As mentioned in my previous post, interacting with —
***record scratch***
As I was writing that previous partial statement, I just had a bag of sweet potatoes come off the microwave and land in the middle of the kitchen floor. The sweet potatoes have been sitting on the microwave for a few days and have never moved. Both cats are sleeping. It’s 3am. So I know my neighbors aren’t awake to cause shaking. Welcome to my life… where random stuff likes to happen. And now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.
As mentioned in my previous post, interacting with spirits has been normal for my whole life. I grew up thinking everyone else had similar experiences as me, but I quickly learned that my classmates didn’t. I won’t say I was bullied because of my experiences but I wasn’t usually taken seriously. This was before Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures were popular. I wanted to share my experiences with my peers, but I wasn’t sure how to do it.
My dad encouraged me to go explore areas that people had mentioned had activity. I would go explore abandoned old houses and hang out at places like Devil’s Tramping Ground. Anytime I went on vacation, I would check to see if there was a ghost walk that I could check out. I loved learning about local ghost stories and legends. When my parents gave me a copy of Tar Heel Ghosts by John Harden, I had fun researching more of the stories in the book.
Even with all this I wanted a way to show others what I experience was real and that they could experience it too. A few years after I graduated from high school I found a paranormal team* that was actually working with one of the local colleges to scientifically prove the existence of spirits and create classifications for the types of spirits, EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomenon), and other things like that. Thankfully they allowed me to join their group. They taught me how to conduct a paranormal investigation. They taught me the basics that I still use. I will go over those basics in a later post (otherwise this post will be 3,000 words long at least and neither of us have time for that right now). While with the team we got to do some really cool experiments such as dressing people in period clothing and having them do period activities (making lace, making bread, etc.) while we investigate to see if we can trigger a spirit or when visiting a location we had investigated before, we would play EVPs that we had recorded previously during a new EVP session. The latter had a really interesting response when we were at Ferry Plantation in Virginia Beach, VA. After playing one of the EVPs we got a recorded response saying “That’s me”.
One of my favorite investigations we went on was when we were investigating a property in central North Carolina**. There was a large house and small general store/ post office. The great-great-grandson of the original owner lead us around the property. The main house was quite neglected. It was difficult to walk around in large groups because the floors were weak in many areas. While conducting our investigation we picked up EVPs of children giggling and babies crying. The general store was broken up with a store on one side and a post office on the other side. Our team did an EVP session in there. We each took turns asking questions during the session. While I was waiting for my turns I realize I had a weird sensation on my right forearm and hand. It was like a slight electrical buzzing going up and down the side of forearm before settling on part of my palm and part of fingers. It felt like a small child trying to hold my hand. While waiting for my turns to ask questions, I kept getting images of Henry VIII stuck in my head. It’s hard to explain. It was like getting a song stuck in your head on repeat but it’s an image. So finally, I just asked if they were a child named Henry there. I noticed a reaction from our host but didn’t think too much of it at the time. About an hour later we packed up our stuff to go back into the main house. The host came up to me and the team leader. He asked if he could show me something. I agreed and walked out with him. He took me on a small 15-minute hike to the other side of the property. After walking through thigh high grass, we were suddenly in a small graveyard. He shown his flashlight on a headstone for Henry **. He explained that was his grandfather’s grave. The host said that his great-grandfather was the last Post Master for the general store before the neighboring town opened a larger Post Office. He said that his grandfather used to play in the post office until he was 8 or 10 years old (that was when the new post office opened, and their small post office was no longer needed). The host said that he thought I was picking up on his grandfather’s spirit. I was floored.
I have often felt that feeling in locations or had images on loop when trying to communicate with spirits but that was the first time that I had someone show me proof that backed up what I was experiencing was legitatimly a ghost communicating with me. Since this investigation I’ve learned to listen to clues like this when I am opening myself up to spirits. I’m not claiming to be a psychic or a medium. I know I don’t have any kind of gift like that. I just make sure I pay attention to what’s going on around me and to me. It helps make communicating with spirits easier when I know what to pay attention for. They won’t always speak with words. That can take a lot of energy for them.
I loved working with this paranormal team but after a while the internal politics of the group just started to become drama. I was also not liking how we only did investigations. We didn’t really do anything to help people that were having problems living with ghosts. I wanted to help people be able to enjoy living in their homes. So, I parted ways with the group.
Around this time Ghost Hunters and other shows like that were becoming very popular. I kept seeing people trying to imitate what they were watching and making a joke of it. There were news articles of people destroying property or getting injured because they didn’t know what they were doing while ghost hunting. I decided to start helping teams and individuals who wanted to ghost hunt learn how to do it in a safe manner and to get credible evidence. I started developing my own techniques for ghost hunting to help prevent something from contaminating the evidence. I moved around a lot during this period of my life, so I didn’t want to settle down with a team of my own. I was content with jumping around to where I was needed. I also started learning how to help families live with spirits. Little did I know that this would be what would lead to changing the course of the rest of my life.
But that is a story for another time.
*The names of these teams will not be mentioned for their privacy.
**Locations of private investigations will not be revealed. Names and details maybe changed to protect those involved.
Paranormal Housewife 