Personal Paranormal Experiences

[Deb]

Is that the place where Jack Nicholson, hacks into the door with an axe, and says, "Here's Johnny"?

Well, yes. But the actual filming was on a set in England, and the exterior scenes were Mount Hood. That's Hollywood, you know. But if you tour the Stanley, you'll recognize some details that look familiar from the movie.

No problem sharing my experience at the Stanley, this will be total indulgence for me. It was actually not when I stayed in Stephen King's room (that was back around '83 when I first moved to Colorado, the Stanley was pretty run down and neglected at that point). It happened years later, in the basement of the old concert hall on the grounds. I was there for a summer weekend of ghost hunting with Darkness Radio. A friend (who ended up moving to Estes Park after that and working full time as the Stanley's ghost tour guide) and I snuck out of Chris Fleming's talk and went down to the basement. There was a storage room we went into that had access to the heating and stuff. There were some stacked metal chairs and a small sofa, so we turned off the lights, closed the door, and sat on the couch. We were doing an evp recording session when I noticed my feet were getting really cold, as if I was standing in freezing water. The cold started to travel up my legs and my knees actually started knocking from the cold. I've never felt anything like that before or since. Then I started to get a really bad sensation, a feeling of dread. I looked to my right, and very faintly backlit by daylight coming through a tiny crack in the rock foundation in the heating room, I saw a woman's face in profile right next to mine, maybe a foot or so away. Now, I was on the far right end of the couch, and beyond that were some stacked metal chairs. My friend was on my left. We were alone. At that point my feeling went from bad to worse, and I told my friend I had to get out of there. We did.

Months later, when my friend was giving tours at the Stanley, she found out that back when the Stanley was so neglected, the concert hall had been completely boarded up. A young homeless woman (Lucy) had broken into the concert hall in the winter and was sleeping on the floor in the furnace room. Maintenance found and evicted her. She spent the night in a little park down the street and froze to death.

I went into ghost hunting being curious but skeptical, and had some pretty amazing personal experiences—this one at the Stanley, one at Waverly Hills, one at the Myrtles Plantation, one at the Queen Mary, a huge one at the Villisca Axe Murder house (and several clear EVPs), a "maybe" one at the Whaley House, and solved a mystery haunting in a private home in Denver. That one still has me shaking my head in amazement. Do I believe in ghosts? I can't say that with certainty, but I do admit I've had experiences I can't explain. I still tend to be the debunker in the group. I've often told friends I'll believe in ghosts for sure when one comes up behind me and pinches me on the arse. They usually come back with "be careful what you ask for." Lol.

Below is a short YT from my trip to the Birdcage Theatre. That's my son at the table, he was around 10 at the time. The person who filmed it insisted it was a real ghost that appeared in the upper left corner. The woman's voice is my friend who ended up working at the Stanley. Fact or Faked called me one day asking if I'd go on the show to talk about the experience, and would I mind them using the clip of my son? I told them it wasn't a ghost, I knew what had happened, but I'd be glad to pretend for them. They declined. But they did use the clip, as did a couple other shows.

The second video is real. Villisca House, attic, my son was at that point 15 and doing the filming. A friend and his sister were asking questions and my tour guide friend was in the hallway, did not want to come in. When a provocative question is asked, the flashlight gets brighter rather than turning off as requested, turns itself around and rolls off the horse. Nervous laughter afterwards. I was sitting right there next to my son, no one touched the sawhorse, there was no traffic outside, no wind. Nothing. "Take your flashlight and shove it..."  Hah. Maybe we need a new topic for personal paranormal experiences! Seth mentioned ghosts quite a bit.

Oh, I'm also attaching a snapshot of an illustration I did for the Stanley several years ago, they used it for t-shirts for a while. That yellow window on the left side is room 217, King's room, and I just had to add Jack's axe to the tower.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow Deb, that was awesome.

Ok, in the first video you said that you knew what caused the image. I've got to ask, what caused it?
It looked to me like someone put a film negative directly in front of a flashlight and then shined this flashlight image directly onto a mirror or wall. Am I close?


The second video is really awesome, that flashlight really appeared to get brighter, all by itself, and then it rolled off the sawhorse. 

I really like that axe that you put by the tower in your illustration.


I think a paranormal topic here would be really interesting and fun. I'll start one if you don't want to.

I'd love to hear more of your stories.

- jbseth

[Deb]

Ok, in the first video you said that you knew what caused the image. I've got to ask, what caused it?
It looked to me like someone put a film negative directly in front of a flashlight and then shined this flashlight image directly onto a mirror or wall. Am I close?

Yes, pretty close. But it was a serendipitous event, not planned.

The Birdcage video was filmed in the backstage area. On the other side of the wall that the camera is facing is a staircase that goes down to the basement (top of the stairs is to the right in this film, but not visible). There are still some scraps of antique wallpaper on the walls in the stairwell, with a sheet of plastic over it for protection. That dark area where the "ghost" appears is actually a hole in the wall that separates backstage from the stairs. My friend shined a flashlight across the wall and the light traveled through the hole in the wall, bounced off the plastic at an angle and lit up the landing at the top of the stairs, where there's a dummy in a coffin that is propped vertically against the wall. That made the dummy become visible through the hole, depending where the person viewing was located. The camera just happened to be in the right place. I could not see the reflection from where I was seated, but when I saw the video later (it created quite a stir in the beginning) I remember the original video being clearer, and recognized the dummy right away.

More stories to come!

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow. Your story about how this image actually occurred on the wall, is as incredible as the image on the wall, itself.  That's a really great bit of detective work. 

What's rather unnerving about all of this is just how this type of thing could almost be "accidentally" created.

If someone wanted to "insist" that this type of thing was actually a ghost image, it might be pretty difficult, in some cases to prove, otherwise.  This goes along with that "falsifiability" issue that some of us have been discussing lately.


Thanks for sharing that Deb.

- jbseth

[Deb]

The thing is, too, that while Fact or Faked debunked it, they said it was because "it was light thru an antique coffee grinder that caused the image on the wall." I was there, so it was easier for me to figure out what happened (I can have a mechanically-oriented mind at times and know how light works), and I recognized the image of the dummy because the original video was clearer. I actually sent the guy who filmed it a Photoshopped image of the dummy next to a screen capture of the apparition so he could compare them, and he insisted I was wrong, it was a ghost.

If the image in the video was of some other "dead guy," I would have been stumped.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

I have a few stories that I can share here on this topic. Here's one.


In 1999, my mother-in-law, who had Alzheimer's, and my father-in-law, who had dementia, came to live with us.

In our house, there's a hall that's about 18 feet long, that goes between the door to our master bedroom, where my wife and I sleep at night, and a door that goes into our garage. In this hall, there are two other doors that open up into two separate bedrooms located just off of this hall. After my in-laws came to live with us, they slept in one of these two bedrooms at night.

Unfortunately, my father-in-law, passed away in 2001 and then four years later, my mother-in-law passed away in 2005.

One night, somewhere in the 2003 timeframe, I came home from work, very late at night about 2:30 am, after a very long day at work. I was completely exhausted. After parking my car, I came into the house through this garage door and then headed down this hall to the master bedroom. I didn't turn the hall light on because I didn't want to wake anyone up since it was so early in the morning.

At about the point in this hall where I passed my Mother-in-laws bedroom, I felt a swish of very cold air blow past me.  It startled the "hello" out of me and I completely jumped out of my skin.

This swish of air, felt like it would feel if there was someone in the hall who tried to hurry past you very quickly and extremely closely without touching you. 

I didn't turn the hall light on after this event because as startled as I was, I was also pretty sure that there wasn't anyone actually in this hall like an intruder. I'm pretty sure that nobody could get past me in that hall without bumping into me, unless they were made of air.


As I crawled into bed, my wife woke up and we spoke briefly. I told her about this experience as I was still quite unnerved by it all and she instantly said, "Hi Dad, I know you're watching over Mom. She's OK. We love you and miss you".

It didn't even occur to me that it could have been him, paying us a visit. Once, I thought about this, I was able to calm down a little. To say that I was wide awake at that point would be an understatement. As exhausted as I was, it took me awhile to get to sleep after that.


Was this the ghost of my father-in-law, paying us a visit?  I know that I can't prove this to anyone else, but it certainly felt like that to me.


- jbseth

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Here's another interesting paranormal type of experience that I've had.

Sometime in the late 1980's, my wife convinced me into visiting a dermatologist. I've always had several moles on my body, I've always been somewhat light skinned and I've had several major sun-burns as a kid who grew up in Florida. My wife was concerned about several of these moles. Concerned that they might become cancerous.

While visiting the dermatologist, he told me that he could remove some of these moles and do a biopsy, just to make sure everything was OK. He said that it was really a simple procedure and that he would shoot each one with a shot of something like novocaine and then surgically remove them. We could do it in just a couple of minutes, once the novocaine took hold. In response to this, I said OK let's go ahead and do it. I opted to have 4 or 5 of these moles removed, the last of which was at the base of my skull on the back of my head. After all but the last one were shot with novocaine, which was no big deal, he shot this last one and I noticed that this shot hurt much more than the others.



After this last shot, I continued to sit on the doctor's bench and talk to my wife, while we waited for the novocaine to take affect.  Then all of a sudden, I started to experience tunnel vision. My vision seemed to be collapsing around me into some sort of tunnel like effect, like looking at the world through a telescope or microscope. I told my wife, as I slowly began to slump backward on the doctor's bench, that I thought I was going to pass out. Which I did.

The next thing I know, I'm in this doctors room, and it's very dark, not black but about the color of Coca-Cola. I'm aware of several large white blobs of something that seems to be standing around the bench. While in this state, "I" think to myself, "Who or what are these blobs", and some one, some thing, some unknown source answers, "This ones the nurse, this one's your wife, and this one's the doctor."  Then, "I" once again, think to myself, in complete surprise, "I'm married!" and in response to this, some unknown source replies, "Yes."

It was almost immediately after this, that I came to and discovered that I had passed out and I was lying down on the doctor's bench.  When I did come to, I discovered that, the nurse, my wife, who I recognized and knew was my wife, and the doctor, were all standing around me at the same locations where, "I" (whoever that "I" was) had just saw these white blobs.




Some people claim that they work with energy. Some of these people also claim to be able to sense, experience, feel and/or see these energy fields that surround the human body.  Seth says that we have "tissue capsules" that surround us. Personally, I think that when I passed out, when I was in some other realm, dimension, or reality, and when I was saw these white blobs, I was probably seeing these energy fields or tissue capsules.

The thing is, while I was in this other realm, all I could see were these white blobs. That is, I couldn't make out a person's head, torso, arms or legs for example. Just these somewhat egg shaped white blobs.



What were these white blobs that I saw? Were they really energy fields or tissue capsules?

Who was this "I", that didn't realize that I was married?

Who or what was the unknown source, that answered these questions that this "I" had thought?


I've asked myself these questions many times over the years, as I've reflected back on this experience. While I don't know the answers to these questions, I think that there's probably a lot more that goes on here, behind the scenes, than any of us really know or realize.


- jbseth

[Sena]

The next thing I know, I'm in this doctors room, and it's very dark, not black but about the color of Coca-Cola. I'm aware of several large white blobs of something that seems to be standing around the bench. While in this state, "I" think to myself, "Who or what are these blobs", and some one, some thing, some unknown source answers, "This ones the nurse, this one's your wife, and this one's the doctor."  Then, "I" once again, think to myself, in complete surprise, "I'm married!" and in response to this, some unknown source replies, "Yes."

It was almost immediately after this, that I came to and discovered that I had passed out and I was lying down on the doctor's bench.  When I did come to, I discovered that, the nurse, my wife, who I recognized and knew was my wife, and the doctor, were all standing around me at the same locations where, "I" (whoever that "I" was) had just saw these white blobs.

jbseth, thanks for sharing your experience.

[Deb]

Wow, thank you for those! As to your first, story: It was interesting that your wife instantly thought it was her father's spirit and didn't get rattled. Feeling a cold spot or a "swish of air" is unmistakable when you're in a situation whether neither would be expected or explainable.

That reminded me of two experiences I had. One is the investigation we did of a house that I described here: https://speakingofseth.com/index.php?topic=1445.msg12748#msg12748 You might remember it. It turned out to be the deceased grandparents "haunting" the house to visit with their grandkids. I just found the EVP "Margaret" today! I'll attach it if it's a format compatible here.

The other experience I hadn't even thought of until your post. This took place in September 2009, in Sedona, Arizona. I was down there with a friend for an energy healing workshop. I'd heard people joke about Sedona for years, talking about the Sedona Hum and energy vortexes. It's the most beautiful place! We drove down a day early, checked into our room at the Sky Ranch Lodge, and decided to hike on one of the numerous park trails. We were just walking along on a dry riverbed enjoying the scenery, chatting. I suddenly felt a rush of energy (no wind) coming towards and then THROUGH me. It felt similar to when you're waiting on a subway platform and the train comes whooshing out of the tunnel, the rush of compressed air and sudden appearance of the train raises the adrenalin—and then the feeling passes. That's how it felt, but there was no wind, not a leaf turned. I looked over at my friend and she asked, "Did you feel that?" We compared descriptions and it seems we both felt the same thing at the same time.

We walked through the same area on our trip back, and then again with our workshop group the next day, but didn't feel anything like that again. That was an extraordinary weekend, we hiked with our mentor in the same park up a cliff to an old Indian ceremonial cave. This mentor, David Elliott (The Reluctant Healer) got us to traverse a steeply angled and very scary ledge to an even smaller cave for ceremonies of our own. It scared the bejesus out of me—there was a 100' drop if you tripped, and two people had panic attacks, the second of whom I talked "off the ledge" on our way back, which kept me from concentrating on my own fear. She's the girl looking at me on the far right ub the photo. She didn't look to happy there either. David also got us to fire walk during another workshop. Yes, it's a real thing.

Now as for your second story, WOW. Yes we are energy, yes about Seth, yes our energy fields extend beyond our physical bodies, yes there are people who say they can see people's auras. Did the doctor have an explanation as to why you reacted to the last shot? It would be interesting if you could have regression hypnosis to see of you could experience the experience as an observer and figure out what it was all about.

I've had the tunnel vision before, it's not a pleasant experience by any means.

Update: Apparently you can only download the attached mp3 and play it on your own computer. Some people have said they cannot hear the man's voice saying Margaret.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow Deb, Sedona, that's really awesome.  

My sister lived in a little town just north of Prescott, Az, which is about an hour's drive away from Sedona. And I've only been to Sedona once, (or more correctly, I should say that we drove through Sedona, once), on a trip we took just to see that part of Arizona.

I'd say that from my personal experience of having been there, Sedona definitely has a "feel" to it.



I think that it's really interesting that both you and your friend experienced the same energy flow feeling at the same time. This kind of confirms the validity of the experience.

This kind of reminds me of Carlos Castaneda and his stories about walking through the desert. For me personally, while I came to question, much of what Carlos was doing, with the people who were his followers (based upon Amy Wallace's book) I don't question some of the experiences that he talks about having experienced in the desert. There are many other desert peoples, in the world, who also seem to have stories about mysterious desert experiences.



I'm not too big on heights and climbing very narrow paths with steep near vertical drops. I probably wouldn't have opted to hike up to these caves. The woman in the photo looks scared to me, and no doubt she's probably feeling pretty unhappy because of it. It's not easy to have fun and enjoy yourself when you're petrified. The view from this photo though, is fantastic. 




I'd like to hear more about your fire walk experience. Did the person taking you through this experience have you do some sort of meditative practice beforehand, or did you just walk through a bed of hot coals with no preparation experience. I've always been very curious about this.

On the one hand, I know that people can use their minds, and visualize being warm, for example, while they are in an extremely cold environment. I've actually done this myself and it works. The power of "belief"

On the other hand, I also know that there are some events that a person can participate in, that would seem to be potentially harmful, but in fact they really aren't. When I was in eighth grade, we were setting up Bunsen burners in our schools science lab to do some experiments. Once we got them going, my friend told me that he could pass his hand across the burners flame and not get burned. I told him that he was crazy, his hand would catch fire. He however, insisted that it wouldn't. Me, (being a stupid kid, and not thinking about the consequences of him possibly severely burning himself), then insisted that he prove it. Let's see you do it I said (this kind of reminds me of the scene in the movie, "A Christmas Story", where the boy says, "I'll double dog dare yah",    )

So he takes his hand and slowly moves it across the Bunsen burner flame, at the blue part of the flame. He completely crosses the flame in maybe ¾ of a second. Not really slow but not superfast either. He then does this several more times, and experiences no harmful effect. I couldn't believe it. And so I did it myself. Maybe like 5 or 6 times. Then we tried it a different places along the flame.  I seem to recall that when you do this in the blue part of the flame there was no issue. However as we got closer to the orange / red part of the flame, you definitely could feel the heat and so you definitely needed to move much quicker here.

Once again, I learned a valuable lesson in regards to the power of belief. You can swipe your hand through a flame and not get burned.  Had I not done this myself, and had someone told me that you can do this without getting burned, I'm not sure I would have believed them.



Today, as a former engineer, when I think about this, I suspect that what happens here might be this. We know that it's the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the sun, that carries the suns heat to us. Thus, it's probably the infra-red part of the Bunsen burner flame that also carries the heat. This is heat energy.

This being said, it would seem that it's probably the infra-red part of the spectrum of a hot bed of coals that likewise carries the heat.  If you were to walk across a hot bed of coals, how would you know where to walk so as to avoid the infra-red parts of the coals?  Hmmm, that's an interesting question? With our normal vision, we don't see the infra-red spectrum.

However, there might be some way to do this from a scientific standpoint.  When we walk, barefoot, across the hot sand at the beach on a hot sunny day, if you leave your foot at any one place for too long, it will get burned. And if you're on the hot sand for too long, even if you don't leave your foot in the sand for too long, it also will get burned.  Maybe the trick here is to walk across the hot coals, like we do the hot sand. Is it possible that this is all that's really taking place, here, when people fire walk?


Thus, my curiosity about fire walking.

-jbseth



   

[LarryH]

jbseth, your Bunsen burner story reminded me of something that I just saw on TV last week. I found it on YouTube. It may explain how you were able to avoid being burned. It's called the Leidenfrost effect. It doesn't explain walking on hot coals, though.

[jbseth]

Hi LarryH, Hi All,


The attached video demonstrates what we were doing.

This young man seems to be moving his hand through the orange part of the flame, which as I recall, was much warmer than the blue part of the flame. 

We were doing this but we were also moving our hands through the lower blue part of the flame and moving through it much slower than he was.

Please do not try doing this. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, if something went wrong.






The man in the video with the molten liquid may have put some water or something else on his hand to protect it, before he did this. I have no idea whether he did this or not.

We didn't do that. We were just using our hands, with whatever natural oils and water vapor that is normal to them.



- jbseth

[Deb]

I'm not too big on heights and climbing very narrow paths with steep near vertical drops. I probably wouldn't have opted to hike up to these caves. The woman in the photo looks scared to me, and no doubt she's probably feeling pretty unhappy because of it. It's not easy to have fun and enjoy yourself when you're petrified. The view from this photo though, is fantastic. 

I have to say I've gained a new respect for heights and gravity as an adult. The girl in the cave was very young, maybe 18 or so, and to me she just looks bored in the photo. She's actually a daughter of the friend I drove down with—she didn't know anyone at the workshop other than her mother, and I think (from the photo) her mother did not join us on this venture. The large cave was an easy hike up a short hill. The hike to the small cave was pretty scary for me (see attached photo), but she did fine on the way out. After our ceremony, everyone headed back and somehow it was just the young girl, some guy and making our way back to the larger cave. That's when she freaked. She also was a bit of a drama queen in general, so in retrospect I have to wonder if it was an act.

As far as the bunson burner trick, we used to do that sort of thing with lit candles when I was a kid. The BB is way more powerful than a candle though. As far as sand burning feet, I've been there (long beaches in Florida). It could be that the air temp is not cool enough to cool off the foot that's off the ground before it goes back down onto the sand again, or maybe walking flat-footed would be better, which is how we did the fire walk—the foot stays flat across the surface of the embers rather than digging in. The wiki link below has a "Risks when firewalking" section that talks about the danger of running through embers.

As far as the fire walk, it has to be something like the Leidenfrost effect. The fire was prepped most of the day, made from wood on the property. A path was dug out about 3' wide, a few inches deep, maybe 20' long. When it got dark out, the red-hot embers were spread out on the path. We went one at a time, were told to think of something to chant, such as a short affirmation. The rest of the participants were on both sides of the path and would chant with us during our walk. David set the pace, told us to pick a star in the sky to focus on, walk to the pace of the chant, don't stop, don't look down. At the end of the fire walk were two people with hoses and they would spray off our feet, just in case any embers got stuck between our toes. So off I go, but me being me, I just had to pause for a split second half way down the path to see my feet on top of the red-hot wood. As I did that, I could feel my feet getting hot. Sciencing.com says wood burns at 1,112° F. How is that possible? So I found my star, kept going, and all was well. A couple people did have minor burns or hot spots.

What I found just as interesting was what took place early the next morning. I was out walking about the property and saw a couple of people digging through the cold ashes like they were looking for something. I offered to help—at the time was I was going through a phase of finding things. The woman said she had taken off a toe ring before her fire walk and she'd dropped it somewhere on her walk. I said "I find things." I took a small twig and started raking it through the ashes in a spot I chose by whim, and came up with the ring within seconds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewalking

[jbseth]

Hi Deb,

Sounds like the young woman in the picture was a drama queen. Well, there is that too.

I can definitely relate. I've burned my feet more times than I care to remember, on some of those hot sandy beaches of Florida.

So it sounds like you know what I'm talking about. I've never done the candle flame thing, but moving your hand across the Bunsen burner was a piece of cake. Absolutely no pain or burn or anything. Kind of like putting you hand across a stream of air.
I suspect that both the Bunsen burner and candle flame events are basically the same thing.


I think you may be the only person I know, who's participated in one of these fire walking events. Thank you for sharing this experience with us.

It sounds like you were walking flat-footed across the coals. Interesting. I can remember walking flat-footed across the snow drifts in North Dakota. If you did this just right, your shoes worked like snow shoes, and you could walk across snow drifts that were maybe, 3 feet high. If you messed though, and didn't plant your feet just right, you'd instantly crunch through the snow and find yourself waste deep in it.

Maybe walking flat-footed and at a constant rate is does the trick here for fire-walking. From what you say here, it doesn't sound like you needed to go into a deep meditative state before attempting to do this. On the other hand, you were told to focus on the star, so I'm guessing your mind at least a little bit distracted.


The Wikipedia site that you attached was really good. I think that maybe they may be onto something here.

"Modern physics has explained the phenomenon, concluding that the amount of time the foot is in contact with the ground is not enough to induce a burn, combined with the fact that embers are not good conductors of heat."

This makes a lot of sense to me. Wood is not a good thermal conductor.

I definitely wouldn't go on that trip to the second cave. That's some beautiful country though.  Did you ever see the Grand Canyon? It's not too far from Sedona?


I like your story about finding the misplaced toe ring. What's the chances of finding a toe ring in a 20 foot long bed of coals?  I know who I'm going to ask, if I lose something. 


- jbseth

[Deb]

Did you ever see the Grand Canyon? It's not too far from Sedona?

I actually saw the Grand Canyon in a helicopter. I was a pro photographer's assistant on a photoshoot, it was amazing. I remember being alone in the "back seat" of the helicopter. The doors had been removed for photographing ease, the seat belts were wrapped with duct tape for extra safety. Right? I was reaching into a photo bag on the floor for more film (back in the day) and as I was bent over the helicopter did a sort of drop fall. Talk about motion sickness!

The Grand Canyon is amazing. We live in an amazing country, so much variety of terrain and beauty.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow. Viewed from a helicopter, that must have been amazing.  And perhaps a little bumpy. 

I've flown over the Grand Canyon on several occasions, on flights from Portland to Phoenix, most of which, you could clearly see it from the plane. Then, on 2 separate occasions, I've actually driven to it.

It is very spectacular. 


I'm not sure that I believe, that you and I, Deb, are the only people here in this forum who've had some sort of paranormal experience. Doesn't anyone here have something to share?

-jbseth

[LarryH]

Doesn't anyone here have something to share?

I thought that I may have already posted this somewhere here, but in case I didn't, here it is again:

In my mid-twenties, I was practicing some exercises designed to initiate an OBE. One night, I awoke from a disturbing dream (someone attacking me with a knife) in the middle of the night. When I opened my eyes, a low chest-of-drawers with a mirror mounted above it was against the wall opposite my bed (past my feet). This furniture had been removed some months before. In the mirror was the reflection of a perfect muscular male figure, perhaps 5'-5" tall, translucent, glowing and sparkling from inside, with swirling, yellow/gold paisley shapes, and no facial features. The lack of a face was not because it was fuzzed out or unclear. The entire body was as clear and sharp as any person or object in normal consciousness. The figure was standing next to me, but facing me through the mirror. I thought, "I'm awake, and this is really happening!" I closed and re-opened my eyes three times, and nothing changed except that the third time, there was an additional detail. The reflection in the mirror of the wall above my head showed a flicker, as if from a blue fire, radiating from my head. My head was below the reflection. The male figure was also still in the mirror. The figure never moved - the only movement throughout the whole experience was the flickering light against the wall above my head. I tried to communicate telepathically, who was this, or what was going on? I got no response. I did not want to move, as I felt that moving might cause the experience to end, and I had too much curiosity. But I shut and opened my eyes again, the room was pitch black.

I have considered that the experience was some sort of after-image from a dream, but the subject matter seemed completely unrelated to the dream that I had awoken from. I have considered that it was a lucid dream, though my full waking consciousness and ability to maintain the event for perhaps a minute or so was highly unusual, and there was absolutely no perceptible shift in consciousness or sense of waking up when it was over, and I was in exactly the same position on the bed. I am inclined to believe that the experience was something other than one of those two possibilities, but I have never heard anyone else describe this entity before. A likely possibility is that it was related to what I had been attempting: I may have been in the altered state of an OBE without actually being out of body.

[jbseth]

Hi All,

In regards to being able to swipe your hand through the flame of a candle or a Bunsen burner, I came across the following video today. Maybe the ability to do this, has something to do with Michael Faraday's conclusion. According to the article that came along with this video, Michael Faraday concluded the following:

"Michael Faraday founded a series of Christmas lectures for young people at the Royal Institution, London, UK, in 1825. The lectures are still given there. In 1848, six lectures covered the chemistry and physics of flames.

Faraday called these lectures, which were first printed as a book in 1861, The Chemical History of a Candle. One of the experiments shows that the temperature in a candle flame is not homogeneous. The heat is generated by the chemical reaction that takes place in the outer parts of the flame, where the dark ring appears in the video.

Faraday describes in lecture two: "In the middle of the flame, where the wick is, there is combustible vapor. On the outside of the flame is the air which is necessary for the burning of the candle. Between the two, intense chemical action takes place, whereby the air and the fuel act upon each other, and at the very same time that we obtain light the vapor itself is consumed. ... The heat of the flame is not in the inside. It is in a ring, exactly in the place where the chemical action takes place."


https://www.chemistryviews.org/details/video/10173541/Where_is_the_Heat_of_a_Candle_Flame.html


- jbseth

[jbseth]

The figure was standing next to me, but facing me through the mirror.

Hi LarryH,

Wow, that was a really interesting experience.

Maybe you were actually having an OBE experience, and as such, you were seeing both your physical body and your OBE body via the mirror (from your OBE's perspective).

As I recall, Jane has talked about seeing her physical body while in a OBE state and I'm pretty sure that Robert Monroe, did as well.

- jbseth

[LarryH]

Maybe you were actually having an OBE experience, and as such, you were seeing both your physical body and your OBE body via the mirror (from your OBE's perspective).

To be clear, I could not see my physical body in the mirror, as my body was lower than the mirror. My perspective was normal -  from my physical body. I could see down the length of the sheet that covered my body as I looked past the foot of the bed and into the mirror.

I have speculated that the reason that the entity showed himself to me in a mirror was to give the illusion of distance for my psychological comfort, while also having the intimacy of closeness. While I was not afraid, I also did not look to my right, where he was standing - so maybe I wanted to cling to the comfort of being able to see him "at a distance". The fact that he had no facial features, despite having all other physical features in beautiful detail, may have also been for my comfort (no eyes staring at me). The radiating flickers (which were blue and yellow, just like the flames from a gas stove) may have been my aura. Something was done to me, perhaps a download of some sort, but I have no conscious knowledge of that, just speculation.

[Deb]

Wow, what an experience. It made me think about how Seth said we experience things in the dream state for which we sometimes have no words, reference or understanding, and so our dream or maybe waking interpretations are framed in ways that our current consciousness can incorporate. It also reminded me of the story of when Jane "went looking" for Seth in the dream state, and had set up certain rules for herself in order to not feel threatened or frightened.

Several weeks ago I had one of those realistic dreams where I was in some unknown city photographing a building, and while I was looking through the camera at the building I was also viewing myself from a distance, from behind, like through a security camera or drone. It's the second time that I remember having the feeling of being in two different places at the same time.

[Deb]

Okay so this is too long, so read at your own risk.

Villisca Axe Murder House, Iowa. Most active place I've investigated. This time an organized investigation with Nightwatch Radio. I went up with my friend from the Stanley Hotel. We had a small group, maybe 10 people. I got a lot of good evps there, some people had some minor experiences, nothing too exciting. While we had the house until dawn, about 1:30 am Todd and his peeps decided they were done and left. There were just 4 of us left—my friend and I and a young couple.

We decided to take a break downstairs in the living room. I was on the couch, and I had l leaned on my side so I could relax for a bit... head on a cushion, but with a foot still on the floor. We were just talking quietly and I said the place felt really peaceful for the first time that night. The others agreed. Then there was this enormously loud crash that came from upstairs (see attached). The crash was so strong that I felt it though the floor boards! I sat up and suddenly the house didn't feel so peaceful. I had the impression that we were not wanted there, just a weird, well, feeling of dread. We all looked at each other and I said maybe we'd overstayed our welcome. The problem was my friend and I had left all of our equipment in the kids' bedroom upstairs. Oh no, we were going to have to go upstairs! The guy from the couple, tall, hefty, macho type, said he'd rather stay downstairs and "watch for intruders." I asked him if he really wanted to be alone. Nope.

So all four of us, as close as sardines, crept up the narrow rickety staircase to get our equipment. The first room is the parents' bedroom, and across from the foot of the bed is a door to the closet and attic. That door has been known to open and close itself, and we figured that's what had slammed. I remember walking past the closed door and saying in my head "please don't open now, please don't open now..." We got our stuff without a problem, locked up the house and loaded up our cars.

Outside, macho man confessed the reason he had wanted to stay downstairs when we went up to get our equipment was because he was too scared. Then he was too scared to be alone, lol. I remember closing the trunk of the car and saying to the group that I had no interest in going back, ever.

Well, of course, a year later a few of us ended up renting the house. I even brought my dog. She did a couple of weird things, out of character for her. That's the investigation where we got the video of the flashlight rolling off the sawhorse. And the first thing I did when we got there was go up to the attic door to see if (1) there were any drafts that could cause the door to blow shut, and (2) I could swing it shut so hard that it would shake the house. A quick history of the house: The small wood frame house was built in the late 1860s, but it wasn't until 1912 that the house became famous due to the unsolved axe murders of an entire family one night—upstairs in bed, the parents, their 4 young kids, and downstairs in a small spare room, two friends of the children. Many years later, after various owners and renters and updates to the house (such as adding plumbing and electricity and converting the panty into a bathroom), a local Villisca character named Darwin Linn (now deceased) became fascinated with the house, and was able to buy it when it went to auction. Darwin restored the house to it's original 1912 state by removing the electrical and plumbing, and converting the bathroom back to a pantry, doing various repairs.

So as far as (1), the windows all appear to be nailed or stuck shut. There are no air leaks in the walls except in the small closet in the children's bedroom, which has a small crack in the lath on the ceiling that could affect that door. It was covered with plastic sheeting when I was there, but still leaky but not in a position to affect the door to the attic. And (2) I could not slam the door very well. It's so thin and flimsy that it doesn't have enough weight or substance to it. I could imagine that if someone were to come in the back door (kitchen) downstairs and it's windy out, the door could blow shut because the staircase is located at the far side of the kitchen and the wind could possibly come up the stairwell. But... we were alone and all the doors were shut.

I'd go back again. I forgot how fun and interesting this phase of my life was.

"Life begins at the end of your comfort zone."
~Neal Diamond Walsh

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow. That was really interesting.

It's one thing to be reading a story like that in the comfort of your own home. It's quite another thing to be experiencing something like that, in an axe murder house.

It's funny too, Macho guy wanting to say downstairs until you asked him if he really wanted to be alone.  All four of you creeping up the stairs "as close as sardines". I can really visualize that. 

This is the same place where the flashlight got brighter and then rolled off the sawhorse.
It sure seems like its haunted to me.


You're a great writer. You're stories are fun to read and their exciting. Have you ever considered writing a book on your ghost house experiences? Maybe you could do something like what Jane did with her ESP book, only on your ghost hunting experiences instead of ESP. You really seem to enjoy it and you've already got great skills with the books and graphics that you've done over the years (the axe by the tower at the Stanley) Jane and Rob's Elmira water street house, Rich Kendall's books etc.


When you make it big and become a famous author, you'll remember us little people, right. 


-jbseth
 

[Deb]

Have you ever considered writing a book on your ghost house experiences?

Thank you, I haven't had enough experiences to write a book, I'd have to start ghost hunting again. I'd actually love that. I've been to quite a few supposedly haunted locations, but most of the time have not had any paranormal experiences. I do have a few more incidents to share here, but Villisca was the biggest deal.

Years ago my Stanley friend and I decided to start a totally irreverent ghost hunting team, a parody on TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society), which was the only ghost hunting show on TV at the time. Jason and Grant were often guest speakers at some of the organized hunts. Our logo was TITS (The Investigative Team of Skeptics) in the same font TAPS was using. We made and sold t-shirts and they were a hit for a while. I also made up matching wallet-size membership cards (folded in half), and put our logo on baseball caps, car magnets and bumper stickers. I scored a bunch of caps on eBay one time that had LED lights in the brim, perfect for wandering around in the dark. I think I still have some. Well, we made Jason and Grant honorary members of TITS, gave them membership cards and shirts. I was afraid they would get upset about copyright infringement, but they thought it was hysterical and were showing the shirts around.

Later I designed a logo for ASS (Associated Skeptics Society) so we could put those on the BACKS of the shirts and hats, and even later one less racy for kids, PIST (Paranormal Investigative Skeptic in Training). We had so much fun!

Thanks for letting me indulge myself. 

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

OK, I just couldn't help myself.


"Who you gonna call?"  "Ghost Busters"    no - make that "TITS" and "ASS". 

-jbseth

[Deb]

T&A, of course!

Just a quick update. The photos from my Sedona trip above were from 2009.

Today I received an email from The Sky Ranch Lodge in Sedona, saying "we miss you" etc. I have not received an email from them ever as far as I can remember. It was sent to an old email address of mine that I've tried to retire a few times, but keep reviving because there are some important tax related websites that won't allow me to change my email (I know, hard to imagine these days).

Just another one of those synchronicities or coincidences that are like an NCIS head slap. I love that.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Another synchronous event. Awesome. 

It's amazing just how often these things seem to occur in our lives.

-jbseth

[Deb]

Aside from taking a direct hit to the sternum by a flying bat, and hearing jingling keys in an empty hallway, here's another little paranormal story.

Waverly Hills Sanitorium, Louisville, KY. I was on an organized paranormal event—celebrity guest speakers in the day, investigating all night broken down into groups of about 10. I had gotten a reading from psychic Chip Coffey during the day which was quite amazing in itself. At the end I said I'd really love to experience something paranormal that evening because it was my last night there. Chip said, "oh honey, you stick with me tonight and I'll find us a ghost." I took him up on the offer. The other event psychic, Tiffany somebody, came along as well. After about 30 minutes of walking the ground floor, Chip decided he was done. Tiffany agreed, and the two left. I guess I was supposed to find a group to join, but I decided I'd much rather wander around alone. What an opportunity! I tend to move very quietly, and spent the rest of the night exploring the place at my leisure. I accidentally scared the tar out of Chris Fleming, twice. I was surprised, as he's one of the celebrity ghost hunters, had his own tv show at one time, and yet is so jumpy. And what a mouth on him!

My night was pretty uneventful until about 4 am. I had just come up a staircase on one end of the building on the 4th floor (it's huge, 180,000 sq.ft.) and was walking down the hall when I took glanced over my left shoulder at some sort of meeting room. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my right eye, I saw a large dark shape in the hall directly in front of me. I hit the brakes, thinking it was one of the plastic chairs that are sometimes in the halls so people can take a break. I didn't want to trip over it. But when I looked down, there was nothing there. No chair. No shape. Nothing. Later I headed down to the ground floor break room, and told Tina (owner) what happened, thinking I was seeing things that weren't there. She laughed and said, "oh that's just Big Black. He hangs around that part of the building."

What is Big Black? "We don't really know, maybe a shadow person, maybe just a ball of energy." Again I can't say I saw a ghost, but I saw something I can't explain.

The attached photos are not mine, but do demonstrate the size and "bat wing" shape of the building. The entire front of the building has open-air balconies. It was originally a TB hospital and at the time the doctors thought that fresh air and sunshine were therapeutic. Patients were rolled out into the great outdoors every day. It was built to take advantage of the direction of the winds. There was a documentary done about Waverly (Spooked) by the Booth brothers. They are also honorary TITs members, naturally.

[jbseth]

Hi Deb, Hi All,

Wow Deb. I'll bet it would be very easy to scare somebody in a place like that. Especially at 4:00 am.

For some reason, I thought that you were talking about a house, and when I saw that number, 180,000 sq ft, I thought, wow that house must be huge!  Way bigger than mine. 

The "Big Black" kind of reminds me of Jane's Big Black thing that attacked her once when she was in an OBE.  Only your "Big Black" seems to be relatively benign.  You didn't mention anything about picking up on a negative energy or cold air, etc. Maybe Big Black isn't a ghost. Maybe it's something different. There's so much about this sort of thing that we just don't seem to know.


For some reason your story about this former TB hospital reminded me of Gettysburg, PA. This is where the famous Civil War battle took place. Many years ago, my wife and I visited Gettysburg on a journey we took across that part of the US.  There have been a lot of people who have claimed to see ghosts at Gettysburg.

-jbseth

[Deb]

Hah! Yes, that would definitely be a big house. As far as the Waverly's Big Black, I didn't feel any negative energy or cold spots, and Tina said "he won't hurtcha." I just found this https://www.aghtelevision.com/official-news/item/168-bigblack, I don't think it says what year this was written. Now I want to track down my photos from my trips there with fresh eyes to see if I missed anything.The guy who has the website is another movie producer of sorts, I see he's still setting up events. I remember he was really into UFOs, used to take groups to some ranch I think in WA state that is supposedly predictably active with UFO sightings. What a fun way to make a living.

I went to Gettysburg many years ago with another family, kids and all. I'd seen a lot of interesting photos and heard a lot of ghost stories so I had high hopes, but didn't have any weird experiences. Sure did enjoy the area though. Went to Amish country too (Lancaster). It was funny seeing special horse & buggy hitching posts in parking lots, and bank drive throughs designed for buggies as well. There is a Mennonite section in Sarasota, so Iwas used to seeing them and their quaint clothing, but they didn't use horses and buggies. They were into huge tricycles. And the best food ever! I spent years trying to come up with a recipe for peanut butter pie and never even came close to what they serve at Yoder's. Oh gosh they have a website!?! These are people who don't use electronics and no zippers, buttons or belts on their clothes! https://www.yodersrestaurant.com/

We had also piggy backed on an investigation of Eastern State Penitentiary, which is super spooky and with a very interesting history. Al Capone had done some time there. I loved investigating at Eastern State, but again no weird experiences. https://www.easternstate.org/

[Mik]

My first paranormal story I'm pretty sure is about a poltergeist.

I lived in an apartment building with two apartments downstairs and two upstairs. Upstairs my next door neighbor's balcony was about 1 ft away from mine. So we could cross into each other's apartment if we left our balcony door open.

We looked after each other's apartments when the other was gone. So we typically left our balcony doors open.

It was a weekend and both my upstairs neighbors were gone. One of the downstairs neighbors was still there.

I heard all sorts of noise and banging in my next door neighbor's apartment. I went over to check. I looked everywhere and saw nothing out of order, nor found anyone.

I returned to my apartment. Soon, the noise and banging resumes. I go over there as quick as I can. In thier kitchen now every cabinet door and every drawer was wide open. Again I look around to see if anyone is there. No one.

I closed all the drawers and cabinets so they would not find it that way. Nothing happened after that, that I'm aware of.

Now my understanding is that Poltergeist are the result of a disturbed or bothered adolescent, typically female. And the girl downstairs was obviously female (and definitely disturbed).

However, I was 19 and fairly new to my psychic abilities and I had been moving things unintentionally in my own apartment. I fear I might have been the "disturbed adolescent". I rather hope it was the girl downstairs, if it was either one of us.

Whatever the cause, it was not obviously a person physically doing it in person. If someone pulled it as a trick, they were very very good.

(Joy and) Happiness,
    Mik.