Ghost hunting seems to be all the rage these days.  We even have several television shows dedicated to this very thing … Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State … just to name a few, but you can find a couple more listed here (7 Best Ghost and Paranormal Shows).  I admit to being bitten by the ghost hunting bug.  There’s something spine-tingling exciting about going to graveyards or eerie old houses and possibly making contact with someone on “the other side”.  It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries after all.  Just what the heck happens to us when we die? Seriously, though, why wouldn’t we want to pursue answers to a question that will one day affect each and every single one of us?  I think the beliefs about this great mystery are as varied as the people who populate our mysterious world!  Someday we’ll learn the truth but in the mean time, there’s no harm in trying to glean a little information beforehand.

If any of you have read any of my earlier blog posts, you know that I lived in a haunted house for seven years and it was that which got me involved in the paranormal.  There are some who believe all things paranormal are bad, evil, and a sin to mess with.  I think there are good and bad points to paranormal endeavors and our intentions concerning them determine their “goodness” or “badness”.  We have angels and demons, good spirits and evil ones, the dark side and the light … I can’t figure how talking to angels, good spirits and those hanging out “in the light” are evil doings?  Though some treat it as fun and games, it’s really not a business to enter lightly.  This is serious stuff.  Whether you believe it or not.  Non believers have a tough time discovering a reason to change their beliefs about ghosts and life after death because the task is difficult indeed if their mindset does not accept the evidence presented to them!  The truth can stare you right in the eye and you won’t see it.  Fear is another thing that can hold back discoveries.  Every emotion elicits an energy field of some sort … disbelief and fear are great blockages to the awareness of other energy forms such as spirits.  It’s unfortunate that so many people believe anything dealing with the supernatural, other than God, is evil.  Regardless what they may think or say on the matter, I’ll take my chances with God, thank you very much!  Truly, I don’t believe for a minute that God is going to send me off to hell for all of eternity because I went ghost hunting, read palms, consulted a numerology or astrological chart and conducted a little table tipping!

I’m a very basic, very amateur ghost hunter.  I own no special doodad gadgets.  I go armed with two things 1) a digital camera and 2) a flashlight.  I do have a digital recorder but I’ve yet to give it a try although I’ve been with others who have used one.  I have managed to capture some orbs but now there are so many people crowding the internet waves debunking these photos, I hesitate to share them.  I will, however, share a couple anyway.

This photo is a picture of the haunted old farmhouse where I lived during my childhood.  A couple years ago,  my brother convinced me to go ghost hunting with him.  It shouldn’t have surprised me that he headed straight for that house.  It would be an exciting place to conduct these activities if it weren’t for the fact that I believe at least one of the spirits lingering there to be somewhat malevolent.  About a year after this late night visit, the house was torn down and the creepy old cellar filled in.  One would never even know a house used to sit on that spot.  But anyway.  We went to the house and I refused to enter the yard.  I stood near the edge of the road next to the car and took this picture.  My bedroom was located where those two windows are on the second floor.  Notice the orb right there!!  I took several pictures at this angle, this is the only one that captured an orb.  I saw it on my viewfinder and scrambled back into the car (like that was going to protect me).  My brother was standing on the front lawn.  He turned and snapped a picture of the car (with me crouched inside) and caught several orbs surrounding it!  When he showed them to me on the viewfinder, I wanted out of there! NOW.  They were all there, the same ones we lived with all those years ago, and they knew exactly who we were.  Unfortunately, I cannot locate the other photos.  I’ve had a couple new computers since then and pictures were lost.  Bummer.

I’m always looking in photos for orbs these days.  The dust orbs and the moisture orbs…they are pretty easy to spot.  But every once in awhile, a great orb is captured and you just KNOW it’s something MORE.  I’m not sure why spirits come across in photos as orbs.  It might be that the orb is their energy center and the digital camera reflects this concentration of energy when the flash bounces across it.  I’m not an expert on such things but that doesn’t mean I can’t make a guess.  Orbs have been captured on video as fast moving objects that quickly disappear from view.  They (the spirits) just cannot maintain the right energy vibration to appear to us for very long.  So, it’s exciting when you do get one!

A few months ago my husband and I joined the Maine Ghost Hunters on an investigation of a house in our area that is famously known for being haunted (the Mill Agent’s House in Vassalboro, Maine).  I have never attended a serious investigation with ghost hunters bearing lots of fancy and expensive equipment, so it was all quite interesting.  I didn’t really get much of a feeling of spirits being around until we entered the owner’s private quarters.  We were in the upstairs rooms poking around and I decided to check out the old fashioned bathroom.  I was trying to position myself in the best angle to get as much of the bathroom in the picture as possible when I brushed my head against something.  I thought it might be a hanging towel or a plant, so tilted my head to avoid it and took my shot.  Then I turned to see what I brushed up against…nothing.  Just empty space.  The shower stall was about a foot away from me.  I decided it was time to leave the bathroom!  I stepped into the hallway, felt as if something were at my back, took a few more steps and then turned to snap a picture.  Lo and behold…an orb!

The orb is to the right of the bathroom.  I stepped further back toward the stairwell and noticed the owner’s cat, Spooks, was on his way up.  He stopped about three steps from the top and crouched down as if he saw something that made him reconsider his intentions.  I watched as he continued to crouch low and follow something with his eyes.  I tried coaxing him up the last few steps but he wouldn’t even look at me…he was too busy watching something … or someone … else.  Finally he made a run for it, up the last three steps, into the room behind me and under the sofa he went.  He stayed there despite efforts by some of us curious ghost busters to lure him out. Until this point, the cat had followed us all through the house.  He is very friendly.  But something scared him and that was the end of that.

Since there were so many of us there that night, we broke up into smaller groups so as not to crowd the rooms and we headed for the apartment (the house has been divided into several apartments) where most of the paranormal activity has taken place.  Children have been heard playing in a couple of the bedrooms and they’ve been known to move toys around.  One of the rooms in this particular apartment was used to conduct abortions.  We sat in the hallway outside that room and used a flashlight to try and make contact with the spirits.  Yes, you read that right!  This was the first time I’d ever heard of such a thing which probably goes to show you how inexperienced I am since a lot of ghost hunters out there are gonna say this is “old” news.  But anyway.  The flashlights were set on the stairs.  They were left in the “off” position.  We asked if there were any spirits around that would like to communicate with us and the flashlights came on!  True story.  It is a little eerie actually.  We asked several questions and the flashlights came on in positive responses.  The timing was just too good to be a coincidence.  We’d all talk among ourselves and the flashlights would remain off, then we’d decide what we wanted to ask and put the question out there and if their response was “yes”, the flashlights would come on within seconds of asking the question.  Amazing.  The next picture shows the flashlights in a positive response.

Aside from capturing a few orbs, talking to spirits with flashlights and having my hair brushed by an unseen hand, it was a pretty quiet night.  Still, I did enjoy it and look forward to attending more investigations with the Maine Ghost Hunters organization.  You can be sure I’ll be posting a blog post about it if I do!

I used to care what other people thought about my beliefs and ghostly experiences but it doesn’t bother me much anymore.  We are all entitled to our beliefs and opinions and I’m standing behind my own.  For those who believe…cool huh?  For those who don’t, you are missing out!

I’ve a few more tales to tell on this subject but will save them for future posts.  For now, hope you are all enjoying a great October…the month of Halloween. Ghosts and goblins and ghouls, oh my!!!

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