Ghost Adventures, Psychic Mediums, and the Lizzie Borden B&B
Ghost Adventures used to be a pretty good show. They have a hunky lead in Zak Bagans, a very funny when scared Aaron Goodwin, and the reasonable Nick Groff. The set up of this show is that they investigate supposed haunted locations by locking themselves into the place for an overnight stay. Just the three of them. No extra production team. They film, do the sound recording, and investigate on their own. And when I say they lock themselves in, I mean it. They are locked in so they cannot leave. The daytime is spent being shown around the place by whomever has invited them in, showing them hotspots and relaying their paranormal experiences. This helps us understand what we are in for when the men are locked in and walk around in the dark.
Well, that is the way the show used to work.
Lately, they have been having others around and producing some episodes where they interview people who say that the hauntings in the locations have gotten worse since the Ghost Adventures team has left the building.
Last night on their show they did just this. They interviewed Eleanor Thibault, Lee-Ann Wilber, and Liz Nowicki about the Lizzie Borden B&B and the events that have taken place since the men visited in August of 2011.
I know Lee-Ann and Eleanor. Eleanor believes that what happened to her did happen. It is a story she has told before and one that I have heard. I don’t doubt she believes it. Lee-Ann also believes in what has happened to her in the house. I have nothing critical to say about either person.
Liz Nowicki is a self-described psychic medium. She has conducted seances in the house on the weekends for a number of years. She does private readings as well and has made some outlandish statements that are both historically inaccurate but almost always sexual in nature. For instance, she has stated that Andrew performed several (up to three) abortions on Lizzie on the dining room table. She claims that the original builder of the house’s daughter killed herself by jumping off a bridge, even though we know that Charles Trafton never had a daughter and the bridge in question did not exist during his lifetime. She makes tables move and creak when there are ways to make this happen in the house without anything paranormal taking place. Old houses have creaky floorboards and tables have uneven legs. There are logical explanations for a lot of the goings on that seems to center around her. I am not a fan of her work.
If the Lizzie Borden B&B would have included the seances and readings as part of a Victorian pastime, as part of the show, as an example of the very popular spiritualist movement of the late 19th century, then I would rejoice in the events. Then it would be a piece of theatre and a good time could be had by all. But instead, Ms. Nowicki is devoted to sharing, with a great deal of prodding, some rather peculiar experiences she claims to have had in the house and will no longer, she says, conduct seances there because of one event that occurred on Halloween of last year.
Apparently, she was sexually assaulted by a spirit—whom she refused to name but makes it obvious it is Andrew Borden. She states with tears in last night’s episode that she felt cold hands on her back (through her clothes mind you) and then cold hands on her legs (through her pants mind you) and then her lower body from the wast down went cold. She then was “violated” by a spirit but she won’t say how. It was the most horrible pain she ever experienced, she said. Why she won’t say what specifically happened to her is the first problem in her story. Was it vaginal or anal? Was it inside or from the outside? Was it hot or was it cold?
Because people have pains for no reason, or cramping of the insides of our bodies without warning, I am loathe to believe that her pain was due to some kind of sexual assault. If any of you have ever felt their colon cramp up or their stomaches ache acutely will know what I am talking about. It can hurt and feel excruciating and then it goes away as quickly as it began. When anyone says they were hit in the stomach or that they felt a pain I have to think the problem is medical in nature, not paranormal. I would suggest Ms. Nowicki get a medical opinion of her pain instead of assume that someone who died over 122 years ago did this to her.
And while we are at it, I am really bored of Andrew Borden being accused of all sorts of terrible things by Nowicki. The abortion story would be laughable were it not so horrific. Same for this sexual assault story.
Andrew Borden was brutally murdered in his own home on August 4, 1892. He is the victim. Nothing makes his death acceptable. Nothing excuses whoever killed him. No one deserves a death like this. And when someone takes it upon themselves to make him into some kind of evil character, an incestuous father, a sexually assaulting ghost, I am completely disappointed. It is she who is spreading all these stories, all the while collecting money for doing so. This is her career and it has been taken to the ultimate end.
I am heartened that she has decided not to continue the seances. Finally! She should stay away from this case completely. If in fact you did feel these pains, please make an appointment to see your primary care physican, Liz. Your guts may be telling you something that you should be listening to. And trust me, they have nothing to do with Andrew Borden!
