My Equipment

I Just went to Radio Shack and bought the suggested recorders the investigating team recommends. Also, my 11 year old daughter, MONkey Girl spilled Sprite on the keyboard so now the Shift key is sticking -- despite cleaning with alcohol and Q-tips. *SIgh* I DOn't feel like correcting all the shift mistakes... so please disregard.


An OLympus VN-4100PC featuring extra high quality audio recording. Extra, obviously, because high quality wasn't enough. This baby will download the audio files directly to my computer for playback.


And this handy-dandy clip on microphone. NOt only does it reduce down the hissing sound sometimes captured from the microphone being on the recording device - it's also convenient to walk around hands-free without all the rustling noise.


And a must for EVP analyzation is a good set of headphones that really isolates the sound like you wouldn't believe.

I did my first recording session at 1 p.m. today. I was polite, I explained my purpose for doing this, and asked a series of questions allowing ample time for responses. I DIdn't record any. But that's okay - Sarah Estep took almost a week of recording twice daily before she got her first response.

I"m going to try again around midnight tonight. As soon as I get a "Hit" you guys will be the first to know.

Oh - I also heard today that one of the investigators picked up an EVP from the second investigation at my house. She said it came from Josh during a time she and I were discussing a ball that had been placed on the floor for him to play with... Josh said, "miss you". As soon as I get the EVP I will post it on this blog for you to listen to.

---------------------------

NOTE: For those of you visiting from The Second Wives Club - please feel free to leave a comment. What can I say, I'm a comment whore and it's just nice to know if there's any one else who can relate to what I'm experiencing or if it also interests you. Thanks ladies!

Please Watch This

A YouTube video about EVP's. It's short, less than 2 1/2 minutes. Give it a watch - disregard the White Noise commercial at the end.

An Introduction to EVP's

I have to say, one of the most fascinating aspects of paranormal investigation is being able to capture EVP's (electronic voice phenomena). To me, these recordings of disembodied voices are indisputable evidence that there is life beyond death.

In 1976 a woman by the name of Sarah Estep, a Christian of strong faith, wondered if she could capture recordings of EVP's on her own tape recorder. She didn't feel that doing these experiments would hurt her Christian beliefs, in fact, she explains, they strengthened them.

She decided to sit down at a table and ask questions from a prepared list before her. She would ask a question and wait for a moment for any 'answers' to be recorded before she asked the next question. Her sessions were short - about 5 minutes at a time and she did these in the morning and evening. Every day.

For the first several days she got no responses to her questions. She considered throwing in the towel, but committed herself to sticking with it for a full week. And then she got a response. Then more and more.

She admits that her one-sided conversations were tedious at times because she would have to replay to hear their answers and wait until the next recording session to expand on their answer. She was diligent and wrote her first novel in 1988 after having recorded 24,000 EVP's that responded directly to her questions.

You can download her book, Voices of Eternity, for free here.

----------------------------------

Here's an excerpt:

I have noticed that when a large number of people die at one time, such as the crash of the two 747 jumbo jets in the Canary Islands in which close to six hundred people lost their lives, I record so many cries for help, I lose count. The calls in that case, incidentally, began coming through almost as soon as that crash happened, but twelve hours before I knew anything about it. After three days they abruptly stopped. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that it seemed to take that long before the spirits were able to get around to everyone there and to help them all move on into the spirit world.

Mercedes Shepanek of Virginia, who before her death in 1986 recorded voices from other dimensions through her tape recorder, had a similar experience on January 14, 1982, the day following the crash of an Air Florida plane into the Potomac River. She asked if those on the other side were aware of the crash and immediately received a number of replies. I have listened to the recording and found it extremely moving. There are many voices speaking in an excited babble. Some entities seem confused and gave the impression that they had just died. At the same time there were other, calmer voices, who by their messages indicated they wanted to help. The first message said, "...on that airliner..." A moment later someone said, "We got a loser." Then, "Will you help them out?" An entity pleaded, "Redeem." This was followed at once with, "Will you come with me now; will you come?" Next was heard, "I'll do it right away...right in the snow." After that came, "Reach down...now reach down...I don't want 'em all killed."

From the nature of the messages it seems evident that Mercedes was tuned in to what was happening to some of the victims of the crash.

Upon different occasions I have asked what the greatest difference is between life in the spirit world and life on the earth plane. One time a voice said, "We have everything."

Ten days later I asked if a person in the spirit world has the opportunity to continue to pursue the same interests he or she had while on the earth plane, such as music, art, and writing. My question was answered with "Yes, Estep."

This answer is reinforcement for what mediums have said they receive in trance from discarnate spirits. These spirits speak with evident satisfaction about being able to continue pursuing and learning more about their earth-plane interests after they move into the spirit world.

There is additional evidence that the "Yes, Estep" message is a valid one. In the spring when I asked if Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, and Chopin were continuing to compose and play beautiful music in the spirit world, I recorded, "They’re still playing music to share with their brothers."

----------------------------------

Of course you would expect that a woman who spent 32 years studying and collecting EVP's would try to communicate from the other side after she passed over. And she did. Sarah Estep didn't die on January 3, 2008 - she transitioned. (That's a term used on her website.) In late February, a fellow researcher and longtime friend, Sonia Rinaldi contacted Sarah Estep in the form of EVP.

This example was recorded when Sarah Estep was still alive to give you a sense of how distinctive her voice was.

The following are some EVP examples recorded by Sonia Rinaldi, over a month after Sarah's death.

Sonia: "Hi Sarah..."
Sarah: "I hear"

Sarah: "I hear, Sonia"

Sonia: "Bye..."
Sarah: "Now good bye"

Things that make you go hmmmm.

Now, am I the only one fascinated by this kind of stuff? I am going to Radio Shack tomorrow to buy a high quality recorder that the team uses and will start my own EVP experimenting at my house. I hope I can communicate with David, Anna and Josh -- but it would be awful neat to pick up any one else too! Even relatives or friends who have passed... now that would be truly spectacular.

Welcome to My Paranormal Journal

I have created this blog independent from my family blog where I explore and chronicle my journey and adventure into the paranormal world. For anyone who is a new visitor here, I have copied over all of my posts regarding the paranormal and you can find them listed below in chronological order.

I am excited to announce that I have been accepted as a new trainee investigator with OKPRI, the paranormal investigators that checked out my house.

Why, might you ask? Good question. I've grappled with it back and forth. I'm not into scary thrills, I don't do scary movies AT ALL and certain entities that I believe to exist in the spirit world scare the living shit outta me. Demons, for instance. I don't want to meet any of those. Or minions. Supposedly non-human entities that are complete negative energy forces, but not demonic. And yes, over the course of 8 years this group has encountered both of those... but they're pretty rare to come across.

Which is good to know that it's an experienced team and they know what they're dealing with. I also like the fact that the leader of the group is a medium and clairvoyant who can pick up in a short amount of time exactly what we're getting into. She's also trained in spiritual protection methods and does things to keep herself and the entire group protected. We also have a Shaman in the group - a man who is a trained Indian medicine man.

I don't know a whole lot about Indian medicine or spiritual protection powers - have heard of them and can't dismiss them altogether because for one, as I get older I realize there's more and more I really don't know. So for me, this will be a fascinating learning experience.

The main reason is my firm belief due to personal experiences that there is life after death, that we as humans survive death. I've believed this for a long time from a Christian standpoint, but I must say, it's completely awesome to get direct confirmation of that. It strengthens my faith. I'm still not sure about the whole heaven and hell realms and how that fits into earthbound spirits, so I have a whole chest full of unanswered questions. I also realize all of those questions will most likely not be answered because I also think that we, as humans, are not ready to learn these answers nor would we be able to comprehend them if we did.

Bottom line is it fascinates me. It boggles my mind. It stirs up a passion to learn as much as I can, but with caution because let's face it, there are dangers out there also - real ones.

During the interview meeting last night one of the investigators asked me how I would respond to being at a location and feeling a touch, an arm clasp, a brush on the shoulder - from an entity. They realize I'm basically a scaredy-cat and they can't afford to have anyone hysterical on their team. I was honest and told them I'm 75% sure I could keep myself from completely wigging out. Yes, I would probably jump - yes, I would probably utter something loudly like "Holy shit!" Or "What the hell?" Because - I know me, and that's probably what I'd do - but I couldn't be certain how I would respond because I've never been in that situation before. I just assured them that I would do my best to stay as calm as possible. However, after a few investigations if it was just creeping me out too much to where I was losing sleep or becoming fearful all of the time - then I would bow out gracefully.

Lo and behold, when I returned home late last night I was standing in my closet removing my clothes and changing into a sleep shirt. I was standing there in my panties, holding my sleep shirt in front of me to get it right so I could slip my arms into it and over my head when I felt a touch - from the middle of my back and it ran up my spine about 3 or 4 inches. It wasn't entirely cold, but not warm - I guess a "cool" touch would be the best way to describe it. Not wide either - not like palm width, more like a finger - just trailing up my spine a bit. My hair is not long enough to have brushed the middle of my back. I did not have my back to anything - it's a large walk-in and I was in the middle of it. I immediately spun around and said "What the hell was that?" And to my surprise, I had a moment of fear that quickly turned to being pissed off and I called out "Whoever the fuck it was that touched me, you better stop that shit right now! Or so help me, God, I will get people over here to get rid of you." Then I put my shirt on - mumbled more profanities to the thing that touched me - probably David, and went to bed. And slept peacefully.

I am going to explore recording my own EVP's next week and will try to post daily about my experiments.

Spirits: Part 9

The activity has quieted down since the investigation. They still come in and watch me, because at times I can feel their energy. I say they because I don't believe that David would come in by himself and leave Anna and the boy alone. One of them or both always seem to be with him so he can control them. But like I said, they're being quiet -- however, they're hanging around. I wonder if it might be out of curiosity -- why some spirits hang around after they've been acknowledged by the living.

Imagine roaming around for 100+ years and scaring people, but now all of a sudden - these people know your name and parts of your story. Affirmation. It's human nature to be affirmed and recognized -- even as a spirit - they still retain human emotions. Although I'm not gifted like Christy is, I can sometimes sense their energy and I acknowledge them when I do... unless Monkey Girl is around. Hard to say. I sometimes have questions on top of questions when I begin wrapping my mind around this and believe me when I say that I've been doing a lot of that.

I've been scouring the internet on anything regarding the paranormal and hauntings. It's in my nature to learn as much as I can on any subject that interests me or something I'm experiencing. I can say, it has given me more strength - I'm not scared anymore. I still get a little wigged out about it because there's still so much unknown about it - but these particular entities don't scare me anymore. However, I would still like them to go away.

Spirits: Part 8

I'll try to give you a play-by-play of the entire evening without skipping around too much.

The investigators: Christy, Roger, Bobbie, Kendall, Joe and Sara of Oklahoma Paranormal Research & Investigations.

They arrived about 9:00, Friday night and since we had become very friendly over the past month I cooked everyone dinner knowing that they had a previous investigation before mine and many of them skipped dinner rushing from work to home to the first investigation. (How's that for a run-on sentence?) So we ate, joked around and then got down to business.

First Christy, Bobbie and I did a walk-through while the rest of the team was getting the equipment ready. Christy does this first to use her senses to detect which rooms she feels the strongest energy in.

Christy didn't detect any energy in my bedroom or closet. She said it felt clear in there, mostly - she picked up a little energy from the closet, but it wasn't strong. The main pocket of energy was in the living room and one of my daughter's rooms, Monkey Girl. She said when she walked into MG's room she was hit with a wall of energy. Not bad energy, she said it was friendly and it felt like Josh to her. Not like he was there now, but that he likes to watch her play.

I explained that she was home all week for Spring Break and she had a friend over for several days and they played a lot in her room, the living room and also outside since she had gotten a lot of outdoor sports stuff for her birthday.

Then I recalled something MG had told me on Wednesday that stopped me in my tracks.

Christy looked at me. I asked her if she wanted to hear something really freaky that MG had done a couple of days ago.

MG, myself and hubby pulled into the driveway and parked the car under the pavilion. When we exited the car, MG wanted to show me something and took me to two graves her and her friend had made that morning. Mind you, this was before I had even learned of the woman and child who were murdered by David - so there weren't alarm bells going off when she showed me these, it was just child's play. I asked her who they buried and she said the chalk people died. MG and friend had drawn chalk people on Monday, it rained on Tuesday and killed the chalk people so they buried them on Wednesday.



Christy said that's probably not a coincidence. I'm not sure - it is very odd. I do know MG has never told me of make-believe graves before. The timing. The TWO graves. I didn't see her chalk drawings before it rained so I don't know who she drew - if it was an adult and child, or if she named them or what. Over the weekend she had drawn a big, silly face and named it "Joe Bob". Christy feels MG is picking up messages or information subconsciously and I should just stay alert to her when she's playing especially. Listen to what she's saying if she's alone and talking to herself, or singing, or drawing - things like that. To ask her questions about her dreams, but not in a way that gives her the information I might be looking for - just to open her up. I point blank asked Christy if David had been visiting MG or trying to use her, frighten her. Christy said no, he's not interested in children. He likes scaring women, he likes controlling women.

She determined the living room to have the most energy to do the "sit-down" in and the team proceeded to set up all the equipment. They brought a ball for Josh to play with and an electronic keyboard.

Settled in, lights off, everyone seated and quiet - Christy began talking. She sensed the female presence and found out her name is Anna. Josh was kept hidden in the woods along with David. Christy sensed that David uses Josh to keep Anna -- she may go somewhere, but as long as he keeps Josh with him he knows she'll return to him. Christy said Anna seemed reserved and reluctant to communicate with her - afraid. Not of Christy, but of what David would do. Christy tried to assure her that she could talk to her - to let us know she was here, to make a noise, a thump, move something, anything. Within 5 seconds the dogs, who were sequestered in "the big room" at the other end of the house went NUTS -- barking like crazy. Christy quickly sent me, Joe and Kendall to go into that room and take pictures. As the three of us were walking down the hallway past the kitchen - we ALL heard a distinctive "clink". Something metal - like a dull windchime... a windchime without the "chime." It was heard louder in the living room and I'll get back to that in a moment.

While in the big room, Joe, Kendall and I immediately felt something heavy. All of us had the hair stand straight up on our arms - pricklies on the neck... it's hard to explain if you haven't felt it before but it's a distinct energy sensation. They took many pictures - the energy seemed to subside. The dogs settled down and I left them in the room with the door shut as the three of us returned to the living room where much discussion was going on about the metal clink.

There's a metal lamp on the table with a small metal ball on the end of the on/off chain. If you pull the ball it clinks several times as it settles back to it's hanging spot. But if you just barely - and I mean barely tap the ball it will clink - once. My mother was about 4 feet from the table seated on the couch - Sara was on the opposite side of the table seated in the recliner. Neither of them had moved. They tried recreating the ball to clink IF someone had moved in their seat and the only way they could recreate it was if Sara loudly plopped into the recliner and bumped the table with her elbow. However, that didn't happen - she hadn't moved. We think that was a sign from Anna that Christy had requested.

We also think the dogs barking and the energy felt in the big room was David and Josh coming into the house at that end. Almost as if he was coming to Anna so that she wouldn't communicate any further.

However, at the time - this wasn't all put together so neat. It just happened... called out for a sign, a noise, dogs barking, 3 of us went towards the big room, heard the clink, took picture in the big room, felt energy there, then returned to the living room, tried to recreate the clink, then settled back in and continued talking to the spirits.

Christy immediately began addressing David. Telling him to back off, to let Anna talk, to let Josh play with the ball or the green lights... repeatedly telling David to back off. Noises were heard in the kitchen - Roger thought it was the icemaker, it wasn't - the icemaker makes a whirring sound of the electric arm turning over, then the clunks of ice dropping. There were odd thumps and knocks, but all in the kitchen, not in the living room. We also questioned if it wasn't noise from the dogs moving about in the big room. She became a little more pointed towards him, trying to draw him out "You like controlling people, do you? Do you think you control this house too? Are you afraid of me? You're a coward aren't you. Yes you are. Cowards hide like you do. Come in here where I am if you're not a coward," etc.

At about this time I wanted to turn and look behind me. As if David was standing RIGHT behind me. I was sitting on the couch next to my Mom, I was on the end. I felt a heaviness, heat, my muscles tensed, my hair stood straight up - it's like if you feel a sudden change in barometric pressure... kind of like that. I didn't say anything at the time, just stayed VERY ALERT and absolutely still. The questioning continued - no response of anything. Then after a few minutes the energy left - Christy sensed it too and we stopped for a break. We decided to put the dogs outside in the workshop so we'd be sure if we heard a noise from somewhere within the house that it wasn't them and Christy also wanted to do a walk around by the creek.

While we were milling about in the living room, right afterwards Mom told me she wanted to look behind her - that she felt something very heavy, very strong, mean. I was like "I DID TOO!" It correlated to the same time I felt it - and we both explained the sensation almost identically. Christy asked us why we didn't say anything - we both were like, ummmm... because it was just a feeling. You know, we all have some type of sixth sense -- we call it our gut, our instinct, a hunch -- listen to those, people. Feel for changes in energy and be aware of it when you come across it -- it might be a temperature change outside, or barometric pressure changing like when a storm front moves in, or maybe you're standing near overhead electrical lines or some obvious source of strong energy. But listen especially when you feel something or sense something and there is no obvious reason. It's still energy, just in a different form.

After we disassembled from the living room, we refreshed our coffee and about 4 team members went up into the attic to investigate. They ruled out any trapped animals or anything mechanical that might have caused any of the banging or thud noises we heard.

Then we went outside and put the dogs in the workshop so we wouldn't hear any noises they might be making when we went back inside the house later. The rest of the team did sweeps of the yard and around the house - taking pictures while Christy walked to the creek and just listened to her senses. I followed her, because I'm a nosy broad.

Even though it was dark, she and I both had strong LED white light flashlights and she was trying to find an area that resembled what she envisioned in her dream. She described it as seeing a man, David, standing about 20-30 feet away from the creek... in an area that sloped uphill, where there were some trees - but not as thick and woody as the woods that are currently there. She said it was a lot more barren. A handful of trees, but not thick with them. She said the side of the creek bed she was facing was sloped and very sandy, not clay and it was a wide point in the creek - the water was much deeper than it was last night and moving.

Based on that description she followed me west to an area where there was a sandy, sloping creek bed but she didn't get the right feeling there. We were trying to logically calculate how the creek may have changed over 150 years. For instance, the Oklahoma clay soil requires good drainage because it doesn't hold the water well - so flash flooding is common in areas where there isn't proper drainage nearby. I'm fairly certain a number of small fingering creeks have been routed by man and machinery to intersect with other larger creeks or small rivers to alleviate the problem of drainage. This is what you learn when you can't sleep at 2am and are watching OETA, the local public service channel. Therefore, perhaps the creek that's visible now at one time was much wider at one point. I know, I know... boring... but it's not just ghost hunting - it's also trying to logically analyze the pieces of the puzzle she's been given.

We returned to the back yard where it was just my Mom and Bobbie outside talking, the rest of the team went inside to use the bathroom or get more coffee. So the four of us stood out there talking for a little while, mulling things over and it dawned on me that there was another area of the creek similar to what Christy had described. Ironically, it was the very same area of the creek she had pointed to when we were sitting on the back patio before the investigation began. Duhrr.

Christy, myself, Mom and Bobbie walked to the creek edge and wow, the energy changed there. It was heavier. Christy was nodding, looking around with her flashlight, taking pictures - this felt stronger here, she agreed. She still wasn't sure it's "the spot" but it felt like it was close. The topography was still a big question to her, as there were way more trees than in her vision and the lay of the land wasn't quite right -- but who knows how much these things change over the amount of time we're talking about. After we were finished looking, taking pictures and discussing at this spot, we went back inside to see if any of the toys had moved that were left alone in the living room (under video surveillance) and to try a second round at doing a sit-down.

This is the area of the creek (if you were to walk up to the edge in the background) where the energy was felt. But guess where I was standing when I took this shot? Right in between the two graves MG had made. It's a straight shot, directly due south about 50-60 feet to the very spot we stood on last night. Coincidence? *shrug*

Standing on the edge of the bank looking south. It's very woody facing that direction and Christy didn't think the lay of the land was quite right. However... speculating on my part, but if her compass was wrong and she did a 180 and turned north, she would be facing the "pretend" grave markers.
The pretend grave markers are positioned facing each other at the base of each tree - there's a yellow spade handle stuck in the ground next to one. Also, the terrain slopes uphill from that spot and it's a lot more barren looking. A handful of trees... probably only 4 or 5 that are 150+ years old though. Just something else I'm throwing out there to ponder over.

This time during the sit down - the energy was noticeably different. It felt empty, it wasn't charged like it was before. Christy spoke to each of the spirits, tried to bring them inside, but it didn't work. She called out to Anna and told her she could leave David if she wanted to. That they were in spirit now and he couldn't hold her. She told Anna to call out to her family members, to her relatives and they can come and help her get away from him. But she got no response, felt like they/she hadn't heard. She said they had left. Left - not this plane of existence, but left the house for now. She felt like David didn't want to give them a chance to communicate anymore - he had figured out that Christy intended on setting the woman and boy free from him. The investigation ended around 1:30 a.m. and now it's just a wait until they can go over all the audio, video and photo evidence collected. However, I'll go over some finer details Christy picked up on during the evening.

------------------------

She feels like Anna is/was David's wife and Josh is their son. Josh is between the ages of 4 and 6. He has sandy-brown hair and big brown eyes. Anna is young, mid 20's but she's very worn for her age. Probably from the rugged life of an early pioneer plus an abusive marriage. She's slender and she sees her in a blue blouse. Her take on David was 30's - mid 30's. He's tallish - around 6'0", dark, wavy brown hair, prominent jaw and chin, deep set eyes with a scowl on his face and a cold stare. Not very stocky, but not slender either... about average build.

He definitely does not like women. They are property to him and no better than a dog. Something he owns and can treat however the hell he wants. Christy senses that Anna had tried to leave him. That she had taken Josh and tried to get away and he killed them.

------------------------

My take on things:

What Christy is saying makes sense. From the beginning how she described him - running, hiding, done something wrong, a bully, likes to scare women, a coward... they are consistent with the character as he has evolved into an abusing husband who murdered his wife and son. Even the female spirit coming to Christy makes sense now - she can travel on her own, as long as he keeps the boy to ensure she will return. Like an abused wife - she's fearful of him. She wants to get away, she wants to save her and her son, but she's afraid of what will happen if she can't get away, she'll be punished - he's beaten her down to where she doesn't have the strength or will of her own.

A couple of other things that have popped out at me. The VERY FIRST EVP they picked up happened about 10-15 minutes after they arrived on the first investigation. It was of a male whisper saying "Get Josh." This is all speculation on my part, but I surmise that this is David telling Anna to go get Josh. Perhaps he had been kept in the woods. Perhaps he had not been allowed to even come into the house since we had moved in. David had been in the house, he was the heavy, menacing energy daughter and I sensed. Anna had been there, she was the friendly, feminine presence I sensed.

What further corroborates this scenario is later, during the first investigation there's an EVP of Josh asking "Who lives here?" That's a young boy's voice. Perhaps he did not know at that time which one of us was the one who lived here. Perhaps he also didn't know until that time that there were children, one as young as 10 (at the time) living here. Perhaps, (again... all speculation on my part) after discovering people living here he became curious and started watching Monkey Girl play and perhaps communicating with her on a different level she isn't even aware of consciously.

Gut check:

What Christy has determined psychically feels right. It fits. After she confronted David during the first investigation - he backed off scaring me and Alley Cat, just like she said he would if we showed him that we weren't afraid of him. He still came around - because we could sense his presence with changes in the energy we are sensitive to, but sensing his energy when he is simply present vs. his energy when he is being mean and trying to scare someone is completely different.

Of course, I'll be back to update when the evidence from the 2nd investigation - EVP's and such start coming in to me.

More EVP's

I figured out a way to post a few more EVP's on here that are in a different file format. You'll need to click on the link and it will open up into a Quicktime, Real Player, or Windows Media depending on how your configuration is set up.

"Bad, Bad, Bad": An investigator commenting about a bad motorcycle accident - followed by a female EVP whisper.

"Run, I'll Deal With It": You may need to turn up the volume on this one as the whisper is very quiet. There's no investigator speaking in the beginning, but you hear a low whisper say "Run," followed by a pause and then "I'll deal with it."

"Area 5": Investigators talking about Area 5 which is how the rooms were tracked on their investigating fact sheet. An investigator says "Area 5", another investigator says "Huh?" And then you'll hear it... trust me and I promise, it was not any of the investigators who responded like that.

Spirits: Part 7

Ready for a freaky update on the spirits in my house? Yep, you heard (read) me right... I said spirits - plural.

I talked to the lead investigator/psychic, Christy this afternoon and wasn't quite ready for everything she told me. But then, I'm not sure how anyone would be ready to hear what she said. Our previous correspondence had been primarily via e-mail, her informing me that they wanted to come out for a second investigation, she thought there were more spirits here than just the one, interesting EVP's, wanted to confirm some things, try some experiments, etc.

All told, they discovered 23 EVP's where you can actually hear what the spirit is saying. There's another 3-4 EVP's that can't be fully understood. There's several photos of light anomalies that can't be explained. There's a video of the picture frames that were leaning up against the wall in my bedroom - one of the frames fell over on its' own and no one was around it.

Well, here are some of the EVP's that she just e-mailed me. Listen to these, preferably with headphones if you have them and then afterwards I'll tell you more.

Discussion among investigators about the batteries on the stationary arrays that suddenly drained. About the 6 second mark you hear a young boys voice say "Can I see?" Shortly after, you hear a deep whisper respond "NO."


Some odd humming that was recorded.


Some more humming. Again, this humming was not done by any of the investigators present.


We were in a tight squeeze in the utility room and investigator Kendall said something about "watch me real quick" and bumped into something. A voice that doesn't belong to any of the investigators says "Oops I'm sorry" very clearly. Hard to tell if it is a woman's voice or a young boys.


During the sit-down in my bedroom, a noise is heard which is confirmed as the sound of the heater kicking on. A voice that doesn't belong to any of us says "punishment". No idea why the spirit says punishment as it obviously doesn't have anything to do with the conversation at the moment.


This was discussion when the two teams met up after team 2 did their sweeps. The topic was how Bobbie's camera wouldn't work while she was inside the closet, but it started working again after she left the closet area. Around the 5-6 second mark you hear a gravely whisper say "take me a long time killing." *shudder*


Very clearly a young boy or child's voice asking "who lives here?"


This was picked up on Christy's audio and it seems to be a woman asking "why won't you talk to me?" to Christy.


There were several other EVP's she sent to me, but this little widgit I use to play them on my blog for you only accepts MP3 files and the other ones are WAV files, so they won't work. However, one is a voice saying "bad, bad, bad" - another is a very loud gravelly voice screaming "AREA 5!" in response to an investigator who commented on an anomaly located in area 5, which is how they charted the rooms of the house. A third one is clearly a gravelly man's voice saying "Run, I'll deal with it."

I have to admit, I find all of these shocking, unnerving and yet utterly interesting. Christy revealed to me that they picked up more evidence during their investigation of my house than any other residential investigation they've done. (Of normal residences, not well-known historically "haunted" residences.) Should I be thrilled to hear that? I don't think so.

She said she had a very vivid dream of a creek and heavily wooded area. In this dream she saw a man burying a woman and a young boy. She initially shook it off as a weird dream. The had the same dream 2 more nights in a row, each dream giving her more detail and information. Then Christy had a visit from a female spirit who urged her to come back to my house to help them. This woman and her young boy were murdered by "David" and buried by the creek out in my back yard. *gulp* This was long, long ago - Christy feels strongly this was still the early to mid-1800's. Christy isn't sure what happened to David or what brought about his death. But the woman and boy are being held prisoner by him in the spirit world. Christy said although this is disturbing, it's not uncommon for spirits to be trapped and kept by stronger spirits with bad intentions.

Christy isn't sure if this female spirit followed her home from my house or found her later. I asked Christy if she had the talent or skills needed to help free the woman and child from the mean spirit and she said she did, but it's not something she advertises on her website. She told me when she comes out to investigate tomorrow night it will be to get more information, they're bringing some toys and will try to entice the child spirit to roll the ball or activate electronic toys with his energy. And before she leaves she said it will come to a showdown between her and David to release the woman and child. She said she's done this before and it can get ugly, so I need to be prepared. She said she's stronger than he is and he knows it - and he doesn't want her to come back.

I am going to speak out loud to the spirits tonight and tomorrow to let them know that she is returning tomorrow night, when the moon is full. I will tell them that she wants to talk to them, that she means them no harm and they need to get the courage to talk to her and to get as much energy as they can so they will be strong when she is here.

I sit here typing this as the sun is going down and I am home alone. I think the spirits are here again. The dogs have been restless and jumpy. I have spoken to them out loud and told them of Christy coming back tomorrow. She said they know who she is and they know her name.

I called my Mom because I'm a big chicken, even though I'm trying to be strong and not scared. She's going to leave work early and drive down here to be with me during the investigation. Alley Cat is staying at her boyfriend's house, Monkey Girl is with her Dad tonight and this weekend, 20 y/o son is out of town and may or may not be here, not sure yet and hubby left today for work. I really don't want to be alone. Thanks, Mom.

Spirits: Update

The ghost hunters are tentatively scheduled to return to my haunted house this Friday to do a second investigation. She's wanting to connect with some other spirits that she believes are here and also to try to rule-out some weird noises and photos they collected during the first investigation. That's what they do - try to logically determine an explanation for unusual evidence they collected first. And then what's left that can't be de-bunked is up for paranormal debate. Unfortunately, hubby returns back to work tomorrow so he'll miss out on this investigation also. However, I will have my own video camera up and running for this investigation, along with a digital audio recorder and my own camera. Yep, I will fully partake in this one. I am hoping to encourage our 20 year old skeptic son to participate. Maybe he'll remain skeptical, but who knows, maybe it will just put him in a place where he's also questioning things that he can't fully explain logically. We'll see.

She asked me if paranormal activity has subsided or picked up any since their last investigation. I honestly can't say. I keep noise on constantly in just about every room so that I don't hear anything that goes bump in the night anymore. We put a window air conditioner in our bedroom and that's done a good job of keeping the bedroom and the closet at a much more comfortable temperature. And honestly, it seems like when the house is full of activity - kids, grandkids, kids' friends staying the night, hubby home, our friends over for cook-outs, etc., it's just a regular noisy, happy, active house and I'm oblivious to anything paranormal. The spooky stuff only seems to happen when things quiet down, everyone's asleep and I'm awake and looking and listening for anything out of the ordinary - which I haven't been doing. So, hard to say.

Spirits: Part 6

I received an update from the lead investigator, Christy, tonight and couldn't wait to blog about it. Especially after my mother and sister stayed at my house for 3 days and said they didn't hear anything or feel any weird vibes. I haven't heard or felt much since I've been home, but I keep constant music on - stereo's, TV's... I don't like the quiet - that's when I hear the things that bump and shuffle. If I can't hear it, it's easier to ignore.

They have several audio clips of an unexplained voice or noise - she sent me only a handful of them but said there are many more they are still going through. When listening to these, if you have headphones - put them on, it's easier to hear the whisper with - and turn up the volume. I've tried to outline what to listen for and when. I can tell you my first-hand impression. I happened to be present when every single one of these audios were recorded and NO ONE SAID THESE. I didn't hear them at the time and I must say, it's very creepy to hear them played back and they're there.

This audio clip is of me saying something about "out there, out in the big room and up in the attic" as we were doing an initial tour of the house with everyone... around the 7 second mark you hear someone who wasn't a part of the team whisper what sounds like "Get Josh". followed by an almost muffled giggle.


In this one we we're the first team doing the first sweep. You hear my voice saying "I'm going to get a picture of you, Christy" and around the 5 second mark you hear a faint voice whisper "Much better right here" and then I say "watch your eyes" and you hear me snap the photo.


This was taken with the first team as we were doing a sweep and we were in the living room which has full shuttered windows exposed to the back yard and the woods beyond. In this room Christy got a very strong feeling of being pulled to the back yard. Here she is telling us that she doesn't think it has anything to do with the house, that it's the land, out back... then an investigator says Yep and after that on the 9 second mark you hear a whisper say "Out back." Not from anyone on our team. Whispering is not allowed during sweeps and if it's done accidentally it's claimed and called on the audio.


This is taken around the same time, same team in the same room. Christy is saying that there it's almost like there's something she needs to go find, it's a feeling like there's something there she needs to go get and find... another investigator asks "buried or what" and at the 9 second mark almost overlapping Christy answering "Yeah, yeah" you hear a faint whisper say "She's tired". Christy thinks the voice may be referring to her, as she was very tired that night and it crossed her mind when pulled to find something out in the woods that she just was too tired and not up to it.


This is when the team was in my bedroom doing a sit down. It's not a seance or anything spooky like that. Christy is trying to communicate with whatever spirits are there and hopefully get visual or audio confirmation that they are present. She was sensing that this presence didn't want her to know who he was, he kept running and tried to stay away from her - so she asked "if you don't want me to know anything about you, make a loud noise in the kitchen" this garners an audible *thump* in the kitchen that was heard by all of us in the room. At the time, it sounded like a muffled thump on the wall - not hard like knuckles but something softer.


Christy ruled out the photo of the mist captured by the workshop because we were creating breath mists that night. When in doubt, rule it out is her motto. This picture she can't rule out.

The first photo is taken in the master bedroom by Roger. To the left is Joe's back. You see Sara facing him by the door leading to the sun porch. There's an adjoining dressing room with an entry to a walk-in closet and then into the bathroom. Bobbie's foot is barely visible around the corner reflected in the mirror from a sliding closet door. Click to enlarge.

Yeah, I hadn't hung any pictures up because for a while I wasn't quite sure if we'd be moving. Honestly. I even had stopped unpacking boxes for that very reason. In the above picture about the height of Sara's head, but in the dressing room you see a yellow/orangish glow. Bobbie is standing there but didn't take a picture and didn't have a flashlight. BTW, the room was entirely dark when they do their sweeps and the camera flash illuminates the whole room. Also, they call out when each person takes a photo to eliminate cross flashes. They tried to recreate a camera flash in the same set-up to see if maybe it was Bobbie taking a picture, but it didn't glow like that. The camera flash is a much whiter and broader light. Why this is interesting is because it looks like it might be the source for the light anomaly captured in the second picture below.

Look at this one up close. The little green LED light is coming from the array meter set up in the dressing area outside the closet - that one can be explained. But the trailing misty white light can't. Also notice how the small trail underneath it starts out green, but changes to red, then stops altogether. You can see the people in these shots have moved very minimally. Incidentally, this is the same time Bobbie, in the dressing room felt something VERY STRONG and commented to Sara. She had waves of nausea and an immediate splitting headache and had to leave the room. Once she left the room, she felt better. Joe and Roger also heard foot steps outside the master bedroom door, which is right off the kitchen - they said it sounded like hard-soled shoes, dress shoes or boots and they were loud.

Christy got the overwhelming sense that this presence, spirit, whatever you want to call it kept running from us - didn't want to be caught, didn't want us to know about him, it. She seems to think this may be photo documentation of the spirit literally running out of there when the people entered and started taking pictures and video. The presence is most felt in my closet and master bedroom and it really doesn't surprise me to see this trail of light come from the closet and dart through the bedroom like that.

Doesn't surprise me but it does freak my shit out. I gotta be honest. It's almost midnight here and I've been listening to these voices from the other side and actually have a photo that is like none I have ever seen before in my own damn bedroom which is supposed to be the safest place on earth. Plus, I know how controlled they do their investigations and how serious and professional they are.

More evidence is on the way and hopefully this weekend she will finish her report and get everything to me. I will keep y'all posted.

I have to take some Unisom now. Thanks for leaving me some, Mom.

********************

You know, dog's hearing is much keener than our own. I wonder if this explains why my dogs literally FLIP OUT at seemingly nothing. Today they were with me when I was in the laundry room folding laundry and they both tore out of there barking. I found them growling at a WALL in the living room. Hackles up. Growling. They weren't looking outside. The windows go almost to the floor and sometimes they bark at leaves blowing or birds on the porch. No, their eyes were riveted to a bare wall. No furniture against that wall. Not even any wall decor. Bare.

*shudder*

Can't wait for hubby to get home.

********************

FYI - this group does around many residential investigations a year, usually on the weekends. She said it's not very often they obtain evidence in all forms such as photo, audio and video evidence. You can look at their website under investigations and there she only lists the investigations they actually confirmed something paranormal. However, they do many more investigations there they don't have enough evidence to conclusively prove there is paranormal activity or a haunting. And she said she will be listing the investigation for my house on there as soon as she's done with the final report.