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after connecting point tonight on wgby at 10 p.m.
will be premiering new England legends a television series that follows adventure
and author Jeff Belanger as he explores these many tale throughout New England
and here's a sneak peek for almost a century now
a steady stream a first-hand accounts have supernatural experiences
have flowed from this mansion I came in 130
ever known I'm the check the building for all right that we had
and as I came down this hallway and and pass this hallway here
around the corner of my eye the with somebody standing in the kitchen and
from the table but when its doors while know the whole black figure
and I kept walking thinking it must be somebody other than the building
and when I went in who are the other people were setting up
I asked them who was in the kitchen they said nobody goes on me to people in the
building
that's an amazing part in this experience when you know you control the
situation
in or or special the only person building and and use
look right down there hello yeah I thought to myself
stop go back and look and just equipment that now but gotta be somebody thing
here that under before you were here was a little
it is what about now is it become pretty calm here
yeah rates i've seen. equating time he's here now to give us a glimpse of what's
to come on this new TV series
thanks for joining me jack thank you and it's a perfect timing as hollowing
tonight talk about how that kinda coincides with
well halloween is is the best time a year for me it's a it's a tradition that
goes back to the N Sync
ancient Celts they believe that the veil between the world of the living in the
world the Dead was at its thinnest
and ghosts and monsters and im since areas could come into our world and
metal in our affairs
so they would leave out offerings and and celebrations it was also the harvest
time
and the Celtic New Year and so this is a tradition that goes back thousands of
years that we still celebrate today
even the catholic church came along and try to get rid of it they couldn't
and so they eventually made november first All Souls Day the night before All
Hallows Eve
or Halloween so whether you realize it or not even if you just learn to just
now
this is a time a year we agree that the veil is then
that it's time to talk about ghosts and monsters and that a
it's all around us and it's a tradition that goes back from one generation to
another
all the way back to europe thousands of years and we still carry today
when I was watching the trailer burning on legends I
could definitely PI Catholic whose bones I had put my jacket I was like oh
so it definitely got that on this mysterious factor to it
sure book there's ancient mysteries all over New England
all over the world but New England we've got so much human history here
10,000 years of human history you know since the earliest native americans are
here
they brought their own myths and legends a but what's strange is we've got a few
locations that really shake up what we thought we knew
about archaeology about who is hearing when
for example one other locations we visit America's Stonehenge
seems to be a Celtic calendar and salem new hampshire that dates back four
thousand years
that's pre-columbian by a long long time and so
we wonder what does this mean you know who is here four thousand years ago
sites like this make us ask those questions and there are mysteries
and not only is it an ancient calendar there seems to be a
place a sacrifice their there's literally a place they call sacrificial
table
it's like the cutting board in your kitchen with the group around it except
it's made of stone it seems to be
there to collect blood from some kind of offering wow them
for our candy crowley noble Lincoln and I know
but you'd mention specifically this isn't just like a ghost hunting sorry
this is about legends
what's the difference okay so alleging is a living breathing thing
it's something that can't be argued and it's a story that we all contribute to
halloween is a legend in a way you know santa claus is a legend
the Easter Bunny all these things are stories so
a legend happens when something strange happens to a person
and they talk about it with someone else and that strange occurrence get attached
to a location
and more people talk about it more people talk about it eventually that
location gets a reputation
the reputation itself is the legend and it can't be argued
even though you know we can argue what a ghost is we can argue
that there's a word for in every language that there's a cultural
understanding event that there's an archetype for that they're in religious
texts in history books and so many other places
and so this thing called ghost captivates us
and it makes us ask the questions but we're not just looking for ghosts and
doing all engines
we're looking for monsters Bigfoot we're looking for aliens and UFO's and we're
looking for things that go bump in the night
because these are the things they get to the real root the real primal parts of
who we are
when you ask you know either UFO's out there what you're really saying is are
we alone in the universe
we're looking for Bigfoot you're really asking do we know every creature that
walked the earth with us
we talk about ghosts you're saying is there life after death
can we still communicate with our loved ones these are the the
very basic questions that oliver's ponder at some point in time
now to this keep you up at nine turnovers me I'd be like all
don't be scared you know can check out me that the dart
order it doesn't bother you you know I've been doing this for decades now
and in and writing books and and and working on different projects related to
all things paranormal strange and unusual I absolutely love it
I love every piece if it from from the way it's gone pop culture
up to the people who look into it you at the end of the day
all legends are about people living people you know our communities
own these legends and sometimes guard them and it's the kind of thing where
someone will tell you the story if they trust you you know they don't just share
with anybody
and when someone let you in you know it it when they say I'm gonna tell you
about
this haunted building in my town or this strange things I ice on the words
what they're saying is I trust you and that trust built this pond it's an
amazing way to communicate with people
we live in an era with 24/7 news coverage Twitter Facebook
people find out about news in seconds but aural tradition folklore legends
the process hasn't gone is gone unchanged for thousands of years
just lose a lot faster because if the Internet today but it's still the same
process one person sharing one story to another
connecting one person to another connecting to a location
to the people who came before us as for the legends all about
so tell us about families legends like they'll be talking about in tonight's
back to back episode when we started the spooky berkshires and there's no
shortage
strange stories around this part of the state first we're gonna go to the
Haunted Mansion
in North Adams Massachusetts which is such a great high in such a tragic on
you have this horrible accident on august first nineteen fourteen
where a car rolled down a hill and ultimately took
to lies within the span of a few hours and then the
the show for John winners took his own life the next morning because he was so
distraught over
what he thought was a the cause the accident and then
AC Houghton died 10 days later so you've got this very tragic backstory
to this building that's gone on to become one of the renowned on some new
england
and it's been on what television shows people investigated there
and the reason for that is legend story everybody wanted to check it out
and while we were there strange things happened i member they had am
just installed the security cameras all throughout the building and at one point
while we were filming
the front door just slammed shut on its own no one near it and we could actually
review the hook the security footage in see that no one was anywhere near it
the door just closed and stuff like that you say okay you just interviewed very
credible people
about their paranormal experiences and you're standing there you hear the
banging the door you review it and let me know video camera
surveillance and you say art there's something to this
this is more than just the story and then we're also gonna look at October
mountain
which is just beautiful and incredible story itself in the Berkshires
and what fascinates me about it is that there are stories of ghosts up there
Bigfoot sightings have been documented in the newspapers twice in the 1980s
UFO sightings I every kinda strange creature in this sixteen thousand-acre
State Forest Preserve that's that's up there and it's a gorgeous gorgeous
piece of words but Wenger me up there the very first time I went years ago
was a story of a young girls ghost who's been seen near the top they say near an
abandoned cemetery
the first time I went I never found it but the second time I went
I had a a ringer at someone who knew where to go and it occurred to me we
finally found there's this
old lonely cemetery that's up there and its
about two dozen graves all dilapidated the stones are in the ground the broken
you can barely read some of them and we found one a young girl aged 10 years 9
months
and it occurred to me a ghost story brought me all the way up there in the
middle the words
and help me find this this loss grief and then you start to learn
people lived here people died here they they forged a living you know centuries
ago
a hard-living these are the these the salt of the earth New Englanders
that that helped define our region %uh
who we are today every piece of us and we get to touch that
literally touched that in the middle the words there's an incredible experience
just to see that find it
well that's exciting and it's definitely something to look forward to tonight
and that is free at ten o'clock tonight said can't wait thank you so much to
thank you