Monday, August 29, 2011

Contact with the Dead Through Dreams

I had an aunt and uncle who visited me and my family every summer since before I was even born. And every summer, my uncle would make his signature roasted chicken, which was the best I have ever eaten. The recipe was top secret---no one knew how he made it or what went into the recipe.

A few years ago, both my aunt and uncle died. Shortly afterwards, I began dreaming about them on a regular basis, like maybe once or twice a week, every week.

A while back, I got to thinking about the chicken recipe and how much my husband would love it, but I had no idea how to make it. I emailed my uncle's daughter, thinking she might know how he did it, but she was very vague and not much help.

So I decided to put the "contact" dreams to use and one night before bed, I said aloud to my uncle that I wanted him to come to me in a dream and tell me how to make his outstanding chicken recipe. 


That very night (I kid you not) I dreamed that I was outside in my flower garden and my uncle drove up in a car. He got out, we said hello and the next words out of his mouth were," To make the chicken, this is what you do...." And he proceeded to tell me what went in the recipe!

P.S. I also dream a LOT about a great aunt who has died. In those dreams, she always tells me how she is doing and what she is up to "on the other side". It's very cool!!

Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.






Pennies!


Last year at my work, I began finding pennies in the strangest places.

Sometimes single ones, sometimes 2 or 3 together. They would be on shelves, on floorstands in the store, in my locker, the lunch room table, on the floor...really in odd places. Even on my doorstep at home. And I would find maybe as many as 10 in one day. At first it was sporadic---One day I'd find some, the next day, none, then some more the day after that. 


Eventually, it increased to where I was finding them every day. I didn't specifically look for them...they were just popping up wherever I was. 

These places might not seem that odd to you, but they seemed to be penny-free one minute and then the next I looked, there'd be a penny there.

I know in the past I mentioned on here that I did not really believe in the powers of the Ouija board anymore, but one day just for fun at my mother's house, we were messing around with it and right away it started talking about the pennies. To make a long story short, my brother who passed away when I was a baby, indicated that he was the one leaving the pennies around for me.

I thought a lot about this and so to "test" this theory, I asked out loud one evening that if he were truly leaving pennies for me, could he please leave a large amount of them, like piles of them, and then I would know that this was probably true.

About 2 days later, I was at work, but in the back stock room when my manager called me out front. She said a customer came up to the counter with a bag of pennies, saying she found them out in front of the store. Not knowing what else to do with them, she brought them in to us.

(Who would do that?? If you find money like that, wouldn't you either just keep it or leave it alone? I don't think I would turn it in at a store---after all, they are just pennies, not hundred dollar bills.)

My manager alarmingly handed them to me (I had been telling her for weeks about the penny thing happening to me). There tied up in a small clear plastic bag was about 50 pennies.
I still have them...and I have thanked my brother!

P.S. You may think my manager was playing a joke on me and she brought the bag of pennies herself, but she believes in all things weird and strange, plus she did not know I had asked to receive a pile of pennies. She was beside herself with bewilderment when a bag of pennies showed up!





Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.



Sunday, August 28, 2011

Phantom Cars



How would you like to be sitting inside a perfectly good house, hear a car drive up outside, doors shutting, people talking and when you look out, there isn't anyone there?

It's a little disturbing.

This has happened at my mother's house several times, and there has usually been more than one witness. No alcohol or drugs were involved so you can cross that explanation off your list.

One of my brothers heard this while staying at the house alone a few years ago. Three times he heard the car, the doors, the people.....three times he looked outside and nothing was there. I will leave out the part where he became so frightened he got in his own car and left....but too bad I can't mention that because it emphasizes how unnerving the incident was. We are talking about a man who doesn't believe in a whole lot of paranormal stuff---unless he experiences it for himself.

Myself and my ex-husband were in the bathroom of that house together one day. No one else was home at the time. The bathroom window faces the driveway and when you take into account the lack of insulation and original 1800-era windows, it is safe to say you can clearly hear anything that is going on outside.

So we were in the bathroom getting ready to go out somewhere when we heard a car drive up. I became immediately annoyed because I didn't want visitors---we were trying to go someplace.
I looked out the bathroom window but couldn't see a car. We could hear it..the tires crunching on the ground. Then we could hear doors closing and people talking. We proceeded into the kitchen and out onto the doorstep but no one was there....no people...no car.

My son and I also heard it about 2 years ago. We were upstairs in the house cleaning out the large walk-in attic when we heard a car drive up. I was buried under boxes so I asked Scott to go to the window to see who had driven up. He claimed it was no one. I didn't believe him so I managed to crawl out and look for myself. Again, no one was there.


Want to read about other phantom modes of transportation?





Need the link to our paranormal newsletters? 
No sign up required.



Man in a Human Suit


A few years ago, while at my mother's house one morning, I heard my mother calling me from downstairs and when I went down to see what she wanted there was a very unusual man at the front door. 

I hesitate to call him that because he just didn't look right. When I think about how to describe him, I think I can sum it up by saying his hair, skin and clothes were sort of on sideways. 

I know it sounds ridiculous but there is not really another way to describe him. My mother was scared to death. 

It wasn't that he was unkempt exactly. It seemed almost like he put on a "human suit" that morning and zipped it up and he just wasn't inside of it very well. I realize this makes very little sense but I don't know how else to say it. 

Anyway, he looked at me immediately and said he ran out of gas and asked if I could I take him down to the gas station to get some. 

I peered past him and saw his car sitting on the shoulder of the road. Then I told him No, but he could wait in his car while I went and got the gas for him. 

He agreed and handed me 10 dollars and went off to wait.

I got a gas jug from the shed,told my mother to lock all the doors and drove and got the gas. When I got back, he poured it in the car, spilling at least half of it all over the road. He didn't seem all that dexterous. I was surprised he even knew where to put the gas. 

He told me to keep the change, and he left.

My mother and I had a good discussion about him. She said she never saw anyone look like that, and we both agreed he could possibly have been an alien or some other type of being. We both felt very uneasy and alarmed when we saw him. That feeling did not go away until he drove off.

To this day, we mention him sometimes to try to rationalize what happened. But we never come to any other conclusions.

Want to read more about strange looking "humans"?



Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.

Investigation: Devil's Island, Nova Scotia


Our investigation team set out across a calm Atlantic Ocean on August 16, 2009 to investigate the local folklore and legends associated with Devil's Island. Our equipment was a digital camera and an electric motor mounted on the trusty canoe, which is capable of speeds up to 5 kms per hour! Hey, it gets the job done.


Background:
Devil's Island has quite a rich and interesting history. Originally, it was called Rous' Island after the original owner, Capt. John Rous. Later the name was changed to Wood Island, but after a fire destroyed all the trees, it was named Deville's (or Devall's) Island, which became anglicized to "Devil's Island". However, some will tell you the name "Devil" actually came about from an experience one of the island residents had while near the island in a boat. He claimed a halibut came out of the water and spoke to him, claiming to be the devil. I should interject here to say this was after a party so this account is not that reliable. The man was found drowned in the boat and to my knowledge was alone at the time, so how could anyone know there was a talking halibut if there were no witnesses? A good question, indeed.

In 1830, approximately 20 families lived on the island. Personally, I find this hard to believe as the island does not look large enough to hold that many people. This is only a reported number. I have no facts to substantiate it.

They had a school, general store and eventually 2 lighthouses. The island was inhabited until WWII, when most residents moved to the mainland. The last resident left in the late 1990's. Today the island is owned by Mr. Bill Mont. The second lighthouse was actually built in 1877 and at one time a rescue lifeboat station was in operation (until the 1950's) to save stranded vessels in the harbour. There are 3 known shipwrecks directly offshore.

There have been many reports over the years of unexplained phenomenon occurring on the island. In a house that is no longer standing there, there were mystery knocks, moving objects, voices, foul odors and apparitions. In the one house that still stands, there have been reports of lights appearing in the windows. There is no electricity on the island.

Today, there is one abandoned house and a lighthouse, and a smaller broken down shed.

(Update, April 2018. I have been informed no buildings are left standing now. The remaining were taken down by storms in recent years)

Location:
Devil's Island is located in the entrance to Halifax Harbour, approximately 2 kms. from Fisherman's Cove Boardwalk and beach. In our canoe with motor, it took about 45 -60 minutes to arrive. It is recommended you land on the south side of the island where there is a small sandy cove. If you are not a fan of squawking seagulls and other sea birds, you may not want to venture out there. There are so many, it is ridiculous and they NEVER stop crying.


What Happened:
We had a smooth trip to the island. The water was calm, the sky sunny. Upon approach, we saw the sandy cove into which we should go ashore, but my investigative partner, Shaun was originally told to go to the north side to land. However, this was not the wisest decision. Once on the north side, we had to opt for a rather rocky landing site.

The house and lighthouse are very visible, even from the water. There are no trees to obstruct the view and I must confess, the buildings did look creepy and foreboding. Long grass and flowery weeds mostly cover the island and there are many, many rocks of all sizes around the perimeter of the island. It actually seems quite peaceful there, if not for the incessant squawking of the birds. Asking them to put a lid on it does not help. Trust me--I tried.

We first walked to the lighthouse but it was locked and a sign warned us not to enter. We then made our way to the house. (Pictures below)The door to the house is long gone so there was nothing to stop us from entering. It is a total wreck inside (and out), with huge holes in the floors, walls, and ceilings, and garbage strewn about. Creepily, there are men's work clothes hanging beside the front door. It is a bit unexpected to see knowing no one has lived there for more than 50 years.

Inside the house you have to test out the floor before you step on it, considering the fact large sections of it are actually missing. We glanced around and took some pictures and made our way up the rickety stairs. There were four bedrooms, but also in a desperate state. We carefully went back down the stairs and just before proceeding to the cellar, I heard an unexplained noise. It seemed like some type of rustling in the room we were in. There were no birds present. However, I cannot attest to the source, so I cannot say with certainty that it was of a paranormal nature.

The cellar was equally creepy, except for the neatly stacked pile of firewood.

I took a few pictures with the digital cam throughout the house, hoping to capture something unexplained or otherworldly. I have examined them and do not see anything odd.


Result and Conclusion:
We don't know. We did not experience anything out of the ordinary while on the island. A previous investigation group captured an EVP voice on their equipment when they visited the abandoned house, however, at that time, my team did not have such equipment.
Aside from the legends and folklore, it was an interesting place to visit and we had a great time investigating it, even though we came away with no evidence.























Need the link to our paranormal newsletter site?
No sign-up required.













 

The Doppelganger

The definition of doppelganger is a ghostly double of a living person that haunts it's living counterpart.

Not too long ago, I clearly experienced this.
I was in my bathroom and had my glasses off. looking in the mirror when suddenly the door opened, my stepson looked into the bathroom, right at me, and then without taking his hand off the doorknob, he stepped backwards back out into the hall, closing the door.

It seemed perfectly innocent, as if he was coming in to use the bathroom, discovered me there, and went back out. He never said a word.


I then turned to open the door to let him know he could in fact come use the bathroom if he needed to, but no one was in the hall, or adjacent bedrooms for that matter.

To top it all off, he was upstairs with his father the whole time, and my son was out walking the dog!!
Interesting!!

                                
Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required!


Investigation: Fire Spook of Caledonia Mills

Update: Since this investigation post was published, we have since learned from well-informed sources that the pictures contained in this post are from a nearby, although incorrectly identified, property. The gated road we refer to in the "directions" portion of this post, is indeed the correct one to take you to the remains of the Macdonald property. In light of this information, we feel our adventure is still post-worthy, so it will remain here in it's original form.

On July 27, 2009, we trekked to Caledonia Mills in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia to view the site of the former MacDonald farm where alleged poltergeist activity had taken place many years ago.

Besides a regular old Kodak digital camera and an old compass, we had absolutely no paranormal ghost busting equipment of any kind (not even a tape recorder!) and have no training or background in such investigations. We just have a profound interest in strange events. Actually, it is mostly MY interest and if I talk about a particular place or event long enough, my husband gives in and will eventually go have a look.


Background:
Beginning in 1900, Alexander and Janet Macdonald and their foster daughter, Mary Ellen were tormented by fires that constantly and mysteriously started up in their home and around their property. A very intriguing event, it was finally determined that the cause of the fires stemmed directly, although subconsciously, from Mary Ellen. Children and teenagers can unknowingly cause poltergeist activity, and although it sounds paranormal, it is actually scientifically based. After much turmoil and investigation, the family finally moved away. Mary Ellen spent much of her adult life in Ontario, where she lived to be quite elderly. The house no longer stands there, although there are reports of the remaining house foundation, barn foundation and a well.

However, people have reported sightings of ghosts and a curse attached to the property. Apparently, any item (even a rock or a stick) taken from there, will cause your house to burn down. This has been tested by regular every day people (who have put things such as shingles or bricks in sheds, etc) and the buildings always catch fire.

I had to make my husband swear that he would not grab something from the Fire Spook location "just to see what would happen". He has assured me that he did not pick up anything while we were there. (That is not a theory I want to test!) The legend also goes that cars have trouble starting there and there are many people in the area who will not even drive down that road at night.

A terrific book on the events that took place at the Macdonald farm so many years ago is The Fire Spook of Caledonia Mills by N. Carroll MacIntyre. I highly recommend it.


Location:

Caledonia Mills is located just outside of the town of Antigonish. With a simple road map it is easy to find. Online requests provided us with specifics of where to go and how to find the road/trail that the farm once stood on. There were some discrepancies from different sources (one person said there was a rusted fence post by the trail, another never mentioned any kind of marker to go by and yet another told us to look for a locked gate).


What Happened:
Our first stop was at the Antigonish Heritage Museum because we had been advised that they had information about the Fire Spook House. We were disappointed to learn that the only thing they had was a folder of photocopies of newspaper clippings regarding the fires from the time it happened. The lady who worked at the museum could not tell us exactly how to find the trail that would bring us to the site, as she had not been there for thirty years.

With our directions, we proceeded to the small community of Caledonia Mills. The paved road turned into a dirt road,( but it was smooth driving) surrounded by thick woods. No houses, no signs of life, only the odd vehicle passing by kicking up dust. We came upon two roads/trails and then had to try to figure out which one was the trail to the Spook Farm. One was gated, but after driving down it and tearing the muffler off the car (grrrrrrr), we quickly figured out it was a woods road that could not possibly be the former driveway we were seeking. (Strangely, as we passed this road on our way back to civilization, this gate was locked, yet had been unlocked when we went down it.)

The second road was only a few feet past the county line (into Guysborough County) but was our only other option. It had a white fence post beside it in the bushes, was really undriveable unless you had a Jeep or 4WD, which we do not, and I just felt that it was the correct place. We parked, hoped Mary Ellen would let our car start again when it was time and proceeded the 1 km hike into the site.

Did I mention four thousand horseflies went with us? If you go, please be aware of this.
The trail was swampy in places and call me crazy but the trail did have a bit of an eerie feeling to it. My husband could not detect this and I was not trying to be dramatic but it did feel creepy trekking in there. I was sure something was going to happen. Of course, our discussion on what to do if a bear or wasps came along did not help matters any. But I can normally discuss that with no problem because I do it every time I am in the woods and am quite used doing so. Today, nearing the Spook Farm location, it just felt different.

After what we deemed to be one kilometer, the trail ended and we found ourselves in a smallish space. I hesitate to call it a depression and there was nothing present to indicate a house foundation, although the area is very overgrown with wild flowers, bushes and trees, underneath which, I am sure, lies the building foundations. I have attached pictures.

We laid our trusty compass on the ground to see if it would do any paranormal spinning, but there was nothing. Of course, I realize the source (Mary Ellen) is no longer there and did not really expect the compass to do anything, but there have been ghost sightings there and then there is the curse to consider so I thought I would try.

We returned to the car (with all of the horseflies in tow, plus a few extra we picked up along the way), scooped our exhaust pipe up off the road and went back to Antigonish for lunch. We inquired amongst the locals who worked there if we had indeed been on the right trail. No one there was sure. One waitress lives near there but is too scared of the place to venture near it. Heading back towards Caledonia Mills again, we stopped at a convenience store and asked the lady who works there. She wasn't sure either, but wouldn't you know, an elderly local man walked through the door at that very moment and confirmed we had indeed been in the right spot.


Result and Conclusion:
We don't know. (Just so you know, most future investigations done by my team will almost always result in this verdict.)

We had fun driving there and looking for the correct location, which I am 99 % sure we found. Tonight I shall re-read the The Fire Spook at Caldeonia Mills to get more of a feel for the place now that I have been there and I will thank God above that I left the property in the exact same condition that I found it to ward off any curses!

A few questions remain: Who was around to lock the unlocked gate to the first road? Was the muffler being ripped off our car part of a curse? Or would it have fallen off on it's own? My husband assures me it was ready to go. Of course, he could just be saying that so I don't freak out! Scroll down this page for pics.


Here are specific directions if you dare to go:

Leaving Halifax, take hwy 102 towards the airport to Truro.
At end of Hwy 102, turn right to get on the 104 towards New Glasgow. Drive past New Glasgow on the 104 to Antigonish. DO NOT go into the town of Antigonish but continue on the 104 until you are just a few kms past Antigonish. You will drive over a river and go past Mother Webb's Steak House on your right.

A short distance past that you will come to a gas station where you will turn right on Rte 316. Continue on the 316 and you will come to the community of St. Andrews.
Just past a white church on your left, there's a road on the left ( the Antigonish/Guysborough road). DO NOT make the mistake of taking the Pomquet River Road. These 2 roads are very close to each other.

A few kms down the Antigonish/Guysborough Road, you will go through the communities of Glenroy, Croft, and Caledonia Mills.

The paved road in through Caledonia Mills turns into a dirt road surrounded by thick woods. We came upon two roads/trails on the RIGHT. One was gated, and this is not the correct road. Keep going.

The second road was only a few feet past the county line also on the right hand side (into Guysborough County, marked by a green road sign).


The road has a WHITE FENCE POST (barely visible in the photo below) beside it and this will be the only way to tell you have the right road, so I hope it is still visible.


Park on the edge of the dirt road and hike in approx. 1 km.
This is the road:


You will come to a large overgrown area (the trail just kind of ends there) and this is the former site where the house once stood. (photo below)There are dead trees still standing but we could not find any solid evidence of the foundation.



View of surrounding property:




Whatever you do, DO NOT take anything, not even a small twig home with you! 




Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.















Recent Haunted Events at the Homestead


There have been several significant incidents at my mother’s house recently. I say “significant” because there are always the usual bumps and bangs and creakings throughout the night which have become so mainstream they are hardly worth mentioning anymore. However, on two recent visits there, there was some definite activity, with several witnesses.

The first was on Easter Sunday ( 2011).
The relatives were starting to trickle in around lunchtime. To make a long story short, there had been a container of butter sitting on the kitchen table because people were eating mom’s homemade rolls.


 Eventually, my mother got up from the table to start to cook something when she said, ”Where is that butter container?” She had looked around the kitchen, on the table, in the fridge, but it was nowhere to be found. I started looking around for it, thinking someone had placed it elsewhere, but couldn’t find it, either. I looked again in the fridge. No butter. I closed the fridge door, jokingly said, “Okay, Willie. We know you took the butter. Put it back now.” 

I opened the fridge one more time and there it was….right in the front. (Creepy reminder: Willie is one of the ghosts in the house, a child who died there in the 1800’s.)

The rest of the afternoon went by without incident….until dinner time.
There were about 12 of us there for dinner. Seated at the head of the table was my mother. I sat to her right. To my right was my teenage niece, Emma.

It was near the end of the meal; some people had already left the table. The rest of us lingered, deciding if we had room for dessert or not. We were all gabbing away, as the Conrads tend to do, when out of the blue I felt someone touch my right leg near my thigh. It felt like someone pressing their finger into my leg and moving it along my leg for about 5 seconds. Immediately, I thought, “What is that? The cat, maybe??” But then I realized it could never be the cat: he hates everyone, would never rub up against anyone, plus it didn’t even feel like a cat. It felt like fingers. And the cat could never reach that high up. I looked down while it was happening but could not see anything.

While I was having this conversation in my head with myself, Emma said,” What is touching my chair?! It feels like something is by my chair, trying to move it!” She was indicating the space between us. I looked trying to see something…anything…that would account for this but still couldn’t actually see anything.

This seemed like the appropriate time to let her and everyone else at the table know what I had just felt. While everyone is staring at us both trying to process what we had both just said, my mother said, “Doesn’t surprise me. The other night I was lying in bed, not yet asleep when I felt something that felt like a hand touching my shoulder for a few minutes.” (Creepy reminder: she lives alone.)

At this point, my nephew’s girlfriend came into the dining room from the living room where she had been sitting for awhile. She took a seat at the table and said, “I am not sitting in there by myself anymore. There is something scratching and tapping at the wall.”

We talked about it for a few minutes, told her it was probably Willie or someone else from the great beyond. Later, when I was getting ready to leave and go home, my nephew said he had also been sitting in there (after his girlfriend had been in there alone) and had also heard scratching and tapping on the walls. He had not known his girlfriend had heard the same thing when she was in there by herself.

The other incident happened on May 8 ( 2011). We visited my mother—it was Mother’s Day, after all.

I asked her if anything unusual had been happening. She said lately she had been hearing voices ( not Alzheimer’s-related voices—she is in perfect mental health). She said mostly it sounds like one or two women talking, but she can’t be sure. It tends to sound far away, but is definitely within ear shot.

My son, Scott and I decided to check out the haunted spare bedroom. If you are familiar with my tales of this house, you know that there tends to be a lot of activity in this mostly-unused bedroom. Previous problems include the bed being messed up and indentations in the bed after it has been perfectly made up. The mattress has been switched but that did not solve the problem as the skeptics were all so sure that it would.

Anyway, Scott and I went in quietly. Nothing was out of place in the room except the bed covers. Now bear in mind my mother is of the old school for proper bed making…hospital corners, everything smoothed, de-wrinkled, creaseless. She would never have it any other way.

 That day, the bed blankets were NOT creaseless, or smooth. Scott and I were shocked at what we saw. The top white bedspread was turned down a bit at the very top. There was an impression in the pillow and the blankets on the far side of the bed (nearest the wall), and a yellow blanket folded and laying over the foot of the bed was also disheveled. My mother wouldn’t leave a bed in this condition if her life depended on it. It looked like someone had slept in it and got up and kind of put it back together, but certainly not to my mother’s standards.

(Creepy reminder: she lives there alone and no overnight guests had slept in that room for a long, long time. It had been so long, my mother couldn’t even remember the last time someone slept there.)

Scott and I took some pictures of the condition of the bed and then decided to re-make the bed as my mother would, with plans to recheck it before we left there that day. When I pulled back the top blanket, I nearly dropped dead at what I saw. The bed sheet was totally crumpled and off to the far side of the bed. It was deeply wrinkled from having been in this position for some time. 

There were also further impressions in the top fitted sheet, indicating an adult person had indeed been sleeping there. We took pictures of this also, and called for my mother to come check out this situation. She was aghast when she saw it and reassured us there was no way on earth she would have left the bed like this the last time she made it.

Here are the pics we took that day. 









Shortly afterwards, I posted my 'messed-up-haunted-bed' photos to a social networking site. A friend messaged me soon after asking about the pics I had taken "of the girl ghost and boy ghost". I had no idea what she was talking about as the only pics I had taken and posted were of a messed up bed. 

After a few phone calls back and forth, she assured me on her Blackberry she can clearly see several ghosts in the "bed" pictures. She showed them to some of her friends who viewed the pics on laptops and they can also easily see these ghosts. I did everything I could with my pics on my computer, short of standing on my head, and sadly, cannot see the ghosts....but I would sure love to!

I gently explained this to my mother (so as not to frighten her too much). She was as flabbergasted as I was to know ghosts had been captured in the pics. It is one thing to see something like a messed up bed, or doors opening, or even feeling someone touch you when no one is there, but it is quite another to have them show up in photographs. That is actual solid proof. Well, it would be if everyone could see it.




Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.



Attempt to Capture Ghost Voices


Background:


Even though I grew up in this house and visit often, I have never before attempted to record any disembodied voices. Only on rare occasions have voices from "the beyond" been heard in the house. It is not as common as noises, smells, apparitions, etc.

 With a regular tape recorder and a brand spanking new audio cassette tape, we decided that since we were going to visit my mother on this particular day anyway, we might as well try to capture some evidence on tape.

And somehow I got it into my head that while this was going on in an upstairs bedroom, why not whip out the Ouija board downstairs and really try to contact someone on "the other side"?

Important to Note:

I realize there are 2 sides to the Ouija board argument so to speak...my mother has always had one and we have messed around with it over the years. There have been some intriguing and scary results, but never anything "evil". Please respect the fact I have on occasion used it, and I will respect your side of it if you are anti-Ouija board for whatever reason. Not long ago, I lost all faith in the Ouija board due to a blindfolded experiment; however, after today I may have to re-examine all of that. You may think the Ouija board is just a game, downright evil, the scariest thing on the planet, or the dumbest thing on the planet. The point of this piece you are reading is not to determine what it is. I just want to relay to you what I experienced today. Conclude what you will
.

What Happened:

We began our recording in the living room. The house was quiet. My mother had reported that nothing out of the ordinary had been happening lately, except for a few bumps in the night sometimes but she cannot say with certainty that it wasn't one of the cats.

While recording in the quiet living room, I asked (out loud to no one in particular) if there were spirits among us, could you please let us know you were there, what is your name, please say something...that sort of thing. After a little while, we stopped recording (not knowing if we captured anything--we would discover the results later during playback). We then proceeded to the upstairs spare bedroom that is known to have paranormal activity in it. Incidentally, we sat the tape recorded on a very antique rocking chair--the very same chair that my mother used to hear rocking by itself, nearly 70 years ago when she slept upstairs and the chair was downstairs in the kitchen. (Sidenote: my parents thought it would be a grand idea to put this rocking chair in my bedroom when I was a kid. How I ever slept through a night waiting for the thing to start rocking by itself, or worse, waiting to see a ghost rocking in it, I'll never know, but I digress...)

So as I was saying, we started recording and asking the same sort of questions we did downstairs. After a while, we stopped recording, and took the tape player downstairs to listen to the playback. To my surprise, there were no EVP voices, just mine on tape. This brings us to what we in the investigation world like to refer to as Plan B.

Plan B was to leave the tape recorder recording in the haunted spare bedroom by itself (Creepy, isn't it?!!) We recorded for about 45 minutes while we were downstairs and it was about this time that I had the grand idea to try to contact someone on the Ouija board. When you use a Ouija board, it can be very fickle. Sometimes you can't even get the planchette to move, other times you can hardly keep up with it. I suppose I expected to get the attention of a spirit who I might be able to coax into speaking into my tape recorder. Hey, it was worth a shot.

The first "person" (and I use the term lightly) I believe we might have contacted was an elderly man who used to live there in the house when my mother was a child. He revealed his name, his nickname, and games he played with my mother when she was young. He told us a little bit about his past, which confirmed to us who he was. We then asked him if he had any messages for us. He spelled out the following: WE MUST NOT PULL STUNT WTMOWRM.
What we assume this means is "We must not pull stunts with mom." The reasoning is my son Scott has this lovely habit of sneaking around our non-haunted house and jumping out at my unexpectedly, thereby scaring the living crap right out of me. It is lovely... NOT!
I am assuming the contact on the Ouija board was handing out advice to an otherwise fine young man, suggesting he stop doing that to me. This is my interpretation, as Scott really doesn't pull any other "stunts".

Suddenly, in the middle of this, the contact spelled out "Murray wept." This is interesting as my deceased father's name is Murray. The planchette began to move faster around the board from what it had been, indicating perhaps we were with a different contact. I asked the name of whom we were talking to, and it spelled my deceased brother's name. The "Murray wept" would be a confirmation that he did indeed weep when his son died.

I needed more proof. I asked where I had been this very morning in relation to all of this. The planchette spelled "wreath". We had been to my brother's grave this morning to remove the Christmas wreath we had put there. Okay! Now we were getting somewhere!

I asked if he could speak into our upstairs tape recorder. He said no. I asked for a sign he was with us in the room. A few moments later we heard a thump on the side of the house, of which no other source was found. I am not definitely saying it was my brother communicating from the other side, but I AM definitely saying no other obvious source for the noise could be found.

We asked my brother if he had any messages for my mother (who was there with us). The answer was "Am ok." I asked what it was like on the other side. The answer: "other world". I asked him what kinds of things he did there. The answer: cubs, boy, work. When he died he was a cub scout, which he loved.

At this point, I left the table but remained in the room to cook dinner. (we were at the kitchen table) My son and my mother continued to use the Ouija board, maintaining contact. After just a few moments I walked into the nearby pantry to get a measuring cup. In those few steps, I suddenly smelled a very obvious scent of roses, like I was suddenly in a blooming flower garden.

 Concentrating on my recipe, the smell didn't even register with me at first. I walked back to the stove to cook. My son got off his chair, stepped toward my mother, then toward me. He asked, "Don't you smell that perfume?" At which point I realized I had indeed smelled it. We discussed the scent, which had dissipated at that point, but we both agreed it was a rose garden smell. No one present was wearing perfume. This was further confirmation to us, because we had asked for a sign. The other two in the room did not smell anything (other than the spaghetti).

On the drive home, we popped the tape into the stereo and listened to the recording we had made. After about 5-10 minutes of silence, you can very clearly hear a knock on the tap recorder. We had placed the recorder on the bed in the spare room before leaving the room. The noise is very obviously a tap or knock against the tape recorder itself, like someone rapped on it with their hand or an object. It is the only odd noise we captured on tape. Remember, no one else was in that room and the door was shut tight. If someone had decided to go in during taping, you would have heard the door opening. It is impossible to open the door and enter the bedroom silently.

Someone or something hit the tape recorder. Unfortunately no voices came through, though.


Result and Conclusion:

The Ouija board is not proof of anything paranormal but while I can't prove it is concrete evidence, no one can disprove it, either. Also, something hit the tape recorder. It could not have been a live person. This concludes me to believe it was possibly a spirit. I did not necessarily need this to happen to prove the house is haunted...remember: I grew up there. Many people in my family and even visitors have had paranormal experiences in the house. We could fill a book. Hey, what a good idea! A book!! 


Want to read more about Ouija boards?
Ouija Board Info


Need the link to our paranormal newsletters?
No sign-up required.




History of the Homestead

The house I grew up in was built around 1871 and has always been in my family. It is in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, but for obvious reasons, I cannot reveal the exact location.

Many people have been born there, and many have also died there, although I can attest to the fact that some of the deceased have continued to call this house their home. They have never been threatening, but they like their presence to be known, either through tricks they play, noises they make, or simply by materializing. On ocassion, they have been downright destructive. I have been witness to all of these events, as have other family members.

I have spent most of my childhood here. I moved away as a young adult, and then back again about 10 years ago. Upon returning, the ghostly activity increased, or was perhaps more noticeable than it was when my mother lived there alone. Either way, there was no mistaking that we had regular visits from the beyond.


Several days after moving back in, the first incident occurred. My five year old son was sleeping in the bedroom that was mine when I was young. To comfort him at bedtime, I had put a nightlight into a wall outlet. Being old, the outlet did not readily accept plugs so I had to forcefully jam it in and also pull hard to remove it every morning. One night as my son slept in that room, I stepped out into the hallway that separated our bedrooms to find his room in total darkness.

Assuming the bulb in the nightlight had blown, I went in to investigate. I was shocked to find the nightlight laying on top of his dresser on the other side of the room. He remained fast asleep in his bed. Immediately, I felt a spine tingling chill, plugged the nightlight back in and retreated to my bedroom for the night. There is no way my son could have removed the nightlight himself. He was clearly asleep and never wakes in the night. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't remove it from the wall, as it jams in so tightly.


The nightlight came out of the wall and sat upon his dresser every night for two weeks. Finally, in the daylight, I requested to no one in particular, that it would be helpful to leave it plugged in to provide some light at night. After that, it did not come out of the wall again.



Not only do spirits enjoy playing with nightlights, they also like to play with regular light switches. Shortly after my father died, the kitchen light would snap on by itself in the middle of the night. Sometimes it went back off by itself too. After the third time this happened, my mother had the switch replaced but the light continued to turn on by itself.

The ghosts also enjoy the Christmas tree. One year they turned solidly- lit sets of tree lights into blinking ones. I turned them back into non-blinkers, but the next day, they were blinking again. We decided to leave that alone after that. If the ghost wants blinking lights, then blinking lights it is.

There are noises of all kinds regularly. Music of unknown origin suddenly begins and stops, footsteps, and creaking floorboards can be heard where no one is walking. Thumps, bangs, knocks, and voices are quite common. On more than one occasion I have clearly heard someone call my name when I have been alone in the house. It was a woman's voice, most likely my grandmother, who has been seen in the house since she passed away.

I had heard unmistakable pacing outside my closed bedroom door late at night. I have heard pacing IN my bedroom late at night. Recently, there have also been incidents of various people hearing car doors slamming outside when there are no cars there and people talking, where there are no people. A rocking chair has been heard rocking at night in the kitchen where there is no rocking chair now, although there had been at one time, many years ago.


Shelves of ornaments and vases have crashed to the floor on two separate occasions. The hardware for the shelves stayed firmly intact on the wall and it appeared as if someone had picked one edge of the shelf up and forced it to the floor. This happened to two different shelves, so it is not the instability of one certain shelf.

There is a spare bedroom reserved for guests that the ghosts seem to enjoy very much. My mother keeps the bed made up, completely wrinkle free at all times and has a lock on the outside of the door to prevent the cat from wandering in. At any given moment, one can enter this bedroom and find the bed totally messed up, the blankets strewn about, or an indentation in the bed as if someone has been, or still is, sitting on it. Within the past year, the indentation in the bed appears to be slightly dirty.

Guests are always forewarned...sometimes things happen to them, sometimes they don't.

My aunt and uncle from another province spent every summer for 25 years there, and that spare bedroom was where they slept. My uncle NEVER heard or saw anything ( or never told us), but my aunt clearly saw my dead grandmother standing beside the bed looking down at her one time. My aunt also insisted one corner of the room felt cold. I have felt that corner and never interpreted it as cold though.

My brother and sister-in-law slept in that room a few times during visits. She is so scared of the house that she will NOT stay alone in it for one minute. She had no choice but to sleep there though, and thought my brother would protect her if anything happened.

Well the very last time they slept in that room, my brother slept the whole night through, but she heard something scratching at the foot of the bed during the night and rattling the doorknob. She swears on a stack of bibles she will never ever sleep in there again.


I have slept in there several times during visits but never saw or heard anything unusual. However, it shares a wall with the bedroom I had as a child and when I was about 10 or 11, there were many nights I would run downstairs, scared to death because of all the bumps and knocks on the wall that connected the 2 bedrooms.

Much to my surprise, I have actually laid eyes on two ghosts. The first incident happened when I was wallpapering a bedroom. I was cleaning up and turned towards the door and there stood a man watching me. He was wearing a long sleeved white shirt, had his arms crossed and was watching me intently. He was gone in seconds but I had definitely seen him.He was no one I recognized.

The second incident happened a few months later. I awoke one night to find my bedroom door being opened and there stood a child in the dim light of the hallway...and it wasn't my child-- he was sound asleep in his bed.

I got up, very startled, and the child giggled and turned and ran into the hallway. On instinct I called out and said not to run out there in the dark because of the danger of falling down the stairs. Two seconds later, I was at the top of the stairs in the hallway, dimly lit by my son's nightlight and the child apparition was gone. I could see my son asleep in his bed from where I stood in the hallway.


Occasionally, strange smells can be detected throughout the house. A very perfumey smell is the most common one, much like a lady's perfume. It lingers for a while, then fades away.It is most common when my mother spring cleans, and washes all of her deceased mother's antique dishes. Other times, we have smelled something burning, but have never found a cause after much investigating.

A very common occurrence is the disappearance and reappearance of things. The items are mostly household objects, but there have been times that clothes have disappeared. Most of the time, the missing articles reappear in very obvious places as if suddenly placed there. They may disappear for minutes, days or weeks. One very interesting item that moved about by itself was a broom that had been stored in an upstairs attic, packed away amongst boxes. It would have taken a lot of work and effort to get to the broom, yet one day in the dead of winter it appeared outside on the front doorstep. With only my mother, my son and me living there, we knew neither of us had touched it.

A very unusual incident occurred in the bedroom I slept in there, about eight or nine years ago. I awoke one day to find a burn mark in the carpet near the bedroom door. It was in the exact shape of a hoof-print. About six other people witnessed it and no one could explain what it was or how it got there. The carpet fibers were actually melted into this very obvious shape. The next day it began to fade until a couple of days later when it was completely gone.


Eventually, I moved 100 kms away but my mother says things still happen there. She now lives there alone.The most recent ghostly activity is the mewing and purring of my mom's deceased cat. It has been witnessed by four people, including myself. This would explain the slightly dirty indentation that keeps appearing on the bed in the spare bedroom.