The polar vortex has come and gone and we (and hopefully you) have survived the coldest temperatures in recent history. The chill upset another experiment I was performing and now I must start all over. I have come across a few reports of people who have drawn paranormal activity to themselves simply by the act of looking for it. Either through investigation, photography, EVP work, or regular divination, some people attract spirit attention. I just happen to have the attention span of a toddler. I start projects with good intentions and lose interest relatively quickly--usually about three days (if it's a really big project like learning a foreign language or a new religion I give it three years--three's the magic number). So, if I am attempting to contact the dead by means of a seance, ouija board, or paranormal photography I will get frustrated and find a new obsession. I assume when I hear of other people having great success with attracting unwanted spirit activity it is because they are either more connected or more determined. So to say the polar vortex stopped my experiment is to gloss over the fact that I would have lost interest anyway...unless something interesting happened.
The point of the hunt, however, is that investigators must make many attempts before a big capture can be celebrated. Therefore, I will start again now that the temperature is warmer. (We had hoped to go out on the battlefield today and were heading out the door to take some foggy pictures and do some EVP, but it started pouring rain.)
So, during the inclement weather we have few choices but to investigate our house.
Our house is in the old part of Gettysburg, but it was built in 1979. Apparently the original structure burned down and they rebuilt a period appropriate house on the foundation of the original.
For anyone who knows much about the battle of Gettysburg, the battle ranged all over town. On July 1, 1863, the northern soldiers were chased through the streets of town as they retreated from the rebels. Some were killed on the streets, others took refuge inside the houses and escaped or were captured. There have been reports of haunting in most of the structures in town, including the houses built in the last half of the 20th century, due to the activity of the ground on which they stand.
When we knew we were going to be moving into this house we decided to look up its address on diedinhouse.com. This is a handy website that will provide the history of houses for the small fee of $11. All I did was enter the address and the names of all the people who have ever owned the house, died in the house or died since moving from the house are displayed.
When I entered the address for this house it came up that a young man died here just last spring. Thanks to Facebook, I was able to track him down and the reason for his demise--suicide. With the already active soil around Gettysburg, I expected the possibility of some bad residual energy. Nothing really obvious has presented itself, however.
We did an investigation around Halloween and turned up nothing...but there have been some, possibly, interesting events since then.
After moving into the house we noticed one of the doors to an upstairs bedroom is lacking a doorknob and the door frame is separated in a way that suggests the door was kicked open. So, we assume this is the room the suicide may have occurred in. On New Year's Eve, we had gone to the Battlefield Bed and Breakfast to socialize then returned to put on warm clothes and head down to the square for the festivities. We opened the door to the room mentioned above and were confronted by a very unpleasant smell. When I first smelled it I thought of a locker room with its stinking socks and unwashed bodies, but the more I smelled it the more it changed to something like vomit or spoiled food. Roy thought he smelled vomit and poo combined. We checked the garbage for food, but only found paper. We looked around and didn't find any evidence of the cats, and we keep the door closed to this room because we don't want the cats making it smell. We popped open a window, turned on the fan, and closed the door again to keep the cats out. When we returned one hour later, there was no hint of the smell. The smell was so strong, initially, that I would expect it to have a lingering suggestion, but no. We tried to recreate the smell a couple nights later by closing up the room for a few hours and were unable to duplicate the smell. Were we smelling a phantom smell? Perhaps of the suicide victim?
One night, I was abruptly wakened between the hours of 3 and 4 am. As I lay in bed, I heard what sounded like a plastic cup being set down on the kitchen counter. It sounded too controlled to be the result of an animal knocking something over, and both cats were on the bed. So I lay there listening for something more, and watching the cats to see if they sensed anything, but they went on sleeping. I fell asleep and had a dream that the house was haunted by a young boy the age of 10. He kept shadowing us in the dream and finally admitted to me that he was afraid to cross over because his parents were abusive to him and he was afraid they'd be waiting for him. The dream was very vivid and the story was not related to anything I might have heard somewhere else.
When we came home from a 7 day excursion to Oregon (when I broke my leg) we found the TV and living room lights on. We dismissed the TV since a cat stepping on the remote could cause that, but what about the lights? It is very fishy, since I am anal about making sure all lights are off--especially since we spent a lot of time figuring out which lights to leave on to give the impression the house was occupied. But since I cannot state with absolute clarity that we didn't accidentally leave the lights on, I must dismiss it as possible paranormal activity.
Then there was the night just last week when we were both awakened by a loud noise downstairs, between the hours of 3 and 4 am. Once again, it didn't sound like an animal.
We have decided to do another investigation of the house, including the cellar. This time we will do it between 3 and 4 am since that seems to be the most active time. I have heard some people call that hour, "Dead Time." It is also considered the time of darker entities since 3 am is the counterpart of 3 pm--when Jesus died (if you believe in that stuff). We will report any evidence we receive.
The point of the hunt, however, is that investigators must make many attempts before a big capture can be celebrated. Therefore, I will start again now that the temperature is warmer. (We had hoped to go out on the battlefield today and were heading out the door to take some foggy pictures and do some EVP, but it started pouring rain.)
So, during the inclement weather we have few choices but to investigate our house.
Our house is in the old part of Gettysburg, but it was built in 1979. Apparently the original structure burned down and they rebuilt a period appropriate house on the foundation of the original.
For anyone who knows much about the battle of Gettysburg, the battle ranged all over town. On July 1, 1863, the northern soldiers were chased through the streets of town as they retreated from the rebels. Some were killed on the streets, others took refuge inside the houses and escaped or were captured. There have been reports of haunting in most of the structures in town, including the houses built in the last half of the 20th century, due to the activity of the ground on which they stand.
When we knew we were going to be moving into this house we decided to look up its address on diedinhouse.com. This is a handy website that will provide the history of houses for the small fee of $11. All I did was enter the address and the names of all the people who have ever owned the house, died in the house or died since moving from the house are displayed.
When I entered the address for this house it came up that a young man died here just last spring. Thanks to Facebook, I was able to track him down and the reason for his demise--suicide. With the already active soil around Gettysburg, I expected the possibility of some bad residual energy. Nothing really obvious has presented itself, however.
We did an investigation around Halloween and turned up nothing...but there have been some, possibly, interesting events since then.
After moving into the house we noticed one of the doors to an upstairs bedroom is lacking a doorknob and the door frame is separated in a way that suggests the door was kicked open. So, we assume this is the room the suicide may have occurred in. On New Year's Eve, we had gone to the Battlefield Bed and Breakfast to socialize then returned to put on warm clothes and head down to the square for the festivities. We opened the door to the room mentioned above and were confronted by a very unpleasant smell. When I first smelled it I thought of a locker room with its stinking socks and unwashed bodies, but the more I smelled it the more it changed to something like vomit or spoiled food. Roy thought he smelled vomit and poo combined. We checked the garbage for food, but only found paper. We looked around and didn't find any evidence of the cats, and we keep the door closed to this room because we don't want the cats making it smell. We popped open a window, turned on the fan, and closed the door again to keep the cats out. When we returned one hour later, there was no hint of the smell. The smell was so strong, initially, that I would expect it to have a lingering suggestion, but no. We tried to recreate the smell a couple nights later by closing up the room for a few hours and were unable to duplicate the smell. Were we smelling a phantom smell? Perhaps of the suicide victim?
One night, I was abruptly wakened between the hours of 3 and 4 am. As I lay in bed, I heard what sounded like a plastic cup being set down on the kitchen counter. It sounded too controlled to be the result of an animal knocking something over, and both cats were on the bed. So I lay there listening for something more, and watching the cats to see if they sensed anything, but they went on sleeping. I fell asleep and had a dream that the house was haunted by a young boy the age of 10. He kept shadowing us in the dream and finally admitted to me that he was afraid to cross over because his parents were abusive to him and he was afraid they'd be waiting for him. The dream was very vivid and the story was not related to anything I might have heard somewhere else.
When we came home from a 7 day excursion to Oregon (when I broke my leg) we found the TV and living room lights on. We dismissed the TV since a cat stepping on the remote could cause that, but what about the lights? It is very fishy, since I am anal about making sure all lights are off--especially since we spent a lot of time figuring out which lights to leave on to give the impression the house was occupied. But since I cannot state with absolute clarity that we didn't accidentally leave the lights on, I must dismiss it as possible paranormal activity.
Then there was the night just last week when we were both awakened by a loud noise downstairs, between the hours of 3 and 4 am. Once again, it didn't sound like an animal.
We have decided to do another investigation of the house, including the cellar. This time we will do it between 3 and 4 am since that seems to be the most active time. I have heard some people call that hour, "Dead Time." It is also considered the time of darker entities since 3 am is the counterpart of 3 pm--when Jesus died (if you believe in that stuff). We will report any evidence we receive.
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