April's SPIRITS with SPIRITS

GHOULA meets for cocktails in haunted places on the 13th of each month. “SPIRITS with SPIRITS” is a casual gathering of regional ghost hunters and those that just like ghost stories. Open to all, from the curious skeptic to the passionate phantom pursuer. Make friends, and toast a ghost! Let's put the “Boo!” back into “booze.”

All those who attend will receive a free (square) G.H.O.U.L.A. button. If you already have one, please wear it so others can find you.

THE DATE: April 13th, 2011 (Wednesday)
THE PLACE: Footsies
2640 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles (map)
THE TIME: 8:00pm to Midnight

THE GHOST:

What happens to the "soul," or consciousness, when one dies? When whatever makes us who we are leaves the body, does it dissipate into the ether, or does it just go somewhere else?

Most religions and cultures around the world have the concept of an "eternal flame." A fire that burns indefinitely, as a way to represent this idea of living on past death, and a way of remembering the spirit of an important individual. Traditionally, these memorials are fueled by flammable oils and gases, but in this modern age, it is not uncommon to use electricity to keep the luminance from ending.

Thomas Edison, one of the first men to harness the power of electricity, believed that after death the soul, or your "energy," stayed intact. Thus, he felt it may be possible to tap into that force and make contact with the deceased. It is known that Edison was even working on an invention to do just that. Ironically, he died before completing it.

However, it seems that ever since Edison's dabblings in this subject, people have tried to draw a line between ghostly activity and the mysteries of electricity. Contemporary paranormal investigators have even measured electro-magnetic anomalies in haunted places. Likewise, ghost folklore is filled with tales of apparently processed electrical appliances, that seem to operate on their own with an other worldly intelligence, or stories of lights that turn on, turn off, or dim by themselves.

Curiously, there are a few electrical "eternal lights" across the country that seem to be powered by super-natural forces. Most famously is Edison's own memorial tower that contained the "world's largest light bulb." Six years after it was built, the tower collapsed. Not only did the bulb survive the 131 ft. fall, but when the wreckage was found, the bulb was still on. Then, there's the "eternal light" at Disneyland that was left on when Disney died. Some claim that sometimes it stays on when its unplugged from the wall.

In Cypress Park, where the Arroyo Secco River meets the L.A. River, sits a little bar that was once the site of one of these strange electrical "eternal light" phenomenas. No one knows how old the building itself is, but there has been a bar within its walls since at least 1936. According to the current staff (of the current bar, Footsies) it was also home to a single bulb that ran continuously for almost a hundred years (before it finally "gave up the ghost" so to speak).

What causes these strange electrical anomalies is unknown.

Does it stem from ghostly activity (or the energy of the deceased) as some believe? Does it have something to do with its location, which is in the shadow of the second oldest surviving railway substation (1906) which the Edison Company used to create the high voltage electricity to power Los Angeles electric trolleys?

Come to SPIRITS with SPIRITS (and listen to "soul" music) and investigate the site for yourself, or share your own theories, or just join us for a drink. Hope to see you there.

(to read about the ghost of this haunted location...)
(to read about SPIRITS with SPIRITS last haunted location...)