Graveyard Pinging (January 2023)

Lately I've been working on opening myself more to understanding my sensitives as a medium. I've learned that I'm incredibly sensitive to various energies, which is what gives me so many "ghost fuzzies" as I like to call them. It's not quite full-blown goosebumps, but it's this almost indescribable tingle. Becky knows that I can sense her, so she triggers these "ghost fuzzies" in me often. Right now, as I type this out, she is standing next to me sending out her vibes. I've also been working to distinguish the different types of "fuzzies" the ghosts project on to me. For instance, my grandma only sends out a certain type of "ghost fuzzies." I know that when they are of that intensity and in those places that she's near me. The same goes for Becky. But I'm learning, as I understand the location of a "ghost fuzzy" is not a fingerprint. Becky is so active and energetic that sometimes what I feel from her is like what I feel from my grandma, but never vice versa. She seems to have a wider spectrum through which she can interact with me. When I was hunting this past summer and fall, I also realized that "ghost fuzzies" are a way to acknowledge a spirit in your area. 

So today I wanted to put this tingle to good use and try to "ping" some ghosts. What I mean to say is that I believe I can attune myself or open myself up to feel the "ghost fuzzies." That means I just put myself in a calm state and I focus on who I want to make contact with. I've done this with my grandma before, because it's hard to have two ghosts in your house sometimes. I was hoping to try it at my mom's house, where I know there is more than just my mom there. 

As we drove past the cemetary on our way home, I felt this pull. I immediately blurted out, "We should go ping there today for those mean guys." My husband didn't sounded excited about pinging anything, but I was driving, so I turned the car right to head towards the driving entrance. As we drove the two blocks to the entrance, I tried to calm myself and open my mind, focusing on the two men who were in our house, specifically their residual energy that I had picked up on. 

I drove on the snowy path focusing my energy and then all of a sudden, I got a hit. It was a faint hit, but I tried to process it. Was it the masked man? Maybe. I decided to drive on to see what else turned up before committing to every ping I made. This was, after all, still the beginning of the drive into the cemetery. 

We continued forward, past the military memorial flags, down towards the end of that side of the cemetery. I passed the Mueller mausoleum and shortly after, I pinged again. This time it was strong and sharp, coming at me from the left side of the car. I stopped and I immediately knew in my mind that it was the Tweed Man. I turned to my husband and said that his grave was somewhere in this area of the cemetery. I sat there for a moment trying to process. I wasn't getting much more than the sense that it was him and that he was buried in this area, so I moved on around the U of the drive and came up the other side. 

Slightly past the area on the other side from where I pinged the Tweed Man I let out a little gasp. Something had tried to scratch the left side of my cheek and neck. When I raised my hand to feel it, nothing was there. My husband asked me what was wrong, but I told him I didn't want to talk about it. So we kept driving and as we got closer to the exit, I told my husband we should take another turn around to make sure my pings are right.

Back around we went. This time I got a stronger ping from the Mask Man. I stopped and my husband took a picture of where I stopped (for future reference). I wasn't getting much from the ping, though, but it was definitely him. I could see him in my mind and he didn't look happy with me. 

We drove down farther to where I pinged the Tweed Man. I stopped where I felt like stopping, which wasn't perfectly where I was before, but something said stop there. I was pinging like crazy, even more than the previous time around. I stopped next to a grave for someone named Robert and the name and grave stone really grabbed at my attention. It made me wonder if that was actually the Tweed Man's grave. It felt too new to be his, but the name resonated with me nevertheless. My husband took a picture.

I also had a mental image come to me of the two men hanging around the mausoleum. That's where they like to hangout and plan together. It allows for them to get a great view of all the houses across the way from the new cemetery. This was their stomping ground when not out trying to harass people at night. Sadly, I also had a gut feeling that, since they weren't happy with what I just did, they might make an appearance at my house tonight. They typically target my daughter, but now I think I put a target on my back.

After that I knew it was time to hightail it out of there! We honored the 15mph speed limit, but I was ready to go. And as we drove down the exit lane, I started to feel funny. I was getting ghost fuzzies that weren't the two dark men. They were other spirits from the cemetery. I felt really uncomfortable and I admit that I sped up a good bit to get out of the cemetery. These ghost fuzzies were coming from the exceptionally old part of the cemetery. I began to think opening up had drawn attention to myself, made me a beacon of sorts. I was not quite ready for that.

I breathed a sigh of relief to be out of the cemetery and nothing bothered me as we drove down the longer stretch next to the cemetery. But as we turned onto our street I was taken over by ghost fuzzies. Full body ghost fuzzies. I stopped the car and loudly declared, "Anyone who is in this car with us is not welcome and needs to go away, unless you're Becky." The fuzzies went away, but I still felt uneasy.

We walked into the house and as I walked towards the kitchen I was overtaken my full body fuzzies and I called out again that if you were not my grandma or Becky you are not welcome here. I even went for my recorder and was going to do an EVP session, but the dogs were being too loud and noisy for that. So I got out my divining rods and I asked Becky if she was with us in the car, to which she said no. She also confirmed there were not others in the house and she gave me the ghost fuzzies when I walked in. I apologized for yelling at her and we ended our talk with a hug. 

This experience made me feel incredibly empowered about my own abilities. I've been spending time trying to understand what I am capable of and it's starting to blossom. I am also proud to have walked away from this understanding more about the two dark men. I believe I've pegged them as all bark and no bite. They just want to scare people to make themselves feel good. They don't have the energy to actually hurt someone.

It's hard to treat today's exercise as a full-blown success without taking a leap of faith. I have no way to verify the feelings I had or information I believe I gleaned from my encounter. That said, I think I have suppressed whatever ability I have for far too long. I need to learn what I am capable of and try to trust in it. Perhaps someday soon an opportunity will present itself where my feelings and the evidence we uncover will coincide.

Two Dark Men (January 2023)

 My sleep was restless. I remember a point in my night where I was unhooking my Fitbit band from my wrist (which is no easy feat when you can't see it), but I was later woken up by a loud noise and without opening my eyes, I realized I had thrown my Fitbit onto the floor and it hit a box next to my bed. I didn't open my eyes to confirm this. I just knew that's what happened. I debated over getting it and refused, because it felt dangerous to lean out of bed to retrieve it. Later that same night I awoke and stretched down to get the Fitbit and I struggled to put it back on without opening my eyes. Then I fell back asleep and fell into an incredibly weird dream that was uncomfortable for me as it had to do with my old job and my old coworkers. 

Finally, I woke up from this night of restless and disturbed sleep. I went downstairs and I shared with my husband the strange events that happened. Then he told me our daughter had experienced a troubling night as well. 

My daughter had woken up around midnight and told him there were two men in dark shadow staring down at her. One of them had been wearing a hooded mask. She said they really scared her and it had been hard to get out of bed. She finally made it downstairs to tell my husband, who then soothed her and sent her back to bed. 

Hearing this hit me oddly, so I went to check my sleep record from the night from my Fitbit, knowing that a portion would be missing due to taking it off. I discovered that my strange wakefulness activities started at 12:30am and extended until around 3:30am. So if my daughter was freaked out around midnight, what was stopping the spirits from coming down to my room and harassing me in my sleep?

I thought back to that night and I remembered that at some point I woke up, because I was experiencing extreme goosebumps all over my torso. This is not something I am used to feeling in bed, as my bedroom had been considered my safe space until Becky arrived. Even with Becky, though, she and I established that at night I'm sleeping and I'm in my personal space. So to have this feeling in the middle of the night was greatly disturbing and I knew it was a spirit of some sort next to my bed, touching me while I was sleeping. Something was trying to get my attention.

I meditated on the situation for a while, trying to mine my subconscious for anything that I wasn't remembering. Suddenly I was hit with something of a "download" of information. I saw two men. One was shorter than the other. They weren't "living" in my house, but visiting, and I felt like they were from the cemetery about a half mile up the road. Immediately I took to my divining rods and wanted to talk to my grandma about the situation, maybe seeing if the information I downloaded was fitting into the greater narrative.

My grandma wasn't there to answer my questions. Sometimes she's gone during the day. I asked for Becky to see if she could help me with anything and, my goodness, she knew what I was talking about. 

Becky informed me that it is two men. They only show up every couple weeks or so. Their intent is to behave like boogeymen and they try to scare and disturb people. She's seen them in our home before, which made me think back a few weeks to another really difficult night that I had. I started to wonder if that had been them, too. Becky shared that they've been in Isabelle's room and my room. She said that they are not good men, but they just visit when they feel like it. 

I thanked Becky for her help and sat for a bit processing the information and also looking at what supported my own mental download of information on them. Then I sent my daughter some messages to find out more details about what she saw. I figured she could answer during her lunch/recess time when phones were allowed, but it turned out she forgot her phone. So I had to wait until she got home to get to the bottom of this information.

When she arrived home, she answered the questions I sent her, but apparently my husband had sent her the same questions, so all the answers went to him. I had asked her which one wore the mask and was the mask a half-face mask. She sent this picture to my husband:

Then she explained that the mask was just like that, but without the mouth, nose, and eye spots. My husband joked, "So basically Slenderman?" My daughter doesn't believe in the existence of Slenderman (When my husband asked, "You know Slenderman is just fiction, right?", she scoffed and responded with, "Obviously.") but she knew who he was and what he looked like, so she agreed that that would be an accurate description of what she saw. No, we are not operating under the assumption that Slenderman is haunting our house and we will not be entertaining that theory either. Dare I mention that we're from Wisconsin and the Waukesha stabbings are not lost on us. But my husband and I were around for the invention of this popular internet "creepypasta", and while we're *fans* of the monster and its lore, it's just fun fiction. Nevertheless, she saw what she saw so we'll roll with it for now.

My daughter did confirm that one of the men was shorter, wearing a top hat of all things, and the taller one was wearing the creepy mask. She couldn't make out their clothing, so she wasn't sure if one of them was wearing tweed. She said they were just looming over her and then just disappeared after a couple seconds. 

After processing everything, here is my acting theory on these two men:

They are two men who come from the cemetery about a half mile up the way. One of them is taller than the other. They have chosen to behave like boogeymen and get a kick out of "scaring" people. We're not the only people in the area that they've done this to. I feel like they had gone to other houses in our neighborhood as well, especially a certain house on the corner of our neighborhood. When we drove past the house, I felt like they were a prime target for these two men. I also felt that these two men did not know each other in life, but met after death and are from the older part of the cemetery. The other night was not their first time meeting us, but they've been coming to our house for a few years now and we just weren't tuning into what was causing these restless and disturbing nights. The other spirits leave these two spirits alone, because they are so hostile and nasty. They come late in the evening, sometime between 11PM and 4AM, when people are most likely asleep and easily manipulated. My husband has never had any negative encounters, but then he is almost always awake during these hours. I don't feel the taller one always wears a mask, but I feel like he changes up his look to scare different types of people. The shorter one I picture in a tweed jacket and the taller one is in a black suit. 

So I guess I'll have to keep aware of when these spirits come to my house. Since writing this, it has been brought to my attention that they have returned within a week. This time they were focused on my daughter in her room, but she didn't have anything happen to her. I guess we need to stay ever vigilant and if things get really bad, we will look into how to stop them from coming to the house. 

Coming up on Ghost Stories: These lurking men get a taste of their own medicine.

The Year of the Ghost

Somebody asked me what word describes my 2022. I thought about it quite a bit, because so much happened to me last year and it's all so disconnected, yet connected. One word, though, stood out to me and that was "ghost." And as I looked back on my year, it seemed to be the common thread that ran through the good and the bad of the entire year. 

~ My dad came to my house and contacted me, because of my mom. 

~ A spirit was visiting me in my house that took me a while to figure out was my grandma.

~ My husband and daughter got me a REM-Pod for Mother's Day.

~ I started this blog to record my paranormal experiences.

~ Rewatched all of Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters Academy.

~ I went on a ghost hunt in July, which I had not done in a long time, at the Sheboygan Asylum.

~ I met Adam Berry and had a small ghost hunting session with him at the Sheboygan Asylum.

~ My mom passed away in July and, post-passing, I engaged with her extensively.

~ Took my daughter to her first ghost hunt at the Sheboygan Asylum in August.

~ In October I went on a ghost tour (with mini-hunt) at The Grand Oshkosh with my daughter.

~ In November my family went on a ghost hunt at The Farm in Shawano, Wisconsin. 

~ For St. Nick I got a mini Para-Light to use for ghost hunting.

~ On December 9 my family went to the Glenbeulah School for a ghost hunt with Adam Berry.

~ On December 10 my family went to the Sheboygan Asylum for a ghost hunt with Adam Berry.

~ On December 14 I learned that we had a spirit come back with us from Sheboygan.

~ On December 15 we realized Becky, who we met at the Glenbeulah School, had come home with us.

~ For the rest of December we interacted with our visitor and my grandma, who was/is still present in the house.

I think that "ghost" really does fill up my year and really embodies an image for where I'm heading in 2023. 

Hitchhiker for the Holidays - Hello! (December 2022)

 I was watching the finale of Lego Masters on Wednesday night when I suddenly got a Discord message from my daughter. Words aren't spelled correctly and it seems hastily written, but I didn't think much of it. What I was able to figure out from the message was that she wanted me to come upstairs. I asked her why and she just begged me to come upstairs to be with her. I immediately knew that it was something paranormal - something had spooked her and it wasn't my grandma.

I took my Para-Light and went upstairs to her room, setting the lantern on her bed (looking back, it went off to a green/blue). She was frozen on her bed, crying, unable to speak. I tried communicating with her, but ended up just comforting her until she came out of her episode. My hand was squeezed so tightly, I couldn't have gotten out if I wanted to. She was greatly shaken up and didn't know what caused it to happen. 

"I suddenly felt really angry and I threw my glasses across the room and then I started feeling sad and depressed and emotional and then I froze up and started crying. I was really scared and I don't know why I suddenly felt this way."

My daughter is a tween, so emotions are a scary thing for them. Think of Inside Out and how Riley goes from a small, simple emotion board to an elaborate board when she hits puberty. That is a great amount of scariness to process and my daughter is often scared of the broad and varied array of emotions she feels. So this particular experience was very troubling to her. 

What stood out to me, though, was the fact that she practically vapor locked during the experience. I immediately thought of the first time my Grandpa Fritz had touched my arm while I was sitting in my bed all those years ago. I felt overwhelmed with emotion and then I locked up, scared to death to move. Then, when I was free, I felt so emotional and I ran down the hall to my mom. I knew my daughter had been touched by something and I realized I needed to get to the bottom of this situation. 

Initially I went straight to my bedroom and got out my divining rods and contacted my grandma. Here's the long and short of the conversation: "Yes, you have another spirit in the house." "Yes, it has only been here since Sunday." "It is a little girl." "She does not mean to hurt anyone." "She is just curious about the family." "We are safe." And she was the reason my grandma had been a bit absent that week. 

Great. We've got a friendly child spirit. The previous weekend we had all gone to a two-night investigation of the Glenbeulah School and Sheboygan Asylum about an hour away. Had something hitched a ride home with us? Of course, years of watching Ghost Adventures unfortunately puts into my mind that this could be a demon! So, as much as I make fun of Ghost Adventures demon-obsession, I went to bed Wednesday night with the fear that we might have brought something malignant home from those ghost hunts.

Thursday

The next morning, after dealing with a two-hour school delay due to weather, I went up to my daughter's room with the REM-Pod and started to try to make contact. I wanted to make sure my daughter was safe and that my family was safe. The first thing that hit me was the energy fuzzies or goosebumps. I could feel them waxing and waning. They started on the landing of our stairs and went to my daughter's bedroom at the top of the stairs. The spirit used the REM-Pod to light it up to purple when she was talking to me. The first time I asked if someone was here, she put it to yellow and the next she put it to purple. Then she kind of stopped communicating and I said I was going to go back downstairs As I turned to leave, the purple light went off long and loud until I turned back. I explained the situation and then went downstairs. 

My husband arrived home during that time and I told him what I was finding. I suggested he go upstairs. As I waited for him to take me up on the suggestion, I heard the REM-Pod go off again on its own upstairs. I told him it was going off and he decided to head up. The interaction was strong for him, as well. At first my husband thought there was an issue with the battery in the device as the center red light started flashing. He changed the battery and it did it again. Changed the battery a SECOND time and it did it again. This time he asked if the spirit could back away from the device and the flashing immediately stopped. It was almost as if the spirit in question's energy was so strong that it had to have distance from the REM-Pod in order to not make it short out. Now, it began to respond to my husband, activating lights and backing away upon request. He was quite impressed. But while the spirit was performative, it did not seem interested in answering questions. Finally, as I had, my husband started to head downstairs, and the REM-Pod again went off, seemingly in protest, until my husband turned back and explained why he was leaving. 

Have I mentioned that this day was my birthday? How crazy to have this happen on my special day!

Later that day I went into my daughter's room and brought my divining rods. My husband is ever the skeptic about them, but I finally found a pair that work so perfectly and greatly reduce user error. We started to ask some questions and we were getting responses. She is a little girl and she is from the Glenbeulah School. It was unclear, but she responded in the affirmative to the name Becky (a name we took from our investigation at the school to inquire about). She told us she was just interested in us, which is why she came home with us. Also, she said that she liked our animals and thought they were funny.

I also taught her how to do hugs with the divining rods. To give a hug, you swing them wide out. To receive a hug, you swing them all the way in. She swung them in and I gave her a big hug. At the end of the conversation, she asked for a second hug. I gave her another hug. I got the ghost fuzzies and I felt really good hugging her. I mean, you're essentially giving yourself a hug but it just felt right. A positive energy seemed to charge the air. Hopefully that's what she was wanting.

We thanked her for sharing her information, set up the REM-Pod for future notifications, and went downstairs. We had explained to her that we would have equipment downstairs, too, and described our Para-Light and K2 Meter. My husband started getting some blips on his K2 (which looked like the blips my daughter got on it when we were talking to Becky at the school), but we realized that certain places in his office were subject to WiFi signals and were setting the K2 off so we had to scratch all interactions due to contamination.

The rest of that day was blips on the Para-Light in the living room, which I thought was my grandma who likes to visit. I did not hear from my grandma upstairs when I put the REM-Pod on, which was disappointing, because it was, afterall, my birthday.

Friday

I started out Friday with a similar approach - attempting to use the REM-Pod in my daughter's bedroom in the morning. After an initial "I'm here" beep on the REM-Pod, we didn't get any responses. I was getting dozens of ghost fuzzies at various locations in the house, kind of like she was following me around and letting me know that she's there. I decided to try to get some EVPs to see if she would share her name or information about her. I was already starting to wonder about her age and had a good idea of what it was in my mind already, as well as what she looked like.  Sadly, my recorder didn't playback anything clearly and wasn't compatible to hookup to a PC to export the recordings, as it is a very, very old recorder. I scrapped it and figured I'd try again tomorrow with our other, more reliable recorder.

Typically when I go to bed, I turn on my REM-Pod in the corner of my room where my grandma's old chair is. She then comes through in a certain pattern of beeps to let me know that she's here and then I talk to her about the day. Sometimes I get the rods out and we talk and she gives me hugs. Sometimes she's not there and then I wait to share until she's arrived back. Tonight the REM-Pod went off and it seemed similar to my grandma, but I was not getting the grandma fuzzy vibes. I was sensing a different energy. So I shared a goodnight message in case it was my grandma and then I turned off the REM-Pod and got into bed. 

I was laying in bed, watching a cooking show on TV and occasionally glancing around the room. My husband was asleep next to me, but his feet were slightly restless and the dog was hot-dogged between us. I glanced over towards my husband's feet at one point and my breath got caught in my chest. I wasn't sure what I had just seen and my mind was processing what had just happened. I realized I had just seen part of a child's face and her hair running around the corner of my bed. She was about 4ft tall with long brown hair and a very childlike face. 

I went to smack my husband on the back to wake up and all of a sudden my entire body was being covered in wave after wave after wave of goosebumps from toes to head and I knew I was being summoned out of bed. 

Finally, I woke my husband up and I got out of bed. As I rounded the corner of the bed on my side, I turned the REM-Pod in the corner on and kept going to the other nightstand that had my divining rods. I was still flush with ghost fuzzies. I set myself up in front of the chair, where I usually stand to talk to my grandma.

I first established who I was talking to and it was, in fact, the little girl. I asked her if she had just appeared to me at the end of the bed and she said she did and also gave me all the ghost fuzzies. I asked her if she was from the Glenbeulah School and she said yes. I followed that by asking if she was used to having lots of visitors and if she was used to communicating at this time of night, to which she answered yes for both. It was between 9:30-10PM when this started happening and was a Friday night, when ghost hunts usually occurred at the school.  I followed this up by asking her age. I just had this feeling she was 9-years-old and I shared that with people prior to this encounter, so I asked "Are you 8-years-old?" No. "Are you younger than 8-years-old?" No. "Are you older than 8-years-old?" Yes. "Are you nine?" Yes. 

Then I talked to her about how at night we're sleeping, so she should probably hang out downstairs with my husband, who stays up most of the night. I told her the people upstairs are sleeping and we don't want to spook them while they're sleeping or anything like that. Plus, downstairs are where all the pretty lights are. She confirmed she understood and then I asked her to show me where she was in the room. She indicated and confirmed that she was sitting in my grandma's rocking chair with all the comfy blankets. 

We closed out the session together and then I went to bed, begging my husband to stay for a little while. I also left the TV on, because, I'm not going to lie, I was spooked. My bed is my safe space. I've had quite a few spirits come through my home, mostly family, but I have NEVER gotten ghost fuzzies in my bed. ::shivers::

Saturday

Saturday had two important events that involved our visit spirit. Today I used the better audio recorder and did some EVP sessions. I asked several questions I hoped to hear an answer from her on, so it was things like her name, age, and where she's from. We were able to get at least one response from her. Below is the link to my GoogleDrive saved mp3 recording.

Child Spirit Responding to Question 12-17-2022

When evening arrived, I had hopes that my grandma would be around to talk to, but instead the young lady made my REM-Pod go off before bed. I got out the rods to talk to her real quick. During this session, she again confirmed her name was Becky. She also, and eagerly, told me likes dolls, has noticed we don't have any dolls, but did notice my Funko "dolls" downstairs. I also asked her if she had watched the movie with us last night and tonight, because the lantern kept going off during the movie and she said yes, but very slowly said yes. I'm not sure about some of her slower answers. 

I also talked to her again about the upstairs at night being for sleeping and she said she understood. She tried to give me a hug by swinging the rods wide, but couldn't get the other one to swing to the left, so she switched it up and asked for a hug instead. I gave her, what I called, goodnight hugs and we closed out our session.

I assumed she went downstairs, because I'm putting faith in her, but I know she was in my room that night. My sleeping was incredibly restless and I woke up more than once to extremely strong ghost fuzzies affecting me. I tried very hard to stay calm and ignore it so that I could actually sleep and she would understand that night time is not for interacting at this house. If she wanted to interact, my husband was awake downstairs.

Sunday

We spent time on Sunday trying to get some EVPs and for the little girl, or Becky, to tell us her name. I really want to hear her say her name, instead of us suggesting a name that she agrees with. Sadly, our EVPs turned up empty or unintelligible. 

We did have quite a bit of Para-Light activity, though. My husband and I would challenge her to get the lamp up to red and she finally did. She'd set it off here and there. We assumed responding to what we were talking about or what was on TV or what the animals were doing.

Before I went to bed, I decided to bring my REM-Pod downstairs and turn it on. We got interactions from her there. Only briefly letting us know she was there. Then I reminded her about sleeping expectations and she made the Para-Light go to green. Then we said our goodnights.

Monday

This morning I put the REM-Pod and Para-Light on the TV table in my living room. I thought maybe she would make it go off when I turned it on. That's usually what my grandma does. But it wasn't until my daughter left for school that she made the equipment go off.

As my daughter closed the door, the green light on the REM-Pod went off and then the blue one lit up for a good bit. Then it stopped. Right as my husband got home, it went off again, this time the green and yellow lights. She did it again when my husband came into the living room. As she played with the REM-Pod, she also made the blue on the Para-Light go off, which was on the other end of the table from her. My husband asked her to light up the purple light, which indicates the highest reading. It took her a bit, but shortly thereafter, the purple light did, in fact, light up.

We thought she had stopped, so I stood up and the REM-Pod went off again and I told her I was just going to the kitchen. When I came back, she kept making a light go off when I stepped in a certain spot in front of the couch. My husband and I tried to debunk it and then she confirmed for us that she was just playing around by switching the light to purple. We did a knocking test on the table to make sure the REM-Pod wasn't strangely reacting to vibration, and debunked that. She continued to be very playful for a bit with the REM-Pod -- a shock honestly as we had given up on using the device downstairs ages ago as nothing ever occurred with it.

The rest of the day was an occasional light burst from blue up to yellow on the Para-Light and a few, very small and faint ghost fuzzies. 

Where does that leave us now? 

We're still hoping to get an EVP with her saying her name. I am a little hesitant about Becky, just because we didn't present other names, just this one name that we already knew was a spirit at Glenbeulah School. 

I, for whatever reason, bought her a Christmas present of a doll. I figured if she goes back to Glenbeulah, they'd let her take it with her to the doll room. But if she's going to be here for Christmas and seems to be a young lady who needs hugs, a doll gift would maybe make her feel really good.

We're hoping to hear from the ghost hunting group that owns the Glenbeulah School and get some details. Maybe even see if they can check on the Becky situation there at the school. So we're hoping for more information to help with more interactions. 

The Grand Opera House Oshkosh (June 2016 & October 2022)

In June 2016, I was taking a class with the Fox Valley Writing Project and we went to The Grand Oshkosh for inspiration writing. I took just a few pictures and as I was listening to the lady explaining to us the history of The Grand, I had my camera out and I was following a light that drifted down the aisle past me and hovered around one of my instructors near the floor. It was a bluish-white color. I couldn’t see the light, except through the camera. The light left my instructor and then glided up to the stage and went back and forth along the back of the stage. If the light went behind the instructor you couldn’t see it anymore. I followed it for most of the speaking time and then it just disappeared. 

I tried to film it and I even have a 2 second video where I say, “Oh! Now it’s gone.” Sadly, I tried twice and both times it didn’t pick up on film. I have two photos. One didn’t pick up on it and the other barely showed it, but I got it before it disappeared behind a chair. It’s not the BIG light, it’s below it by the chair legs, very tiny. That's the spot that moved in all directions and up and down the aisle. The instructor that it passed is the one in the yellow shirt.

I didn't go here hoping to catch something. It was a day out with my class for a writing activity. I haven't returned since, but I've heard that they frequently have activity. I know what I saw and I am confident they have paranormal activity at their location.

I hadn't returned to The Grand until October 2022 when they offered a Ghost Tour and mini-interactive spirit session. My daughter and I went together to learn more about this locally haunted attraction. I, of course, wanted to know if what I had seen had been seen by other people. 

The first part of the tour was the brief history of the Grand and it was followed by ghost stories of various locations in The Grand. They named their prominent ghosts and who they thought they were. The one who frequently appears on the stage was one of the prolific owners of the The Grand. When I thought back to my own experience, watching the light "meander" down the main aisle and then walking around on the stage, I wondered if that's who I saw in an energy form. We also learned about Native American spirits who are prominent in the downstairs dressing rooms.

I don't particularly want to go into all their stories, because I want to support The Grand and I want to recommend that you, wherever you live, learn more about their stories and history. But one story we were told about was about the little boy spirit who lives in the basement. It is speculated that he maybe passed on down there. See, the basement was where they moved carts of coal, if I'm not mistaken. If memory serves me correctly, they speculated that he may have died in a cart accident. Like many ghost hunters nowadays, they felt it was taboo to ask the spirit about their death, so they didn't have details about it. 

The little boy, though, is their most interactive spirit. So on this tour one of the ladies who was guiding us had a set of divining rods (or spirits rods or dowsing rods if you prefer). She used them to communicate with the little boy. I know some people will say it's a parlor trick or just a way to get people excited, but as someone who frequently uses divining rods, I know that they can be effective when used properly. 

The woman leading the interaction would ask questions like "can you point to where you are in the room?" or "can you point at [this person] in the room?" I had never thought to use the rods to ask questions like that before. Then, as the interactions continued, I learned the most interactive experience you could do with the rods and I, again, had never heard of or thought of it. She explained that sometimes the little boy likes to hug. That he'll cross and lock the rods against your chest. A ghost can hug you? I didn't even think a ghost would need a hug! Then it made me think of my mom and I knew that I would be going home and trying it with my mom. 

During the rod session my daughter took part in the activity and the rods locked up on her. The lady said that he was doing that, because he was being silly about interacting. Isabelle said she knew she didn't move them like that and if she was moving them, wouldn't have kept them stuck in the inner hug position. Other people who tried had similar situations to what my daughter experienced, but a few had other experiences where the little boy actually answered their questions. I had an experience while my daughter was holding them and I felt the little boy near us. I slowly had an image of him start to form in my mind, but then it disappeared and I lost connection to what was near me. 

The tour continued, ending with the beautiful view of the stage and a summary of the wonderful stories that make The Grand an absolutely grand place. 

I've had my experiences there and I know there are more to be had. I would go back to learn the stories of the spirits that reside there, but I'd like to learn them from the spirits. 

Unexpected Guest (May - July 2022)

Since my dad's spirit left my house, I continued to have paranormal activity happen that started to make me suspect that something was still residing with us. 

It started when I got my REM-Pod and I was curious if my animals were reacting to paranormal activity down our hallway or just being furry dummies. So I put up my REM-Pod in my living room and started asking questions. I was excited when I started getting beeps, but they were sporadic-- rare really. Then they just stopped altogether after that first day. At the time I thought I had some vibes about a young girl, related to my neighbors 2 doors down and her name began with a J. So I used that as I went forward, but we still got nothing on our REM-Pod downstairs beyond that first day.

I then decided to bring the REM-Pod up to bed with me at night to see if we had any activity in my room. I set it up on the other side of the room from where I sleep and hoped for the best. We didn't get any beeps, unless our cat slipped into our room to play with it.

There was unusual activity, though. One night I woke up around 2:30AM and I heard a knock on our window. I wasn't sure if I was hearing it right, so I waited again and another knock came. I woke my husband up and he checked for anything that might be causing it and we were left without answers. I was a little shaken and didn't want to fall back asleep. During that same time I felt like I had started hearing rustling near our chair in the corner. Again, it couldn't be explained. 

As I thought about the knock and the chair, I started to wonder if the activity was located in that corner of my room. So that night I moved my stool and REM-Pod to that spot. I turned it on and after a few moments got several beeps. I was so excited, I immediately started asking questions. Unfortunately, I received no responses to any of them and was again left wanting. I was disappointed and wondered if the REM-Pod had malfunctioned when it originally went off, but I left the REM-Pod on just in case something wanted to later reach out to us. 

My husband also did an EMF sweep of the room with our equipment, but he only found my fan and alarm clock to provide notable energy spikes.

After this initial realization, I started turning the REM-Pod on in the corner every night that I'd go to bed. I started getting fairly consistent beeps most nights. They would occur from a few seconds up to two minutes after turning the device on, but only one initial burst. Sometimes it was just one beep. Sometimes it felt like a frantic barrage of beeps. But it was almost always just that one time after turning the device on and walking away. It was during this time I also noticed that goosebumps or tingles would cover my arms and back when I would walk into my room and would typically grow greater the closer I got to the REM-Pod. If that happened, the REM-Pod definitely went off. If I didn't get the sensations, the REM-Pod usually remained quiet.

For multiple nights this continued to happen with the REM-Pod. One night, though, something different happened. My husband and our dog made it up to the bedroom before I did. My husband got into the bed and as he laid there he looked at the windows on the right side of the room. All of a sudden his mind registered a 3-4inch ball of yellow light. As if it had been caught, the ball of light shot to the left of our room and right out the way by the window where the REM-Pod sits in the corner. As it exited the wall, my husband said it made a loud bang. I arrived in the room within minutes of the episode and when I turned on the REM-Pod, we got no responses. 

It was still hit and miss for the REM-Pod to go off. One night, though, around June 26th, things became a little more intense. The REM-Pod had gone off. I had felt all the tingles and goosebumps. And my husband and I laid in bed talking and I asked him to ask some questions, because maybe the spirit was tired of hearing from me. We got on the topic of the spirit just being scared and not wanting anything to do with us and we talked about ignoring the spirit and just letting it be, since it didn't want to use the REM-Pod to talk to us. It was classic "cut off communication" talk from ghost hunting scenarios. But nothing happened. So I turned off the REM-Pod and got comfy-cozy in bed. As I laid there attempting to quiet my mind of all the anxiety attacks assailing it, I felt a burning sensation run down the left inner side of my back. It went from about my armpit to my waist. I didn't dare move, but I instinctively knew that it was a ghost scratch. We had angered whatever was in my room.

The next morning I told my husband about the burning sensation. I pulled my shirt up for him to take a look and there was a scabbed-over scratch running down the left side of my back. I know it wasn't me or the dog, because of the amount of blankets and pajamas. My husband took a picture and we estimated the scratch to be about six inches long if not longer. I'd share the picture, but it has mysteriously gone missing from my phone (seriously... I'm pretty upset about it). But what mattered to me was that even my husband was taken aback by the scratch. He confessed to me that he thought he would check and nothing would be there. I bet if we had checked the previous night, it would have been red and nastier-looking.

I went upstairs that morning and had a talk with the spirit that was in my room. I put the REM-Pod on first to make sure they were in the room and it beeped once. I then used a compassionate voice to try to explain to the spirit that they don't have to stay in our house if they didn't like the way we do things. If they didn't like that we put the REM-Pod out every night, then they didn't need to stay. If they didn't like the conversations we have, they didn't need to stay. I explained that we were more than happy to let them stay and we welcomed them and the only reason we were doing these things is because we want to know who they are, since they're staying in our house. I also said that causing physical harm or harm of any kind was not acceptable if they wanted to stay. Nothing happened during the conversation.

My husband had us take a break from the REM-Pod for a night or two and then it was back on. It still made the noises. I was starting to get frustrated, because I couldn't figure out what it was, but I had convinced myself it was a tween-aged girl. There was no room in my mind for it being someone else.

When I woke up on the morning of June 29th, though, something new had happened. I had gotten up really early, around 4:30AM. I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back, I settled back into bed to fall asleep and I heard someone say my name. I thought it was my mom. Then I felt someone sit at the foot of my bed and kind of rock a little bit. Like a parent would do on their child's bed. I was too sleepy to tackle the issue, but when I got up, I was worried it was my mom and that she had passed away in the night. Luckily, she hadn't and I told her about the situation. Mainly because this was becoming a bigger and bigger issue for me. I needed to figure out who this spirit was.

I was going to see Adam Berry that weekend and wanted to tell him about the situation and get some advice on how to proceed with things, but there weren't any opportunities to do that. I had hoped maybe I could e-mail him and my friend who is his cousin was going to ask, but I never got a response. Then I realized all I needed to do was ask myself "What Would Adam Berry and Amy Bruni Do?" (WWAB2D? or WWAB&ABD?... work in progress). If you're not getting the answers you want using a REM-Pod, start using other equipment! I had become fixated on my new toy and forgot basic good investigating methods. I also wanted to stick to more "scientifically grounded" equipment, as opposed to my divining rods. Nevertheless, it was time to take another approach.

So on July 4, I went upstairs during the afternoon and used my divining rods to ask some questions. First I turned the REM-Pod on and got a beep, so I knew the spirit was there. Then I prepared to dive in to seeing if this would work.

"Is someone here?" Crossed/Yes

"Did you live in this house?" Did Not Cross/No

"Are you from a house in our complex? Started to cross, but stopped. Did Not Cross/No

"Are you related to our neighbors?" Did Not Cross/No

"Are you related to us?" Crossed/Yes

I was totally at a loss, because I had just written about all my family members and whether they were around or not, but I asked, "Are you my grandma Clara?" Crossed/Yes

"Did you scratch me?" Crossed/Yes

"Were you angry at me?" Crossed/Yes

"Is it because of the REM-Pod?" Crossed/Yes

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to to use scientific equipment that's easier to communicate on. I just want to tell you that I love you. I hope you know that." Crossed/Yes

Then I ended my questions, because I wanted to process the fact that this was apparently my grandma. I was just so excited that it was my grandma. I missed her and it felt good that she was here.

Tuesday, July 5 rolled around and it was a horrible day for me. I had a major meltdown with my anxiety over some things going on in my life. When I went to bed that night, I was alone and I just broke down and talked to the room, as if my grandma was really there with me. At some point it felt like she was holding and cradling my head. It was tingly goosebumps running up my neck and around my scalp. And I cried as I imagined her holding me. I thanked her and told her how much I miss her and that I love her. Then I went to bed. 

The next day went on as normal and I chatted to my grandma whenever I was in the room with her. But things got real crazy after that.

On Thursday, July 7 I was sitting in the living room with my husband talking. My husband, while not a skeptic, was a bit more skeptical about this particular spirit encounter. He felt that something about her presence should be showing up on a K2 or EMF detector. Then we talked about how my Grandpa Fritz and my dad didn't want to set off equipment. They just wanted to use the divining rods, which I felt was weird for my dad, who was kind of really into technology stuff like computers, CD players, and DVD players. I pointed out to my husband, though, that I also get "the feels" when they're around. So for example, when I walk into my bedroom I know when my grandma is there, because I get waves of goosebumps on my body. These goosebumps run from my head to my thighs and are almost pulsating in nature. They intensify as I get closer to the stool when I first enter my room. Then they go away and only return if I start talking to my grandma. I went on to explain to my husband that previous night where I was breaking down crying and I came upstairs to talk to my grandma. I described the incident, highlighting the head-cradling sensation I had gotten. 

In that moment I started crying. I was sitting forward on the couch and I bent my head so I could wipe the tears from my eyes. As I lifted my head up, putting my glasses back on, I let out a yell of shock. To the left of me, about four feet away, appeared a grayish figure with some pink highlights running through it. I recognized that hair. I recognized that shirt. In the split second I had to acknowledge the spirit, I knew it was my grandma. My husband did not see this spirit, but he very much did see my reaction which shocked and freaked him out. He said the fright (I was surprised!) on my face was visceral and real.

I cried more and spent my evening in shock that this was my grandma. I had a short talk with her in the bedroom before bed where she did confirm it was her who appeared to me. I cried again.

Friday, July 8 I wasn't getting much of anything from my grandma. It was weak interaction to nothing. When I talked to my mom the next day she said she was performing a pendulum question-and-answer session and said that my grandma was with her that moment. That evening I asked my grandma if she was with my mom on Friday and she said yes. So clearly there is some travel ability for spirits. I just wish I could understand how they travel. 

This is a selection of questions that I talked to my grandma about that evening when she returned to my home from maybe being with my mom. 

"Are you here?" Crossed/Yes

"Were you with Mom yesterday?" Crossed/Yes

"Are you still mad at me?" Started to Cross and Stopped/Maybe? No?

"Is this about mom?" Crossed/Yes

"You just don't like my decision?" Crossed/Yes (I had previously explained to my grandmother why I wasn't visiting my mother as much as some people thought I should have-- my mental health issues.)

"This is just the way things need to be for now. Can you try some of this other equipment to talk to us? It's easier to have a conversation. All you have to do is move in front of it. Can you do that?" Crossed/Yes

We waited a few minutes, but nothing happened and my husband postulated that maybe her spiritual frequency made interacting with the REM-Pod difficult. 

"Thank you for trying if you did. Do you just make the REM-Pod go off the one time to let me know you're here with me?" Crossed/Yes

"Thank you for doing that. I really appreciate it. Do you like when I come in and just talk to the room, sharing stories about the animals or talk about pictures or things like that?" Crossed/Yes

"Would you prefer I do that more than I do the divining rods?" Crossed/Yes

I explained to her how a 2-way conversation is so meaningful. I told her I have so many questions to ask her about things that I wish we had a better way to communicate, but I'm just of the belief that she doesn't want to really 2-way communicate. I then folded down the rods and told her I would try to come in more and storytell for her. I told her I love her and Grandpa Frank and that I miss them very much. Then I put everything away, got ready for bed, and settled in for the night.

Shortly after that, my husband and I heard a huge bang in the corner where the stool is. We couldn't tell if it was the stool or the wall that the sound was made on, but we both agreed it was probably my grandma.  Maybe saying goodnight?

The Sheboygan Asylum w/ Adam Berry (July 2022)

I have a friend who lives in the city of Sheboygan, a little south of me. Last summer she alerted me to Adam Berry and Amy Bruni (from Ghost Hunters and their own show, Kindred Spirits) coming to the Sheboygan area and we gossiped between ourselves about how cool it was. My friend had told me a long while ago that Adam Berry was her cousin and I found out recently he's more specifically her cousin-in-law, married into her family. So as nerdy as it is, I was stoked to have a friend who is related to one of my favorite ghost hunters.

This past spring, my friend again tipped me off to Adam Berry making an appearance at the Sheboygan Asylum near her. Now, I don't normally attend things like this. I've spent many years on the film press circuit and I know what meeting famous people can do to your views of them, so I usually opt out of meeting celebrities of any measure. My friend, though, had expressed a desire to go, especially since her cousin was going to be in attendance. I caved and decided to join in, against every fiber of my being, and decided to try to have a good time with my friend and a billion fangirls with probably very little actual ghost hunting. (I can be a super negative nelly sometimes due to my condition.) I mean, I've had bad experiences with crowded ghost hunts with the public, mostly revolving around the types of people you hunt with. It's just something you have to adjust to if you want to do a public ghost hunt, the price one pays to make up for the typically cheaper dollar-price of a private ghost hunt. 

The day arrived, though, and I found myself as happy as a pig in mud. Was I the one fangirling now? I counted my equipment and made sure everything was working. I packed up my bags and made my trek out to Sheboygan. My friend met me at my hotel and then it was off to the Asylum.

The Sheboygan County Asylum was originally an assisted living place for the clinically insane. It closed in 2002 and was later bought to be renovated. If you'd like to know more about the Asylum's history and how it was stuck with the term asylum, I highly recommend Amy Bruni's podcast about it. I listened to it on my drive out to Sheboygan and really enjoyed all of the history related to the location (you can listen to it wherever podcasts are streamed): Haunted Road S2 – 2: No Longer is Insanity Considered an Affliction

We arrived at the Asylum and met up with the various members of our group - a mixture of family and friends. We then made our way inside to stand in the very long line to get our shirts and meet Adam Berry. I'll spare you the grueling details and just say we eventually made it to the main room that hosted my friend's cousin and his husband, Adam Berry.

First, I want to give a shout out to the t-shirt team who made the shirt for the event. I had been scared about the quality of the shirt, because I'm sort of a t-shirt snob with a collection of over 350 t-shirts. I knew what to usually expect of ordering an event shirt, BUT that was not the case here. I immediately fell in love with the shirt and I couldn't believe how wonderful the fabric felt. Best event shirt I have ever purchased. 

Sadly, though, my nervousness and pure anxiety over meeting a celebrity kicked in. I had warned my friend about this and she was like, "I've got you." As we approached Adam Berry my hands started to shake. I stood back, letting everyone else get their hugs in and their shirts signed and then my friend introduced me and he signed my magazine and asked my name, which he then sang out loud and proud and I derp-ed-ly said "It's the best name."  My friend, though, took my phone camera, which Adam then took, and we finagled ourselves into a photo, which ended up with me right next to Adam. 

It was a bit of a whirlwind, like so many of these experiences are, but he was, hands down, one of the nicest people I've ever met. Genuine kindness just came off of him in waves and it was infectious. I'll come back to this at the end of the entry, as I have more evidence to support this.

After the Meet & Greet, we all prepared for the "lecture." We found some reasonable seats and my friend had her dinner at the food truck that was there for the event. The lecture itself was a delight. Adam Berry is such a card. His stories were funny and his interaction with people was earnest. I loved it. If you can ever go to an Adam Berry event where he's the speaker, I highly recommend it. 

After the lecture they then divided us into the Early and Later investigation groups. Then they divided our early group into smaller groups. Our group was 21 people plus two guides. I won't shy away and pretend like this number didn't upset me. That is too large a number for proper ghost hunting. Perhaps if we were given the run of the place, but not all bunched together following the guides. I've been on enough ghost tours to know the downside of large group sizes. But this was out of my hands and I knew I had to find a way to deal with it or I would ruin my own good time. I'm not going to lie, I have severe social anxiety and even medicated I struggled with the group distribution. But I gritted my teeth and tried to remember that I was with my friends and that was all that was important for the night.

The Nurses' Quarters

Our first stop of the night was the Nurses' Quarters. When we first entered the Nurses' Quarters, I could feel everyone's confusion over what the expectations were for entering the area. But as I walked down the hall, I started to feel the familiar sensation of friendly energy-goosebumps on my arms and my neck and around my head. I stopped where I was and looked into a room across from me. I wanted to take a step towards the room, but was hampered by two ladies who had set up chairs and blocked the doorway. I was frustrated, but I tried to let go of all the stress I was feeling so that I could connect with the spirits in the area. 

The tour guides unloaded and introduced all their equipment and set it up all over the hallway. A lot of it was stuff I had in my own bag: REM-Pod, Ghost Balls (teehee), Spirit Box with Speaker.  I have other fun things in my bag like a K2-Meter, EMF Detectors, Laser Grid Pointer, Laser Temperature Gauge, and my divining rods, That said, they definitely had their bases covered because they also had instruments way out of my price range currently. The tour leaders had an Ovilus, a Paranormal Music Box, a Para-Lamp (detects EMFs using varied colors to demonstrate intensity), EMF Tripwires (a string of individual lights that each detect EMFs using various colors to demonstrate intensity), and Laser Grid Projector. They might have had other equipment, but this is all that I am personally aware of.  After they put out a selection of equipment, they tried to get spirits to respond. Much to our chagrin, nothing really happened, but the night was young and there were so many places to go.

Once we were released to explore for a few minutes, those ladies blocking my path skedaddled. I entered that room across the hall from me and was overwhelmed with goosebumps on my arms, shoulders, neck, and head. I showed them to my friend and she said she felt a little something, too. I didn't know it at the time, but apparently I could have gotten out my equipment and investigated these feelings I was having. I know what I experienced and that's all that matters. Afterwards the tour guides led us out and to another location.

***I rewatched the episode of Kindred Spirits where they go to the Asylum and I realized that the room I had my experience in was the room that Craig Nehring told Amy and Adam a nurse had hanged herself in. I couldn't believe it. This realization gave me a crazy surge of confidence in my own abilities after the fact, but even during the event... as the evening went on... my self-doubt started to erode with what I experienced.***

The Living Quarters

The Living Quarters are across the hall from the Nurses' Quarters. They are made up of numerous tiny rooms and then a larger open space for entertaining as well as a kitchen. We wandered around, looking at all the antiques that were in the room, but we didn't get any notable feelings. At first. Then, out of nowhere, I had the overwhelming urge to leave and find a place to sit down. My stomach was starting to feel uneasy. I thought it was just the high levels of heat, but I wanted to be safe. So I excused myself before all the equipment could be set up.

What I didn't realize was the spirits didn't want me to leave. I was sitting in a chair just outside the door of where my group was.  After some time passed my friend came out and she told me that when the tour guide announced aloud that someone was leaving, over the Spirit Box a voice clearly said "no." Apparently I wasn't supposed to leave! But why? Then my friend told me the Ovilus spit out the words "telepathy", "portal", and "view." The group in the room decided to attach the words to one of the ladies in the group who admitted she had brought a quartz pendulum onto the property. (It expeclicity states not to bring crystals onto the property on the group's website, as they might not have the intended affect or could end up negatively affecting a tour.) I'm personally a bit skeptical of that interpretation-- doesn't really jibe with my instincts. That said I'm not going to project self-importance on the situation and claim the spirit's telling me not to leave had to do with any of the words that came after. I have theories, but I wasn't in the room to see how the session fully played out so it will remain a mystery to me. 

While all this activity was going on inside the Living Quarters, I had my own experience sitting in the hallway outside the door. I was facing the stairs and I had turned to my left to look at the Nurses' Quarters door. As I was turning back to face the stairs, I saw the shadow of a head and shoulders and maybe an arm peeking down at me from the stairs leading to the third floor. It was gone lickedy split. I tried moving my head around and adjusting my glasses to see if I had caught the light the wrong way or something like that. The incident seemed legit, though.

The experience was solidified even more when I was one of the last people walking up the stairs and as I passed the spot where I saw the shadow,  I was stricken with a powerful flash of goosebumps that receded as quickly as it came on. I smiled to myself, knowing that I had definitely had a curious spirit spying on me.

The Third Floor

The Third Floor was the hottest location we visited in terms of summer heat, as the sun was coming down at the perfect angle to hit us the hardest. This area is known for disembodied voices and shadows, as well as footsteps and general noises. We all looked around a bit, but I wasn't picking up on anything. Then the tour guides had us all come to a certain area and sit along the wall, because they had put out all their equipment once again and were going to try to see if anything wanted to communicate. 

No activity was really coming through, but my friend, two of her other friends, and I were really attracted to the far end of the hallway. There were noises of some sort issuing forth from there. I wished very dearly that the talking from behind us would stop so I could try to focus. We were trying to listen and figure out what we were hearing. We did our best to debunk the pops and cracks of the building settling and the birds or bats flying around the windows. I didn't realize at the time, but we could have gone down there ourselves and looked around. That's hindsight and it's 20/20. In the end, once you strip that all away, there did seem to be some peculiar activity occurring in that location.

We were hearing knocks and even heard something loudly fall at the end of the hallway in one of the rooms. My friend was getting scalp tingles and she thought she heard something trying to mimic our tour guide. I swear I heard footsteps shuffling towards us from down the hallway. It felt like something was waking up and just starting to ramp up to full-blown action.

As we got up to head to another part of the third floor wings, I started feeling really sick to my stomach and a bit dizzy. This time a guide took me out, just for safety reasons due to the oppressive heat. I went and got a drink from the food truck that was there for the event. The only thing that was left to drink was the Jamaican drink, Ting! I had flashbacks to my time taking a Marine Ecology course in Jamaica back in the early aughts. I downed the Ting! and took a respite. I was starting to feel better and we eventually rejoined our group in The Tunnel!

The Tunnel

Let's talk a bit about goosebumps. I struggle a bit sometimes processing how I should think about them. Some people don't really put much stock into there being any meaning to the sensation. Sure, you can get them just by being creeped out by something. Nevertheless, after a over a decade of ghost hunting, I put much more faith into the idea that there's energy out there that can trigger that physiological reaction-- especially if you are sensitive to it.

There's different types of gooseflesh that can afflict one in the course of investigating a haunted location. I don't know if these variations carry any special meaning or are happenstance, but they definitely tend to be accompanied by disparate emotional reactions to the sensation. You have goosebumps that bloom out from an origin point, often the extremities. You have spine tingles that trigger goosebumps. There's scalp tingles that reverberate down your spine and shoulders. And then there's the mosquito cloud goosebumps. That's when you're walking along and suddenly feel like you've walked into a thick cloud of mosquitoes flitting against your flesh. 

As we walked into the tunnels, I walked right smack into a "mosquito cloud" of goosebumps that nobody else seemed to. It was like lightly pushing through a field of energy. I rubbed my right arm, confirming their existence, and our guide said to me, "Did you see that episode of Destination Fear?" I said I had and he noted that this was where the picture was taken of the giant shadow person, but from the other direction. Our guide told us that the entity still lurked down here and shows up as a shadow, though not usually as big as the picture in question showed. I believed him, because the mosquitoes told me it was true.

I started to lag behind a bit as we walked towards the Boiler Room where the other members of our group were. I didn't know what was holding me back, but it felt like something wanted me to stay in a certain area. I pushed through the feeling and caught up with my friend and our guide and then took some time appreciating the visual aesthetic of the Boiler Room. 

After a bit the group gathered in the Tunnel. Equipment was laid out and activity started immediately. The lights on the EMF Tripwire started going off and the Para-Lamp was flashing in response to questions. I annexed a nook for myself barely around the corner in the main area of the Tunnel, closer to the Boiler Room. In the flurry of excitement from the group over the things that were happening, it was hard to get positioned comfortably. But that wouldn't matter for me shortly.

The tour guides were talking to a spirit named Paul. We were getting question responses on all the equipment, except the Ghost Balls. He responded on the SpiritBox. He responded on the Ovilus and they were coherent responses to questions that were being asked or things that were being said. He responded using the Tripwire and Para-Lamp. But it wasn't just Paul. There were more spirits there who were struggling to make themselves known. I could feel them around me and soon my stomach started to feel it, too. A friend who was with us said she saw a shadow moving down the hallway and I turned to look, watching the shadow play and sure enough I saw a shadow, closer to the ground, moving back and forth in the shadows by the Boiler Room, which was still well lit from the dwindling sun. But I turned back quickly, because it wasn't just my stomach that was giving me problems. My chest and shoulders began to ache. It was a creeping ache and I couldn't tell if it was physical fatigue or something external and unseen affecting me.

I wanted to ignore the feeling and keep engaging in the activity. I tried to push through the pain, but it slowly swelled and whatever was afflicting me finally crept to my head and I turned to lean my head on the wall. I felt so sick and so dizzy. I knew this was not caused by heat as we were in the extreme cool of the basement and I began to grow certain this was also no mere fatigue setting in. That's when my friend insisted I leave. I didn't even wait for the guide, I just started walking out of the Tunnel with my friend behind me and our guide not far behind her. 

As we got closer to the end of the Tunnel, the guide told me that we were coming up to the place where, if I was having issues due to spirits, I would immediately start feeling better. As we got to that spot, I didn't immediately start feeling better, but every step I took that got me farther away from the tunnel made me feel just a little bit better. I had tarried too long in the Tunnel and should have left sooner it seems. Once we got to the front door, I immediately sat down and started to do some breathing exercises and my friend and the guide went outside. I just sat there letting everything just fall away and finally coming back into my own. It was refreshing and relaxing.

When it was time to rejoin the group again the guide and my friend came back inside to get me. My friend had explained to our guide that I was a sensitive. The guide started explaining to me that the spirits were siphoning off my energy, because I shine like a beacon in the dark to them. He stated that when I feel it starting to happen, I need to send out a big "NO!" to try to stop them from taking me to the brink like they did in the Tunnel. He also recommended that I talk to another lady in their ghost hunting group about the topic, but I sadly wasn't able to connect with her before leaving the event. I cannot say for certain that the guide was right about what happened to me, but my physical crashing coincided with an absolutely bonkers flurry of activity in the tunnels. As my husband would say: "That tracks." 

My thoughts, though, turned to our next location. My most anticipated-- Adam Berry was going to lead the hunt in The Chapel.

The Chapel

We walked back into the basement and through the rec room area. It was here that our guide told me that if I start to feel drained in the Chapel, I should go into the rec room and I'd start to feel better. I was disappointed I didn't snap a photo of the trademark rainbow on the wall, but I was already realizing I had missed a good chunk of Adam Berry's introduction and talk and that was disheartening. 

The three of us entered the room, took stock of the situation, and found spots along the wall to sit and acclimate ourselves. The Tripwire and Para-lamp were out and were responding to questions that were being asked. They were looking for a girl named Hope. And shortly after that, Adam suggested we try the Estes Method (someone is blindfolded and listens to a Spirit Box while wearing noise-canceling headphones as others ask questions). Adam blindfolded himself and then it was go-time.

The voice that originally was coming through at the start of the session identified itself as Hope. That voice, though, quickly was replaced with one they call The Priest (who isn't a real priest). Then it became a back-and-forth of responses between the guide who had taken me out and the voice that Adam was putting out. Our guide said The Priest hates him, so he kept giving comebacks for the comments coming through Adam's headphones. 

One of the exchanges, though, was rather timely. I had started noticing lights moving through the windows behind where Adam was sitting and I knew it was the later group of ghost hunters parking for the night. A voice came through the box that said something like  "they're here." We asked for clarification, but it felt pretty obvious it was referring to all the new people who were arriving outside that we could see the headlights for.

During the exchange the Tripwire and Para-lamp kept going off in front of us. I didn't have any illness feelings in the room whatsoever. Neither did my friend. Perhaps because Adam was the bright beacon in the room for those spirits that were around. 

And then... it was over. 

We all milled around while Adam collected his chair and started to leave with the group. Some people approached him to talk, while others just kept on their way towards the door. I was going to just keep going on my way. As I said, I've had some less-than-stellar run-ins with famous people, even with the best intentions involved. But as we got to the top of the stairs, I saw him step aside from the crowd and I found myself taking at least two steps in his direction and mumbled awkwardly that it was nice of him to come out and do this for everyone. Please understand if you could package awkward, it would be a giant box of me.

The next thing I know I'm in a hug. A hug with Adam Berry. And it was the best hug I've had in years! It felt like it went on forever, but when it was done I couldn't have felt happier. I was a grinning fool. I remember he passed on a compliment to my friend (his cousin) and I gave her a shoulder squeeze confirming that she was as awesome as he said. Then we said our goodbyes and walked out into the cool, fresh night air. 

Overall it was a good event. The ghost hunting was just alright, because we were in a group so much-- a quite large group at that. Nevertheless, the place is brimming with activity. I'm already set to return in August for my daughter's birthday. Meeting Adam Berry was one of my favorite Meet & Greets I've done in all my years. Adam just emanates this positive energy that just makes you want to smile and glow! 

But now it's back to the hauntings in my own life and what can I take away from this event to help me figure out who our mystery guest is. A time well spent. People well met. And ... on to the next.

Coming Up on Ghost Stories: An unexpected guest is lurking in my bedroom.