Ghost Hunters

Hello again, faithful readers! Back again to try and entertain youse with stories from Stage Right. Of course, I’ve kind of detoured off the “rockstar” (or more accurately “barstar”) posts, and have been sharing the more bizarre paranormal activities that I’ve been experiencing, just to mix things up, have something different to write about.

As for Rock Bottom, things have been going very well, we’ve played some new material and are learning even more, and there’s lots going on just out on the horizon. We’ve been having a fun time, to be sure.

Back home, as I mentioned, we set up a meeting with The St. Louis Paranormal Society, and were very interested in having them come in, take a look, see if they think there is some true “paranormal” activity, or if this was just common place, house settling type events. As I say, I’m an open minded skeptic. I know there are “more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy”, to quote Shakespeare, but you’re gunna have to prove it to me. The old Missouri axiom of “Show Me”.

My lovely girlfriend has told me many strange happenings that have occurred in the 10 months she’s lived at this residence, most of which I’m at a lost to explain to her, but having not seen, I cannot vouch for either. And, I’ve shared several with her. On several occasions, we’ve heard (and felt!) a thunderous crash emanating from the living room while we lay in bed. When I leapt up to investigate, I found no signs of anything moving, and when I try to recreate the sound, the nearest I can come is picking up the corner of the couch and dropping it on the hard wood floor! What could cause this? House settling? Contraction of the foundation from weather fluctuations?

I’ve also shared with her what she’s experienced where a water faucet in the bathroom turned on by itself, then shut off, again, as we lay in bed. I could clearly hear it as did she, and she investigated to find water pooling in the bottom of the sink, as though indeed someone had just used it.

One evening shortly before the STLPS investigators came for a preliminary interview, I was standing with Beck in her spare bedroom which houses her computer desk. With my coat on, getting ready to leave, myself standing at the bedroom doorway, facing down the hall while Beck stood from her computer chair within the spare room, I actually witnessed a bright, blue/white “flash” of light, for lack of a better word, rapidly cross the living room, just below the ceiling, and vanish as it moved towards the living room closet, an area where we’ve all felt very uncomfortable around. It was moving very quickly, it was very, very bright, did not reach the ground that I could see, and had almost, I hate to say, a “mist” quality about it, as though the middle part of this form was solid white, but the edges were more of a bluish color, and wispy.

I froze in mid-sentence, startled, trying to process what it was I just witnessed. Was that car headlights? I focused my hearing, but I could hear nothing pass by outside, and we always hear the traffic through her thin walls. I even strained to spot the tell tale signs of passing red taillights through her living room window to confirm what I’d seen was only a passing vehicle, but there wasn’t any. There was no activity outside what so ever.

Beck immediately picked up that something just caught my attention, and inquired what the matter was.

“Nothing,” I assured her. I couldn’t possibly explain it, and it wasn’t really solid enough to say “I just saw a ghost”. I didn’t. I saw a strange, vaporous blue/white form of light move across the living room. Something that could easily be debunked as car headlights. Except there weren’t any cars going by, and in truth, car headlights tend to be dimmer, and have a more yellowish hue, unless they are the bluer halogen beams.

I walked into the living room and again peered out the window, down the street to confirm that a car hadn’t passed by. I was still at a loss to explain this. I looked out the front door, and none of the neighbors where in any vehicles in their driveways, so, again, that couldn’t explain it either. From the angle I saw the light, and the motion across the room, I think it could have only come from a car pulling into the next door neighbor’s driveway, which was directly next to the room I was standing in, and I didn’t hear any car pull along side. I clearly would have been able to, and probably heard car door slamming as well. No one pulled in next door.

It was a mystery, and I didn’t want to alarm her with something I didn’t have any explanation for, or solid evidence as paranormal. So I kept it to myself. She is on edge enough around the house with all of this!

We met with the STLPS guys one evening, and they asked us for our accounts of what we’d seen, and they video recorded the whole thing, and audio recorded it. Both for record keeping, and for investigative purposes. That’s when I explained the odd flash of light I’d witnessed just a few days earlier. Beck found that discomforting. They asked us some questions about our beliefs, and took a short tour of the premises. Couple a nice guys.

They agreed that it sounded interesting to them, and volunteered to come over some evening and investigate, should we (she) wish it. I left that up to Beck, as it’s her house, but that was pretty much the reason we contacted them! We set up a mutually agreeable time, and they were to return with full field hunting gear.

Naturally we were very excited, although somewhat nervous. Was there anything really here? Would they experience it? Were we just going to come off as kooks? And if they DO find something, THEN WHAT? As you can tell, there was no real good ending for this. Either we’re going to be thought of as kooks worried about bumps from a house settling, or we were living in the Amityville Horror! What were we getting ourselves into?

The rolled in one evening, and I’d brought by two daughters over to witness. My oldest had already been on the Haunted Tour at Mineral Springs, snapping her camera and bravely enduring the séance. I figured she’d be able to handle this. But, I couldn’t NOT invite my younger daughter, although I wasn’t sure how she’d react. But she insisted that she be allowed to attend, and I thought, what the hell. Probably not going to have anything happen anyway.

The STLPS duo set up four infrared cameras in different key locations of the house: facing the living room closet where we’ve had some uncomfortable feelings; in the spare bedroom on the computer, where the computer chair has been heard to slide across the hardwood floor; in her bedroom facing the closet where I’d experienced the feeling of someone standing next to me along side the bed, and in the basement, looking through the main room into the doorway of the laundry room.

After the cameras were hooked up, adjusted, and “taping” on the DV-R set up in the kitchen as master control, we shut off all the lights in the house, and began the investigation. I think it was about quarter after 10PM. I sat monitoring the large flat panel screen quartered with all four infrared cameras with one of the investigators, while the other grabbed his digital tape recorder, his hand held DV-R, and his EMF detector, which noted spikes of Electro Magnetic Fields, and scurried off into the darkness for field work.

They also provided some simple hand held tape recorders if any of us cared to do any EVP work, which is Electronic Voice Phenomena. Basically, sometimes when you record something in a paranormal environment and play it back, unknown voices can be heard. My daughters seemed eager, and very bravely took one of the recorders and wandered around the upstairs floor asking repeated questions, attempting to communicate with our so called “ghost”. They were very thorough, and I was quite proud of their nerve! I couldn’t have done something like that at their age. They basically never really went too far from us up stairs, as the house isn’t all that large. But, it was brave none the less!

I watched them as the entered different rooms, my oldest leading the way, pushing the tape recorder out ahead of her in the darkness, and my younger daughter trailing behind, holding close to her. I also scanned the screen looking for anything that might catch my attention, but for the most part, the black and white screens seemed pretty innocuous.

Once in a while, however, I’d notice a small ball drift across the screen. Then another. Then, perhaps another. Orbs? Fascinating! Eagerly, I pointed them out to the lead STLPS investigator.

“Yeah,” he said calmly, “you see those. Here’s an interesting experiment you can do.” He instructed Beck to take a couple throw pillows, and standing in front of the nearest infrared camera, beat them together. Instantly, dust shot into the air, and from that moment, I saw tons of my so called “orbs!” Just dust. Creepy, but very explainable.

“Sometimes you catch the real thing, but mostly, it’s just dust,” he explained. “This house is exceptionally clean,” he noted. Beck keeps a spotless house! “You can imagine some of these older, abandon places we investigate, and all the dust! You see this sort of thing constantly.”

So, the sensitivity of these cameras was pretty impressive to pick up movement of tiny dust particles in a darkened room. Of course, as I settled into studying the camera images as they were being recorded, some of the excitement faded, as the revelation of the dust tempered my excitement.

After the girls wrapped up a good session of EVP work, we settled in for what was looking to be a quiet, uneventful session. The lead investigator was fatigued from an all nighter he’d pulled the night before at another investigation, and rested in the living room chair quietly. His partner continued to scan the house, noting to me once as he passed by that he strangely found that both closets we mentioned had high EMF readings, with the one in the living room having the highest. He then proceeded to the basement.

My youngest daughter pulled up a chair beside me, and joined in the fun. It was kind of fascinating to watch, yet kind of dull at the same time. You just felt like something MIGHT happen at any second. But, nothing was, really.

I noticed on one corner of the screen the second investigator walking past the camera located in the basement, and he entered the laundry room down there. The lead investigator wandered over, and we began talking about the DV-R setup, and how he too enjoys just sitting and monitoring it, sometimes. That anticipation.

My daughter noticed something on the screen, and pointed out to us that a clothesline located in the laundry room appeared to be moving, almost swinging.

“Look at that, daddy,” she said.

“Yes hon, one of the investigators just went in there,” I said. The lead investigator peered over my shoulder.

“He did?” he asked. Although we couldn’t see him, I’d seen him enter there. So, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We continued to talk. The line continued to move.

“What’s that?” my youngest asked, pointing to a strange, dark shape on the basement ceiling, above the swaying clothesline. It did seem out of place.

“I dunno, honey” I said. The lead investigator looked on as well, and kind of shrugged his shoulders.

“Not sure what that is,” he said, staring at the screen. It looked, faintly, like a slight discoloration on the ceiling, and as though it was shifting, but, it wasn’t very strong. Then it disappeared. We were at a loss. Moments later, the investigator left the room and soon I could hear him coming up the basement steps.

“Saw you go in the laundry room,” I said. “You were playing around with the clothesline, it looked like,” I said, marveling at the sensitivity of the infrared. He paused.

“You saw that?” he calmly asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “we were watching. These things are neat!” The investigator kind of looked past me and approached the lead investigator, and they quietly shuffled off. I continued to focus my attention on the screen, noticing that the clothesline had stopped appearing to vibrate, and there was no longer any hint of that dark “shadow” across the basement ceiling.

After a moment, they returned to our “Central Command”, heading again towards the basement.

“We’re going to reposition that basement camera,” the lead investigator said, matter-of-factly. “We’re not getting the angle we want out of it.” I nodded, sat back, and continued watching. It was very relaxing.

They went into the room for a brief time, then re-emerged. They removed the camera from the main basement area, dragging it into the laundry room proper, and pointed it across the room at the clothesline and at an apparatus Beck has hanging from it used to dry socks, undies, and the like. A circular contraption with clothespins attached that freely hangs from the line, dangling in the open. It was still. Everything in the room was motionless.

They returned from the basement, and were fairly tight lipped about the whole thing. At this point, it started to dawn on me: something was up. Something was going on, but they weren’t saying much. They were just observing. They certainly weren’t tipping their hand. I started to keep an even sharper eye.

My oldest had continued her very thorough EVP investigation of the upstairs, and I suggested that she and her sister do some work downstairs.

“I’m not going down there!” my youngest announced.

“I’m not going down there alone!” my oldest added. Well, guess it’s my turn.

“I’ll go down there with you then.” My oldest agreed, and we wandered down into the pitch blackness of the basement. My pulse did race a bit, but overall I was calm, curious, and, well, kinda had to be a brave soldier for my daughter! Don’t want her to think I’m some big scaredy cat! Truth is, if something really startled me, I’d probably piss pants!

We gently walked through the basement with the tape rolling, and my daughter called out “anyone here?” There was only silence. I lead us over to the laundry room. I figured if we were going to get anything, it would be in here!

The gray light from the basement window shone down onto the floor, and I could barely make out shadows of a bench and washing machine, etc. I couldn’t really see the clothesline, but it appeared still. My heart was pumping in my ears. Off to the far side, I could make out the circular ring of red LED lights from the infrared camera re-arranged by the investigators.

“Anyone here?” my daughter called out. We were met with stone cold silence. I spoke a few things, trying to get a response. Basically, I felt like I was talking to an empty room. A very dark, empty room. My daughter continued to question the darkness. We neither heard nor felt anything. It was silent. Well, we gave it our best shot. Might as well, head back upstairs. I wasn’t really uncomfortable. There just didn’t seem to be anything more to do. We wrapped it up and headed back upstairs, and I felt good I did a little investigating with my daughter. Do they have a Girl Scout badge for that?!

Things began to settle, and the investigation became one of waiting. My youngest had become very sleepy, and I figured it was time to take her home and put her to bed. It was well past midnight. This was going to go on until daybreak, they suggested. I quickly shuttled her home, and returned to the investigation.

I returned to find my oldest watching the monitor as I was, while the lead investigator and Beck sat in the living room, discussing paranormal events, passing the time. The other investigator was continuing to conduct research in other rooms of the house, sitting quietly, recording for EVPs, and filming with his DV-R.

“Look at that, Dad!” my oldest whispered. She pointed to the camera located in the living room at the very edge, and at a small “glow” that would appear, and then disappear near the wine glass shelf located between the living room and the dining/kitchen area.

“Huh!” I said with surprise, noticing the phenomena. That garnered the attention of the lead investigator. “There it is!” I said as it reappeared.

“Wait a minute,” my daughter said. She walked across the kitchen and stopped. “Is it still there?” As she said that, it vanished.

“No,” I stated. “It’s gone.” It became apparent that it wasn’t paranormal.

“Yeah,” she said, “it’s just the glow of the TV monitor in the kitchen, and us walking in front of it, huh?” She was right on! Impressive. A very subtle event to notice, and very logical deduction to explain it. And, from a twelve year old!

“Wow!” the lead investigator told her. “Nice pick up!” he said. She beamed a bright smile, and sat back down next to me, watching. Waiting. Wondering.

Before long, I grew tired of watching the four screened monitor. It was starting to become like watching paint dry. Nothing was happening in the basement, although there was one orb that flashed by and headed straight for the camera. But, by now I’d pretty much dismissed all of those as just plain old dust.

I settled on the couch next to Beck, relaxed, and wondered if we’d ever really catch anything. My daughter had grabbed one of the tape recorders my girls were using that was full, and had begun to play back the recordings to see if they had caught anything. It didn’t take her long! She had EVPs!

The first one we discovered was a very faint “hi!” My daughter noticed it, and brought me the tape to listen to. I began to put it in the full context, and was amazed!

The recording goes something like this: my daughters were located in front of the living room closet, and had opened it. My oldest asks “is there anyone there? Do you like closets?” Then there is a pause, and my youngest asks a rather light hearted “hellllllo?”

On the tape, there is the sound of two distinctly loud rapping noises.

Then a small voice whispers “hi!” Shortly after that, you hear my youngest again say “anyone there?” They obviously don’t hear either event! Now, if they’d heard either the raps, or the voice, they would have freaked out! I played it again and again, and marveled.

Naturally, I started to rewind all the available tape, and start listening for more odd anomalies. Before long, I found another one.

The girls were in the computer room asking questions, when you here an adult voice sternly say “girls!” It’s not really in context with anything asked. At first, I thought it was my own voice. But, that proves not to be the case. They were in a different part of the house, and when you play the tape in its context, you can hear my voice in the background in another part of the house, the kitchen where I was monitoring the screen. I never went into the rooms with them. Another unexplained event!

The best one came later, as we were eagerly searching for them now. As the girls went into Beck’s bedroom, they stood at the doorway, too frightened to walk all the way into the darkened chamber. My oldest stuck out the tape recorder into the darkness and asked “what is your name?” From behind her, you can hear the muffled voice of my youngest say “ask it again!” My oldest obliges, and repeats “what is your name?”

From right in front of the tape recorder, you hear a voice speaking, one of a child, but what it says cannot be understood, and it trails away. Then, plain as day, and spoken directly into the microphone is the voice of a young girl who replies “Amy”. Not a whisper, mind you. Plain as day! That is followed quickly by the muffled sound of my youngest saying “did you hear that?” My oldest then says, “no, what?”

Chills ran down my spine when I first played this, and I think I must have played it 15 times that night dissecting it, putting it into context, and figuring out who those voices could be! All along, we’d wondered if this activity was being cause by a spirit of a child, and now I had that child introducing herself as Amy! WOW!

The investigators were pretty impressed as well. They began to dub my daughter as their Jr. Investigator In Training. She was having a lot of fun with it. She was fascinated, as we all were. Except Beck, who was now convinced more than ever she’d bought the door way to hell!

About 2AM, surprisingly, the investigators wrapped up. The lead investigator was greatly fatigued, and they decided they had plenty to go on. The other investigator, away from Beck, began to explain to me what happened in the laundry room and his personal experience there. They were going to wait to see what the recordings revealed for a definitive, but what he did say was when he went into there, he did not touch that clothesline, and as he was down there investigating, he began to notice the contraption hanging from the clothesline began to spin and twirl!

After a few weeks of waiting, we did get back in touch with them, and sadly, there really didn’t have more than what we’d already known had existed. The tape clearly shows the clothesline moving during the investigators experience, but you see him enter the room, the event occur, and the investigator leave the room. Nothing proves that he wasn’t the one moving the line, other than his word. The odd shadow we noticed on the ceiling of the basement during this event was the investigators own hand held DV-R with a crude IR light shining on the ceiling as he attempted to capture the motion from his viewpoint, but it was unsuccessful.

There were no other captured EVPs apart from the three, but they were three solid EVPs, and they double checked them against the DV-R cameras in the rooms, and they did occur as we suspected from the context we could hear on the tapes. The EVPs were not coming from anyone else in the group.

So, they felt like we had a genuine paranormal event going at the residence, and the next step, should we care to pursue it, would be to get in contact with a psychic they’ve used a couple times whom they feel they’ve had success in “cleansing” the house. That is, unless Beck was now comfortable with just the knowledge that she wasn’t imagining things.

It didn’t take Beck long to decide. “Let’s bring her in!” she said. She wants her house back!

And that will be my next blog, as that even occurs this weekend! Stay tuned!