We quickly realized that Trent Reznor, despite owning a house there, was nowhere to be found. I don’t remember a lot about this trip except walking down Bourbon Street with beads flying at us from every direction ( we didn’t have to flash). Ann Rice’s house was beautiful, and Jimmy Buffet was a huge deal, with his signature drink, The Hurricane, which was basically made of alcohol and sugar. The most memorable thing about that trip was an infamous quote from my friend Binzy "There are 2 places Trent Reznor has never been, my house and this club. Let's fucking go."
As I researched my trip, I talked with several friends who frequent New Orleans and I also joined a bunch of New Orleans groups on Facebook. I also reached out to a friend in Texas to get some idea of where to stay and what sights he and his partner recommended. (Check out the.glass.coffin on Instagram.) I gathered up all of my information and headed out to experience this city once again.
I know several paranormal investigators. I feel that with a lot of things in life people approach situations differently. The paranormal investigators that I associate with are trying to help people who are residing in a place that has some sort of dark entity there. The investigators go in and try to calm the noises and other activity to help ease the minds of the owners of the property. In my personal experience I don’t feel as though these certain investigators I know are trying to antagonize the spirit or be disrespectful at all. However, something just didn’t sit right with me when we were in the cemetery and the tour guide was telling people to walk all around and try to get these spirits to appear and then was giving the crowd copper sticks for people to just yell out questions to the spirits.
Whenever I go to a cemetery or graveyard I say a little prayer in my mind. I tell the spirits I mean no harm, that I come in peace and I thank them for letting me visit. I touch nothing and I do not disturb anything. I am extremely mindful of where I am walking and also try to stay on the walk ways and not walk across the actual grave. I often leave offerings if felt drawn to do so as another way of showing gratitude. On this particular tour I literally saw a tourist rolling on top of a strangers grave site. I just felt like this behavior was so disrespectful.
The burial process in New Orleans is very unique. They place your body in a biodegradable bag and place it in an above ground tomb which is sealed for one year and one day. Due to the high temperatures the tomb essentially cooks the body and breaks everything down to “dust”. Then the remains are swept into a holding space so more bodies can be placed inside the tomb. Due to the burial process in New Orleans, if there is a heavy rainstorm bones can wash out of the tombs and onto the walkways. This particular night at the cemetery a bone had washed up onto the sidewalk. I saw tourists touching the bone that had washed out. None of this was acceptable behavior to me. It is so important to teach the people to respect the cemetery. The guide went on to talk about what happened during Hurricane Katrina. I felt as though trying to "bother" the spirits there was just in bad taste.
When I went upstairs to the room to go to bed, I just kept noticing that the middle bedroom that I had to cross over to get to the back bedroom where I was staying was significantly colder then the rest of the rooms. I got into bed and tried to sleep. I dreamed of a baby wrapped in a old yellow fleece blanket. It was scary and had dark energy and was on the floor between the wall and the bed. I literally said in my dream, “No we aren’t doing this,” meaning whatever you are trying to show me I want no part of it. I didn’t have any other nightmares in that room after that. I later found out that there are several spirits still lingering in the rooms of that hotel.
The last night of the trip I switched hotels to The Haunted Hotel. This hotel is known for the ad murders that took place there. Ironically I had an amazing experience there. The rooms were clean and cute and the staff was so accommodating. I got the best nights sleep there. I also did a photo shoot with Zakk Conner late at night outside on the balcony walkway. As we were setting up to shoot the worker yelled up to me that he liked my outfit and for us to have a great time. As we started shooting I glanced down and the worker was in the office working on his own art and it was just a beautiful experience of 3 people just vibing and creating art.
The world is still going through a very difficult time in history it costs nothing to be kind to one another. The news does NOT show the reality of what is really going on in certain places. It was NOT safe to just walk around. Tt was NOT safe at night. Common sense and being alert was definitely a priority while visiting there. I pray for better times for everyone.
Until next time, Hugs n hisses
Jenny