Spirited Childhood
By Brandy Buchanan Stark
It can be said that children have a unique relationship to ghosts. Perhaps it's the innocence of the young that allows them to see into the unknown. Or it's their susceptibility to the pranks of older children that make them tremble deep in the night. Regardless, every parent has dealt with an awe-struck child's amazing accounts of paranormal activity, be it real or imagined.
The SPIRITS have a unique perspective with children and ghosts. The team experienced two separate investigations based upon the reports of children.
The first investigation took place in August at a residence on 5th Ave. South. A mother and son recently moved into the new house, and were puzzled by sporadic occurrences of unusual phenomena.
The events included a toy motorcycle revving up, a cat dish flipping over, and the house alarm resetting itself. The boy also reported bathroom doors that locked of their own accord when he was taking a shower, and both found the bathtub plugged and filled with water and ooze one morning. Pink dots also mysteriously manifested themselves in the carpet during a single night, with several still visible despite a steam cleaning.
Three members of the team arrived to survey the scene. During the investigation, there was very little EMF (electromagnetic field) energy. Images picked up no anomalous activity. Temperatures fluctuated only near windows, an obvious place of heat exchange. The family pets acted normally.
While the pink dots could not be explained, no one witnessed them being created. They were not there that night when the family went to bed, but were discovered by the mother the next morning. However, the cats roam freely through the house, and could be suspects.
Similar circumstances surrounded the mysterious bath water filled with ooze. Could it have been muck in new pipes that had somehow gotten into the bathroom?
The interview revealed that the young man was the sole witness of activity. The mother saw the results of the manifestations, but viewed nothing directly herself.
Her son also enjoyed reading volumes of the Goosebumps series. He could quote passages from his favorite texts, which did include a story about ghosts. One book also inspired a nightmare about an entity holding him down in bed.
The team concluded that the son had a wonderfully creative mind that was possibly stimulated by the excitement of a new school year and the recent move into the family's first house. No evidence was found of haunting activity while the team was there.
A second investigation on 68th Street North in November had different results. The homeowner's 7-year-old niece was witness to several manifestations of her deceased uncle, who died in the house after a long battle with cancer. The child had shown strong psi tendencies in her former residence, where she and her family witnessed haunting activity.
The SPIRITS team arrived with 6 members, who split into two teams of three. During the investigation, sensitives picked up a strong male presence throughout the home, particularly in rooms where, it was later learned, the uncle spent a great deal of time in life.
EMF spiked several times, including in the exact place where the man died. Temperature fluctuations were recorded throughout the house, extending to several large pockets of cold air.
During the interview, the homeowner's two brothers revealed a strong psi ability that ran through the family line. Both had interactions with ghosts before and both felt the presence of the husband through dreams and the home itself.
The most unusual aspect of this investigation was the sheer number of orb images captured. Four different people brought cameras, including Polaroid, multiple digitals, Advantix, and 35 mm. Each had photographs containing orbs: a whopping 20 images were captured throughout the night, validating, in the SPIRITS opinion, the experiences of the young niece.
As children, how many of us awakened to things going bump in the night? Can we truly say that there was nothing there, that it was simply the byproduct of an active imagination? It could be that we did experience something fantastic, now a memory corrupted by time and the rationing of an adult mind.
Brandy
Overall, I can find nothing scientific that sites a haunting. The EMF meters detected nothing. Temperature flux seems to be related to windows and a/c. The cats acted normally. Nothing showed up in digital (first viewing), nor Polaroid (need to develop other film).
The house is also a new home. No one has lived there before. Prior to the building, the lot belonged to a logging industry.
One complaint was that the alarm system would switch itself from "armed" to "stay" while they were away. Jo sent this e-mail which explains what is going on:
I called ADT and they said that if a door or window is open
at the time we press "Away" it will default to "STAY". And
we have been turning the alarm on when the front door is open.
SO that mystery is solved.
Susan and Sandy and the pendulum: the idea of the pendulum is part of folk custom. It's an
ancient technique, safe and used by other ghost investigation groups. However, it cannot be validated through science.
Susan and Sandy: this is their second investigation together. Susan seems to have an inner talent. Sandy has shown continued progression with intuitive answers as we have investigated sites.
Susan scored very high on several issues during her first investigation. This is only her third investigation, however, and I need to become more familiar with her field techniques. My THEORY, however, is that she and Sandy can tap into past events in a location.
I don't think there is an active entity on the property. I think that there is an emotionally charged event that happened there many years ago, and some of the "atmosphere" remains. The information they provided, however, cannot be fully validated.
Justin appears to be the only one who witnesses the activity. I would suggest that Justin is a young man (age 12) in a new place, which is very exciting. Some of the manifestations are probably natural reactions to being in a new place.
Of all the things described, the one I find most puzzling is the bathtub incident. Jo said that after Justin had taken a shower, she went into the restroom (the next morning). She discovered the tub had been plugged up (with the bath plug that has to be manually inserted) and there was a green slime like substance and water in the tub. She released water and cleaned the bathtub, though there are no recordings of the event. How could the tub fill up, and what was the green slime that Jo reported? In a new house, could it be the pipes and sewage back up?
The other incidents were reported by one witness: Justin. He mentioned a motorcycle toy revving up (though Jo thought it might be that he heard the ice maker). He heard footsteps. He saw the cat dish leap into the air and flip over. Jo was in the room, but had her back to the phenomena when it happend. She saw the result but not what had happened.
Jo did report that the cat does hesitate when going into her bedroom from time to time. That is unusual.
Also, one morning, Jo got up to find hundred of pink dots (carpet circles) on her carpet. Justin had slept through the night (Jo is a light sleeper) and the cats did not have any medication they were taking. Yet, the dots themselves are hard to prove as supernatural....
Sandy sensed some activity towards the closet area, which Susan confirmed. Both "felt" an area of energy outside the house in the backyard up to the outer wall of the home. Could be a retrocognitive area. Native Americans (native to Florida) most likely once lived in the area. Trying to find confirmation on such.
Jo also described an incident with her deceased uncle. She has sensed his presence in church when singing his favorite hymn. During several frustrating incidents during construction, she found small tokens in the area which reminded her of her uncle (marble being one of them). She may have a small amount of psi ability which she has passed to her son. It is hard to tell, as Justin is also an active reader and has knowledge of several tv and book series based upon ghosts and the paranormal.
Susan:
Well, my first thoughts are that there isn't much going on around there. I think we were trying so hard to pick up on something/someone that we were more able to draw in whomever has been on that property. It's practically impossible to find a piece of land that SOMEONE even hundreds of years ago didn't live or die upon.
I believe that 'manifestations' they are experiencing are more the result of the excitement of moving, school, and a new home experienced by the boy. He is the only witness to the events; Jo has seen nothing directly, just the results of what has happened. The cats acted normally while we were there, and as the only other witnesses to some of the events, including a cat bowl flipping over, they do not serve as strong witnesses to these events.
Sandy's Report:
5 Av South Investigation August 10, 2002
Present: Brandy Stark, Susan Granby, Sandy Bard, Jo and Justin (homeowner & son), Tiger and
Socks (family cats)
Start time 6:40 p.m. End time: 9:00 p.m.
History:
The home was built in August of 2001 and Jo and her son moved in April 22, 2002. They are the
first occupants of the house. Before buying the lot it had belonged to a larger tract that was once
owned by a family named Anderson and at one time had been a lumberyard. There were many
problems during construction such as a pallet of concrete disappearing off the site but Jo feels that
was man made and not supernatural. Due to the many problems during construction they missed the moving in deadline of January 14 by 150 days.
Activity:
While Justin was trying to go to sleep one night he saw a toy motorcycle sitting on his dresser move and heard the engine rev up. This was around 11:00p.m. to midnight. He stated that the toy had been in storage for three years and had no batteries in it at the time of the occurrence. One morning Jo found the tub in the front bath filled with brownish water and a seaweed like substance floating in it.
The tub has a manual plug that she had to pull out. Justin had taken a shower the night before and
both report the tub had been empty and unplugged when they went to bed. Justin says that when he takes showers the doors lock of their own accord. One evening while Jo was doing dishes the sound of one of the cat food dishes smashing against the wall startled her. She turned around and found the dish on the floor and cat food all over. Justin states that the dish flipped over and flew against the wall with no one around it. The cats seemed to be nowhere near the dish either. When leaving the house Jo sets the alarm to "Away" but when they return home it is always on "Stay." One day while cleaning Justin's room a pile of toys had been dumped into the middle of the floor. Justin reported hearing footsteps walk through them as he tried to sleep that night. One morning Jo awoke to find small pink circles all over the carpet throughout the house. They had not been there the night before.
The cats will sometimes stare at the Living Room wall or seem hesitant to enter Jo's Bed Room.
Justin says that he sometimes hears whispers in his room at night but can't make out what they're
saying. He also has vivid dreams and Jo states that she has felt the presence of her late Uncle at
various times. During the many problems with the construction of the house Jo found marbles, which she believes was a sign from her Uncle that things would be okay. As a child he often gave her marbles as a token of affection.
Investigation:
6:42 p.m. Justin's room. No EMF or significant temp readings. Susan and I got no unusual feelings.
6:46 p.m. Jo's room. No EMF or significant temp readings. Susan did report a "birthing contraction"
type of feeling at the end of the bed in front of the Bathroom.
6:52 p.m. Spare room. No EMF or significant temp readings. No unusual feelings reported from any
of us.
6:54 p.m. Front Bath. No EMF or significant temp readings. No unusual feelings reported by any of
us.
6:56 p.m. Dining Room. No EMF or significant temp readings. No unusual feelings reported.
6:58 p.m. Kitchen. No EMF or unusual temp readings. No unusual feelings reported.
6:59 p.m. Susan reported temp spike to 91 degrees in junction of Living Room, Dining Room,
Kitchen.
7:00 p.m. Brandy reports possible battery drain in Living Room.
7:02 p.m. Brandy reports chills as garage door is opened. Possible A/C vent at fault.
7:05 p.m. Garage. No EMF or significant temp readings. No unusual feelings reported.
7:05 p.m. Brandy reports that her camera shut down while in the Dining Room and that she also had
battery drain. Reports a chill on the back of her right leg at the knee. I got no EMF readings from
this.
7:09 p.m. Brandy reported dead batteries in the digital voice recorder as we stood in the Dining
Room. Batteries were fully charged at start of the investigation.
Throughout the night I got the feeling that at the end of the hall there should be a doorway or that
there was a doorway there. There is a blank wall with the alarm control and motion sensor light there now. Susan and I attempted an EVP session with a crystal pendulum as Brandy asked questions and recorded the event and Jo and Justin looked on. From what we could gather we contacted an old Native American woman who was the Medicine Woman for the tribe that once lived on this land before they were forced to move West. She had gone blind to due witnessing a severe trauma suffered by her daughter that the soldiers had forced her to watch. As a result of the blindness she was left behind when the forced march occurred. I think she is more of a place memory than any thing.
Conclusions:
With no EMF or temp readings throughout the investigation I feel there is no significant haunting
activity in the home. The old woman is more of a place memory than any thing and is no threat to the family. Justin (who is 12 years old) seems to be the only witness to the occurrences in the house (other than the bath tub) and they seemed to be explained during the interview process. The toy motorcycle could very well have been the icemaker in the kitchen cycling. It sounded very much like that of the toy when they were compared. The alarm company themselves stating that the alarm
would revert if it was set with the front door open later explained the alarm. Jo confirmed that she
had been doing this. Also, Justin seems to be a very bright and active young man with a very good
imagination. He has admitted to reading several books that deal with ghosts and haunting and at one point quoted a passage from one such book that matched an experience he had just told us about. It's a new home and new place, he has just started back to school and I think these combination of things have all come together to make him think that perhaps there is something going on in the house. I feel there isn't and with some time things will settle down a bit.
