Thursday, December 19, 2013

While A.S. Santos was finishing Book 2 of the SPRG series...



...they were experiencing manifestations in their own house, for some reason.


It started in December 2012 (exactly one year ago), and lasted until March 2013, with incidents happening about twice a month.

They were actually very simple manifestations, and they were quite consistent:

People in their household often heard movement inside empty bedrooms.


Thud Against The Wall
The bedroom belonging to their housekeeper L has one entire wall made of wood. On the other side of this same wall was a hallway, where several pictures are hanging on display.

While A.S. Santos was alone in the house one day (everyone else was out), the author distinctly heard a thud against the inside of L's bedroom wall, like an adult body had just slammed against it. It was so distinct that some of the pictures hanging on the hallway shook.

But when Santos opened L's bedroom door, there was no one inside. In fact, the author was still all alone inside the house.

Even as a writer of paranormal fiction, the author felt there must be a logical explanation to it, and decided not to tell anyone.


Chairs Moving
About a week later, when L the housekeeper was alone in the house, she distinctly heard chairs being moved around inside F & D's bedroom. The chair leg sounds could be heard scraping across the floor, loud enough to reach all the way to the kitchen where L was.

When L went in to check, there was no one there. The two chairs in the room were standing in the middle of the floor, but L couldn't be sure if they had just been moved there (since F & D don't always leave them in their proper place).


More Chairs
The final incident happened when C & A left the house and locked their bedroom door behind them, the way they usually do.

They were gone for about 3 hours, but when they came back D reported that they heard the chairs inside their bedroom moving around in their absence.

Because of D's report, everyone else started sharing their own experiences, and that was the only time they realized it had been happening consistently, but they were all just shrugging it off.



These manifestations were nothing alarming, just interesting.

And since A.S. Santos usually writes about the paranormal at night, it's a good thing it didn't turn into anythig more than that.




Friday, October 25, 2013

Want To Be A Ghost Hunter For A Day?



SPRG series author A.S.Santos teamed up with Cyburban.org to create a Virtual Ghost Tour anyone can take in Intramuros, Manila (Philippines) starting Halloween 2013.

For fans (and future fans) of the SPRG Series, this ghost tour is your chance to experience being a paranormal investigator for a day (and at your own schedule!).

Here's the feature about it on GMA News TV, filed under "Dark Tourism."








If you'd like to experience this ghost tour,
click here for your complete "Intramuros Ghost Tour" kit.



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Book 2 of the SPRG Series Launches This Halloween 2013


The SPRG (Student Paranormal Research Group) Series -- the teen/college romance that is set in Manila, Philippines -- now offers the second book in this paranormal trilogy!



Book 1: Voices In The Theater 


When we first met Samantha Davidson in Voices in the Theater, she was still coming to terms with her secret: she could hear other people’s thoughts.

Transplanted to a strange country and estranged from her family and peers, she had to learn to trust others and, most especially, the voice that she had long suppressed—her own.

(Click here to read the first five chapters of Voices In The Theater.)





Book 2: Corpse In The Mirror 


Samantha now returns in the second installment of A.S. Santos’ SPRG Series, Corpse in the Mirror.

This time, we see her powers deepen as she realizes that she can now also see things through others’ eyes.

They aren’t much—momentary glimpses, really—but these are dark things. Twisted things. Things she can’t bear to watch. But since she is the only one who can see them as they happen, she may be the only one who can prevent them from happening again.


(Click here to read the first five chapters of Corpse In The Mirror.)



Corpse in the Mirror launches on October 30, 2013, but you can start pre-ordering from iTunes and Kobo.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Paranormal Series Author Giving ‘Ghost Talks’ This Halloween


Manila, Philippines (October 2013) — Student Paranormal Research Group (SPRG) Series author A.S.Santos is offering to deliver a highly informative talk about The Top 10 Things Teens Need To Know About The Paranormal during this Halloween month of October to high school students,college groups, and organizations who reserve their spot by emailing info(at)flipside.ph this September.

A.S.Santos is the author of the SPRG Series, a paranormal romance trilogy for college students set in one of the well-known universities in Manila. Beginning with book one titled Voices In The Theater (released last year) and now followed this year by book two, Corpse In The Mirror, the series follows Filipino-American Samantha Davidson as she comes to terms with her growing psychic abilities, and as she tries to find answers by joining her school’s newly-formed Student Paranormal Research Group.

“It was during my teens that I started having paranormal experiences of my own,” reveals Santos, “And in my current work with teens and new adults, I’ve come to realize that many of them encounter many strange experiences, too. They just don’t often know how to make sense of them.”

The SPRG Series has become the author’s way of helping teens make sense not just of their ghost experiences, but also of the other mysterious experiences that come with the territory of young adulthood: changing relationships with parents, managing priorities, nurturing friendships, and--of course--figuring out this mysterious phenomenon called love.

“All of our strangest experiences seem to happen during our teens,” the author says, smiling.

“One of my own personal experiences with the paranormal happened when I once used a Ouija board to contact a spirit. In response to my question, the spirit spelled out the full name of the person I was supposed to marry. At that time I didn’t know anyone by that name, but that same week a classmate told me someone from a neighboring school wanted to meet me, and when I asked who it was she mentioned the exact name that the spirit gave me through the Ouija board.”

(Before we continue this story, Santos gives us a warning: DO NOT ever play with the Ouija board, or Spirit of the Glass, or Spirit of the Coin. The author will tell you exactly why during the talk The Top 10 Things Teens Need To Know About The Paranormal.)

“My classmate asked if I wanted her to arrange a meeting between me and this person,” continues Santos. “At that moment I realized I was about to make a major decision in my life. I knew that if I actually met this person--at that moment in time, when I was only fifteen--I would always carry around in my mind the idea that this was the person I was going to marry. This idea would naturally influence my decisions,until, eventually, I probably will end up marrying this person. Not because of my complete choice, but because an unknown spirit had planted the idea in my mind.

“So I told my classmate, ‘No, please don’t introduce us.’ If I was really supposed to be with this person, then I knew we would have the chance to meet each other eventually. But at that point in my life, I knew that our meeting each other would not be good for me at all.”

As of this writing, Santos still hasn’t met the person-mentioned-by-the-Ouija-board. In fact, the author is now happily married to someone else,“Someone I really chose to be with,” the author says, “And not because of the influence of some spirit.”

Santos realized then that our paranormal experiences often have something to teach us, not just about life and death, but also about who we really are.

The author concludes that “This is what my characters go through in the SPRG Series as well. Because every kind of experience we have helps us become who we’re supposed to be.

“Even the paranormal ones.”




For more information on the SPRG Series and to read more about the author’s other real life ghost stories, please visit  www.StudentParanormalResearchGroup.com.

To reserve an October talk schedule for your school group or organization (YES, bookstores, cafes, and radio show invites are also welcome!), please email info(at)flipside.ph with the subject heading “We want to invite A.S.Santos.” Schedules will be booked on a first come, first served basis.

Friday, September 27, 2013

The Ghost Who Visited Me While I Was Still In My Mother's Womb


You could say that my very first paranormal experience was when while I was still a baby... inside my mother's womb.

Mom and Dad had been married for only a year when my Mom's father -- the grandfather I never got to know -- had a heart attack and died on the spot.

Since Mom was the eldest child and the first one to get married, my grandfather had been looking forward to seeing his grandkids, but never had the chance. He'd already been dead a few months when my Mom finally got pregnant with her first child, which turned out to be me.

Mom says I was about 7 months old in her womb when she woke up suddenly one night. She didn't know what time it was, and was about to go back to sleep when she noticed something strange about the bedroom wall right in front of her.

At first she thought she was looking at smoke, and wondered if there was a fire. But she didn't smell any fire, and pretty soon from out of the smoke she saw the figure of her recently-deceased father, walking towards her as if coming from a long way off.

Within a few moments he was in front of her, in their room, standing at the foot of their bed (my Dad was sleeping soundly right next to her).

Grandfather was breathing heavily -- as if he'd really traveled from a far off place -- and Mom said he looked exactly the way he did when he was still alive.

My grandfather never said anything. He simply stood there, smiled at her, and smiled at her womb and the grandchild she was carrying (me). After a few more moments, he slowly disappeared.

My mom says she never felt any fear all throughout the experience... and never had any visits from her father ever again.


Thursday, September 19, 2013

When Grandmother Said Goodbye



Grandma's Favorite Dog 


Our grandmother died at 3am on January 1, 2010. She had just finished celebrating the coming of the New Year, and a few hours later she was gone.

After her funeral we adopted and brought home her favorite dog, "J," a cute brown shih tzu, because everyone thought we could take better care of him.

J was friendly, toilet-trained, and became instantly protective of the kids in the family; he stayed wherever they were, and usually slept in their bedroom.



40 Days Later

One night--about a month after grandmother's death--something strange happened.

It was a Saturday night and the kids were allowed to stay up late. They were in the living room watching a movie, and J was on the floor near them, looking like he wanted to go to sleep.

According to the kids, "all of a sudden J's ears perked up, his tail started wagging, and he started bouncing around joyfully, running and barking at an empty wall."

A few times he even excitedly stood up on his hind legs, like he was reaching up to someone he loved.

The kids were too weirded out to react or move (it was a quiet night; the adults were reading in their rooms). It really seemed to them that J was playing with someone/something they couldn't see.



5 Minutes Of Playing With Someone Invisible 

After five minutes of this strange behavior, J just as suddenly settled down, returned to his spot on the living room floor, turned around a few times, then lay down and curled up to sleep.

To this day we believe it was our grandmother who came to our living room that night.

The kids couldn't see her, but J could... and she stayed around to play with him, until she had to say goodbye.

After all, J was her favorite dog.



Monday, August 19, 2013

Something Paranormal Happened During A.S.Santos' Radio Interview

On Halloween morning October 31, 2012, DJs Vince & Lexi interviewed A.S. Santos on the their radio show called The Wake Up Show at the Manila station Mellow 94.7fm. 


DJ Vince didn't believe in the paranormal but was very open-minded, while DJ Lexi had experiences of her own. As they talked about the four kinds of ghosts, however, they were experiencing something strange in the booth, too.


DISAPPEARING CALLERS

At first, it was very trivial.

They were inviting their listeners to call in with their ghost stories, but for the first hour they weren't getting any calls.

Correction: the station phone was always ringing, but whenever DJ Vince picked it up, they'd find that the call had been dropped.

Now, this wasn't so extraordinary. A lot of people try calling up radio shows and then chicken out at the last minute. But the fact that it was happening consistently was a bit strange.


THE NEXT HOUR

The next hour was different, because the calls were finally getting through.

But then the conversation would get cut midway (like the caller would be talking, and then there'd be that unmistakable pot-pot-pot sound telling them the caller was no longer there). Sometimes it happened before they even had the chance to put the caller on air.

Still, a lot of the callers did make it to the end of their short personal experience stories about the paranormal, and things were going well.

Until...


THE SPOOKIEST THING HAPPENED

An interesting call came through; the caller was an Engineer by profession, and he was telling A.S. Santos about how his college professor introduced him to the concept of "white noise," and how spirits can supposedly contact us through it.

For those of you who don't know, white noise is that static you get on the radio when you're flipping in between stations; it's also the video and audio static you get on your television sets.

The theory is that white noise is a source of energy and a possible open channel through which human beings (with normal senses) can receive messages; therefore, it's an ideal tool that spirits (which are made up of energy) can use to manifest and communicate with the living .

(There was even a 2005 film about it titled White Noise, starring Michael Keaton.)
 
But this is the call where it happened.

As A.S. Santos was explaining all this energy and white noise stuff to the caller, a sudden loud burst of WHITE NOISE filled all of their headphones, and the entire show went off the air for about 2 seconds.

The burst of static was so loud that DJ Vince jerked back on his chair with a rather loud "Whoa!" while DJ Lexi jumped up from her seat, jerked off her headphones, and looked at everyone with wide eyes.

Two seconds later they were back on air, and A.S. Santos continued talking to the caller, who was still on the line.

Meanwhile, the show's Twitter and Facebook pages suddenly lit up with messages, with people asking "What just happened?!" and "Was that a prank?"

And it was totally not.

The sad part is that they didn't get to record what happened. A.S. told DJ Vince it would've been interesting to listen to and review that burst of white noise, since it might have contained an audible message.

DJ Vince laughed nervously, and said since he was the senior deejay, he'd simply assign DJ Lexi to do the reviewing.

Later, he told A.S. that what had happened really couldn't have been because of something technical. The only thing that could've caused something like that was a "blackout," and if it was a blackout then they couldn't have gone back on air for at least an entire minute.

Also, a blackout would've just created a quiet "ssshhhhhh" sound in their headsets as the connection disappeared; it wouldn't have cause the loud burst of sound that they actually heard.


CAN YOU HEAR THEM?
Voices In the Theater - Book 1 of the SPRG series

The first book in the SPRG Trilogy is called Voices in the Theater, and deals precisely with paranormal phenomena that we can sometimes hear. You can get it from Amazon.com and instantly read it on your laptop, tablet, phone, or Kindle. 


Just click on the cover photo to check it out.

Friday, July 19, 2013

The Paranormal Romance for College Students


While most popular teenage romance series nowadays deal with future worlds, demigod powers, immortality, or magic, the paranormal romance trilogy that begins with Voices In the Theater actually has regular teenagers in it... except that one of them has developing psychic abilities.
Old School = Creepy Ghost Stories
If you've ever studied in an old school or university, you know how very common ghost stories associated with them are. And if you've heard the same story enough times, you may have entertained thoughts of checking out if any of it was true... or maybe even actually did your own investigation with your friends.

In Manila, Philippines, just about every major university is old enough to have its share of historical post-war ghost stories, or even those that came after more recent student tragedies. And for some reason, many of these ghost stories seem to be associated with school theaters or auditoriums.


Creepy Theaters & Shadowy Ghosts
One of the more popular school-theater-related ghost stories in the area happened when a student allegedly took a group photograph of her classmates after their successful stage play, and when the film was developed they saw that:

...a nun was with them during curtain call. The nun had no face, was floating, tip-toed, and her hands were clasped as though in prayer. Her hands were pointed downwards and her head was cracked as though she had been hanged...

- OSC Anthea Lamigo

Voices In The Theater: Does Your School Have Them, Too?
One such theater story is the focus of the investigation in Voices In The Theater. While the main ghost story featured in the novel is fictional, many of the other paranormal situations mentioned throughout the book are based on true events experienced by various people connected to the author.

Check out the book now from Amazon.com; just click here. :-)