Category: supernatural


There’s a ghost in my house! Now what?

Filed under: beliefs, ghosts, Hauntings, inspiration, Life after death, Mediumship, paranormal, Reincarnation, Spirit Communication, Spiritualist, supernatural — 8 Comments
April 7, 2013

ghostsMany of you who follow my blog know that I grew up in a haunted house and because of that became interested in the paranormal. I’ve written blog posts about my experiences in that freaky old farmhouse and plan on releasing a book about it as well…which will really be a conglomeration of all those earlier blog posts. Since starting this blog a little over a year ago, I’ve received lots of comments and email from readers who have had or are having similar experiences and I thought it was time to write another post dealing with the issue of ghosts.

For those of you who have not been following my blog since the beginning…let me bring you up too speed real quick about me, my experiences and beliefs concerning ghosts, hauntings, and the like.

First, I am not a medium though I have had some experience communicating with “the other side” and I don’t consider myself any more psychic than anyone else (we all possess psychic ability). But I do actively pursue knowledge on spiritual matters and put to practice the things I learn. So, basically, I am the average person with an interest in the paranormal and everything that I do…you can do as well!

I was seven when my family moved into the farmhouse and I was fourteen when we moved out. We’d had enough of the paranormal activity there and really, once my dad finally caved to the idea of ghosts and accepted the fact that they truly existed…there was no staying there any longer.

Ghosts can be pretty scary. It’s unnerving to deal with something you can’t see. Scariest of all is the possibility of coming up against something evil. This fear alone scares most people off when it comes to spirit communication and hauntings. And really, that is quite understandable. No one in their right mind is going to want to deal with an evil entity. Heck, we don’t want to deal with bad people who are still LIVING let alone one who is dead! The unseen bad is the worst kind in many ways. I think this is because we feel powerless against it. How do you fight something you can’t see or touch?

Now, before I go on with my thoughts on that, let me explain that the things I have come to believe are a result of personal experience and acquired knowledge from other people or through books, television/movie/video and the like. I believe every medium of learning (such as those just mentioned) are methods used by God to teach us what we need to learn or remember. Now, I believe in God, obviously, and I also think of this Higher Power as “the Universe”. Did you notice that I said God uses the various methods to “teach” us something or to help us “remember” something? I say “remember” because I truly believe we know way more than we remember about who we are (spiritual beings!) and where we come from (spirit!). When going through the birth process, it seems we suffer some sort of amnesia and “forget” quite a bit about our spiritual selves, where it was we came from and what we are capable of.

I had a very vivid dream once (during a time when I was really going through a “spiritual awakening”) that I believe addresses this issue. By the way…I truly believe our dreams are the soul’s way of speaking to us! But anyway…I dreamed I was in spirit and preparing to come to earth (I was soon to be born into a physical body). A group of friends was with me and we were discussing my pending birth. I was sad to be leaving them and the spiritual world in which we lived. In my dream, I understood that I’d done this before (been born into other lives…so, yes, I do believe in reincarnation and living past lives!). I told my friends that THIS time I wasn’t going to forget who I was. I wasn’t going to forget them or my “real” life. They told me it would be impossible to hold on to the memory of our truth. But I was VERY determined! So when it was time to go (enter earthly life) I ascended a spiral staircase and as I went up the steps, I repeatedly looked down at my friends gathered below. I would then wave and say, “I won’t forget you!”. Finally, I reached the top of the stairs and the world in which I had to step into was dark. The staircase and all below was brightness and light and I remember not wanting to step off the staircase into the dark interior of life. But I had no choice and so as I moved away from the stairs, I kept glancing back toward the stairwell. The further away I walked, the smaller the lighted spot where the staircase was located. The world around me was dark and dismal and at first I was constantly glancing back to remind me of the staircase’s existence and to reassure myself that it was still there. I would NOT forget! But, the more I walked (moved through life…grew up), the more frightening the images around me became and the smaller the light when I turned back to look. I kept repeating in my head “I won’t forget” but it was getting harder to remember to do that for I was distracted by what was going on around me. Then something jumped out at me and scared me so bad I didn’t dare to turn around and look for the light. Instead, I focused more on what was in front of me rather than what was behind me and when I finally did turn back…I could no longer see the light and I didn’t remember WHY I was looking back! I had forgotten! And that’s when I woke up. That dream is as vivid to me today as it was when I had it…now over 20 years ago! Dreams that stay with us are very important to us on many levels and in this case it was a pretty big lesson!

It’s been said that children retain some spiritual connection at birth but as they age, the connection becomes lost (have you ever noticed that babies often seem to be looking at something you can’t see? Something that amazes and amuses them?). The harsher the life we live, the faster we forget. Eventually, we are left “in the dark” and all knowledge of the light is something we must now seek to remember. I think that is why Jesus was considered the “light of the world”. He came to teach us “the way” back into the light (to reopen our eyes that we may see!). But he isn’t the only one who came to help us poor lost souls. All those who are known as true spiritual teachers (across all religions)…they too have come to show us the way and help us to see.

So anyway, our biggest challenge as humans is to remember the “truth” about who we are. In seeking and finding the truth, we shall truly be set free…from fear, misery, pain and the like! I truly believe that those of us who ACTIVELY seek the truth will eventually discover it. Bit by bit, slowly but surely! Because of our Ego (and we ALL possess one), our “remembering” is often a slow process. Our Egos act as a personal “gatekeeper” of sorts. It limits our access to universal knowledge and keeps us firmly rooted in the physical world. The Ego controls what we accept as truth and the only way to get a truth past Ego’s gate is to do it in small increments! Once we learn and accept one thing…we can go on to learn and accept another. And so on.

When physical death occurs and a person enters spirit, they do one of the following: 1) hang out in the spirit world for awhile (maybe go through a “life review” process) and then prepare for another birth (reincarnate) 2) go on to Heaven or Hell…whichever is appropriate! 3) hang around the physical world and try to communicate with loved ones left behind…or whoever else they manage to make contact with! 4) become confused about their new state of being (and thus require help from the angels and/or mediums) 5) refuse to accept they are dead (and so require help from angels and/or mediums) or they might 6) hang around the physical world in order to cause mischief. Those that do this are more than likely the “evil” ones we are so afraid to encounter. No doubt they are also avoiding Hell or whatever they must face for the evil deeds they conducted when they were alive!

The ones who are just trying to communicate (either to impart a message or offer reassurance) or the ones who are confused about their new status as spirits (because of a sudden or violent death)…these, I think, are the most common situations in hauntings. It really isn’t unusual to encounter a spirit who is here to do nothing more than reassure us they are fine or to impart a message. Some, though, are concerned about the welfare of someone they left behind and so stick around to watch over them. As for the ones who are confused about their “death” or are afraid to move on…they really do need help…either from a medium or from an angel, a spirit guide. BUT, the ones who stick around because they are angry or intend to do harm, THESE are the ones we need to watch out for and avoid interacting with. And it is fear of these ones who cause most people to avoid spirit communication.

I know that was the case for me when I was living in that farmhouse. Although I knew some of the spirits there meant no harm, there was at least one who was not nice and because of that ONE, I was afraid of them all. Now, considering they never hurt any of us, I can’t think why I was so afraid all the time, but I was. It was this fear that I wanted to address in my third book of the Tess Schafer-Medium series that I’m writing. Book one…”Be Still, My Love” was about my character Tess Schafer dealing with her anger at God and struggling with her spiritual beliefs. Book two…”Hidden Voices” was about her expanding her gift and accepting who she is, what she does and being comfortable with it. Book three…”Vanquishing Ghosts” (to be released in late Spring!) has Tess confronting her fear of negative spirit activity. I wanted to show through this story that we have within us the capability to deal with anything…even evil spirits. I almost named the book “Conquering Fear” because that is exactly what Tess had to do.

Many people write to me expressing fear for some sort of spirit activity they are experiencing. Most all those cases sound to me like someone in spirit who knows them and wants to communicate with them. The spirits bothering these nice folks aren’t trying to frighten them. As I’ve mentioned…once we pass into spirit and we realize that we are very much “alive”, we want to come back and reassure those we love. We want to share the good news! Only now we are in spirit and our communication attempts accomplish nothing but fear. This is why visiting a reputable medium would be beneficial. There are a lot of frauds out there in the world taking advantage of peoples’ grief but there are also a lot of truly gifted mediums ready and willing and happy to help you! As I am a member of the Spiritualist Church, I am lucky enough to be around lots of mediums! My advice lately, for those who seem to have a particularly determined spirit bothering them, is that they should try and locate a Spiritualist Church and see one of their mediums.

Common paranormal experiences are the feeling of being watched, the feeling that someone is right next to you, a sudden chill or tingling feeling (this is more of a response from your spirit body which instantly recognizes when other spirits are nearby!). Things might move around. Rocking chairs will rock, curtains will riffle, a picture might fall (in many cases, the person in the picture is the spirit trying to communicate!), doors open or shut, lights come on or go off, electrical equipment might do the same – the radio or TV might change channels. In all cases, if a spirit is involved, then they are simply manipulating the matter around you to try and get your attention. The problem is…they get your attention alright but then what? You aren’t exactly ready to carry on a conversation are you? And even if you are…how do you go about it? In some cases, people do hear their name being called (a common occurrence actually!). So how do you communicate with a spirit that has managed to get your attention? If you aren’t a natural medium (let’s face it…some are just gifted in this area while others are not!) and you don’t want to pull out a Ouija board, just how are you expected to “talk”?

Well, one thing I often recommend is what is known as “automatic writing”. This is where you grab a pencil and some paper and invite the spirit to communicate with you by writing whatever it is they want to say (using your hand to write it of course…don’t expect the pencil to just lift up and start scribbling away!). The problem with this method is that many people think they are making it all up. I say this…so what? Make it up! Just where do you suppose the inspiration for the words you are writing is coming from? Where do the stories I write come from? Where does any thought come from that pops into our mind? Spirit! This sort of writing is also called “inspirational writing” because you are being inspired to write. Inspiration comes from spirit so inspire away!! The freer you give reign to write whatever enters your mind, the more of a message you are going to get.

Now, because we don’t want to encourage negative spirit interaction, I always make it clear that I don’t want to communicate with anyone who is negative in any way. If a message comes through that sounds threatening or makes you uncomfortable then you need to end the communication. Loving spirits with good intentions are not going to make you feel that way. When a loving spirit wants too communicate with you, that is what you are going to feel…loving energy. You are going to feel GOOD inside. Happy. Peaceful. If you feel none of those things…then you simply tell the spirit that you will NOT communicate with it and that it is not to bother you any more and then BLESS the spirit and send it away. If you are still bothered after that, then find a medium and take care of the problem. Unfortunately, there is the possibility that a particularly nasty spirit isn’t going to obey your command (though I do believe this is rare!). The thing to remember is that here in the physical world…we who are in a physical body are in charge. Those in spirit can only operate in spirit. They can manipulate matter to a degree but once you take charge of the situation…through prayer, faith, and fearlessness…the spirit has no power. I truly believe this. I try to show this through my character Tess. I put her in situations in which she must handle spirit activity…the positive and the negative…and how she does that is how it can truly be done. I feel inspired while writing those stories. And where did I say inspiration comes from? Yeah…I feel spirit is helping me write the Tess Schafer series. I don’t doubt it a bit.

So anyway…the next time you think a spirit is haunting you, you now have options. Tell it to go away or communicate with it. But if you are not comfortable doing either of those things…find someone who will! Just remember, though, that we are all spiritual beings and you have within you the capability to deal with spirit…effectively and safely!!

Many blessings out to all and Peace Out!!

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Our Sixth Sense and its Important Role in our Life!

Filed under: paranormal, supernatural — 3 Comments
January 26, 2013

chakrasI don’t know about you but when I hear the words “sixth sense” I always think about that movie in which those words “I see dead people” was made famous. But what is the sixth sense? The ability to see dead people? I think it’s more involved…more complex than that. Really, our sixth sense is often called “gut instinct” or “intuition”. It’s the feeling you get when someone is staring at you even though you don’t see anyone staring at you. It’s the feeling you get when you turn down a street that looks innocent enough and yet your gut is saying…turn around!! And when you ignore it, you are suddenly in a neighborhood surrounded by ruffians all wondering what the hell you think you are doing passing through THEIR turf! It’s the feeling you get when you KNOW something is wrong BEFORE the phone rings bringing bad news. So are you getting the gist of it? Most of you already know this…those of you that regularly read my blog anyway. More than likely you read the stuff I write because you are interested in spiritual matters.

The sixth sense we possess is our connection to the spiritual realm…to that of the “unseen” and the unsubstantiated. The things we get from our sixth sense are not often detected by our other five senses…our sight, our smell, our touch, our hearing, or our taste. When our sixth sense is activated, it is often felt in our solar plexus (which is also known in Eastern spiritual traditions as one of the seven Chakra locations present within the body (see image at beginning of this post). Because of its location, we often call it our “gut instinct”. We feel fear, anxiety, a heightened state of alert  – or heightened feelings of any emotion really – right there within the solar plexus…our gut. Fluttery feelings might be the first thing you notice…or a tightening. God has given us all we need to survive in this very difficult world…our sixth sense is a HUGE part of that survival!!

I find it interesting that so many of us ignore or don’t give much credit to our sixth sense. If any of us were to look back on situations where we “knew” or “felt” we SHOULDN’T have done something or SHOULD have done something but ignored the feeling and came to regret it…well, that was the sixth sense at work. When it’s ignored, we are not going to experience the BEST-for-our-own-good result. Our sixth sense is meant to HELP us…to make our life EASIER or BETTER in someway. It is not going to lead us down a bad road or encourage a bad decision.

The problem we have with the sixth sense is our Ego – that part of our personality that pretty much runs our life. Don’t get me wrong…we need our Ego in order to function in this world…but we shouldn’t let the Ego RUN OUR LIFE. The Ego is one of our major life challenges…it is the one thing we must learn to tame and yet often it is allowed to intensify and grow stronger! The Ego often overpowers the “gut instincts” and those “feelings” you get that you can’t explain but bug you anyway. Our Ego will tell us that we can’t trust our “gut”, that we must go with logic and leave those silly, unsubstantiated feelings out of the equation! Truly, I think a major lesson we humans must learn is to calm the Ego to a point that we can operate more from our spiritual centers (those 7 Chakras I just mentioned!). I think those who achieve this…the taming of the Ego (from which fear, anxiety, uncertainty and the like abide) will achieve a life that Jesus tried to convince us we were capable of living! Now I ask you…did Jesus overcome his Ego or what? And for those who don’t believe in Jesus…what about Buddha? Or Mother Theresa? Or Gandhi? You get the idea, I think.

It was my sixth sense that got me through those years in that haunted house I lived in. For children, the Ego is in infancy…it acts as mental reasoning and logic based on input from the five senses. It’s quite a necessary part of children because they don’t understand their gut instincts or intuitive feelings. When I was young and living in that haunted house, my Ego created a lot of fear for me. Remember…the Ego perpetuates that particular emotion. The Ego will pitch itself against anything we are getting from our sixth sense and often, especially as children, we go with the Ego. It’s a major hurdle to overcome when entering the consciousness we call “life”.

I sensed in that drafty old farm house, a PRESENCE. I couldn’t see it but I FELT it and it’s the most unnerving thing to experience! I often knew when they were around before anything concrete happened. They moved things, they shook things, they bothered the animals, they made the house cold, they made odd sounds, they opened and closed doors and perhaps most annoying of all…they HID things! Yeah, they were pretty active at times! But I learned to combat my fear to some extent with prayer.

When I was seven, I became friends with Lori and her family was very involved in the Catholic church. Although I remember my parents holding Sunday School for a time in my younger years, I hadn’t had much exposure to biblical teachings. Through my friend Lori, I learned about God and Jesus. As I grew up, I often went to church with Lori and her family and eventually was baptized a Catholic when I was eighteen. Lori and I liked to read bits of the bible and then get into deep discussions about our thoughts on what we read. We were fascinated by Jesus and all his miracles. She gave me a bible that had all of Jesus’ sayings outlined in red and I read every one of them! Thanks to my friendship with Lori, I was given the means to protect myself against the negative entities existing within that farm house! I prayed for God’s protection every time I felt them near and always, I was protected. Nothing bad ever happened to me or my family. That doesn’t mean they didn’t affect us or raise a bit of havoc. There were times when there was a lot of anger in our home and I think negative energy from the spirits residing there affected us emotionally. There were periods, for whatever reason, when the spirits were absent and it was always during these periods that we had the most joyful moments of our time there!

As I grew older and began to read more on Chakras and our power as spiritual beings, I have learned to overcome much of my fear. It is the one single emotion that we all experience and the one emotion we must all learn to conquer in our journey to become again the enlightened beings we once were. I could be wrong and way off base here but it is my belief that we…those of us living in this physical world…are the fallen angels spoken of in the bible. Our Egos have cut us off from our connection to God (some more so than others!) and we have forgotten who we really, truly are. We have forgotten that we are all the spiritual children of God, capable of great things (and NONE of it negative in any way!!!). And if you are thinking…no, we are NOT capable in any capacity to that which God can achieve, then that’s your Ego talking!! Yes, yes, I know…it could very well be MY ego believing such a thing. But here’s the kicker…the Ego houses and perpetuates fear, anxiety, uncertainty and the like…God does not! So why would my Ego tell me I am capable of doing something that would end up taming it once and for all? Now, just because I BELIEVE that doesn’t mean that I’ve ACHIEVED enlightenment! That’s another challenge we have to overcome…learning to accept, without a shadow of a doubt, the things we believe in. That’s where the “faith the size of a mustard seed” comes into play! If only our Egos would stop making us doubt! Dang it.

Life is a constant challenge. But I really think the harder it gets, the more God is trying to help us! An odd statement I know but let’s think about it for a minute. When is it that we learn the most and come out all the better for the experience? When we overcome an adversity in some way…when we solve a problem, when we vanquish negativity. I have traveled down some bumpy roads in life, let me tell you! I’ve had several bad relationships and dealt with some nasty situations involving family, friends, acquaintances and coworkers and I got through it all relatively unscathed. Most importantly, I LEARNED something from every situation and experience! I am today, as we all are right this very minute, the sum total of all that I have lived and experienced. In the end, it comes down to this…how we REACT to life situations determines how well we have learned a particular lesson and will then determine how well we live and prosper. If life for you is tough and unbearable, then there are lessons facing you that must be learned…try if you can to figure out what the lesson could possibly be and then ask for guidance on solving the problem (the angels…our spiritual guides, are always ready and willing to assist if you but ASK!).

Another thing we must do is protect ourselves from negative energy forces out to attack us. People will often come into our lives that mean absolutely NO GOOD for us. They mean to do harm in some way and you must learn to protect yourself from these kinds of people. They are a necessary evil…another lesson to learn!! It’s endless, these life lessons (and I’m heaving a huge sigh here!!).

spiritual energyNot long ago I had a dream (which I believe is another way for our spiritual self…our soul…to communicate with us) about an evil entity that was attacking my home. The entity was very bad and it meant us (me and my family) harm. I was not afraid of this entity but I was upset with it for coming into my home and causing disruption. Instead of cringing in fear or fighting back with anger, I decided to vanquish it from my home. I did this with prayer. I  asked for God’s protection and imagined God’s loving light…his glowing energy field of impenetrable protection…surrounding our home and my family. The negative energy grew strong with anger and tried to attack me. I drew from within me this incredible energy and with God’s help…we pushed the evil away. When I woke up, I couldn’t help but wonder why I would have a dream like that…profound and emotional though it was. Not a few days later, a negative person who has been slowly growing his evil towards us began his attack. Although my Ego initially took charge and I struck out with anger (which is very much a part of our Ego!), the only thing I achieved was increasing the attack against me (negative energy fighting negative energy only BUILDS more negative energy!! Please remember that!!). Once I managed to calm myself down, I immediately thought of my dream and realized that it was a warning and a solution to what was now occurring. So I calmed down and prayed for protection, trusting God to keep us safe from harm. I envisioned my home and my family as encased in God’s protective light and the evil receded. The picture to the left is the energy field that surrounds us…it is also called an aura! This energy field can be expanded to include whatever you choose to protect!

The only way to fight evil is WITH GOD. We cannot do it alone and we cannot do it with evil deeds of our own. It’s a tough lesson for our society today because everyone seems to be attacking everyone else!! It seems our Egos are growing stronger. But fear not! There’s a strong spiritual community growing among us. Right now it seems the scales are tipped toward Ego’s favor. You know that saying – “power corrupts”? I think it should be expanded on – “Egos growing in power corrupts absolutely!!

You know…I truly believe that those who give in to their Ego are aware of their “guts” telling them they are wrong to do or act or say or think what they do, but they ignore it. They dismiss it and try to close their minds to it. This is why our sixth sense is so important! We must learn to become more in tune with it…we must learn to trust it and recognize what it is trying to tell us. Our sixth sense is our one special gift from God. It is given to us to help us survive this often cruel, unforgiving world. It is God’s way of helping us learn our life lessons so that our souls may once again truly remember who we are…part of God – beautiful loving spiritual beings!!

So tell me…what do you think about all this? Have you had an experience with your “gut feelings” that you ignored and then wished you hadn’t? Have you ever “felt” something was about although you couldn’t see it? Are you going through tough times and dealing with negative people? How are you handling it? What are you learning? Please share!!

Until next time, many wonderful blessings to all and Peace Out!!!

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Exploring Paranormal Mysteries!

Filed under: haunted house, Hauntings, paranormal, Past Lives, Reincarnation, Spirit Communication, supernatural — 1 Comment
November 12, 2012

I LOVE paranormal stories. They scare me, make my skin crawl and often induce me to sleep with a light on, but even so, I enjoy them! I don’t like blood and gore stuff, though. That stuff grosses me out. Spooky stuff…THAT’s the kind of stories that make your hairs stand on end. I probably enjoy ghost stories because there’s such mystery surrounding them. And because I lived with dead people for awhile. That sort of puts things into perspective…makes you realize that there’s more to life…and death…than what we think we know. In truth, it’s from what we don’t know, that our fears grow.

Ever since I was little and lived in a haunted house, I’ve wanted to know WHY spirits linger in “our” world (the land of the physically living) once they’ve passed on into their new one (the great “hereafter”). Not everyone hangs around haunting the living. So WHY? Do ghosts have fears? Fear is a huge stumbling block for most of us. We must conquer fear in every aspect of our lives…in the here and now, and in the afterlife. At least, that’s what I think. I could be wrong. And I could be right. On the off chance I’m right, I am hoping to get things figured out well ahead of my appointed time to ‘cross over”. I have no intension of hanging around scaring the bejezus out of my loved ones. There are a few others I could  think of that might be fun to scare, but honestly, I’m hoping there are better things to do when I get “over there” than to amuse myself scaring those who annoyed me when I was alive!

I’ve come to believe in reincarnation for various reasons (see Reincarnation Fact or Fiction?) and so I’m always wondering how my past lives are affecting my current one. When I was in the military, I was in a tough career field. It consisted mostly of men (about 98%) and the few women there were…well, you had to be tough or stupid to stick it out (I put myself in each category through alternating points of my life!). Over and over I met up with the most difficult of supervisors and co-workers. And over and over I would say…WHY do I keep coming up against the same kind of people over and over again? Each new base I was assigned, I would hope things would get better…and NO, that wasn’t often the case. Each time I encountered the same difficult, over-bearing people I’d encountered at the previous base. I came to wonder if it was just me. Was I such a loser to be messed with so much? No. I wasn’t. I had lessons to learn and yes, I eventually learned them and let me tell you…once you figure out a problem…it really does go away! So, I started asking myself…have I encountered these people before and they are just getting me back for a past life transgression? How do I even out the Karma and stop the cycle of retribution, revenge and whatnot? Really, when you start approaching people and events this way, you look at it all quite differently. Suddenly I’m not resentful but curious.

Since I constantly wonder about reincarnation, karma, past lives and the like, it’s only natural that as a writer I am going to write stories featuring these interests. No Matter What is one of my most intriguing stories. I’m quite proud of it. I really wanted to explore all the issues about life and death in this book. Why are we here? What happens when we fulfill our purpose? Just how much does a past life affect us? What about Heaven? What about Hell? The questions mounted and No Matter What practically wrote itself. I was a spectator to my own story, as eager as a first time reader to find out what was going to happen next! If I didn’t know any better, I’d almost wonder if I channeled the story somehow. It sounds corny I know but there you have it.

So, I wrote my story and I’ve put it out there for anyone else who might enjoy a story involving ghosts, reincarnation and past lives. Because I’m a Veteran and proud of it, I thought…why don’t I share my baby with the world at no cost? So on November 12th and 13th (my favorite number by the way!), I’m going to offer my special baby for FREE! For any of you paranormal enthusiasts…I sure hope you enjoy it!! And however you feel…leave a review and let us know!  Thanks so much for visiting my blog and sharing some time with me.

Many blessings to all and Peace Out!

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Reincarnation: Fact or Fiction?

Filed under: Brian Weiss, Edgar Cayce, ghosts, Numerology, Occult, paranormal, Past Lives, Reincarnation, supernatural — 25 Comments
October 25, 2012

In honor of my newest book release NO MATTER WHAT, a paranormal thriller based on the concept of reincarnation, I thought I’d post some thoughts on this controversial topic.

People either believe in it pretty strongly or they don’t buy it at all. Some might be on the fence about it but even they are more skeptical than not. There was a time, though, when the majority of the human population believed in reincarnation. Now, I could quote books that cover this subject and try to state my case in why I believe in it with data from others, but why? I have found that our beliefs are strengthened through personal experience more than anything else. So, I want to share MY experiences and thoughts on it and I’d love for others to share theirs as well. I would. The subject is fascinating!

So anyway. I first heard of reincarnation from various paranormal and occult books I picked up in high school (we had a pretty decent school library, I have to say!). I was doing some research on the paranormal because of that haunted house I was living in at the time (I’ve published several blog posts on my ghostly encounters if you’re interested!). I was determined to learn what I could about the spirit world and reincarnation was often mentioned. Many ancient cultures believed in it and most Eastern religions still do today. In fact, some cultures didn’t just BELIEVE it, they accepted it as a known FACT! I mean…ever watch those fascinating History or Discovery Channel shows on the Egyptians? They took the whole thing quite, quite seriously.

I have to say, though, that is was the book Audrey Rose that really fired up my interest! I don’t know why but I really identified with that story!! Sure it was a work of fiction but after reading other books about non-fictional accounts of Past Life memories, it seemed pretty darned plausible to me. I mean, here’s our hope that we aren’t all doomed for hell! I try to live by a decent moral code but I am no Mother Theresa. So, am I destined for hell? I enjoy a drink on occasion (those new Whipped Pinnacle Vodkas are going to be my downfall!), I have a temper and (dare I admit it?) let loose on a few choice words every now and then that would be better left UNSAID! I can be pretty critical about anything and everything (and then I get on my own case about it!). It is no fun airing my faults but the fact is, most of us have some, and many of those vices or faults we fall victim to are considered SINS! (sigh)

As for one of the really bad sins, well…I haven’t killed anyone DIRECTLY but I was in the military and I can’t say for sure that any of the weapons I prepped for the pilots to use didn’t end up taking a life or two. Does that make me guilty by association? Are the military exempt? Some say yes, others say no…who is right? Does it matter? Not if reincarnation comes into play!

My favorite authors on this subject are Edgar Cayce the Sleeping Prophet (he’s truly amazing!!) and Dr. Brian Weiss who is on a book tour right now for Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing Power of Past-Life Memories.

Another reason I came to accept this belief is my own gut-feeling on the subject. When I read about it, there was this sense of acceptance deep within. Now, your gut feeling might tell you otherwise. And if that’s the case, whose gut is right? Now THERE’S a question! My belief is this: regardless what we believe, if it’s true, then it’s true and if it’s not, then it doesn’t matter much because we won’t be back to ponder the question again! (smile) Will believing in it send us to hell if it isn’t true? Good Lord, I think our LOVING God is more merciful than that. I’m sure he’ll straighten us out when we get over “there” (on the “other side”).

Other than all the stories I’ve read on it, I’ve had a few amazing dreams that have helped me along with this belief. I was still in high school when I had this dream that I was a male soldier (I guess our genders don’t much matter in the whole reincarnation process) and in the middle of a war battle. I didn’t recognize the uniform I was wearing but later I was able to match it to those similar to those worn during the World War I/II era. So anyway…I was right in the middle of battle, shooting at the enemy when suddenly we were getting overrun! We were told to retreat but I stumbled and fell. Knowing I could not get away, I tried to play dead. The enemy wasn’t having it. They surrounded me, lifted their guns and shot me several times. Now really, I’m thinking THOSE soldiers committed the worst deed but I’ll leave them to their Karma and worry about my own. I remember feeling very HOT and then I was suddenly floating over my body and feeling no sense of attachment to the bloody mess below me! I woke up right after that and my feet were literally burning! I had to jump out of bed and walk around on the cold floor to cool them off. That dream seemed so real and unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Interestingly enough, when I joined the Air Force right after high school and had to shoot a gun for the first time ever, I missed qualifying as an Expert Shot by a couple points! Not to worry…I made up for it the following year!! (smile)

The general thought on reincarnation is that our current lives are influenced in one way or another by previous life experiences. Scared of heights though there’s no explanation for it? Maybe you fell to your death in a previous life! Afraid of water? Maybe you drowned in another life! I really address this very thing in my newest book No Matter What.

Another dream I had was even more amazing! I dreamed an entire LIFETIME in one night! I went through it all…birth, childhood, teenage years, young adult, marriage, children, grandchildren. In that dream I died of old age surrounded by my large loving family! As soon as I died in the dream, I woke up and I couldn’t shake those memories for quite some time. It was so bizarre! So darned REAL!

But, what really clinched the whole reincarnation belief for me was my son. He wasn’t yet two years old when he came to me one day while I was preparing dinner in the kitchen. He tugged on my pants to get my attention and I looked down at him. He had a very puzzled look on his cute little face. “What, Wes?” I ask and he cocks his head to look up at me and very seriously he asks, “Where is my wife?” Now, I didn’t even know Wes knew what a wife was! (and just so you know…he had a great vocabulary for his age!). I say to him, “What wife?” and he shakes his head in frustration because he really, truly wants to know. “My wife. You know, when I was a man and I had a wife? Where is she? I miss her!” and I tell him I don’t know where she is. He turns away all dejected and heads for the couch where he sits down to cry. I go to him and try to offer comfort. He continues to tell me about how he used to be a man and now he’s a kid but when he was a man he had a wife and he really liked her. Now, Wes often made similar comments about being “a man”. He’d say stuff like, “When I was a man, I drove a truck.” or “When I was a man, I did this” or “did that” or whatever. Because I believed in reincarnation, I did not ridicule or dismiss Wes’s comments and questions. I also was careful not to “feed” them.

I remember one afternoon while driving down a country road, Wes suddenly spoke up all excited. “Mommy! I remember this place! This is where we had the accident.” Now really, should a two-year old kid be talking like that? “What accident?” I ask. “When I was driving the car and the truck hitted us. You know, when I was a man.” and then “Where is my wife? I miss her.” He was always so sad when mentioning his wife. I wish I’d tried to look it up about there being a car accident in the area Wes identified but I didn’t.

I think the incident that bothered me the most with my son was the night I was tucking him into bed and noticed how sad he was. I asked him what was wrong. His big brown eyes looked into mine and he said, “I don’t want to die again. I don’t like that.” Then he tells me that he liked being a man and wanted to know why he had to be little again. For a two-year old, Wes was pretty obsessed with death. He hated to watch anything on TV that involved it. He would get so upset and cry and then we’d have to talk about how the stuff on TV wasn’t real and no one really died. In fact, my son talked about being a man so much and had such an obsession about death that my friends were often “weirded out” by him.

The general consensus among believers is that very young children often do remember snippets of their past lives. But as they age, the memories fade. The last time Wes talked about his past lives was when he was about four. He claimed he was a pilot in the Korean War and died getting shot down! He knew far more than a little kid should know about aerial dog fights and honestly, where would he even hear of the Korean war? I NEVER watched war stories and I certainly didn’t let Wes watch them. I think that pretty much set it in my mind.

One of the things on my Bucket List is go undergo a Past Life regression. I’d love to find out who I’ve been before. It might explain a lot about myself. In any case, it would satisfy my curiosity!

The subject has truly fascinated me since I first learned of it and I love stories that involve the concept. I first came up with the story idea for No Matter What when I was in high school. I started it but never finished it (as was the case with many book ideas). Twenty years later I found the notebook containing the partially written story on my bed and took it as a sign from the Universe to finish it! So I did. What I loved about writing that story was the fact I could explore a lot of my beliefs through the characters. Hauntings interest me…there’s a ghost. Numerology interests me…one of the main characters dabbles in it! As for the reincarnation theory…well, there are several reincarnated souls all working on current life issues that stem from their past life actions!

My hope is that when people read that story, they find some hope that nothing is hopeless! Because it isn’t. No matter what, we are all going to heaven. Eventually. After a few lives or so!! (smile)

Okay, that’s it for now. What are your thoughts? Have you had any experiences with this? I’d love to hear your stories, beliefs, arguments…whatever. Until next time! Many blessings and Peace Out!

Have a GREAT HALLOWEEN!! May it be truly SPOOKTACULAR.

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8 Ways to Contact the Dead!

Filed under: ghosts, Hauntings, meditation, paranormal, Spirit Communication, supernatural — 13 Comments
September 28, 2012

I’m not a medium nor am I a psychic, but I have managed to interact with the spirit world because this ability is something we ALL have. We all have it because, when you boil it down to the nitty gritty…we are all Spiritual Beings! Now, some are fortunate to be naturally well connected to their spiritual self (like mediums and psychics!) but some of us are not. If you are in the “are not” group like me, that just means we have to work a little harder, exert a little more effort, to make spirit contact happen. And that’s because our BELIEFS are often holding us back. If you don’t think you can talk to spirits, you probably won’t. But, if you are interested in giving it a try, I’m going to give you a few ways to go about it that have worked for me.

In all honesty, I’m doing this post to celebrate my first book BE STILL, MY LOVE! (the picture on the left is an older book cover and not the one currently being used but I like it so thought I’d use it for this post). It’s been published since the 13th of December 2011 and has had over 24,000 downloads! Amazing. Truly amazing. I think the spirit world helped me write it. Okay…I think the spirit world helps me write everything I write but that’s another story. So anyway, I am getting ready to take it off Amazon’s KDP Select Program so I may offer it to KOBO readers and NOOK readers and whoever else wants to give it a go! BUT, before I take it off the program, I’m offering it for FREE today and tomorrow only (28 and 29 Sept 2012). If you are interested in ghosts and you don’t mind references to God (how do you leave God out of a spiritual interaction?) then you might like it! At the very least, it’s FREE so it won’t cost you anything but some time to check it out.

Okay, NOW for those ways to talk to the dead!

1. The Ouija Board. Now before you start cringing and making signs of the cross, let me just say a few things about this EASY form of spirit communication. It really does work but the problem is it works whether you BELIEVE it or not, and that makes it a little dangerous. Meaning this: whenever you make contact with the spirit world, you are sort of opening a portal between our world and theirs. You MUST be responsible about this. Before using a Ouija, you need to be in a positive frame of mind and please…don’t be under any drug or alcohol influence! Before you begin…PRAY. Yes, pray. I say The Lord’s Prayer because I think it’s a pretty powerful prayer and it has never let me down! Which means I’ve had no negative experiences with the Ouija. I haven’t had negative experiences because I am being responsible, positive, I pray for God’s protection, I don’t do drugs and I am not buzzing on alcohol! As in every form of spirit contact, you must make it clear that you are allowing only positive energy forces to come through. You are looking to make loving contact with someone you know or someone who needs to communicate who has nothing but positive reasons for doing so! When you are done, you thank the spirits, make it clear the session is ended and you put the board away. Portal closed.

2. Table Tipping. Now this one is sort of fun. It actually works as easy as the Ouija and it must be treated with the same respect. Pray first. If you don’t want to pray to God (spirit contact can happen no matter your religious beliefs) then at the least imagine yourself, the table and the others around you, as being surrounded by white light. This is a protective light and is as real to the spirit world as it is imagined in yours. The table should be round or square and not very big. A small end table works great! The lighter the table, the easier it is to “tip” and that’s only because it takes less energy to get it going. It must be a sturdy table though because it can really get to rocking and a weak table will probably end up getting broke.  It also works better if the legs are not even with the edge of the table (for the square ones). I’ve used a lightweight card table before but I prefer to use round tables, they work best. So, you and whoever is doing it with you, all put your hands flat on the top of the table. Don’t press down hard, just lightly rest your hands on the table. After your prayer has been said or you’ve all imagined your white light, you then make it clear to the spirit world that you are looking to make positive, loving contact. Then you wait. The table should start giving off a silent “hum” of energy. Hard to explain, but you feel “something”. It might begin to shimmy a bit. This means energy is building in the table and a spirit is preparing to come through! Encourage the spirit to communicate with you, this encouragement helps increase the energy. Tell them to tip the table when they are ready to talk. After awhile, it should start rocking! Yes and no questions work best…tip once for yes, twice for no…that sort of thing. But you can have the spirit spell out words by going through the alphabet with each tip of the table. It really is a lot of fun to do with a group of people. But remember…it’s serious business. It’s not a game so be RESPONSIBLE! When you are done, make it clear you are done. This closes the “portal”.

3. Flashlight. Yes! You read that right. This one is a little harder but it does work. Take a flashlight (the twist on and off kind work best) and twist it just before it comes on. Set it down on a flat, solid surface (nothing that vibrates easy) then invite a spirit to come speak to you! Yeah, that’s it. But again, it’s best to say a prayer and/or imagine the white light (I do both). Also, make it clear you are looking for positive spirit communication. Nothing negative! You can only do yes and no with this one…positive responses will make the flashlight come on when you ask a question. Or maybe negative responses will make the flashlight come on…you need to make it clear to spirit how to communicate with you. Clarify it with them…for yes responses, turn on the flashlight or tell it that you want the flashlight to come on for no responses. Whatever you prefer.

4. Automatic Writing. This one is actually pretty easy too but so many people think they are doing the writing (making it all up) that they don’t believe they are truly talking to spirit. You need lots of paper for this and a good pencil or pen. Sit quietly with your pen in hand and resting on the paper. Do your usual preparation…prayer, white light, intentions…and wait for the pen to start moving. Spirit will come through and talk to you. Their words will enter your head like a thought and if you are relaxed and concentrated enough, your pen should start moving along with your thoughts. You sort of have to be in a meditative state to do this so keep that in mind. This one takes a lot of patience but once you’ve done it and it gets going, it’s pretty easy.

5. Scrying. This is sort of like crystal ball gazing. You can use a crystal ball, or a mirror or any shiny surface. People in the days of old used small bodies of water. This is another one that takes patience. You have to be in a meditative state to make this work. Once you’ve done your preparations, you must then put yourself in a very relaxed state. Your conscious mind must be quiet to make this work and that is very difficult to accomplish! Do we EVER shut up? Seriously. Even during sleep my mind is active…dreaming to beat the band and all that. So anyway, this also works best in a semi-darkened room (less distraction and mood setting) with a candle (preferably white just to keep with the positive theme…you know, white for the light of God and black for darkness and things not in tuned with God). Though honestly, I don’t think the candle color matters unless it matters to you. So anyway. You sit relaxed, quiet your mind and stare at the clear surface…the mirror or the crystal ball or whatever it is you are using. Let your eyes relax too, they will sort of go out of focus. Eventually you will see a haze and then, if you can keep calm and not get excited and start your mind chatter back up (which often happens to me, darn it!), you should be able to access the spirit world successfully. You might see images of people you know who have crossed over or you might see past or future events. If it’s spirit contact you are hoping for, you should see the person you want to talk to. Really, this form of spirit contact should be for specific people you are hoping to connect with and not a “free for all” like with the Ouija and Table Tipping.

6. Meditation. Though mediation is mostly used to relax your mind and enjoy being one with your spirit, you can also access the spirit world while in a meditative state. This will all happen through your imagination and there’s nothing wrong with that. Our imagination is a direct link to spirit! We just don’t think of it that way and we certainly don’t often use it for conscious spirit contact! When I go into a meditative state, I feel closely connected to the spirit world and I often have a gentle spirit come through. I call her my guardian angel. The energy around me has a warm, energized buzz about it and I know she’s coming when I start feeling that. Her thoughts enter mine and are very distinct and separate from my own internal voice.  I’ve had some of the most profound experiences during meditation! I just don’t do it enough. I usually don’t have the time or the patience. Sad that.

7. Digital Recorder. If any of you have anything to do with the paranormal, you’ve seen or heard of this. Take a digital recorder (and yes, I’ve even used a hand-held tape recorder though those are pretty much going out of style) and turn it on. Do this after you’ve made proper preparations…we’ve gone over this before so I won’t repeat it all. It’s very important that you put your mindset in the right place when using a digital recorder or you probably won’t get anything. Make it clear you are hoping to communicate with the spirit world, invite the contact, open your mind to allowing it to happen…your personal energy can block spirit contact if you are not open to it! In other words, if you don’t believe you can talk to spirits, that negative energy will probably block the contact. Using a digital recorder during a seance is a great idea so keep that in mind! The premise of this form of contact is that the digital recorder can capture spirit voices. Our ears aren’t sensitive enough to pick up on certain frequencies. The spirit world operates in a higher frequency than us so we often can’t hear them.

8. Seance. With this you are getting a group of like-minded people together and when several people get together for a common purpose, it raises the energy vibration and allows contact with the spirit world to occur. People often hold hands during a seance and this is just to help focus the energy. You don’t have to hold hands but it seems to help people concentrate better. It is also reassuring to be holding someone’s hand when spirit contact takes place. It’s not a typical occurrence for many of us and it’s a bit scary. So, hold hands if it makes you feel better! The only reason spirit contact is often severed when hands disconnect is because the concentration is usually lost. Someone has pulled their hand away because they are afraid or in denial and this often stops the contact. It’s best to have one person control the group because this helps everyone focus. Focused concentration and a common goal is what makes seances work! Always start a seance with a prayer or whatever you do to feel safe, ask everyone to imagine a white light surrounding the group and explain that this is positive energy and nothing negative can penetrate it. Make it clear that you are out for making contact with loved ones or with spirits who mean no harm or have negative intentions. Be open to the communication! Allow it to happen. Be patient. Thoughts usually start coming to you and often those are thoughts from spirit! Unfortunately, you will probably pass them off as your imagination. Again, I must stress this…the imagination is a DIRECT LINK TO SPIRIT. Our imagination operates in the spirit world and manifests in our own if we give it enough focus. All creativity comes from God, Infinite Intelligence, a higher power, the Universe…whatever you want to call it and the imagination is creativity at work. Just remember that!

So there you have it! Have you tried any of these things? What was your experience? Are you going to try any of these things? Let me know how it goes or how it’s gone!

Before I close out this post, I want to mention that Be Still, My Love and it’s sequel Hidden Voices are based on some of the things I’ve learned during my own paranormal experiences. The lead character in those books…Tess Schafer…is a medium and through her I share a lot of what I’ve come to learn and understand about ghosts, hauntings and the spirit world in general.

Until next time, blessings to all and Peace Out!

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Where Spirits Dwell

Filed under: faith, ghosts, God, haunted house, Hauntings, meditation, New Age, Numerology, Occult, paranormal, Spirit Communication, Spiritualist, supernatural — 6 Comments
September 26, 2012

On  the left you see a picture of my next book cover! Just looking at it sends chills down my spine. The story behind that cover is even more spine-tingling!

We will soon enter the glorious month of October and with that, our focus often shifts to all things supernatural, paranormal, macabre and Gothic. This story has it all. I’m pretty proud of it but more than that, it intrigues me every single time I read it. And believe me, as its author, I’ve read it about fifty times…and that’s no joke! I am constantly tweaking it, editing it, clarifying it. But soon, SOON I will be done with that process and I will send it out into the world.

The main premise of the story is based on reincarnation. I got the idea when I read about a group of people who lived in the same small town and discovered they shared a “past life” experience. This discovery was done through a particular field of hypnosis better known as “past life regression”. Through the process of hypnosis, many people are able to dredge up recollections of their past lives. This is possible because hypnosis puts the conscious mind at rest, allowing the subconscious mind to recall the memory. Because we can’t have our past lives interfering with our present one, those memories are buried in the nether regions of your memory banks. I believe those nether regions are within your very Soul…that part of you that knows all there is to know about YOU.

Many believe (as do I) that we have several layers to our individual existence. We have our physical body, our astral body (similar to the physical body but without physical substance…also called the Spirit body), and our Soul body (the true essence of who we really are). All memories of every experience we have, to include our past lives, reside within the Soul body (which resides deep within our subconscious). Another great aspect of our Soul body is that it never loses its connection to the spiritual realm. In fact, the Soul exists in the Spirit Realm and in the Physical one at the same time!

I also believe we are multi-dimensional and are much more complex than anything we can possibly imagine. Unfortunately, we are limited not only by our way of thinking and what we believe but also in what we can imagine. These limitations are placed on us by our own Ego (they CAN be overruled however…just so you know). Speaking of our Ego, it is one of the biggest obstacles we must learn to overcome in order to end our reincarnation cycle (I like to believe that we eventually move on to other activities). It is a major part of our Personality, the person we are when inhabiting a physical body. The Ego is what I consider a necessary evil. We need it to help us function  within the confines of physical existence. In order to do this…live in the physical world and not long for our life in the Spiritual Realm…we are enshrouded with an Ego at birth. During the enshrouding, we forget much of what our Soul self knows. Our personality develops from this Ego and we become who we are as we grow and learn and discover. Basically, we spend the rest of our lives dealing with a very stubborn, very restrictive Ego bondage. And quite honestly, seeking the truth will set you free from it!

Meditation is one way to calm the Ego (which strongly controls the conscious mind) and set it aside. Meditation lulls the Ego into a relaxed state (sort of like a “sleep”). With the Ego out of the way and not in control, you can gain access to your Soul body and thus the memories contained there! In fact, you can even get access to the spiritual realm. Deep prayer is also a form of meditation and that’s why it works. Prayer is focused thought (like meditation) and offers a powerful connection to our Soul which gives us access to the higher echelons of the spiritual realm where limitless power is available. For it is there…in the highest spiritual realms…where infinite power exists.

I do believe there are dark places within the spiritual realms where spirits (Astral bodies) roam in confusion and where dark (evil) intentions take root and grow. These are the lower realms of the Spiritual world and it is there where you find what we call “spirits” (people who are in their Astral body unable, for whatever reason, to move on). My belief is that when our physical body dies, our Astral body separates from it. Now, the Astral body should carry you off to wherever it is you need to go to merge with your Soul (many people probably think of this place as Heaven). BUT, sometimes people don’t move on and merge with their souls. They get stuck in the lower parts of the Spiritual Realm, and what can be really bad about this is that part of their Ego (which isn’t always good) may still be influencing them! The ones who cannot see the light of God (where our Soul resides and where the merger with it takes place) are considered lost souls (though really they are Astral bodies existing in ignorance, negativity and confusion!). Many people think these lost souls are evil. Some are not good, that’s for sure, but some of them are! This is the “place” (sphere of existence) where ghosts dwell. Many people think only evil can exist in the lower realms. But the fact remains they (the evil doers) have a Soul which exists in the higher realms. That’s what I believe anyway. God (spiritualists prefer to call “him Infinite Intelligence) does not create evil Soul bodies and since everyone has a Soul, then none of them, not a single one, are evil. So, the spirits roaming the lower Spiritual regions, they may be bad because of their Egos but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth saving.

God, the great II (Infinite Intelligence), does not interfere with the choices we make (Free Will and all that) unless we ASK for help. Thus we get one of the greatest of all sayings, “ASK and you shall RECEIVE”. BUT (there’s always a “but” isn’t there?) the REST of that statement should be…”Through BELIEF it WILL be done!”

In my two paranormal mystery books BE STILL, MY LOVE and its sequel HIDDEN VOICES, my lead character Tess Schafer, a medium, believes that the Lord’s Prayer is quite powerful and she begins spiritual-contact scenarios (séances for instance) by saying this prayer. The real kicker about this powerful prayer is “Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven”. I mentioned earlier that infinite power resides within the higher spiritual realms (the lower realms are where Astral bodies reside until they go “to the light” and merge with their soul). The spiritual realm in this prayer is “the Kingdom”. When you ASK for something (your WILL  is being made known, “Thy Will be done”), the power of the Kingdom can then be used within the physical realm (Earth) as it is in Heaven (the Kingdom). Pretty cool, huh? I think it’s such an important message that I’ve also included it in NO MATTER WHAT. One of my main characters, Frannie, mentions it when discussing her beliefs (she’s into reincarnation and numerology among other things!).

I believe hauntings occur when a person crosses over (from physical to spiritual existence) and doesn’t “go into the light” (consciously merge with their Soul body). For whatever reason, they remain in their Astral body which is still influenced to a degree by the Ego. The thing about the Astral body is that it can interact with the Physical Realm (thus we have a haunting or contact with “the dead”, depending on the interaction taking place).

In NO MATTER WHAT, Lynn Michaels is the reincarnation of Clara Mallory. Clara haunts the Mallory Estate (where Lynn now lives and where Clara died) because her Astral body is trapped there. She is afraid to move on. Fear is one of the main issues we all must learn to conquer. Our Ego wraps fears around us in many clinging, persistent layers! Conquering fear will release us from the reincarnation cycle. We won’t have to endure life after life getting it all figured out once we do just that…figure it all out. And before you ask, NO, I don’t know what “it all” consists of. I know fear is part of it but it’s more than that. Or maybe it isn’t. See? Told you I didn’t know!

A couple of my “beta readers” (test readers who read my stories before I release them into the public forum) asked me how it was possible for Lynn to be the reincarnation of Clara if Clara still existed. Well, thats where the multi-dimensional part comes into play and the fact that the past, the present and the future actually coexist at the same time. Once something exists, it always exists and thus can be visited many times…time travel works using this premise. Psychics and Sensitives also work within this premise. Some people are born with a special ability (known as Psychic Ability) to recall events either forward or backward in time. Another important aspect of the Spiritual Realm is that there is no space…no distance. Thus, psychics and sensitives can “see” across the globe as easily as they can see right in front of their faces (this is also called Remote Viewing)!

Edgar Cayce had this ability. He was truly amazing. I think Cayce had pretty much learned what he needed to learn by the time he was born into his Edgar Cayce personality. His purpose for coming back to yet another physical life was to help others in their life journey. Every life lived should teach us something, for our Souls are on a mission to learn and experience! Some people are so committed to helping the “blind” (Ego led peeps whose minds are closed to Spiritual matters!) they come back (reincarnate) just to help them. Jesus did that. Lynn does that for herself. She comes back to help release Clara from the bonds of her fear. Is that a cool concept or what! The story just hit me in a flash one night and I tell you, I couldn’t write it down fast enough!

So, now that I’ve rambled on far more than I planned, I’ll just leave it at this for the time being. I’ll be writing more about the different aspects of the NO MATTER WHAT story as time goes on. So, what do you think of the cover? What do you think about when you see the picture? What feelings does it invoke? I really, truly want to know! So, pretty please comment and tell me. Thanks so much!!

Until next time, blessings to all and Peace Out!

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What’s so Fascinating About the Paranormal?

Filed under: ghosts, God, haunted house, Hauntings, New Age, Numerology, Occult, Palmistry, paranormal, Spirit Communication, Spiritualist, supernatural — 11 Comments
August 2, 2012

I’ve been interested in the paranormal since I was a little girl. Living in a haunted house will do that to you. Weird stuff happens and once you get over the terror of it, you begin to look for understanding. Here’s the thing…I KNOW that house was haunted. Ghosts lived there with us and the older I got, the more I wanted to know WHY. After we moved out of that house, I continued to read up on things but my paranormal experiences sort of cooled off for a bit. My prophetic dreams stopped occurring and though we had a few bizarre events happen in our new house (sink faucet coming on full blast, burners on the gas stove spontaneously lighting, a blender suddenly springing into action), things were relatively quiet. I was mostly involved with reading palms at this point and studying up on how such a thing could be so darned accurate! Ever had your palms read…by a LEGITIMATE palm reader? You should. Your palm is like your personal memoir. Fascinating stuff.

So anyway, life chilled for a bit on the paranormal end but then I joined the Air Force and was sent to Korea for a year. I had to leave my infant son (my first born!) and that was tough. Let me tell you, it was rip-your-heart-0ut TOUGH. I did a lot of drinking when I first got there. Thought it would get my mind off my baby. It didn’t of course. In fact, it made things worse. Then one night I started telling some friends about my living in a haunted house and they wanted to know it all. When I got to the parts about using the Ouija board, they got the bright idea that we should do that. And so my paranormal experiences began to happen again. We had some really interesting conversations on that Ouija. Let me tell you. Now, I know people will say that it’s evil and all that and I suppose it can be. After all, the Ouija opens a door to the other side. One must be responsible when opening doors like that! Unfortunately, not many people take the necessary precautions to ensure no negative entities come through. I’ve always been careful and can proudly say that I’ve not had any negative experiences with the Ouija. It honestly is one of the EASIEST forms of spirit contact. Maybe because people treat it like a game and so they let their guards down, lower their defenses and relaxes the all-protective EGO. When you truly ALLOW spirit contact to happen…it will.

After my year in Korea was over, I reunited with my son…now 18 months old, walking, talking … doing all those things he wasn’t doing when I left him (he stayed with my parents for the year I was away for his dad went to Korea the same time as I did). Upon my return to the States, my husband and I initiated divorce proceedings (they had a saying in Korea that those stationed over there would come back single if they were married, married if they were single and if neither of those applied then they probably became alcoholics … and yes, there were a few exceptions to this rule, I wasn’t one of them).  For awhile it was just me and my son and it was wonderful to reconnect with him. I thought he was pretty fascinating. He talked very well for his age and so we could actually have conversations. One day he comes to me (he’s not yet two remember) and says, “Mommy, where is my wife? I miss her.” And so began a bizarre period of time where my son was obsessed about his life “as a man” and death. One night while tucking him into bed, he looked so very sad and I asked him what was wrong. He says, “I don’t want to die again. I don’t like it.” Can you imagine how I felt during conversations like this? He was only two. What to say? For the next three years, my son continued to talk about things that happened to him “when he was a man”.  When he was four, he started talking about his time in the military as a pilot in the Korean war! Now, I ask you…what would he know about such things? I did not watch war movies and neither did he. We were living in Germany by this time and didn’t even have television! So, because of that, I began to read up on reincarnation. The whole subject totally fascinated me and still does. I even wrote a book in which reincarnation plays a big role (No Matter What which I hope to have published in ebook by October!! Just in time for Halloween!)

My son was three when I remarried and I was pregnant with my second child when we arrived in Germany. My paranormal endeavors went on another hiatus. We came back to the States with three kids…two daughters were born while I was stationed in Germany. As it happened, I went through yet another marriage break-up (do you know how high the divorce rate is with military members!? It’s a tough life). This break-up really devastated me. My first divorce was quite friendly. We didn’t fight, we just didn’t suit as a couple. But my second one…boy, it brought me down to my lowest points. When your life is falling apart, you can cry about it (which I did in excess!) or you can try to pull yourself together and get on with it. This I did eventually do but I went through quite the spiritual reformation while doing it. I needed to know WHY things happened the way they did. I needed to understand why my life was so messed up! Divorce can really damage your sense of self-worth and totally ruin your self-esteem (not to mention the financial devastation which is another whole set of worries!). I hit a critical low period in my life and turned to God for help. I began studying about angels (they are so awesome!!) and I began to truly believe that God takes care of us if we let him. When we try to control things ourselves without God’s help, well, that’s when things go awry. Little miracles began to happen (I’ve blogged about some of it, see God, Money, Faith) My belief factor went up and things got better and better. It was during this time that I discovered Automatic Writing.

Automatic Writing is allowing spirit to speak to you through hand writing. You can also allow them to come through on the keyboard. It’s basically a form of channeling. As I didn’t have a keyboard at the time (home computers hadn’t put in an appearance much at this point), I used a notepad and a pencil. I meditated (another thing I was learning to do!) and then I started writing! Many spirits came through and brought messages that were helpful. I moved from Automatic Writing to channeling a beautiful spirit I called Sheila (yes, I use her in my book Be Still, My Love and in its sequel Hidden Voices which will be out soon!). I didn’t use a pen and paper with her, I just allowed her to speak through me. I was remarried by this time and my new husband was quite involved with this process. We were both fascinated by Sheila and the things she told us. I had some really amazing experiences with her. Now, I have to tell you that I often questioned these experiences and wondered if it were all coming from my imagination. But I also have to tell you that while Sheila was speaking, I was thinking all sorts of things…ever try to talk and say one thing while having a completely different conversation go on in your head at the same time? This happened quite a bit because I often speculated on the things Sheila shared. Half the time I missed what she was saying because I was busying trying to counter something else she’d said! (we taped every session so I wouldn’t miss out on anything). It was an eye-opening experience and all of it was getting me more and more involved in the world of the paranormal.

Then this marriage went really bad. I can’t say what happened, it’s all so very personal but I will say that I didn’t really know the man I married. Looking back on it, I don’t regret a thing, no matter how bad it got, because it has all led me to where I am now and I like where I am. I wouldn’t change it for anything. Though I wish my kids hadn’t had to go through all that crap too. Life lessons are HARD! For awhile I was mad at God and even the poor angels. I couldn’t understand  how they would let things get so bad. After all the prophetic dreams, all the channeling work, the messages from spirit…WHY did this crap have to happen? Once that marriage ended, my life began to really turn around. It’s been all up hill from there, I’m happy to report! I found the man of my dreams and he’s very understanding about my paranormal interests. He’s also very supportive of my writing and he’s been the BEST father to our kids.

They say that the third time is the charm…for me it took four. But what a CHARM it is! When I started work again on my paranormal thriller “No Matter What”, I began to get more involved with the paranormal world.  Although I had dabbled some with the Tarot cards, I didn’t really get involved with them until I started work on this story. One of my characters was a Tarot reader and I wanted to understand more about it (so my character would sound legitimate) and suddenly I became fascinated with them. They really are quite amazing. I also began to study Numerology (another thing the character in my story liked to do!). Again…the way these things work in our lives is truly amazing!!

When our military careers came to a close (my husband did 28 years and I did 20) and we retired, I figured I’d have more time to write. Not so. We got busy running a small campground which we thought would make a great retirement plan and I found myself too busy to write. But, I did continue with the Tarot cards, palm reading and Numerology studies! When we finally decided to close the campground (it’s a tough world when it comes to running your own business!!!), I found myself having more time to write. I began to edit No Matter What and then I found the Spiritualist church! When family members who have passed on into the great hereafter came through during the “messages from spirit” part of the service, I knew this was the church for me. I signed up for their mediumship class, went on ghost hunting adventures and learned about table tipping! This is yet another form of spirit contact. You simply put your hands flat on the top of a table (must be evenly proportioned…round or square) and invite spirits to come through and and talk to you by “tipping the table”. What fun we’ve had with this!! Table tipping is truly an adventure in the paranormal. We’ve gotten the table to spin, walk or slide across the floor, tip nearly to the floor (without falling!) and rock back and forth. A few times we’ve had the table tip up (usually onto two legs) and then stay there. No matter how hard we tried to get it to fall back onto its legs, we couldn’t do it! Truly…is that fascinating or what?

I’ve had tons of experiences, too many to mention, and they have all led me to the interests I now have. These interests come through in my writing. People write to me and ask me if I am Tess Schafer (the main character of Be Still, My Love) and I guess I have to say yes, to some degree. She has a lot of me in her. But she’s better! A better medium anyway. I love to make up stories. It’s natural to make up stories that involve things that interest me. The paranormal has interested me most of my life and that is why I write about it. I also love to read about it! What about you? Do you like to read about the paranormal? Why? Do you write about it? Share with us your books if you do! Share your stories or your blogs. The people who come to this blog do so because of the paranormal content (right?) so if you’ve something to share, please do!!

Until next time, blessings to all and Peace Out!

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Living With Ghosts, Part V

Filed under: ghosts, haunted house, Hauntings, paranormal, supernatural — 15 Comments
July 10, 2012

Anyone who has lived in a haunted house will probably tell you that their animals often acted strange. Such was the case with us. We had a small dog named Tippy and he was constantly bothered by the spirits. Poor little thing. Tippy was a toy-poodle/chihuahua mix.  He was really small but had a big heart and a big personality. I loved him very much. He was my little companion. My protector. I knew I was safe when Tippy was calm. When his hackles rose (for no apparent reason) then I KNEW something was about. Not a great sign in any case and moments that I totally dreaded.

Once we accepted that our house was haunted, we started looking at things happening there with “open” eyes. No longer were we trying to reason away strange events. We accepted that “the ghosts did it” and that was that.  We (my mother and I) soon began digging around for information on the paranormal, determined to learn what we could about spirits, hauntings and the like. It was during this phase that I had one of my scariest moments.

I was in eighth grade at the time (about 13?) and had walked home from school (a 3 mile walk!) for it was a gorgeous day and I did not want to wait around an hour or so for the bus. I was hoping my mom would be home from work when I got there but alas, she was not. I opened the front door and let Tippy out. Together we sat on the step as I made up my mind what to do…go in the house for a drink (I was VERY thirsty) or wait and do it when my mom or my siblings got home.  Now aware of the ghosts, I was more than ever reluctant to be in the house alone. Never comfortable in any case, it was worse KNOWING unseen people were floating in the air around me!

Finally I did a little pep talk and convinced myself that the ghosts were not going to hurt me and I needed to stop being afraid. Besides, I had Tippy with me and he would know if “they” were around or not. So, feeling some trepidation but determined to overcome it, I stood up, turned around and looked into the dark interior of the house. It was always dark in there…even in the middle of the day in bright sunlight! And it was always cool, regardless of the summer heat. Shoring up my nerves, I walked into the house.

I remember my back crawling with the uncomfortable feeling that someone was right behind me but since Tippy seemed okay, I decided to be okay too and ignored the feeling.  I went down the hall into the kitchen and through to the pantry where the refrigerator was and thus the drink I intended to get. Tippy didn’t come in the pantry with me. He didn’t like it in there and rarely entered. He plunked down on the kitchen floor a short distance away and watched my every move with dog-like curiosity. He always seemed so interested in what I was doing. I loved that dog. He lives in my heart to this day and always will.

So anyway. I open the fridge, pull out the pitcher of Koolaid, turn to the counter and grab a glass from the cupboard. So far so good. My back still continued to crawl with that uncomfortable feeling and the house was cool (scary old house kind of cool but then, I was used to it at this point).  I felt safe. My confidence was building. No ghost was going to scare me. No sirree, I was fine. Just fine.

As I started to pour the Koolaid into my glass, Tippy began to growl low in his throat. I literally froze. I’m not even sure if I could breathe at this point. Tippy’s growl turned almost instantly into a snarl as he scrambled to his feet. Something was about. Great. Just freaking great! I tell you, I wanted to turn around and look but I was scared to death and couldn’t move even if I wanted to. That whole “frozen in fear” thing? Totally real. In all honesty, I didn’t WANT to see what Tippy saw. Finally, somehow, I managed to turn my head and look at my dog. His eyes were focused on the corner of the kitchen to my right of the pantry doorway. Okay, good. Whatever just joined us, it wasn’t in the pantry with me. For that I was rather grateful. I set the pitcher down and turned around. Of course I saw nothing.

Tippy was now snarling quite viciously, his little teeth bared, his ears flat back, his tail between his legs. His entire body shook so bad his toenails clicked rapidly on the floor. I knew I had no choice but to step forward and look around the doorway into the kitchen. I HAD to look. No way around it. My heart pounding in a furious beat that actually hurt, I took a step and leaned just enough forward to look at the corner of the kitchen Tippy was fixated on. My terrified brain imagined all sorts of gruesome scenarios. Would something jump out and grab me as soon as I leaned far enough forward for it to do so? It was, I must say, one of the worst moments of my life. However, I saw nothing. Thank God. I was ever so GLAD I wasn’t one of those people who saw the dead (or whatever…for one part of me always worried it wasn’t a ghost in that corner but something worse)!

Of course I was hoping an animal had somehow made its way into the house and that’s what Tippy was growling at. The corner he was focused on had three items occupying it. The washer and dryer and a chair. No animals, no dark shapes, nothing to account for Tippy’s ferocious snarling. Then he began to retreat, moving backwards toward the kitchen table. Worried he’d hightail it out of the house and leave me there alone, I scooted down and called him to me. He glanced my way, whined as if to say he’d like nothing more than to be in the safety of my arms, then returned his focus to the corner.

Praying to God while pleading with my dog, I can tell you I was pretty occupied in self-preservation. Tippy started to come to me, actually taking a few reluctant steps out from under the kitchen table, but then he suddenly scrambled backwards as if something had charged at him. His snarls turned into yelps of fear, his high-pitched cries scaring me even more than the snarls because it meant he felt highly threatened. He moved under a chair and obviously felt a bit safer for his pitiful cries turned into earnest barking. I can’t tell you how desperately I wanted out of that house. But I was scared to leave the pantry. What if IT came after me?

It took some tearful pleas but eventually Tippy tried again to join me. He got about half-way across the kitchen floor, moving nearly on a belly crawl, when he suddenly made a terrified scramble back to the safety of the table, yelping the whole time as if something were hurting him. Since he wasn’t writhing around, I figured it was more fear that made him cry that way than actual pain. At this point, I was pretty much in tears and I think Tippy realized my desperation. His snarls lowered into whines and it truly seemed to me that he was trying to figure out a way to get to me. Though he looked at me from time to time, his focus remained fixed on the kitchen corner.

It was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed an age had passed before he finally left the kitchen table and ran behind the big cast iron stove that took up most of the wall space to his right (my left).  Keeping close to the wall (actually rubbing his body against it as he moved along), Tippy slowly made his way to me. He kept his head lowered so he could see under the stove (it stood off the floor on thick cast-iron legs about three inches). His attention never wavered from that corner. When he got to the end of the stove, there was about three feet of floor space between him and me, Tippy stood there and whined pitifully. He wanted me to come get him and I wanted to do that. But I didn’t dare. He had to be the brave one. Poor little bugger. I loved that dog.

I  inched over as far as I could go in the doorway and leaned forward. A quick glance at the corner to my right continued to show nothing there (thank GOD for small favors!). I turned to my left and focused on my dog, stretching my arms forward and praying to God the thing in the corner wouldn’t attack them! Tippy glanced from me to the corner and then made a run for it. He jumped up into my arms and I was SO RELIEVED. I knew he couldn’t save me if the entity decided to get nasty, but at least I would know if it were coming after us and where it was.

Tippy twisted about so he could keep an eye on that freakin corner. His tail was tucked between his legs, his shivering still out of control. His front legs were wrapped right around my hands! Thankfully, he wasn’t growling anymore.  Instead, he was making low whining sounds deep in his throat. We HAD to get out of the house and there was only one way out. I said a prayer asking for God’s protection and that helped a lot. Thank the good Lord for my faith. Otherwise … well, there is no otherwise.

Holding Tippy in front of me like a shield, I stepped out of the pantry and made sure to face that corner the entire time. This meant backing out of the kitchen but so be it. I was NOT going to turn my back on that THING…whatever it was. Tippy continued his low whining and that helped my bravery somewhat for it meant whatever he saw was keeping its distance. We nearly made it to the open space between the table and the stove (just a couple feet more and I’d be in the hallway leading to the front door!) when Tippy began to growl. My heart did a little lurch of fear and I stopped moving for a moment. There’s nothing worse than having your body disobey your brain, especially when you want to run and your feet refuse to budge!

Tippy started snarling and then lunged forward repeatedly as if attacking and biting something! My God, I was so darned scared. I truly feared for my life. As Tippy continued to snap at the air and snarl viciously, my feet finally started moving again. It’s hard to walk on shaking legs but I did it!

Once I made it into the hallway, I knew I was going to have to make a run for it. So, with one final plea to God for protection, I turned and ran as fast as I could for the open doorway. Tippy twisted his way out of my arms and hit the floor running. We both flew out that doorway as if the hounds of hell were after us. The skin on my back cringed with fear but there was no stopping me now. I jumped off the step onto the dirt and literally hit the ground running. Tippy was ahead of me now and yelping in fear. Together we ran out of the yard and up the road. I ran until I couldn’t catch my breath and had to stop. When Tippy saw that I was no longer running with him, he came back to join me. I collapsed on the ground and he jumped into my arms and licked my face. He was as happy as I was to be free. And alive!

I’ll never know what Tippy saw that made him react that way and I’m pretty sure I don’t WANT to know. There were other incidents with our dog but I’ll save them for another post. This one has brought back enough memories.

Have any of you experienced anything like this? I’d love to hear your stories! Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! Until next time…blessings to all and Peace Out!

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Living With Ghosts, Part IV

Filed under: ghosts, haunted house, Hauntings, paranormal, supernatural — 19 Comments
June 21, 2012

One major problem you encounter when living in a haunted house is that things are always disappearing! SOMETIMES you eventually find them (in some odd place) but we lost things that were never to be seen again. I still wonder where they went? It’s a good question…WHERE do our physical things go when they seemingly disappear into thin air? Another dimension? Do they simply dematerialize and exist no more? It’s a mystery. For sure.

In our haunted old farmhouse, we lost many different items: toys, tools, books (the first book I wrote is among those lost items!), spices. Yeah, spices. I remember one day I decided to make an apple pie. I took a brand new can of ground cinnamon out of the cupboard and set it alongside all my other ingredients (I like to have everything RIGHT THERE when I need it!). My brothers broke out into a argument in the living room and so I went in to take care of it (I was babysitting at the time). After telling them to “knock it off”, I went back to the kitchen to finish putting my pie together. I noticed right away that the cinnamon was gone. Since all four of my siblings were in the living room when I went in to break up the fight, I knew they couldn’t have taken it. I looked everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE for that darned can of cinnamon. Nada. Zip. Nothing. I offered my greedy little siblings a dollar (big money back in the day!) for the one who found it. Still we got nothing. We never did find that can of spice.

There was another time that I had a picture of my grandparents blown up into several 8×10 photos. Since we didn’t have any picture frames to put them in when I finally received them in the mail (back when you had to send away to have such things done!), my mom told me to put the pictures up someplace safe. I put them behind the big-assed antique mirror on the dresser in my parents’ bedroom. One, the kids (the only ones I thought I needed to worry about destroying them) never went in my parents’ room. Two, the mirror was so heavy it wasn’t going anywhere and it would protect the pictures from getting damaged. Three, it was a GREAT hiding spot. My mom called my grandparents and told them the pictures had arrived and my grandfather came right over to get his copy. I ran upstairs to get them…GONE! We pulled that ten-ton (or so it seemed!) dresser from the wall, pulled out the drawers, checked the entire room…nada. Zip. We got nothing. Even when we finally moved out of that house, we never found those pictures. Bummer that because there are precious few pictures of my grandparents posing together.

BUT, the best story I’ve saved for last. I was twelve at the time and had a pet parakeet. We had one of those bird cages that hung from it’s own stand. We kept him in the corner of the living room. My parents were going away on a trip to Florida (without us kids which was a real bummer) and so the five of us got farmed out among friends and family. I stayed with my mom’s friend Beth who lived just up the road from the house. She had several cats and told me not to bring the bird. I was quite concerned about leaving him in the house alone but my grandfather assured me he’d go over every couple days or so and check on things (my parents were supposed to be away just over a week I think). So, even though I felt uneasy about leaving my bird, I had no choice but to go with the plan. Then came the phone call.

My Gramps was at the house and he wanted to know where the bird was. I told him he was in the living room where he’s always been (my grandfather was a frequent visitor to our home so he was quite familiar with everything). Gramps said he wasn’t there…that the cage and all was gone! Beth and I jumped in her car and skiddaddled down to the house to see for ourselves. Sure enough…my bird was gone. The newspaper was on the floor where the cage usually sat (he was a messy little thing!) but the cage, the pole it hung from…all was gone. Beth and Gramps decided that mom and dad must have found someone to take him. I didn’t think it likely, they didn’t much care about the bird and were not concerned in the least about leaving him in the house alone. But what other explanation was there?

So, days later my parents return and my mom calls Beth to tell her she can bring me back home. I urge Beth to ask my mom about my bird. I can remember this clear as day, “Judy, what did you do with Debbie’s bird?”, there’s a pause and then Beth looks incredulous (I think to myself, Oh no! Something has happened to him!). She looks at me and says, “Your mom says the bird is there at the house.” Then Beth says, “Did you bring him back because he’s been missing since you’ve been gone.” Again Beth looks incredulous. My mom tells her they didn’t do anything with that stupid bird. She claims it was there in the corner of the living room when they got home (a couple days early, mind you, because they said they missed us kids!). Beth and I hop in the car and head for the house. Did we think my mom was lying to us about the bird being right where he should be? I don’t know, but we had to see for ourselves. Yup, there he is, fat and happy in his CLEAN cage, his food and water dishes full. My mom doesn’t believe us that the bird has been missing and we don’t believe her that she didn’t have something to do with his disappearance! We never did settle that argument I don’t think because neither side could figure out any other explanation. It remains one of the strangest mysteries we encountered in that farm house to this day!

On a side note, I have to add how this tale of my parakeet came to an end. A few months after this incident, I had a dream that I was playing with my bird (I was trying to train him to sit on my finger) and after awhile, I closed his cage and started walking away. Just as I got to the door that leads out to the front hallway I felt a flutter near my head and ducked. It was my bird. He flew right out the open front door and off into the big blue sky. Disturbed by the dream, I stayed away from him all day. Finally, in the late afternoon, I decided if the dream was going to come true (I’d had several other dreams about things that ended up happening the very next day!) it would have done so already. I went to my bird and tried (unsuccessfully) to get him to sit on my finger. I was sure I closed his cage because, again, I was worried about that dream! So, as I was heading out of the living room, I felt something flutter over my head and I ducked. It was my bird. He flew right out the open door and was never seen again. End of story.

It’s quite frustrating to lose things YOU JUST HAD in your hand, but it happened all the time in that house. The five of us kids got blamed for a lot of it but I have to tell you, even we were baffled. Many times we discussed the situation among ourselves for really, we were quite honest with each other. Oh we had the occasional upset when we’d think my oldest brother was the guilty party (he really was a bit of a brat at times) but for the most part, we knew it wasn’t us taking all those things, or moving all those things, or opening all those doors or … well, you get the picture.  Those danged ghosts probably got a kick out of their pranks but we didn’t much enjoy them. No.

So, has anyone else had that sort of experience? I’d love to hear your stories. Until next time, many blessings to all and Peace Out!

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Living With Ghosts, Part III

Filed under: haunted house, Hauntings, paranormal, supernatural — 16 Comments
June 6, 2012

Last night I watched a show I recorded on my DVR (love the DVR!!) about an exorcism of a young boy believed to be possessed by the devil.  The documentary was called “In the Grip of Evil” and it was supposed to be the inspiration for author William Peter Blatty‘s “The Exorcist“.  Of course the show gave an accounting of the events which took place (based on journal documentations of the exorcism) and included a commentary from a believer’s standpoint (one of the priests who took part in the exorcism) and a non-believer’s standpoint (someone supposedly more “educated” and thus more believable).  Actually, I think there were a couple of people trying to dispute the idea that possession can actually occur.  It really annoys me when people try to pass off strange events (especially those not easily explained) as a “hallucination”.  Really?  Isn’t life itself a hallucination?  So anyway…

What creeped me out a bit watching that show was the part where the bed started shaking.  You know what? That really does happen.  And it’s freaky as all hell.

I’m not sure how old I was when I experienced one of the creepy-odd events in that old farmhouse, but I’m going to guess I was about twelve.  I’d say it’s a pretty good guess because I was reading quite a bit by this point (all my mom’s Harlequin and Silhouette romance books), and I know it occurred before we accepted that the house was haunted … otherwise, I think I would have been terrified out of my freakin mind!

My parents were having a “get together” of friends and family (they liked to play guitars and sing).  The five of us kids were banished to the upstairs bedrooms.  Not in the mood to play, especially with my younger siblings (I was the oldest of five), I grabbed a book and headed for my parents’ room to read.  My rambunctious sibs played in the other two bedrooms and left me alone.

Although I got a little nervous sometimes while hanging out in my parents’ bedroom (you know, that spine-tingly, something-doesn’t-feel-right feeling), I really wanted to be on my own so I could read undisturbed.  I made myself comfortable on the bed, pillows propped behind me, and was soon lost in the story.  I have to tell you, when I’m reading, my mind is fully engaged and I don’t notice anything going on around me.  I’m not sure how long it was before the slight tremors in the bed made my hands shake and thus, interrupted my reading.  Curious, I lifted my head and took note.  The tremors were slight at first.  More like a strong vibration.  I wondered what could be causing it but I wasn’t scared at this point.  I was more intrigued than anything.  After a few minutes, I figured the shaking had to be caused by the kids running around in the next room and went back to my book.  The shaking grew worse.

Okay, now I knew something was definitely up.  Slight tremors I could explain away, big-time shaking…not so much.  As the bed shaking grew worse (they came in spurts), I immediately suspected that it had to be my brother (whom I will refer to as “J”) because he was always up to some mischief and the others were too small to make the bed do anything. My parents had a wrought-iron bed at the time…it was a heavy-assed bed…and it was up pretty high from the floor.  There was lots of crawl space underneath it (I know because it was always a favorite hiding spot when playing hide-and-go-seek). I set the book down, twisted around onto my stomach and then leaned over the edge to take a look.

While hanging there peering at empty space (definitely no visible bodies or anything else for that matter), the bed shook hard and I had to grab at the mattress to keep from falling off.  Now I’m scared.  What the hell?  No, I’m sure I didn’t think those exact words, but I sure am thinking them today!!  I pushed myself back up in a sitting position and considered my dilemma.  I wanted to get off the bed, but I wasn’t sure if it was safe to do so.  While pondering this, a spool of thread … green, I believe … started rolling across the floor.  I have no idea where the spool came from.  It rolled from beneath the window on the wall to my left toward the wall on my right.  I watched it with growing unease.  The spool rolled slowly at first and then gained speed, banging into the wall, bouncing off, going still then taking off for the opposite wall where it would do the same thing.  Sometimes the damned thing would stop just before hitting the wall…rest for a few seconds and then go flying across the room as if someone had just whacked the crap out of it.  The bed tremors continued but at this point I was more worried about the self-propelling spool of thread! Although I was scared to death, I somehow managed to crawl to the end of the bed so I could see if maybe one of the cats was causing the spool ruckus.  Nope.  No cats.  No kids.  Nothing. Which of course, it couldn’t be “nothing” could it?

Although I was quite young, I knew…I KNEW…that a spool of thread shouldn’t act the way that one was acting.  The fast and slow rolls, the bounce off the wall into an abrupt stop.  No, it wasn’t normal.  When it once again bounced off the wall on my right (the furthest wall from the bed) and then rolled slowly toward me, my trepidation grew in one heart-pounding leap.  The spool rolled slow and steady until it was under the bed.  Then it stopped.  I waited.  Nothing.  Finally, I HAD to know…and I forced myself to lean over the bed to look, though this time I had a tight hold of the foot rail.  No WAY was I getting tossed off that bed!  Honestly, I thought it showed an extreme act of courage to do that!  I STILL think as much!! As soon as my eyes found that stupid spool, it shot out and hit the wall to the left, bounced off, stopped and then rolled slowly toward the open bedroom doorway.  It stopped just at the threshold.

After a few seconds of waiting (the spool rocked a little but it stayed in place), I found my voice and called out to my siblings.  It was J who came to the door.  I was holding the wrought-iron foot-rail and praying for dear life at this point.  “Go get mom!”  It took some convincing…okay pleading…but something (probably my terrified expression, or perhaps the panic in my voice) told J I wasn’t playing around and he finally took off down the stairs.  The bed shaking had stopped as soon as J came to the door and the spool remained still.

After a bit of convincing (my mom didn’t want to respond to J’s summons at first) she finally came up the stairs and stood in the doorway, “What?” Although she was quite annoyed to be called upstairs, thank God she came!

I pointed to the spool of thread.  “That spool was rolling around the room all by itself.”

Mom looked down, saw the spool and picked it up.  “One of the cats was probably playing with it.”

“There aren’t any cats in the room.  And the bed is shaking.”

“Well it’s probably vibration from the music.”

Really?  Then why did it stop?  The music was going strong downstairs…no vibration to be had.  I scrambled off the bed and exited my parents’ room before Mom could disappear down the stairs.  I was afraid to go in there after that but I would do so if someone else were with me.  It seemed the bed wouldn’t shake if there was more than two people in the room.

I tried an experiment after we started communicating with the spirits (about a couple years later) and actually went to my parents’ room to see if anything would happen.  When the bed began to shake, I was “gone, baby gone” … out that door in no-time-flat.  No more experiments for me!  My mom had similar bed-shaking experiences.  As for my dad, he never complained about the bed shaking but he did complain about something shaking him!  Once he joined the “this house is haunted” band-wagon (something he resisted for quite some time as my dad was a hard-core, no-nonsense sort of person), a move to a new place became imminent.  None of us wanted to be there anymore.  I hadn’t wanted to be there since the “monster” incident I wrote about in Part II so I was pretty ecstatic about leaving.

I can’t say at what point we began to blame the ghosts for all the strange things happening in that house but I can tell you, once we became aware of such a possibility, we really started noticing things. Yes, I know…our imaginations could have been fueled by our beliefs but even so…that doesn’t explain HOW some of the things that happened there, happened there.  To this day I wonder.  Why?  What was the point in it all? What do they want? Where are they?  Why are they still there? (the house is gone, but they are still there…I KNOW it).

So, that’s my shaking-bed story.  What say you?  Ever have anything like that happen to you?  I tell you, I can’t look at a spool of thread and not think about this story.  It’s as freaky now as it was then.  But it wasn’t just a spool of thread that developed a life of its own…no. Heck, freakin no.  I’ll leave those stories for future posts.

That’s it for now!  Tune in again for Part IV if you dare! (smile)  Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time, Blessings to all and Peace Out!

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