I experienced a haunting for the better part of 11 years. The bulk of my experiences happened in a home my parents purchased when I was 12. I have lived in 10 different locations and seen things I could not explain or identify in 4 of them. I have had 10 jobs and in two of those locations had additional experiences. And one experience that happened in a grocery store. I have been using my down time to research a bit and found that the label that seems to describe me in the paranormal glossary is an Agent.

I will probably inherit the before mentioned house, when my parents retire, in a couple of years. The place is beautiful and spacious and I should be chomping at the bit to obtain it, but my experiences there were so scarring that, I still can’t sleep there with the lights off. I looked for paranormal information for help but many of these sights actually use fiction like Tolken as though they were scientific surveys. I was raised by very logical and stable family with no history of mental illness or brain abnormalities. Graduated in the 11th percentile of a school of 2500. Had never tried drugs. We went to church but it rarely came home with us nor were we superstitious. Teachers bookkeepers mechanics farmers nothing fancy…

This is semi-dark secret territory for me; as I do not tell these stories without knowing a person well enough, to know that they will not judge me by those stories alone. I told a bunch of kids at school because I thought it was cool. I was immediately picked on and alienated, my less loyal friends started to disappear. When I could not produce paranormal activity on request even the closest of my relations have treated my experiences dismissively and became irritated by my distress.

Here’s the kicker!!:The very first thing I saw could be visually described as a gnome. It was about 2 1/2 feet tall wore buckskin colored clothing with a light colored trim and a gord or bladder with a rounded point hat. I frequently saw it peaking out from the entry hall when I would pass through the dining room to the back door. One time when I was coming in from the back door I saw it just standing there out in the open. With it’s back facing me. I darted after it! This time I got a really good look at it, which will be forever burned into my brain. The waxy texture of the hat and shoe bottom. Completely opaque until I slowed to go around the corner and it seemed to sink into the floor as it became smoke like.

To those of you who ask why any scientist should waste their time on the paranormal- I would answer that it is the same reason most scientists begin their studies and that is- to help people. When I first had experiences I thought I was loosing my mind at age 12. I was thinking well at least it didn’t hurt. Because there is no such thing as gnomes! With increasing frequency I was hearing someone pacing in the hallway at night breathing heavily and wearing noisy clothing. At first I thought it was my younger brother sneaking into the cookie jar, and I was hoping to join in, but found no one awake. After the first couple of empty investigations I stopped getting up to check. And I started to become afraid.

I furiously rationalized that we had moved in in the heat of summer. I was left at the house alone for the first time. And my parents had given the entire house a painting first thing. Surely when it cooled down, the paint cured, and I had school to keep my mind entertained all this would stop. In the mean time I would just ignore anything out of the ordinary. Why risk a van full of men with butterfly nets coming to take me away to a padded locked cell forever. Or being pumped full of drugs so strong I might as well be locked up. Which is what I really believed would happen if I told my parents or any other adult. I told no one.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. After a few months I began to see orbs and shadows and the pacing sounds started to come into my room at night. Just when I thought I couldn’t take it any more my brother and I had an unusual conversation. I walked in front of the TV expecting the usual irritated groans when I noticed that his attention was not on the TV. He gave me a perplexed expression as he looked up from the room I was headed to and asked, “Have you been seeing little people running around?” We decided to compare notes- outside!! Later I discussed it with friends at school and didn’t get good reactions there. When we told our parents they weren’t happy either and were asked not to bring it up anymore. My dad tried to say the orbs were electricity escaping from the sockets and jumping across the house.

Later maybe a month and a half later while racing into the house roughly jostling each other to get ahead my brother got a good push in and as he went around the corner of the entry hall to the back door he froze in his tracks so quickly I slammed into him. I looked up to see what had caught his attention to see three of them right out in the middle of the dining room, in the sun of the sliding glass door. They dispersed in opposite directions and seemed to turn into smoke as they ran kind of bouncy like a muppet. They were around the better part of a year after a while they just weren’t.

There were many experiences in the house but few happened while two people were present. One that escapes all scientific hypothesis known to me follows.

One ordinary morning when I was 16 myself and an exchange student I was sharing my room with were leaning into the mirror over the dresser. A pair of hoop earrings that I kept together by linking them and closing them, went flying off the dresser from its position between us on the dresser. Like someone hooked one of them with a finger and jerked them perpendicularly across the dresser and off its edge. We exchanged perplexed looks as our bodies were leaning away from this spot on the dresser and we both saw it. I picked them up put them on and hurried out to catch the school bus with her.

I could go on for pages but I’ve probably lost most of you.. The paranormal people have given me some pretty scary stuff to think about and I would love a more scientific approach. I will answer questions if you are truly curious about this stuff or me.

Please note before commenting:No need to tell me I am lying as I am the one asking for help, so that doesn’t really. Using capitols does not make your hypothesis more valid, proven theory and facts do. Name calling is childish and unnecessary -I’ve heard them all. If you conduct yourself with the scientific dignity of a two year old throwing a tantrum I will ignore you as such. I am interested in clinical advice, hypothesis, or observations without fear of persecution or ridicule. Including the psychological. 

I’ve acquired a pretty broad knowledge of paranormal scientists’ more accepted ideas and procedures as I look for answers for myself. I also know the textbook procedure proving fact or clinical observations versus beliefs and favoring a particular hypothesis. I didn’t have the math grades (or interest in) to get past physics -and it wasn’t my field anyway, but I enjoy reading and watching on the subject in general. So if it is a well known theory I will probably know what you mean. Otherwise you may have to provide laymeneese for the more obscure or complex stuff.

There’s really no way anyone can respond to what you’ve said since we didn’t experience it ourselves.  The only way it could be checked is if you could find a couple of competent skeptics to join you during a few of these episodes. One of a number of things is likely to happen:  1) They will be convinced and cease to be skeptics,  2) they will identify a rational, physical world explanation that eliminates any need for a paranormal cause, and which you accept, 3) You and they will disagree and part, each believing what s/he saw and what his/her explanation for it was.

Occam

Perhaps you should tell your story to Joe Nickels. This kind of investigation is what he specializes in.

So what are you looking for, an explanation for ghosts?

I have never encountered any but I have talked to 4 people who claimed to have.

But I don’t equate the word skeptic with “intelligent”. 

You can check out Ian Stevenson on the subject of reincarnation.

http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-proof.htm

This raises the question of what are human beings really?  If the system works on reincarnation then where are “people” in between lifetimes.  The Old Testament uses the word SHEOL and the New Testament says HADES.

psik

This was all in the same house? I saw a show once about someone who was experiencing similar episodes. They traced the cause back to a leaking underground gas pipe or something, causing hallucinations. Could be something like that.

Your other experiences in other places may just be you being overly sensitive to abnormal and unexplainable events, being biased from previous “paranormal” experiences and looking for patterns where there were none.

psikeyhackr - 12 July 2010 08:49 AM

So what are you looking for, an explanation for ghosts?

I have never encountered any but I have talked to 4 people who claimed to have.

But I don’t equate the word skeptic with “intelligent”. 

You can check out Ian Stevenson on the subject of reincarnation.

http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnation-proof.htm

This raises the question of what are human beings really?  If the system works on reincarnation then where are “people” in between lifetimes.  The Old Testament uses the word SHEOL and the New Testament says HADES.

psik

I don’t expect to convince someone who’s never met me to change their personal beliefs about the paranormal. Mine are not so easily swayed either. For many there will never be enough proof no matter how carefully obtained or what the source. What I enjoy is if you can set that aside. Obviously you favor the idea that these are people between bodies. Unlike my cousin.

For example my cousin is really into the brain’s more mysterious functions like intuition and how otherwise unrelated women’s cycles sync up when they are housed together. I told him the gnome story about 2 years after it happened when he came home for a wedding from college. He felt that one of us children had created the image (probably me since I was more introverted and was the first to see it) He felt that the most likely time for such an image to pass from one person to the next unconsciously was at night during sleep. I thought about the way we sleep and how, if it wasn’t for the drywall between us we slept with our heads only a few feet away from each other. So I rearranged my room so the bed was on the other wall. Didn’t work on the stuff we were seeing at the time but got us thinking about how to experiment with moving things around. My brother started closing his door at night which had a nice effect. Although at first it was a little creepy.

Remember the residual we heard at night? It had turned out to be less so. It had a pattern that we figured out by comparing notes. Up and down the hallway many times -for like 15 min. Then the walls in my brother’s room would pop and crack around the room starting at the door and ending on the other side of it’s jam. A few more paces in the hall and then to the foot of my double bed and then it would just linger. A few nights my blankets kept coming off, or my face would be brushed or poked. The worst was when I would realize I was readjusting my legs because I was sliding into the invisibly depressed side of the bed. This almost seems motherly and nice, except for the knocking. The only advice I had gotten was from the church and it was not good. Something about being demon oppressed and satan trying to tear our family apart. Say your prayers try not to be fearful have a cracker and some juice.

—Shut the door. Ridiculous but simple. After two nights the entire thing stopped! It would pace n the hall. Then knock on my brothers door softly. On the third night blissful silence. We were so excited- finally we had a tiny bit of empowerment over the experience.

The other information information I need is simply a different perspective. I’m sort of stuck for what to do. I don’t have the money to turn my apartment into a fully surveilled compound. Although I might do it if I did. Just to have one piece of evidence.

I’ve been through the cycle enough times that I kind of feel it coming on. I am shocking myself on surfaces a lot. Vitamin B deficiency, restless sleep, vivid nightmares. My atheist roommate is acting strangely but is into the idea of trying to set up a motion activated camera. I’ve already demanded full control of the hardwired system and its footage if we do this. This place is puny. It would only take 4 or 5 of them and I have a mac that isn’t being used.

Historically the best visual stuff happens to me in August. And for a kicker I will be housesitting at the prime location—first week of August. But then what? I go through all this so I can get blasted on U Tube?! What does a true scientific sceptic expect from me?

(Is this a Poe?)

I have hesitated posting my thoughts on this, but you asked “What does a true scientific skeptic expect from me?” so I will answer you.

You are suffering from hallucinations. Frankly, you need to see a psychiatrist.

domokato - 12 July 2010 04:18 PM

This was all in the same house? I saw a show once about someone who was experiencing similar episodes. They traced the cause back to a leaking underground gas pipe or something, causing hallucinations. Could be something like that.

Your other experiences in other places may just be you being overly sensitive to abnormal and unexplainable events, being biased from previous “paranormal” experiences and looking for patterns where there were none.

Seeing a UFO probably makes you look at the sky a little differently too. I agree.

No, the definition of an agent is sort of like a paranormal crap magnet. I sort of agitate paranormal energies if you like. When I enter a new area like a job or apartment I usually see something with in the first week if I see anything at all. Later usually around a year, better stuff, again - if anything at all.

This is why I don’t want to talk about events that only involved me as more than a note. I like to focus on the stories that I shared or others were effected. For example when my brother let me stay in his guest room one summer I kept seeing a white cat. I have a white cat- but he is not transparent, tinted blue and about 2 pounds heavier. He also doesn’t walk up with pet me body language and then disappear when looked at directly. I got the impression something was trying to disguise itself as my cat to move freely through the house. Later I heard disembodied voices and while sleeping in one morning, on my side facing, the wall. What felt like a rubber ball rolled up my body from my toes to my chest. It shocked me painfully as it did. I didn’t see anything. The discussable part is: When I brought over a work friend, that I didn’t know well. (so he’s unaware of my experiences) I went to get him a drink and saw him jerk up from the couch from the corner of my eye. He had been putting his hand down to, what looked like, pet my cat. I had frequently mistaken the apparition for my real cat there and reached out to nothing at my feet.  He says ” Woah, I thought I just saw a cat.” He seemed overly distressed about it. I had a pretty good idea what happened and let him laugh it off for the sake of enjoying the night. My brother had seen it too and we had both laughed at each other for doing this while watching TV together. A third friend who was aware experienced it as well.

When I get anxious about something my room mates have complained about headaches and vivid nightmares. Especially if it goes on longer than a week it kind of makes me raise an eyebrow.  I’ve had 4-6 inconclusive blood tests to figure out why I have a B deficiency (which is the key component in producing energy from food and fat in the body). So I am very curious about the bodies electrical system.

DarronS - 12 July 2010 06:39 PM

I have hesitated posting my thoughts on this, but you asked “What does a true scientific skeptic expect from me?” so I will answer you.

You are suffering from hallucinations. Frankly, you need to see a psychiatrist.

WOW never met a psychic psychiatrist before! E-nosis Call my insurance the cheap bastards are gonna love this. OK i’m done

Eye doctor, Nutritionist, Internist, GP MD, Allergist -everything is fine but fluctuates kind of a lot, slowly. Chemistry, pressure,  and moods/appetite. I checked best I could. Way up top (I know super long.) this was my original hypothesis. It is the most logical explanation, I agree.

It does not explain object movement.

It happened to most of us who were in the house alone at one time or another. But, the earring story is special because we both saw it and each other. We were not near enough to have moved it. Many people report and even record these claims.
  Besides the drugs necessary for the amount of weird I am would probably turn me into a drooling invalid. I’m trying to flood myself on the subject, so I can try to sleep with the lights off again, while I house sit. I know it seems a backwards approach, but when I read around, you can’t really find reputable sources of people being harmed. Most people don’t even believe. -harmless,happy, have friends and family but independent- don’t worry.

For the sake of discussion

If you are wrong- what would it take for you to admit that? I don’t mean this in a aggressive way. I really literally don’t know what it would take Something that I could produce to you for inspection or debate? Because of CGI video no longer has a good reputation?

Contact Joe Nickell at CFI and have him investigate your claims. If he says you are seeing ghosts I’ll take his word for it. Without empirical evidence I remain skeptical.

DarronS - 12 July 2010 08:10 PM

Contact Joe Nickell at CFI and have him investigate your claims. If he says you are seeing ghosts I’ll take his word for it. Without empirical evidence I remain skeptical.

I’m still looking for a Poe!

asanta - 12 July 2010 08:52 PM

I’m still looking for a Poe!

Look here.

asanta - 12 July 2010 08:52 PM

DarronS - 12 July 2010 08:10 PM

Contact Joe Nickell at CFI and have him investigate your claims. If he says you are seeing ghosts I’ll take his word for it. Without empirical evidence I remain skeptical.

I’m still looking for a Poe!

A. Fine you are skeptical, and you have terrible taste in music. I had no idea who you were talking about. I doubt his methodology, or ability to run video software efficiently. But I’ll try anything do you have his numberl?

B. define empirical evidence. Pleeeeeeeease. This is the argument that has been running around for years. Paranormal societies present skeptics with evidence you scoff with any number of often far more ridiculous rationalizations. The only logical conclusion is to define the evidence you will accept so I don’t waste my time. Your lack of experience and belief (or theory) is not my concern.

TinaC - 12 July 2010 09:18 PM

A. Fine you are skeptical, and you have terrible taste in music. I had no idea who you were talking about. I doubt his methodology, or ability to run video software efficiently. But I’ll try anything do you have his numberl?

Here is the contact information for CFI.

And I have impeccable taste in music.

DarronS - 12 July 2010 09:01 PM

asanta - 12 July 2010 08:52 PM

I’m still looking for a Poe!

Look here.