Sweet Briar student must become aware of these spiritual and often spooky happenings. The next time you feel a cold brush of air pass the back of your neck, or hear footsteps in the night, you must realize that you are in the presence of many ghosts and spirits that have inhabited this property for over one hundred years.

Spookily yours, Anne