My Paranormal Journal

Update

2008-11-10T09:08:00.002-06:00

If anyone has stumbled over here from blogger.com, as you can see, I haven't updated this blog in a long time. The reason being that me and a friend began our own paranormal investigating group.

OKC Paranormal

If you're looking for ghost stories, or interested in the equipment we use, our methodologies, etc... head over there. You can leave a comment on our Case Files and let me know what you think.

As far as my house goes - I love hunting ghosts, but wasn't thrilled with them being in my house. I had heard of cleansing a house with sage and a friend gave me several bundles of sage that had been blessed by an indian Chief of the Cheyenne/Arapaho tribe. I gave it a try and I'll be darned if it didn't work. I haven't had any paranormal activity in my home since I cleansed it in August. I've heard a sage cleansing isn't permanent and they may return, if they do, I'll let you know.

~Tammy

Full Report

2008-05-08T21:45:00.006-05:00

The full report from the investigation done on my house is completed and will soon be posted on the group's website. Here is a link to the investigation if you're interested in reading about it.

I apologize for not posting in a while. The activity has quieted down here quite a bit, or we're just used to it. A friend and I have done several audio recording sessions and have caught several EVP's just when we're sitting around visiting. So I know they're still here. I don't sense them all the time though.

They definitely try to make their presence known to overnight guests, however. One night last week a friend stayed the night and she woke up and swore up and down that she heard footsteps on the wooden floor in the bedroom. She had just had an eye procedure done and her eyes were glued shut with a medicated gel, so she was unable to open them and see if anyone was there. However, it was only myself and my daughter in the house with her at the time and neither of us entered the bedroom while she was sleeping... so figure that out. She said it was heavy hard-soled footsteps. I've heard them before also and think it was probably "David".

Then this weekend two of my sister's stayed the night, each slept in separate bedrooms. One sister heard a low, gutteral, growling type of noise and justified it that maybe it was the other sister in an adjacent bedroom snoring. Then she heard something loud bang on the floor, as if something had fallen. The bedroom she slept is basically empty except for a bed, so there weren't any other surfaces such as dressers or cabinets something could have fallen from. She had a small bag on the bed with her and in the complete darkness, decided it must have fallen from the bed to the floor accounting for the loud noise she heard.

Then she was almost asleep and swears up and down that she audibly heard a woman's voice whisper the words "Help me" right into her ear. This freaked her out because she knew she hadn't imagined it. She was able to calm herself enough to finally sleep, but kept hearing odd noises throughout the night. She woke early in the morning because we had an early flight to catch. She reached for her eyeglasses and they weren't where she left them. So she got up and turned on the room light and realized that her bag was still on the bed - so it hadn't been what had fallen to the floor. So she thought, perhaps it was her glasses that had fallen. She looked all around the bed and said there was NOTHING in the floor whatsoever. This upset her because she knew she heard something loud fall to the floor. Then, when she looked further for her eyeglasses, they were right where she had laid them -- but again, she swears they were not there when she initially reached for them. She basically told me she wouldn't ever sleep in my house again unless her husband was here with her and sleeping in the same bed.

The other sister is deaf in one ear. She's lucky that way. She's able to sleep with her good ear on the pillow and pretty much can't hear a darned thing. Therefore, she slept soundly - although she said she had strange dreams and woke up often.

I'm repeatedly asked why I continue to live here.

They don't bother me as much anymore. I'm no longer scared. And I thank OKPRI for that.

Perhaps we should begin renting out the guest room on weekends for people who want a haunted experience? What do you think about that?

Partial Apparition Photo

2008-04-09T20:51:00.005-05:00

These are photos I took Saturday night at an antique store we were investigating. We were hearing odd noises, thumps and such and I was clicking away. It's standard operation to take 2 photos of the same area so if an anomaly appears in one photo, there is a comparison photo to look at.

The first photo is the comparison photo. I lightened it to look at the top of the green cupboard to see if there was anything reflective that might have caused the anomaly shown in the bottom photo. Also check out the orange glow from the back door. That is a glass door with bars that opens to an alley where there are orange vapor lights.

Click on the photos to view the larger pictures.

Here's the ghostly photo below. See the light source in front of the green cupboard? To me it appears to be the profile of a head. I can clearly make out the eye, the nose, the mouth, the jaw even the ear and what appears to be a crew cut hairstyle. Possibly African-American? Not sure about that. Also notice what appears to be a white shadow of a head and shoulder outside the back door. I'm not sure about that, if it is a picture of a partial apparition - but the one inside the store I believe is. By the way, the owners of this place reported that apparitions are common. They stated that they see partial apparitions, usually the head and shoulders at least once or twice a week. However, I did not see this to my naked eye - it only appears on the photos I took.

What do you think? Oh - and the bottom photo is completely untouched other than being cropped for just the areas of interest.

Test Your EVP Listening Ability

2008-04-08T19:08:00.002-05:00

I don't feel comfortable divulging much information about the places we investigate with the paranormal research group I am a part of. Most of the information is kept confidential on behalf of the clients we are investigating for.

We did an investigation Saturday night where several of our team members had experiences, we picked up a few photo's with light anomalies and so far, these are the EVP's I have recorded.

I'll list them here and see if you guys can identify the EVP and what is said.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Clip 3

Clip 5

Yes, I know I skipped Clip 4. What I had thought was an EVP was actually me whispering and I didn't recognize myself. LOL

Some of these are hard to hear and again, listening to these work the best if you have headphones. If not, turn off all noise in the room and turn your speakers up as high as possible while still maintaining a comfortable listening level.

Have fun and I'll let y'all know how you did later!

EVP Experimenting

2008-04-03T10:24:00.002-05:00

So far I've been doing a formal sit-down EVP recording session where I inform them I am recording and wish them to communicate with me. I have written out questions and keep the sessions short - under 10 minutes.

I do this twice a day, in the afternoon and late at night usually around 11:00 or midnight. Although I skipped it last night because I actually went to bed early. And so far, I've gotten nothing. But I'm going to keep at it for a full week and then if I still don't get anything I'm going to switch tactics. I'm thinking about just keeping my recorder and clip-on mic on me the entire day and flip it on when I sense them watching or when I hear things and am pretty sure they're here.

But, hubby is coming home tomorrow and for some reason the activity level drops to almost nothing when he's home. So we'll see. Just know I'm still working at it and will let you know whenever I do get something interesting.

Josh and Anna Speak Again!

2008-04-01T01:46:00.005-05:00

The evidence is slowly trickling in from the second investigation on my haunted house conducted on March 21st. These two were recorded by Christy, the lead investigator.

Note: If you happen to have some headphones you can plug into your speaker or the back of your computer... please do. They increase the sound quality of listening to these immeasurably!

This first one we believe to be Anna - softly speaking "Hi .... Hi". She sounds friendly, doesn't she?

And this one sounds like Josh. You hear my voice and Christy's voice as I am showing her a soft ball with bells inside that jingle when it's slightly moved. The ball was going to be used in an experiment hoping to entice Josh to make the ball move. Listen closely around the 6.5 second mark. I have increased the volume when he speaks his words because they are spoken softly. You'll hear him say "Miss you." And then one of the guys are greeting my dogs... hey guys! We can only speculate who Josh was addressing, but my guess is Christy since she is psychic and she had not been here for a month.

Okay... it's almost 2 a.m. and I am going to be dragging ass in the morning. Sheesh. By the way, my second recording session I conducted at midnight yielded nothing. But I will persist. I know they are here!!!

Mom - what do you think? You were here the night of the second investigation and you KNOW that female voice does not belong to any of the women present at the time. And also, there were NO KIDS whatsoever present - at least in the physical sense... obviously at least one was present in spirit.

YAY! I'm so excited to be hearing these!

I'm also going to update some EVP's that I've had a chance to enhance with audio editing software. First, a clarification that audio editing does not change the recorded sound - it simply enhances it. I can make a small section louder, or remove background noise and hiss, there's one trick that completely isolates the voice - but it makes the voice sound a bit metallic. Anyway, here are the ones that have been enhanced and worth listening to again.

"Can I see? .... No."

Humming

"Run. I'll deal with it today." (Previously we did not hear the word 'today' until it was enhanced. Also, the background noise was removed from this section to improve the quality of the voice - which explains the metallicy sound you hear.)

"Take me a long time killing him." - (Another one that we missed the last word 'him' on until it was enhanced.)

"Why won't you talk to me?"

Have I got everyone sufficiently spooked yet?

My Equipment

2008-03-31T23:21:00.007-05:00

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.

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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

2008-03-30T19:23:00.001-05:00

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

2008-03-30T18:08:00.006-05:00

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.

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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."

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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

2008-03-29T12:08:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-25T15:00:00.001-05:00

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

2008-03-22T14:55:00.001-05:00

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.

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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.

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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

2008-03-21T14:53:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-20T14:51:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-06T14:14:00.001-06:00

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.

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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.

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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.

Spirits: Part 5

2008-02-27T12:27:00.002-06:00

My apologies if this stuff creeps some of y'all out or if you think I've completely lost it. I'm really just a regular person. There's usually not a lot of drama in my life and when there is, I don't encourage it. Believe me when I say that when these unexplained occurrences started happening, I was the first one to think my imagination was getting the best of me and I'd reel myself in. Be realistic. Look at other things that might explain what I heard, felt, or saw. It wasn't until Alley Cat and Hubby also began voicing their own experiences that I began seriously thinking that what we were dealing with here was paranormal in nature.

I may have had an easier time accepting that it was spiritual or ghostly (whatever term you prefer) because I grew up in a house that was haunted. Because of this, I am soooo, soooo glad that I contacted this paranormal investigative group. The evidence is beginning to come in, although it hasn't all been collected and examined. There were 7 investigators - each with audio recorders, digital cameras and there were a couple of infrared video cameras - in addition to the other electro-magnetic field equipment and such. Each of these people will spend part of their time this week listening to 5 hours of audio and or video, in addition to hundreds of digital pictures. Plus, they all have regular jobs and families so of course, it's not done overnight, darn it.

What I have been told so far is that they have picked up several EVP's (electronic voice phenomena). From what I understand is that spirits generally vocalize on a different frequency level than humans. Dogs may be sensitive to spiritual vocals. Certain people with special sensitivities to the spiritual realm can often hear these entities talk. Most humans without developed sensitivities may hear an odd murmur or nothing at all. However, electronic audio equipment can usually pick up the different frequency with quite a bit of clarity. Computer software is sometimes used to help tweak the frequencies to clarify the sound, isolate the sound or reduce background noise. So if the team picks up something odd on audio - they then have to isolate it and tweak it.

So far we have one confirmed voice that didn't belong to anyone present. It was captured on the audio of a video recorder that was set up inside the pantry with the door open, looking out with full view of the kitchen. The investigative team was in the dining room and moving into the kitchen area when the word "HURRY" was picked up on audio. Again, no one in the group said this.

One of the investigators sent me these pictures tonight. They were taken 2 seconds apart. The team uses the 2-picture step to have a before and after confirmation picture if an anomaly is picked up. The team is also very cognizant of holding their breath while taking pictures and being spaced out away from other people who may be breathing. (Hah, let's HOPE they're breathing!) Hot breath in cold air can show a breath mist on night shot photos, but when tested, it takes between 10-15 seconds for the created breath mist to dissipate. Again, these photos were taken 2 seconds apart and the investigator is adamant that he held his breath and was not near anyone else when he took the pictures. They were taken about 20 feet from the west end of my house, looking towards a workshop building that had at one time been used as a dog kennel with a dog run behind it. Click on the images for a larger view.

I think at this time the photos are still ruled inconclusive due to how cold it was outside. But again, this investigator was VERY ADAMANT about holding his breath. Some of the investigators said they could make out one or more faces in the mist - I can too, but am going to err on the side of practicality and view it as how one can make out a teddy bear in a cloud. I do not know yet at this time if there are more pictures showing anything else similar.

Hopefully my Mom and Dad can come down to stay this weekend with the girls while I am gone. Mom said she would, but I detected a little bit of scaredy-cat in her when she begged and pleaded for Dad to come with her. Okay, maybe not begged and pleaded... but I think she did a little on the inside. My Dad said he'd come down with her, but he'd stay at my brother, JRP's house, not mine. Hah. He was kidding, but this stuff kinda freaks him out a little too - living in that house for 30 years he can't deny something else exists beyond the world we're living in.

I've been watching my 3-year-old nephew for the last week, picking him up from daycare until my brother gets off work because he started a new job. So tonight JRP worked late and I saved some dinner for him. While he was eating his warmed-up dinner I filled him in on all the ghostly goings-on. It went like this.

JRP: You're shitting me.

Me: Nope.

JRP: Bullshit. You shouldn't have told me that. I can't believe you told me. Dont' tell me anything else.

Me: Why are you scared?

JRP: (looking around anxiously) You hear the footsteps in here?

Me: Yep, they start over here (I point) and go until right past the pantry door.

JRP: (gulp) Hell yeah that scares me. Shit.

Me: (laughing) YOU? Scared? But you're a tough guy!

JRP: (nervous laugh) Yeah, but remember, the red room was mine for a few years. Refer to Spirits: Part 1 for the red room background.

Me: It was my room too. I just took out the light bulb and left the closet door open. Why, what happened to you in there?

JRP: I unscrewed the lightbulb because it kept turning on. You know, like a quarter turn so it can't make contact?

Me: (nodding)

JRP: So the next morning the damn thing is ON! I mean, something SCREWED IT BACK IN and it was on again. My door was locked. No one else had been in there. Shit.

(JRP says "Shit" a lot when he's scared and at a loss for words. I've seen this behavior exhibited in various males when scared, nervous or tense. An odd phenomena in itself. I mean, shit.)

I basically had to pull him into my bedroom to experience the difference in temperature of my bedroom and closet from the rest of the house. This made him very uneasy. I can't recall any time I've seen my brother scared as an adult. Sure, when he was a little kid and I'd turn my eyelids inside out, go into zombie mode and tell him there were dead people in the attic. But that was loooong ago. And, by the way, despite my adolescent torture treatments to his small child psyche, I'm still his favorite sister. Go figure.

He was pretty incredulous that I had asked him and his wife and his kid to stay at MY HOUSE while I was gone next weekend. Yeah, I admitted that's why I hadn't told him about this whole thing beforehand. I think I lost some points with him on that admission, but hey, it was the truth. Hopefully though, my Mom and Dad won't be scared of staying in our spook house. They're cool like that.

I love ya Mom and Dad.

JRP, you're a wuss. And for the record, if you read my blog you would've already known all this. So there.

Spirits: Part 4

2008-02-23T12:26:00.001-06:00

First off - great investigation last night. My thanks to Christy, Kendall, Carrie, Joe, Roger, Bobbie & Sarah at Oklahoma Paranormal Research & Investigations.

I was very comforted to learn that I. AM. NOT. LOSING. MY. MIND. I could take you through a play-by-play of the evening, but I did that with my mother on the phone this morning and it took quite a while verbally and I doubt y'all want to read a post that's 1,000,000 words long so I'll try to summarize as much as I can.

The final conclusion is there is a mild haunting taking place. It is not the previous female homeowner who passed away. It is not demonic. The fact that it is not demonic in nature drastically reduced my fear level. I hadn't alluded to it much on the blog, but one of my great fears was that it was a demon entity and y'all don't know what a chicken butt I am about that kind of stuff. Omen, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, ... those kind of shows. I don't watch them. Never.

Christy quickly sensed a male entity - a human one. He's not with the house, he's with the land. He comes out of the back woods and she was very drawn to go out to the back of the house. The whole team did a very thorough sweeps of the house and part of the land - it was quite dark so the land area was limited to just the nearest vicinity of the house. She commented that she would like to come back during the day and go out into the woods where's she's being drawn to.

This entity - he's elusive. For the first several hours she referred to him as "The Runner" because she'd try to draw him in and find out information about him but he kept running away. He didn't like her. She wasn't afraid of him. He didn't want her to know anything about him. He wanted to be known he was here, but didn't want her to find out personal information about him. She got the name, "David." She feels he's been here a long, long time - like early to mid 1800's. He's been running from something or someone. Possibly in life - and he's still running. He may have been an early pioneer or outlaw - that's just guessing on my part, Christy felt like he had done something wrong and was hiding from people because of it. She had a very difficult time getting information from him.

He was in the house. Everyone heard him - saw the same shadows and movement I've been seeing, heard the footsteps, heard the cabinet doors in the kitchen opening, movement, and knocking sounds. I won't know for about a week exactly what was captured on equipment, but she's fairly certain there will be evidence in some form or another on camera, video infrared camera and/or EVP (electronic voice phenomena). There were unusual temperature readings and electronic magnetic readings. . . I am not quite sure what these meant, but it alerts them to things. (How's that for a basically useless description? Here's a link to the equipment they use.) At one time, towards the end of their investigation we had a sit-down in my bedroom which is the "heart" - where his presence is the heaviest. A noise, something between a whisper and a low vocal was heard and did not come from any of us present. This was in response to her repeated questions and confronting him with bits and pieces information she was getting about him. I think altogether there may have been 3 or 4 audible sounds, like a murmur, or voice not quite audible to human ears. However, Christy said what we hear with our human ears is usually much clearer and coherent on audio playback of their equipment. While in the bedroom, a mirror I had leaned up against the wall, with about 4 framed wall art -- wall decor I haven't gotten around to hanging up yet. The mirror loudly fell over and thumped against the wall. No one was near the mirror when this occurred.

Now for you skeptics out there, trust me when I tell you this team was very professional. Audio recording happened from the time they entered the house until the time they left. Every single time someone sighed, bumped something, thumped, burped, stomach gurgled, -- made any noise that may come across as "odd" when played back - they acknowledged. There was an ongoing litany of *thump* followed by "That was me." *grumble* - "That was my stomach" *swishing noise* - "That was me shifting". . . you get the idea. While taking outdoor shots, it was very cold - they'd space out about 4-5 feet between them, call out "I'm in" when they were about to take a camera flash shot so there wasn't cross-flashes. They would hold their breath while taking a shot to prevent breath mists in cold air. They always took 2 shots of the same thing, so if one shot shows an anomaly, the other shot would be a comparison.

Christy said this "David" isn't like the usual human spirit. The usual spirit wants to communicate with someone who can communicate with them - they want to tell their story, make contact. David doesn't. She referred to him as a prankster and bully who gets his jollies out of scaring people. He can take different forms, depending on the targeted persons fears. And he's been doing this a long time and is very, very good at it.

He knew my weaknesses - my fears and he used that against my dreams. Anything happening to my children, anything demonic - those things scare me to the very core of my being. My dreams were about that and they were very, very lucid. She said he's not demonic, he just took that form in my dreams to scare me, to break me down.

Christy didn't want to know what rooms or areas of the house I had experienced the most activity. Without knowing, she nailed it. She said she first encountered David in the master bedroom closet - he basically told her to get out. The presence, the heaviness was also felt in my bedroom. Several members of the team would get a pounding headache or waves of nausea in my bedroom or closet. But when they left that room, it would go away. I must be immune to that physical pronouncement - I feel a heaviness, a suffocating heat, a weight - but never have had a headache or nausea like that. Bobbie also felt the heaviness, felt suffocating. Carrie felt something so pronounced in the bedroom and closet that she had a hard time holding the video camera and said she felt like she was about to fall over.

David didn't want to be brought in - he was elusive. When we were not in the kitchen, he would make sounds in there. When we went into the kitchen the noises would stop. Christy said it was like hide and seek, or cat and mouse. He likes playing with people. When she was in my closet, she asked me if I have a fear of closets. I immediately replied "no." She said that he thinks I fear them. She asked if I had a fear of being locked in a closet and not able to get out. I told her I didn't until she mentioned, but now I will. *chuckle* She said this fear might go back to childhood. UHHHH. Yeah, remember the closet upstairs in the red room of my parents house that George used to always open the door and turn the light on? I was scared of that closet. (Read Spirits: Part 1) Apparently he knew that and tried to use that on me. I wasn't ever scared of the closet in there though, thought it felt creepy, thought it was hot - and it was, a floor reading of 81 at one time and 83-84 a few minutes later. The baseline temperature in the house was 68-69, but my closet and my bedroom and the kitchen area were significantly higher. Mid to upper 70's. The area where the most activity occurs. Fortunately the girls' rooms and that end of the house is clear - nothing scary, nothing odd happening over there.

Anyway - overall, I feel immensely relieved. The conclusion was this is a spirit that we probably won't be able to get rid of. But, he gets his jollies scaring us so if we aren't scared or ignore him then he may get bored and leave us alone. Christy said she wouldn't be surprised if neighbors adjoining this property have also encountered him. He's tied to the land, not the house - and there are about 5 houses that adjoin this land within a 15 acre area.

I finally slept. It was at 6am with one dog in bed, one dog in the floor, a lamp light on and the TV on, but I did sleep. I woke up at 10am and felt like I had slept a solid 8 hours. I feel very rested. I immediately called Mom and recounted everything to her. I just talked to Alley Cat and she's relieved also. We've BOTH got to put on our big girl panties and not let him scare us. Show no fear. Ignore him. Tell him to go away, pester someone else. If I stand up to him and she doesn't he's liable to start in on her more so she understands that she can't let him get the best of her. She said she thinks she can do that. I do too. Now that we know what we're dealing with and it can't actually hurt us and it's not demonic - he's just a mean cranky old spirit who gets a kick out of scaring people. I can handle him now.

I will still keep you posted if activity occurs or when Christy comes back out to do a daylight "sit-down" with the spirit out in the woods. Also, if they did pick up documented evidence on their equipment she'll eventually get this investigation posted on their website and I'll share the link on here to check it out.

Thanks, especially to Flea for really being a huge comfort to me yesterday. I enjoyed talking with you and yes, we will do lunch soon. Hugs to others who sent me e-mails of encouragement. I appreciate it. I didn't think I was actually going nutty, but hey, that's been known to happen and at a certain point, I did begin to question myself at times. This investigation, this confirmation is very nice to have.

I'm off to put on my kevlar big girl panties and open a big can of good ol' fashioned Oklahoma Whoop-Ass. *grin*

Spirits: Part 3

2008-02-21T12:15:00.003-06:00

I wish I could be my usual witty, happy, carefree self. Alas, I have been a ball of anxiety. You know the things that go bump in the night? Well, the other night hubby was out of town and I maybe got 3 hours of sleep, if you combine all the 15 minute light naps in between hearing noises and seeing things that I shouldn't be seeing.

I began to question my sanity. Seriously. The next morning I called hubby and raved like a lunatic for a while. Thankfully, he doesn't think I'm nuts. Or if he does, he's been smart enough to not say anything. I went online and Googled paranormal investigators in Oklahoma City. I found a group of people that's been doing them for 7 years. They use all the latest equipment and try through scientific means to explain the happenings - electro-magnetic readings, temperature readings, knowing where the plumbing, pipes, electrical wires are to make sure they're not the cause or interfering with odd readings, doing audio recordings, visual recordings and they also have a psychic on their team. If they confirm unexplained findings they do more research into land records, previous owners, etc.

I walked around wringing my hands wondering if maybe I was being irrational, or making a big thing out of nothing - but honestly, I'm not. This isn't a flight of fancy. Or my imagination getting the best of me. My dogs bark at NOTHING - the wall, their eyes will track unseen objects or whatever the hell it is with hackles up, growling and ears flat. I have nightmares and vivid dreams like I. HAVE. NEVER. HAD. BEFORE. I don't even want to tell you about them again, because they're that horrible to think about. I hear noises that ARE NOT heating vents, ductwork, plumbing, pipes, wind, boards creaking, water heater or gas heaters kicking on. I know what those sound like. This is shuffling, walking, thumping, bumping, scratching walls, opening shutters, closing them, opening doors, door knobs clicking. And they've gotten LOUDER. I see shadows as if someone has passed across a doorway and briefly blocked the light from an adjacent room, the dogs will bark and growl at this brief shadow - I'll look around and nothing, nothing is there. No one. Nothing. But I saw it - a glimpse. They saw it. It's something. I don't know what the hell it is. But it's something.

The day after I had the horrible, horrible night and felt absolutely frightened, and later called the paranormal investigators - Alley Cat came home from school and before I told her about my creepy night or contacting investigators, she told me "There was something out there (meaning the main rooms in the house) this morning, Mom. I felt it. It scared me - I mean scared so I RAN out of the house all the way to my car when I left this morning." Talk about a lump in my throat. Seriously. What I felt, she also felt. It's a heaviness - this isn't the friendly spirit of a former owner who died. I don't know what it is. It feels menacing. It's heavy. It's dark. It's HOT - as in the temperature in my bedroom was over 90 degrees - and I had the door open to the sun porch with the fans on where it was 40 degrees out there - no way it could've maintained 90 degrees in my bedroom, but it did. The rest of the house, a cool 68 - 70. My bedroom becomes a furnace at times. With no explanation. The heating vents are stuffed with towels. So much to explain, I won't go into all of the nitty gritty details - but there is something or somethings here. I can't explain it myself. I can't even wrap my mind around it, honestly.

The investigating team will be here tomorrow night (Friday) to set up equipment around 10:30 pm and spend the night collecting data and doing their thing. I hope it will at least somehow confirm what just has me absolutely on edge. Hopefully, it won't just confirm it but also help to explain it. I can get my mind away from it during the day. But the nights are long and restless. Hubby has heard some noises, as I blogged about earlier. But it seems to kind of go away when he's home. I don't know why. Maybe it feeds on fear so it's targeting me and my daughter when we're alone. I don't know. Monkey Girl will be at her Dad's this weekend and she knows nothing of these goings on. I don't want to scare her or the child will be in my bed every single night. And so far, she seems pretty oblivious to anything that doesn't have anything to do with playing outside, Disney channels or Webkinz.com. And I'd really like for it to stay that way.

My husband asked, if they DO find something - then what? I don't know. I have no idea. Right now I just have to take it one step at a time because this is so, I don't know - so. . . odd. Foreign. I don't know what we're dealing with here. And until I do, I don't have the foggiest idea what to do about it. Anyway - I'll keep ya posted.

Spirits: Part 2

2008-02-11T12:14:00.001-06:00

Not long after we moved into this house I started experiencing unusual "things". First, was just a gut feeling that I wasn't alone. Almost daily as I'm doing something in one of the rooms, usually the kitchen or living room - I'll catch a movement of some kind out of the corner of my eye and turn my head and nothing is there. No dog. No kid. Just me. Things I just shrugged off as nothing.

Then at night I started hearing noises. Not the usual house noises, heating ducts clicking or the walls settling from the wind... not those kinds of noises. Noises like someone walking in the kitchen located just off the master bedroom. Noises of someone opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen. Of other doors being opened or closed in the house. My husband was out of town for work for 2 weeks and I didn't sleep well those nights. I settled into a routine of locking all of the outside doors, turning off all of the lights except the one over the stove and closing all of the interior doors to bedrooms and bathrooms. Sometimes a light in the kitchen is on in the morning, although the kids deny turning it on. Sometimes the door leading to a big room off the utility room is open, again, the kids deny opening it. I've gotten out of bed in the middle of the night several times to investigate and have found nothing, but the noises are very real and loud. I didn't mention this to anyone. Not the kids and not my husband.

Last week my 18 year old daughter, Alley Cat, remarked to me that she hears noises and that's why she had turned on a stereo in the living room. She gets up early in the morning before I do to leave for school. She turns on the hall light outside of her bedroom, her bathroom light and a light in the entry way. She doesn't even go into the kitchen because she meets her boyfriend for breakfast before school. One morning getting ready for school, she felt like someone was watching her and then she heard someone walking in the living room. She called out for me, and looked, but I was still in bed.

So then I shared with her what I had been sensing and hearing also. I told her I felt like it was a feminine presence and not someone old. I had no evidence for why I thought this, it was just a feeling I had. I also strongly feel the presence in the master bedroom and bathroom. I don't hear noise in there, but the presence is very overwhelming sometimes.

When my husband returned home, I didn't tell him about this and I asked daughter not to say anything either. I wanted to see if he noticed anything. He did. The first night he was home, I slept like a baby for the first night in weeks - safe and secure that he was there with me. He, however, kept hearing noise in the kitchen - he said he thought he heard doors and what sounded like someone walking or moving about the house. He got out of bed at 3:30 in the morning and found the house quiet and everyone asleep. The next morning he told me about this and I told him he wasn't imagining things - we've also heard the same things.

This prompted me to go online the other night and see if I could do some investigating on previous owners and find out anything. I honestly wasn't too surprised with what I found and for me, it confirmed what I had been feeling.

This house was built in 1981 by Thomas and Beverly. Thomas is a veterinarian and that explains the large room off the utility room that has 2 outside entrances - with a direct path to an outbuilding with 5 kennel doors and a large dog run. By the way, this is the room I am in now that's being used as a computer room and second living room where the kids watch TV and play video games. Interestingly, a came across a probate record for Beverly. After more digging I found her social security death record showing her death date of 09/17/92. She was only 52 years old. Her husband later sold the house in 1995.

I plan on calling Thomas to ask him some questions about other things we would like to know about the house - regarding door hardware, a safe we don't have a combination for and some of the wiring that's been done that confuses us. I also hope to ask him about Beverly, if it's not too upsetting for him.

I can't quite explain it, but something in my gut tells me it's her spirit that is attached to this house. Just the way I somehow sensed before I found out about her that it was a female and that she wasn't very old. I don't blame her if she doesn't want to leave this house. It's a fabulous house and if her and her husband built it - she undoubtedly put a lot of herself into it. I wonder if she died in an accident or if it was health related. Such a young age, I also wonder if she had cancer and if possibly she died in this house. That wouldn't surprise me.

I'm not sure if she's a friendly spirit. I sense a negative energy, but I can't say for sure if that's with her or maybe something or someone else associated with the land. I'm hoping she's friendly as we plan on staying here. I talked to her today and told her I'd be happy to share this house with her and that I was aware of her being here. I told her of some plans we had for the yard, flower beds and garden. I think she might have liked flowers and gardening also. I'm anxious to find out more about her if her husband is open to talking about her.

I'll keep you posted. Oh, and by the way, husband doesn't think I'm nuts. He thinks she's probably here also.

Several of you have also mentioned your own encounters and I'm looking forward to reading about them. So share! Share!

Spirits: Part 1

2008-02-10T12:13:00.001-06:00

I know not everyone believes in spirits. Spirits as in those who have passed away still inhabiting the same spaces we inhabit - except in a different form. I can understand how it would be easy to be skeptical if you haven't experienced the presence of spirits. I grew up in a large Victorian home built in 1893 that was originally used as a mortuary. My parents still live in that house today. The home went into disrepair in the 1940's or 1950's after the mortician owner died and it sat abandoned for decades until a couple in the mid 70's bought the home and remodeled it from top to bottom. Converting the old mortuary part downstairs and the family living area upstairs into a very large family home. Then my parents bought the house in 1977.

It wasn't long after we moved in that my oldest sister first met "George". KSS occupied the bedroom at the top of the stairs that had a private adjoining bathroom. We always called it the "red room" because it had red carpet. Yes, red carpet and paneled walls - think mid 70's decor. She used to mention how the closet door always seemed to open by itself in the middle of the night and the light would be on inside the closet. Every member of the family who slept in that room experienced the closet door phenomena. The walls weren't crooked, the foundation wasn't moving - the door latched securely and if left ajar it wouldn't swing open or closed so it wasn't a matter of a door off-kilter. We just assumed that for some reason "George" didn't like that door shut and he might be afraid of the dark because the light would always be on inside the closet. Later when that room became my bedroom as a teenager, I removed the closet light bulb.

One night KSS had a friend stay the night. She had a king-sized bed that was a hand-me-down from my parents and Shawn said her and her friend went to sleep with the bed and bedspread made up in the regular way. Sometime during the night either Shawn or her friend had to go to the bathroom and was surprised (and quite a bit freaked out) that the bedspread was tightly tucked in ALL THE WAY around the bed. This was a long bedspread that hung to the floor. It was fully tucked in underneath the mattress so tightly one woke up the other for help to get out of the bed. (Shawn or Mom - feel free to comment if I've gotten any of these stories wrong a little bit. It's been told so many times over the years, I know there have been variations told.) Shawn's friend would never stay the night or go in Shawn's room again.

My mother's sister, my aunt - was one of those people who was very intuitive. She sensed things. She knew who was going to call before the phone ring. She knew when something bad had happened to a family member before being told. (By the way, my mom is that way also.) When we first moved into the house, the red room was used as a guest room for visiting family members. My mom woke up to find my aunt asleep on the couch in the living room. She told mom that there was no way in hell she was sleeping in that red room - something else was in there. She wasn't the only person who sensed "George" without ever being told anything about him.

The most startling thing George did was he appeared to two of my oldest sisters. Both times in the bathroom adjoining the red room. KSS said she was brushing her teeth and looking in the mirror and a man was standing behind her. Gray hair, mustache, bowler or derby type of hat, suit with a pin-stripe, vest and pocket watch. Very old-timey clothing. She turned around and nothing was there. She looked back in the mirror and he was gone. The same thing happened to my other sister. I never saw him.

I did, however, strike up a conversation with a lady at the hospital when I was a 14 year-old candy striper. This woman was very interested in me when she found out I lived in "the haunted house". Yes, our house had been called the haunted house for years while it sat abandoned and several of my teachers throughout my school years told me stories of how they would dare their friends to go into the house when they were youngsters. This woman at the hospital was elderly and she told me her husband's great-uncle was the mortician who built and lived in the home. I paid a visit to her house not long after that because she said he had old photo albums with the great-uncle in them. I kid you not, the uncle's name was George. The very name we had given the ghost just so we'd have something to call him. His picture was exactly as my sisters had described him - exactly. Her husband told me George had died of old age in that bedroom at the top of the stairs. That had been his room.

George still makes himself known from time to time and I think all of us, to this day, greet him or talk to him when we go back upstairs to stay when we're home visiting over the holidays. Although George is quieter now that he has the upstairs to himself several years ago he must've had a fit of some kind. My mother and my sister KDR were downstairs in the living room when they heard a LOUD noise - a THUD coming from upstairs. They were the only ones in the house. They went upstairs and there was an old antique chest of drawers in the red room. The kind that has a mirror attached to two spindle posts and the mirror can be tilted. My little brother had last occupied the room, but had since moved out - however several of his things still littered the top of the chest. Cups full of change, model cars, etc. The spindle posts supporting the mirror had broken - snapped. Now if it was just a case of old wood and it finally breaking due to the weight of the mirror, the mirror would have surely fallen forwards and knocked something off the top of the chest. The mirror was a good 5 feet from the dresser laying in the floor - MIRROR SIDE UP. Had it just fallen forwards, it would be face down. We say George did it. You tell me. Nothing, none of the cups or model cars were disturbed - the dresser was dusty and nothing had been moved at all.

So yes, I believe in spirits. Everyone in my family does. And believe me when I say that my redneck dad and brother are not the type to believe in something "frivolous". And they both admit, yeah, there's something up there.

The reason I told you about this is because I haven't lived at home for over 20 years. In all the places I've lived since then, I've never sensed or experienced a spirit. Until now. We just moved into this house less than a month ago and I've been sensing a presence.

To be continued to Part 2.