Mulling It Over

A very good friend and frequent ghost hunting companion of mine had a very interesting suggestion the other day: she noticed that there are very few websites dedicated to actual historical and haunting information on purportedly haunted places. Imagine the time that could be saved inn the investigation process if there was an entry on the site that you were heading to. Perhaps one that linked you to primary sources about both the standard historical information of the location and at least some of the reported phenomena occurring there while also summarizing the information for those people who were more casually interested in the site? Sort of like a more reliable version of wikipedia, but for haunted locations. It would take a lot of work to get going, but I think I’m going to try my hand at it. At the very least, expect a few entries focusing on the history of some locations around Burlington, Vermont (as that is where I am stationed.) I have been speaking a bit with Thea Lewis, who is the author of the book . I am thinking that she may be a good starting point for me in my research. At the very least, perhaps she would have some information on how to go about starting research on this scale. Anyway, it is something for me to do during my maternity leave from actual ghost hunting. Check in soon for (hopefully) intriguing posts about locations in Burlington, around Vermont, and, eventually, throughout New England and beyond!

Long Time, Lots Has Happened.

Sorry I have (again) been out of the blogging groove for so long. I need to get better at this and I will. Unfortunately, things like new posts of investigations will need to wait for a bit as I am currently 6 months pregnant. My fiance came back from his year long deployment to Afghanistan and we became the cliche. Sue me.

You may say “why the hell couldn’t you do a ghost hunt while pregnant?” and maybe you are correct. But when I am in a supposedly haunted location, it’s all senses on high alert for me. I depend a lot on my physical reactions in a room while investigating. For example, I have had paranormal experiences where I, or someone else in the group, have gotten inexplicably dizzy or nauseous. This can be an indicator that something may be going on. (It’s certainly not proof, but it’s sort of a little red flag saying “pay closer attention to this area right now.”) Obviously, being pregnant would seriously affect my ability to pay attention to physical symptoms as I would spend the night constantly second-guessing whether it was something potentially paranormal or just baby stuff. Also, I feel pretty insecure about having a baby (even an unborn one) with me on a ghost hunt. That could just be paranoia… but I figure when it comes to the life of my unborn child, it’s probably a situation of better safe than sorry. I have certainly not forgotten my passion for the paranormal, though. In fact, I have been reading quite a few books. I wanted to let you guys know my thoughts on two of them in this post just in case you are in the market for some reading material.

First book:

Ghost Hunting

by none other than TAPS very own Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. This book is a really quick read. It’s certainly not the best piece of writing that I have stumbled across in a while, but it is full of some really cool stories. If you are a fan of SyFy’s show “Ghost Hunters” and would love to read about investigations that did not make it to the screen, this is the book for you. Throughout the stories there are occasionally helpful tips for aspiring investigators, but this is certainly not a “How To” guide or anything like that. If that is what you are hoping for, steer clear of this book. (There is a helpful little glossary of terms and list of suggested equipment for hopeful investigators in the back, but it’s certainly not worth buying the book for that.) Still, the stories are good. Some of them are even humorous. Personally, I’d give it a 3 out of 5. Solid, but not great.

Second book: The Everything Ghost Hunting Book

by Melissa Martin Ellis

This book is a pretty solid resource, I think. I found a lot of helpful tips inside its pages. Everything from what equipment to bring on an investigation based on your budget to how to review potential EVPs. There were some areas in which I disagreed with with the author, though. Particularly in the area of what constitutes photographic evidence of a spiritual presence. She is a supporter of orbs, which I, personally, think should just be thrown out of any form of evidence presentation unless they are truly outstanding… I’m talking glowing, multiple colors, hovering in the same spot in multiple photos sort of thing. This does not describe the “orbs” that the author presents as photographic evidence. Also, there are a few examples of “faces” in photos that I am fairly certain are more cases of than of an actual paranormal presence. Still, this book did have some really interesting tips. I would recommend picking it up if you are just starting out and would like some idea of where to start. I’ll give a 3.5 out of 5.

I’m still in the market for good instructional books, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know. I would love to read some more.

I will continue to update regularly from here on out, and be on the lookout in November or December for some new investigations and results. I have a few leads as far as joining some groups on investigation and possibly coming aboard as an actual team member that I am very excited about. I will keep you posted!

Williams Hall Investigation

40:51 took a group of relatively unseasoned investigators out to Williams Hall on UVM campus. We had a pretty cool night, with a couple of good personal experiences. We tried a variety of methods including an unsuccessful EMF session (EMF stands for Electro-Magnetic Field- I used the “Ghostmeter” EMF detector, which I bought off Amazon for about $30- planning on updating to a better one soon), provocation, trying to get a response to knocking, and an EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) session. The EVP session revealed a couple of pieces of potential evidence. Please check them out and let me know what you think!

Long Time No See.

I have been pretty out of the loop for a while. Not sure entirely why that happened, but I assure you I am still actively involved in paranormal investigations and I have quite a few exciting things to share with you all. 40:51 has conducted several other ghost hunts in Converse and one in another building on my campus called Williams Hall. I have some possible EVPs and other audio evidence to share with you all, and I will be posting that shortly. For now, I just wanted to make a quick note letting you know that I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth (well, maybe I sort of did, but I’m back now.) Look for new, much more exciting posts. (As I said, I will be posting some of the evidence that we have gathered and such– and I would love to hear your take on it!)

Happy hunting, all! Check back in the next few days for new posts.

Queen City Ghost Walk

Halloween night is a great time for people of all ages, and no one knows how to enjoy the evening like college kids. Taking advantage of the “come as you aren’t” nature of the holiday, they don in short skirts, creepy masks, argyle sweaters, cardboard boxes, and lobster suits as they hop from one keg party to the next. My college campus was no different this weekend; however, my friends and I decided to skip the college partying and drinking (mostly) and do something a little less “Halloween-y” and a little more in the spirit of “All Hallows Eve.” We went on a ghost walk.

If you ever get the chance to come to Burlington, VT, the small scale rustic charm of the town may surprise you. With a population of only 40,000 and not a single sky scraper in site, many may hesitate to even refer to the area as a city. Burlington is full of old buildings and wonderfully eccentric citizens. Everything from City Market, the organic food co-op that serves as the only grocery store inside the city limits, to the shore of lake Champlain screams “New England.” Aging hippies and idealistic college kids are apparently not the only thing this city has to offer, though: we have ghost stories. Lots and lots of ghost stories.

Thea Lewis, founder of Queen City Ghost Walk

Thea Lewis began Queen City Ghost Walk in 2002. She has carefully crafted the theatrical

aspects of the craft. She showed up at the steps of city hall just as the clock struck seven wearing a billowing cloak and carrying a lantern.

As the night wore on, she took us to five distinct areas of the city and told us tales of heroic firemen still guarding their posts hundreds of years after their death, a bankrupt millionaire who lost his mind, and a disgruntled chef who shot himself in the basement of his work place. Each tale was engrossing and tapered with a healthy dose of dark humor. Mrs. Lewis was accessible and very friendly throughout the evening. Over all, the hour long tour was worth the $13 I paid for it. If you are ever in Burlington during the Halloween season, I recommend you check out Thea Lewis and her Queen City Ghost Walk.

 

 

 

If you are not able to make it, but would like to know some of the interesting ghostly history of Vermont’s queen city, check out Thea’s book, “Haunted Burlington.”  This book covers all of the locations visited on the tour and more. It’s a good, fast read, and the stories are very interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information on Queen City Ghost Walk or to purchase the book, check out Thea’s site.

Talking With Ghosts… Really.

After a very informative discussion, John Zaffis led us to the most haunted dorm on campus for a little ghost hunt. Though I believe in ghosts, I try to be skeptical on a case by case basis. Even if the location is a place that I have had personal experiences with the paranormal, I try to keep a skeptical eye on “ghost hunting” scenarios. Now, I would never accuse John Zaffis of faking evidence during an investigation, but being skeptical means questioning the reliability of the evidence gathered and the method in which it was gathered. Last year when Mr. Zaffis came to campus, we did a K-II session in this same dorm. At that point, the resident ghost “Henry” answered several yes and no questions (one swipe at the K-II for yes, two swipes for no.) Henry indicated that there were more than 2 spirits in the attic but less than 5. Last year, in an attempt to remain skeptical, I considered the fact that K-II’s are very sensitive and it could have all been coincidence or worse, fraud. Still, I believed that there was some activity that night because of the intense cold spot that formed next to me. This attic is very well insulated and VERY hot. Add to that the 40+ students that were crammed into this small room and there is no logical explanation for a cold spot. So, I decided to stay on the fence about that experience. It was interesting, but I wasn’t ready to call it evidence of a true conversation with Henry.

I went into the attic last night expecting something similar. When John pulled out an am/fm radio and two speakers instead of a K-II meter, my interest peaked. Instead of 40 minutes of flashing red lights indicating yes/no answers that may or may not have been given by the spirit of a suicidal medical student, we had an hour long conversation– that’s right, a back and forth conversation– with a ghost. And Henry wasn’t the only one to speak up, either.

At first, John asked the questions, opening with “Are there any spirits in the room with us?” Through the static and rapidly changing radio stations broke a distinct voice, “Yeah.” John then asked “How many of you are there?” “Four.” said the same voice. “Could you say that number again?” “Four.”

The paranormal enthusiast in me was ecstatic with this exchange; the skeptic in me was doubtful. After all, the voice could be pre-programmed. But then, Mr. Zaffis opened the floor for random questions. He encouraged us to shoot out whatever came to mind. Henry was by far the most talkative. He had a very distinctive voice that did not change throughout the course of the night. He answered open-ended questions thrown at him, and more, he answered in classic, smart-ass fashion. I was reminded strongly that Henry was once alive, and he seems to have carried his prankster personality over to the other side. He answered several questions with dry humor. When we asked him for the names of the other spirits, he replied “John.” John Zaffis rolled his eyes and said, “I’m not dead.” to which Henry responded, “Get a therapist.”

Though Henry was by far the dominant presence last night, we also got to speak to Michael. Apparently Michael used to live in Waterford, VT. He had an older sister and he liked to play tennis. All of this information was gleaned over this radio set up. No student stories ever mention a Michael. The same voice responded every time, and it was clearly different from Henry’s and clearly not that of DJ spinning late night tunes. Michael was particularly receptive to Marie Robinson, a very good friend of mine who also co-founded 40:51 Paranormal. Any disbelief that I held toward the legitimacy of this conversation dissipated when Michael answered her four open-ended questions as soon as she asked them. Like I said, I would never accuse someone as world renowned as John Zaffis of faking a back and forth with a ghost… but there are plenty of people out there who would accuse him of that. As paranormal investigators, we need to adopt the view points of the most hardened skeptics in order to counter them. I know Marie. She is very new to this field and certainly didn’t know that she was walking into a two way conversation with a ghost last night. Even if John Zaffis did somehow pre-program the different voices, how could he possibly know what questions the students would ask. And even if he did guess the questions, he would have no way of knowing the order that these questions would be asked in.

And the conversation was not all that transpired last night. There were your standard cold spots. Several of them, in fact. One girl fainted after seeing something black above her and feeling a weight in her chest.

The most interesting report of the night for me, though, was a girl toward the back of the room who reported seeing a black hand on the wall waving at her. This is interesting because it brings me to my own story.

Freshman year, Marie, another friend, and I were hanging out late one night looking for things to up our adrenaline. Basically, we were thrill seeking. We climbed to the bell tower of the on campus chapel and hung out in a sketchy looking basement in front of security cameras for a while. When that got boring, Marie suggested that we check out this attic. She lived in the dorm at the time and told us the story of Henry, the disgruntled medical student who had hanged himself from a rafter in the attic in the 20s. Henry was the stuff of campus legend… though, where there are creepy looking dorms and partying college kids, there are always ghost stories. Still, the six floor Gothic castle-like building was certainly intriguing, and since we had nothing better to do, we decided to check it out.

We climbed the ridiculous amount of stairs and ended up, finally, in the attic. We went to the South wing of it (largely regarded as the creepy side) and entered a small little study room. My friend picked up a piece of chalk and wrote on the beam of one of the rafters, “Hi, I’m *James, and we are listening.” About a minute later, he jumped away from the wall and exclaimed “Did you guys see that!?!” Marie and I had not seen anything, so we asked what he thought he had seen. He responded, “Three black hand prints, like shadows, only darker. The moved across the wall.” Marie and I knew that *James was severely ADD and his medication from the day was wearing off. Still, I was curious, so, though *James left the room because he was too freaked out, I stayed, and I asked Marie to close the door a little to make the room darker. I didn’t say anything, I just looked at the spot where *James claimed to have seen the hands. Suddenly, I saw the shadow of a hand on the pale white paint of the wall. I jumped and left the room (this was before my calm, collected, ghost hunting days.) Though for the next several days I was convinced that what I had seen was real, I gradually began to second guess myself. After all, it was late, and I was hyped up on caffeine and jittery from lack of sleep. When *James recanted his story and blamed his behavior on lack of meds, I decided that I must have just gotten caught up in the moment. Until last night. When a girl two rows behind me spoke up and said “Mr. Zaffis, there was a black hand on the wall waving at me” the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Now, it could just be a coincidence and I admit that I am not a reliable witness to the “hands” from freshman year. It could have been a product of my imagination. But the fact that someone else reported something similar… someone who had never heard my account of the hands (which are not part of any local campus legend) does seem to lend some credibility to the experience.

I don’t doubt that this particular dorm is haunted. I have been up there four times now with the expressed goal of encountering Henry or anyone else that might want to be known, two times with John Zaffis and two times with 40:51. The first excursion with Mr. Zaffis was mildly interesting. There were cold spots and the the K-II did appear to be responding to someone’s manipulation. The second time was when we got the 6 second EVP and founded our group. The third time was a bust. And the fourth time was last night. Still, three out of four times I have had a personal experience… four out of five if you want to count the hands.

We are planning on returning to the attic sometime early next month with my new EMF meter. Hopefully Henry, Michael, and the other two spirits will want to give us all some more evidence of their existence… not that they have anything to prove to me.

“The Godfather of the Paranormal”

The student activities board at my college frequently manages to schedule some pretty cool events on campus. We’ve had everyone from Dane Cook to John Stewart come to entertain us. Last night John Zaffis, the so called “Godfather of the Paranormal,” came to campus for the second year in a row to give a lecture and, later, take us students on a bit of a ghost hunt. For those of you who don’t know, John Zaffis has been involved in paranormal research for 37 years. The recent release of the horror movie “A Haunting in Connecticut” has probably catapulted Mr. Zaffis a little farther into mainstream consciousness as he was one of the paranormal investigators called in to help Snedeker family (the last name was changed to Campbell in the film.)

For those of you who don’t know the story, the Snedeker family lived a very normal life until their oldest son, Matt, was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma (a very deadly form of cancer.) They were having to drive from their home a few hours away to Connecticut so Matt could get chemo therapy. The family decided to rent a house closer to the hospital. After they moved in, they discovered that it used to be a funeral home, but they could not afford to move out because they would lose the deposit and security they had already put down. To make a very long story short, all of the children had experiences, but none as bad as Matt. He was tormented for almost 2 years by the demonic presences in the house. Finally, his parents saw no option but to institutionalize him as they were convinced he was mentally ill. The last thing Matt said as his mother Carmen left him at the institution was “Now they’ll come after you.” Soon after, they did. Carmen actually went down into Matt’s bedroom as said “Alright you son of a bitch, if you want to mess with someone you mess with me. Leave my kids alone.” After that, the activity in the house kicked up and the family ended up sleeping together on the floor in the living room for safety. Entities would attack them when they went to the bathroom so thy implemented a buddy system for that, also. John Zaffis and his aunt and uncle Ed and Lorianne Warren entered the home and stayed there for 9 and a half weeks bearing witness to the activity so that the Roman Catholic Church would sponsor an exorcism. Finally, they did and the exorcism was successful. The family still decided not to stay in the home anymore and moved out as soon as they were sure nothing could follow them.

I went to Mr. Zaffis’ presentation last year with no prior knowledge of his experience and clout in the paranormal field and, though he spoke briefly of his encounter with the Snedekers, the main focus of his presentation was on his career and Museum of the Paranormal in Connecticut. This time, though, he came specifically to tell the true story that inspired the movie and the discovery channel documentary on the haunting of the Snedekers’ house.

I went in with high expectations, now knowing who he was and that he was going to be telling us about one of the most intense, negative hauntings of our time. After watching a forty minute documentary on the ordeal of the Snedeker family, Mr. Zaffis took the microphone and announced that not only was the floor open for us to ask him questions, but also that Carmen Snedeker would be answering them, too. The conversation was very open and, despite the horrors she endured at the hands of non-human spirits, Carmen was warm and friendly. Today she, too, is a paranormal investigator.

Though the questions asked ranged from “Did you have pets? If so, how did they react to the haunting?” (The family had a ferret that would hide in the blood pit in the home’s basement until the activity stopped) to “Why do you think Matt was hit the hardest?” (He was very ill and in puberty– two siren calls to spirits) Carmen and John answered every question fully to the best of their ability. The presentation was very informative and interesting. If any of you have the opportunity to see John on his current lecture circuit I recommend it!

For more information on John Zaffis, his Museum, or the true story behind the haunting visit John Zaffis’ website .

Getting Rid of Ghosts Through Negotiation.

My bedroom at my grandparents’ house is haunted. Apparently, it has been since it was my mother’s room (and probably before that). I have had several odd experiences in that room. One day, while I was getting dressed, I started feeling an intense sense of fear. I laughed at myself. It was daylight, and there was nothing to be afraid of. Then my door opened itself. I finished dressing downstairs and didn’t go back upstairs until late that night. On another occasion, I felt like something was watching me as I slept. My mom had always told me to tell any spirits off with the Jesus approach. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I tried it. I said “In the name of Jesus Christ, I want you to leave. Leave me alone.” As soon as I finished the sentence, my mirror hit the wall. Not hard, but enough to make me jump and keep me up for the rest of the night.

From my earliest memories, the room has been seriously creepy. My Nana (grandmother) used to lie down next to me until I fell asleep, because I could not sleep otherwise. While I was lying there, with my Nana rubbing my back, I would stare at the wall paper. There was a specific flower on the wall that I silently referred to as “The Evil Flower.” It scared me.

Once my Nana decided that I was too big to need her with me while I fell asleep, I would lay perfectly still in my bed, afraid to move, this time facing out the window. There was an Evil Branch that way. I would stare at the Evil Branch and wait for it to do something. Rationally, even at the age of 10, I knew I was being ridiculous. The Branch could not be evil; the Flower could not be evil. But the fear that I felt looking at the objects was so real and so intense that I had no other explanation.

Time passed and I forgot about the Branch and the Flower. I was a teenager now, and being afraid of the dark made me a wimp. (Interestingly, I had never really been afraid of the dark– except in this room). I stopped staring out the window or at the wall and gave myself pep talks when I got too scared. Even then, the night light was on and had to run and jump into my bed because I was convinced that something would grab my legs if I didn’t.

Once I could no longer blame The Flower or The Branch, I began to realize that the creepy feeling seemed to be coming from the far corner of my room. I could never see anything there, and nothing was out of place, but I could feel something watching me.

Finally, the summer I turned 20, I decided “Enough is enough.” After all, 20 is far too old to need a night light. So, one night, I bravely shut it off and promptly ran and jumped into my bed. I scrambled to get under the covers, and then I peeked out at The Corner. There was a shadow there that I couldn’t place. Of course, it was my first night without the nightlight, there are bound to be a few out of place shadows, but this one had what looked for all the world like a thin-brimmed had and a lanky arm. It was only half of a man. I could see the hat brim, the one shoulder, and the arm, but the rest was covered by the darkness of the corner itself. I stared at this shadow for a good hour and a half. It never moved. Never faded. I decided that it was my mind turning a different shadow into a human-like form, because a ghost would have moved by then. I went to sleep and woke up unscathed.

The next night I shut of the night light, ran and jumped into bed, and looked at the corner to try to figure out the cause of the shadow. It was gone. Nothing about my room had changed, but there was no shadow there that even remotely resembled a thin-brimmed hat or a lanky arm. I didn’t sleep that night because I was too freaked out.

I left my Nana and Papa’s house the next day and came back home. My mom asked me how my week was and I knew I had to tell her about the mysterious man in my corner. I had never told her about The Evil Flower of The Evil Branch or the fact that I still needed to run and jump into my bed and use a night light. I explained the back story and the running and jumping into the bed.

My mom cut me off. “Because you feel like something’s going to grab your legs?”

I nodded. She said, “I’ve done that as long as I can remember. I still do it when I’m down there.”

I moved on, encouraged by her similar experience– at least I wasn’t crazy. I started to explain the corner. She cut me off again.

“The corner by the dresser and the window? Sheila, the weirdest thing happened there when I was a teenager. I had my hairbrush on-top of my stereo and I was listening to Led Zeppelin. I was on my bed reading a magazine when I heard a crash. My hair brush was half way across the room on the floor. I picked it up and put it back on the stereo. It moved a little with the vibrations, so I turned the music up to see how loud it would need to be to shake the brush off. On max volume it did shake off, but it fell less than a foot away from the stereo. When it crashed off, it had been at least six or seven feet away. So, I experimented. I gave it a little tap and it fell off, but only by a few inches. I finally got it to go the distance that it had gone before, but I had to SMACK it. Hard. I could never explain that.”

I decided to jump right in. “Mom, have you ever seen a… man… in that corner?”

She didn’t answer, so I continued with my description.

“I saw a weird shadow that didn’t fit… it was a tall, lanky man… and he was wearing a hat… like a… bowler hat– no, it wasn’t a bowler hat… the brim was too thin… like a cowboy hat… except it wasn’t a cowboy hat because the brim didn’t turn up… it was flat… like a–”

“– like a Pilgrim hat?” She asked quietly.

It sent shivers down my spine. I nodded slowly. And she nodded. Though she does not remember ever seeing the shadow herself, she told me that one day she was flipping through a children’s book when she came across an illustration of lanky man standing in the shadows of a swamp with a Pilgrim hat on. When she saw this picture her breath hitched and she slammed the book shut. We didn’t talk about it too much after that, but from then on I knew that The Evil Flower and The Evil Branch and The Evil Corner were all really just Pilgrim Man. The room was still creepy, but I managed. I went back to having the night light on– I realized that I never saw the shadow when the night light was on.

Then, one night, I knew he was in the room. I could feel him watching me. I tried to ignore it, but then I felt my bed depress a little– like he was sitting on it. I sat up and looked at the spot I thought he was sitting on, and said, “Look. I’m here for two weeks out of the year. Could you please leave me alone for those two weeks? You can have the room to yourself the other 50, just give me peace for the two weeks that I am here.”

I no longer feel the need to run and jump into my bed, though I do still keep the night light on. Sometimes I still feel like he’s watching me, but all of the physical activity seems to have ceased. Apparently, I got rid of my ghost (or at least calmed him down a bit) through negotiation.

Paranormal Forensics?

We’ve all seen television shows and specials on psychics helping to solve murders. This is an intriguing concept, and, until yesterday, I honestly thought that psychometry was the extent of paranormal forensics…

… Lately, I have been watching a series of youtube videos called “Ghost Hunting 101” (it is put out by Midwest Haunts and is very informative– I recommend it), and on one of the webisodes Jason Sullivan, the host, suggests that there can be more to paranormal forensics than “psychic detectives.”

He suggests that if we (investigators) were to cooperate with local law enforcement and conduct an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) session at the scene of a recent murder asking questions like, “Do you know the man who is tying you up?” or “Who has the gun?” we could actually help to solve the crime.

For a long time, I was interested in becoming a detective or a crime scene investigator, so, naturally, this concept intrigues me; however, I think that, though this an interesting concept that I believe could work, it won’t for some time yet.

I have a very difficult time believing that an EVP would ever be admissible in court. Unfortunately a majority of the scientific community views paranormal investigation as a psuedo-science because the field has been riddled with superstition, hoaxes, and exaggeration. We are on the fringe of things and not accepted as a credible branch of science. Even if an incredibly open-minded judge were to allow the prosecution to present an EVP as evidence to convict a murderer, there are enough cases of EVPs being faked and unreliable that any defense attorney with half a brain could produce reasonable doubt.

If you were on a jury and the strongest evidence against the defendant was a scratchy EVP, would you feel comfortable convicting the guy to life in prison? I know that I wouldn’t– not even if I was the investigator that got the EVP!

Still, the concept is really very interesting, and the video series is great.

Check out Midwest Haunts’ video on paranormal forensics.

Or, just check out the Midwest Haunts Youtube Channel for the entire series.

Hi, My Name is Sheila…

… It’s customary in a paranormal setting to share your stories and experiences. In fact, there is an almost obligatory introduction process. In the paranormal arena, the introduction goes something like this: “Hi, my name is ______, and I’m here pursuing this field because ________.”

So, here is my “official” introduction:

When I was three years old, my mother decided to move me and my younger brother away from the city and into the rural country side. We moved into a large old-fashioned farmhouse that had been converted into a two family residence. The first incident happened before we even moved in.

My step father moved into the house a week before we came up from Boston to get it ready for us. The first day went well, and he got a lot done. He shaved before going to bed and left his shaving kit open on the shelf of the bathroom sink. The next morning, he woke up and it was gone. He was dumbfounded, but he wrote it off as bad memory and bought a new kit.

My mom drove my brother and I up a week later. Like I said, I was three and my brother Kevin was about 20 months old. The room that was supposed to be Kevin’s was spacious, well lit, open, bright, and scary as hell. I wouldn’t step foot in there, and if my mom tried to carry Kev in he started screaming and crying the second they crossed the threshold. He calmed down as soon as they were back in the hallway.

To make a long story short, my mom finally decided to put his crib in her room and make his room a guest spot.

A lot of weird things happened, but I wouldn’t want to bore you with all of the details.

There were four particularly interesting occurrences:

The first happened when my mother decided to explore the property a bit. She came across the old rundown barn and decided to climb around inside and check it out. The barn felt very uncomfortable, but she decided to check out the loft before leaving. The loft, its walls, and ceiling was covered in Satanic symbols. My mom booked it out and never went back. She said that the sense of evil in the loft was so oppressive that she could barely breathe.

A few weeks later, we were having a barbeque with the next door neighbors. After a few drinks, tongues loosened up and my mother and step father began finally discussing the strange events which they had come to suspect were the doing of a ghost. My stepfather said in an exasperated tone, “The damn ghost even took my shaving kit!” The next door neighbor perked up at that and asked my stepfather what had happened. After hearing the story, he smiled and said, “I think I know where that is.” He walked my step father over to an old shed on the property and opened the door. On a rough shelf lay my stepfather’s missing shaving kit, laid out exactly as he had left it on the bathroom sink. “How did you know this was here?” My stepfather asked, astonished. “Well, the first week we were here I took off my boots and set ’em by my bed. The next day, they were gone. I thought that my dog took ’em. Few months later I was checking out the property a bit and I found this place. Opened the door and there on the floor are my boots, exactly like I’d set ’em there. Couldn’t’ve been the dog because they were side by side and neat. Strangest damn thing I ever saw.”

Not a week later, my mom had eight friends come up from Boston to visit. She didn’t tell them anything about our activity, because she was afraid that they would think that she was crazy. So, she set up the guest room and said nothing. They spent the night. The next morning 5 of the 8 approached my mother independently and said something to the effect of, “I don’t want to freak you out, and I swear I’m not crazy, but there is something abnormal here.” One lady heard an old man yelling at a younger woman just outside the door. The words were too muffled and as soon as she touched the door knob it stopped. A few others reported hearing a growling sound from the closet.

Finally, my mother decided that she had had enough when something pushed my stepfather down the stairs, causing him to break a rib. She went through the entire house reading the Bible and praying that Jesus would keep whatever had been there out. That night, the door connecting our side of the house to the other shook violently for several minutes as if something was trying to get in but couldn’t. At 6:00 the next morning, the next door neighbors woke us by pounding on the front door. The husband was livid. He asked accusingly, “We’re you guys in our house last night?!” My mom and stepfather said, “No… why?” almost in unison. The guy said, “There’s something you need to see.” They followed our neighbors into their living room. Everything in there was trashed. The furniture, TV, and bookshelf were all on end. It looked like an intense wind swept through the room and just knocked everything over.

We moved a few weeks later.

I was too little to remember these events first hand, but when I was about ten my mom explained it to me. I remember being absolutely fascinated by the stories. I used to ask if we could go back and check it out. My mom would answer with, “Sheila, whatever is there is evil. You don’t want to go back.” But, in all honesty, I did.

I remember thinking that nothing would be cooler than getting to go into haunted houses and look for ghosts.

Since then, I have had some other experiences that I do remember, but those are for another blog.

For now, fast forward to senior year of high school: I’m at a friend’s house and we’re scanning the channels. Because my mother had always been against cable television, I had not seen most of the newer shows. My friend stops on the Sci-Fi channel (this was pre “Sy-Fy” days) and I straighten up and look at the screen in awe. Ghost Hunters has just started and there is only one thought going through my mind: “That is what I want to do with my life.”

I do not want to be an investigator because of Ghost Hunters, rather Ghost Hunters gave me the ground to stand on so I could realize the dream that I have had since I was ten.

And THAT is why I am here.