hello to everyone...........root, kitty, lost american......,

well, the husband and i took a week out this year to explore gettysburg, pa.  most notably he wanted me to check the place out since he's well aware now that i've got abilities in the area of ghosts.  the trip over from ohio was new territory for me but it was exhausting none the less.  that was an advil night to be sure.  hey!  what can i say but that all sorts of things hurt when you get older?  the next day had to be the hottest on record because everyone was suffering from it.  the military park was the first place we hit and was just sort of drove through it to see what i'd pick up on.  i closed my eyes on occasion to get a pure feel of things.  surely in some there was no more feeling of spirits than i'd have felt in my own yard at home.  that's to say that there was none.  i told my husband not to tell me anything about each area where many had died but it wasn't hard to tell which areas would have the best cover for combat.  even so i found myself being drawn into out of body experiences which were all too profound.  i wasn't prepared to see so many young boys in some of these battles.  those i saw firing guns in the wheat field near devil's den were just young teens.  none the less, they gave it their all.  their grey uniforms weren't at all fitted but were usually baggy at best.  i saw that some had thick, wide leather belts holding up pants which were too big at the waist for them.  these were young boys who didn't yet have substantial muscle mass to their bodies.  even so they were toughing it out with great concentration on their faces.  i could also see the faces of young me across from the wheat field behind bolders.  their uniforms looked ill fitted of coarsely woven fabric.  i could tell by the looks on their faces that they didn't take any joy in shooting boys of such a young age.  the younger ones, however, were putting up quite a fight none the less.  in such situations it's up to those fighting to choose to live or allow the other person the advantage.  i did find that i could view the entirety of the military park which encompassed most of the battles at gettysburg.  i found this easiest to do while atop the viewing platform near the peace monument.  it had the least amount of climbing on such a hot day.  i could see the bulk of men coming from certain directions in that area and what color their uniforms were.  this was long before i knew who had occupied these areas.  there were distinct areas which were held by either side.  atop this viewing platform with my eyes closed i could see how the troops had progressed across the landscape.  they looked like they were taking their time crossing the fields due to the bright sun and the high heat.  it had taken place in july 2 and 3rd.  our visit to gettysburg had been the end of july and it was absolutely scorching.  when i went out of body to experience the day these troops were crossing this area it was cooler but not by much.  there was also a breeze from time to time which drifted across the entire area.  i was glad for them that it wasn't as hot for them as it was for us.  i chose the devil's den area to try and make contact with someone from that time.  i'd told my husband if i wandered off from him not to pay any attention to me and certainly not to think about what i might be thinking.  i told him it was better for me if my mind didn't have to sift through his thoughts to exclude them from what i was picking up on.  crossing the road behind devil's den i walked through a farm fence gate to begin detaching myself from 2007.  a gate such as this in a fence which was there at the time of the battle was a good place to begin.  all the fences that area there now were there at that time.  so, i began by clearing out my mind and sort of allowing myself to swim into a particular time in the past.  i saw men sitting around a small fire atop what appeared to be rock.  it appeared to me that they were melting lead to make shot with.  there were three of them in that spot which was below and hopefully beyond the range of little round top.  a young man of maybe 16 years of age came walking up to them from the rear area where i saw wooden crates full of supplies.  he'd already picked up and was carrying canteens hung from his shoulders.  now he seemed to be collecting shot just made by these other three men.  he had a small wooden crate lined with cloth of some sort.  i walked behind him a bit as he began to go towards devil's den's upper portion from the back left.  he stopped before i realized what he was doing and i felt as if i'd bump into him since i wasn't paying attention to where i was going.  i was just following at a close distance.  he turned to look to his left towards some others who were fighting below this spot  on top of the rocks.  he caught one man's eye and the man shook his head no, i suppose this was to let the boy know he didn't need anything yet.  the boy looked around and so did i when i felt like i'd somehow gone too far into this out of body experience.  the boy looked right at me so i suspected from this that he could see me.  before i could say or do anything he blurted out, "who the devil are you?!!"  who indeed.  that devil's den wasn't named for me!  even so i began hearing bees zinging past my head and realized quickly that these were bullets or shot!  i once saw a program where a person shot at an intruder in his house who then disappeared in front of his eyes.  the door behind where the intruder had been held the bullets and also had blood splatters around them.  yep, that flashed in my mind at that instant and i blurted out to the boy that he'd best get down and under cover before he gets shot and i pushed myself out of the situation.  i found myself back in 2007 and could see my husband nearby.  i shook myself to think i could've maybe been shot or maybe gotten stuck in that instant in the past.  sadness pervaded the grounds around these fortifications and eased quite a bit on the periphery where the larger groups were forming up.  all in all it was a unique experience.  i wonder if the boy survived the battle or if he ever held a gun in it.  i wonder if he lived to go back home to grow old.  i wonder if he told anyone about seeing me....lol. 

patty                                                                                                                                                                                 

i tell you this, life just keeps getting stranger and stranger!  yes, this is a new installment of my life experiences.  this particular phenomenon has been going on since fall of last year.  it has never occurred before with my husband and i during our twelve years of marriage so i don't quite know what to think of it.  it all began when i woke up one morning hearing my sister's voice calling our dog by name.  the only problem with that is the fact that this sister lives three states away from us.  she had not left home as far as we knew.  even so i sat there thinking i must be imagining it all when i felt the dog stir next to me.  her tail was making the unmistakable swishing sound as it twirled like a helicopter blade when she was excited.  i knew from the feeling on the bed that she was also standing just beside me.  she's one of those dogs that will wake you up early by tapping you on the shoulder or breathing on your face.  you don't dare open even one eye and look or she pounces on you.  i waited for her to move from that spot to do one of her other tasks.  when she did i opened my eyes slightly to see that she'd gone and laid back down at the foot of the bed.  i layed there listening knowing i was now fully awake.  suddenly i heard it again.  it sounded just like this one sister of mine.  even so it sounded like when a person talks when they're breathing in.  the sound was coming from my husband's head.  he lay there with his mouth gaping open as if he was snoring.  even so it wasn't a snore coming out his mouth but my sister's voice saying, "molly!"  it was in the same tempo as her voice and the same pitches she uses.  i remember thinking she must be involved in some black magic to pass the time of day.  even so this was early in the am and she's certainly not a morning person.  take three or four hours off our time and it would be about 4 or 5 am her time.  i knew that wasn't happening, lol.  so, i lay there listening to her voice coming right out of my husband's mouth for what seemed like at least a couple of minutes, over and over again.  the dog got up and came to the voice calling her name and again was excited that someone was awake.  she gets this look on her face like the rca dog, you know tilted to the side.  so, there she sat, with her head cocked to one side as if she herself was having trouble understanding how this was happening.  her tail was going round and round in anticipation.  by this time i had sat up and our dog kept her gaze intently upon my husband's face waiting for his eyes to open.  when they did she just watched him not even attempting to go up to him further.  it no doubt bothered her that my sister's voice was coming our of his mouth.  she was confused to put it mildly.  my husband saw her just sitting looking at him and then looked at me watching him and asked what in the world was going on.  i told him right up front that he wasn't going to believe me.  he said, awww, it couldn't be that bad could it?!  i told him it was bad and i was seriously considering learning how to do an exorcism, lol.  i laughed but he told me to go ahead and tell him what was going on.  i urged him to look at our dog to see that she was not coming up to him as she usually did when he opened even one eye.  she seemed somewhat afraid.  i told him that she'd been standing there looking at him for some minutes while waiting for him to move.  i told him how she'd held her head, confused.  now, i urged him to see her response which was by no means normal for her.  he called her to him but she wasn't having any of it.  she again cocked her head to one side while looking at him strangely.  she refused to go to him.  he asked me what had happened again and i told him.  he let out a hmmmph!  then he sat up and said that couldn't possibly happen.  i told him that if i had a digital audio recorder i could record it for him.  he just blew it off.  i was so weirded out by it all that as soon as i could call this sister and tell her what happened i did it.  she laughed her you know what off and kept right on laughing hysterically for some time.  she said that was tooooo funny.  i told her that at the time i didn't think so.  i mean, your sister's voice just does not come out of your husband's mouth while he's deep in sleep.  she agreed and said i must be mistaken.  i said the dog certainly wasn't mistaken and told her what she'd done in response to it.  she wouldn't quit laughing and said it was beginning to hurt and she couldn't quit.  she said her face was all wet from crying she was laughing so hard.  as soon as she quit finally, i asked her what she'd been up to that this might occur.  she said nothing that she could think of.  days later it happened again.  again i didn't have an audio recorder or believe me when i say it would've been caught on it.  the dog reacted the same way and my husband said he thought i was making it up.  he couldn't explain why the dog was doing what he saw her doing.  over a month later i urged him to buy me that digital audio recorder.  the next time i heard something strange coming out his mouth i reached for it.  problem was the dang batteries were dead.  i've no idea how this happened.  even so i changed the batteries and made up my mind to check often to make sure they were still good.  days and days passed and one morning i awoke to the sound of an old woman's voice.  what is it with him and womens' voices!!!  lol  as soon as i rolled over to push the button the voice stopped.  he stirred and turned over.  i lay there a long time waiting but it never happened again.  it hasn't happened since.  so, frustrating!!! lol

well, this kept nagging at me for some time.  one morning i awoke from one of the memories that've laid hidden in the back of my mind since it happened to me as a teenager.  i'm 48 years old now.  the memory came back as many of them have, like a bucket of water is dumped on you.  i was right back there at the scene of this incident all over again though to me this was the first time.  i'll explain. 

at about 2 am my oldest brother awakened me to come see something.  he said no one would ever believe it so he needed a witness.  our oldest sisters had their door locked.  i envied them.  i told him this was no time to wake up dad because he'd really be nasty at this hour.  even so he begged and pleaded with me to come have a look.  i told him not to try anything or there'd be hell to pay for it.  he said not to mind that because he wasn't fooling around or anything.  he seemed sincere enough.  so, i told him to lead the way.  i pulled him back and asked what i was going to be seeing, a spider, a snake or something like that.  he looked at me like i was nuts and assurred me that he wished it was.  i gave him a look but he said nothing bad would happen to me.  he told me to watch our other two brothers when i went into the room.  he had his flashlight on as we entered the room.  everything was quiet and both of them were snoring in their bunkbeds.  the beds were unstacked and positioned side by side in the large room.  he swore they'd been doing something and i suggested that they'd been having some fun at his expense.  he assurred me that this was not the case.  he said this was serious.  i asked what they'd done anyway!  he said i'd never believe it unless i saw it.  he had his light pointed down towards the floor when we began hearing the voices of two old men.  one was named al and the other was herb or something like that.  they called each other by name.  my oldest brother shined his light on their faces.  sure enough their mouths were moving as the voices were heard.  one was coming out of one brother and the other was coming out of the remaining one.  my instinct was to look for mechanical devices and i went to work.  i finally went over and switched on the light.  it was very bright but they didn't in the least flinch from it being right in their eyes.  they kept right on talking to one another in those voices of old men.  my oldest brother said it got worse.  i asked if they'd gotten up and attacked him or something.  he began to shake and said he hoped to god not!  he looked very frightened and i'd never seen him like this before. he said to wait a minute for him to get some needles.  he snuck downstairs and came back quickly with them.  he told me to get down close to watch this.  he poked one of their legs with it.  there was no response.  i said maybe he wasn't hitting the right spot.  i felt my own ankle for the most tender spot and poked this on one of them then the other.  nothing happened.  before i could think of what to do next this oldest brother took the needle and shoved it all the way into one of the boys legs.  just a small tip stuck out.  the brother lay there snoozing away with no response whatsoever.  i pulled it out as i couldn't stand to look at this anymore.  it had to be hurting.  he told me to try pinching their cheeks to see what happened.  i did and pinched them very hard at the last.  still they'd didn't register anything.  the voices started up again and the boys heads turned to face each other as their mouths moved in making the words being spoken.  their lips and tongues worked as if it were them talking and not just disembodied voices talking through them.  i looked at my oldest brother and waited for him to look the other way.  i took off like a shot and told him good luck but he wasn't coming in my room.  i locked that door and put the chair in front of it.  he begged and pleaded and said he was scared to death.  he said they might hurt him.  i told him he'd just been sleeping in there with them and for all i knew he also might have one in him too.  he said he probably didn't but i said i couldn't take the chance.  i told him i'd stay away but urged him to get a rope and tie it to their doorknob and close the door with the end of the rope in his hand.  that way if they tried getting out he could tighten it and get a head start at going down the stairs before they could get him.  i stayed up the rest of the night and even heard him snoring in the hallway.  even so i kept watch and listened to see if they were stirring in that room. who knew what they might do while i was sleeping.  they might get into my room too.  or they could do awful things to the rest of the family.  i had to be able to sound a loud alarm if this happened.  even so the rest of the night was uneventful.  when we got up dad said he'd heard a couple of us walking in the upstairs and wanted to know what we'd been up to.  he said he could hear someone sleeping in the hallway because they were snoring loudly.  we told the boys they needed to go to the preacher next time we went to church and ask him to pray for them. we told them what had happened.  they said we were making it all up.  the oldest brother looked at me and said, "see!  i told you that no one would believe me! the problem is that you saw it too!"  they looked at me for an answer and i told them i saw this going on.  the youngest laughed but not in a funny ha ha way.  it was a nervous laugh to try and get us to laugh and give it up like it'd been a joke on him.  when we didn't he looked concerned.  later he told me to let him know if this ever happened to him again.  i asked if he believed us and he said he believed me in what i'd said.  he asked me again if i actually saw this and i said yes, i did.  he trembled all over and said he hoped it never happened again.  i agreed heartily. 

anyone got any ideas what this might have been all about?  could it be that ghosts of long dead people could be having a blast while we're asleep?  these two guys were catching up with one another like they were long lost friends.  even so one was talking about going to a town down in the hills and the other was talking about his car.  it was as if they were in their own bodies and didn't know any differently. 

if you've got any ideas about this one or why my husband is channeling my sister's and an unknown older woman's voice please do let me know what you think.  it always helps to have new and fresh ideas. 

patty1019

yes, i'm back again........  early in the am i sat up reading until i got tired enough to go to sleep.  finally i scooted down in the bed and stretched out to get comfortable.  just after doing so, and while still very wide awake, i felt someone's right foot touch the back of my lower leg.  i knew instantly that this foot was not my husband's size 12's.  even so i rolled over right after i felt it and saw to my horror, our dog lying in between us!  her head was at about my waist and her back feet were at about my own feet.  then i noticed my husband lying there quite still, deep in sleep.  he hadn't moved a bit.  sure it shook me but i'm the sort that when i have an experience like this my first thought is to verify what it could or couldn't have been.  that being done quickly i grumble "dammit!" to myself and try to go about my life as usual.  i sat there for a time checking out the room for any vibrations but couldn't pick up anything.  if there was someone there they were quite out of my field of perception.  some of them do that you know, stay out of range.  that way they can just up and scare the bejeebers out of you for no apparent reason.  please excuse my profanity but i've not been able to get alot of sleep this past year.  we've had a construction site in full motion for most of the year, heavy machinery and all.  they wake us at the crack of dawn with the awful beep, beep, beep of their backing up alarms and the loud grumbling of their huge engines starting up.  i've reverted to sarcasm to get myself through it all.  our dog has just resorted to low grumblings too weak to catorgise as growls, to speak her disgust with the noise.  think of us when you are relaxing after a hard days work, lol.  having lived in a very haunted house for 6 years many years ago i can say construction noise and that haunting were equally as welcome. 

patty1019

yes, kids in the basement, my aunt and uncle's to be specific.  my younger brother and i were visiting there with our family in the early 1970's.  we were both dressed in blue jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes.  our jeans were post 60's with embroidered patches on them.  nothing out of the ordinary for that day and age.  so it was that my snooping younger brother was doing his usual snooping when he decided to involve me in what he was doing.  i wanted no part of this as i was happily reading a comic book of my cousin's while lying on the floor.  i said i didn't want to get blamed for him breaking something like he'd done to me too many times in the past already.  we'd always both get spanked for it.  none the less he was very persistent and i just thought he'd broken something very expensive when he said he'd give me money.  i joked with him saying i wanted to see and hold that money.  i was shocked when he did in fact produce paper money out of his pocket.  he'd made it doing some odd job but he offered to give it all to me. i wondered where he'd gotten it and refused to take it. he begged and pleaded for me to go down to the basement.  my thoughts on the matter was that he was planning some scheme to lock me down there in the dark. he showed me that the light would only turn on down there and turn off at the same spot.  he didn't want to tell me what this was about and finally he was so exasperated that he said there were two kids down there.  i asked if anyone else was visiting or supposed to be there.  i made him go and ask.  this took time and after he found out i could hear the reply in the kitchen from my aunt.  he ran back to where i was and said these kids needed help.  i spent a few minutes warning him about payback and he swore that he wasn't doing anything like that.  his face even looked different.  he said he was scared and needed a witness. he swore up and down he wasn't up to anything.  finally i went down to have a look at what was so important that he chose to have me look instead of my aunt of uncle.  i took my time going down and he explained for me to stand under the light bulb and look towards the coal bin down there.  when i had he said to look under the basement stairs.  he said he'd stay right there on the landing of the basement stairs the whole time i was there.  i laughed and turned to see two boys under the stairs.  they hadn't made a sound and when i turned to look at them they grabbed each other very hard in great fear.  their mouths were hanging open in what appeared to be screams.  their eyes were very big and when i moved towards them they got even bigger and grabbed each other harder.  my younger brother wanted to know what i thought of them.  i said, they were boys, dressed funny, acting funny, obviously mutes as i couldn't hear them.  he asked if i could hear my own shoes on the concrete floor and i moved them to see.  yes, they did.  he asked me if when their's moved if they made sounds too.  i leaned towards them and they moved alot but no there was no sound.  what was up with that?  he didn't know.  he asked if i could tell what color their eyes were.  i asked him why that made any difference.  he said to humor him.  i looked and yes, their eyes were blue.  so what? i asked.  he said for me to keep looking at their eyes and turn the one light bulb down there off.  there was still a glow from the upstairs lights down through the open stairs.  yes, i could see..........uhhhh..........red glowing things in the air.  4 of them.  he said to see if i could see the boys still.  i looked hard and yes, they were still there i could see their forms moving.  it seemed where their heads were was where the red glowing things were in the air.  i kept my eyes on them and turned the light back on to see that they were in the exact same spots as their eyes!  yes, but i said, this could be a medical condition, who knew?  my brother said he didn't know but did i know anyone who's eyes glowed in the dark?  no i didn't but cats eyes glow in the dark we'd seen this many times when breaking up cat fights in the garden at night.  well, he asked about their strange clothes.  i said maybe they were trying on halloween costumes early?  he laughed and asked how far away halloween was.  it was some time away yet.  i said maybe it's clothes their mom makes them wear to look cute?  my brother wasn't buying that either and neither was i to tell the truth.  their hair was dark on both with dutch boy haircuts like on the paint cans.  their shirts were very fine white material of a fancy design and with much white work embroidery all over the fronts and sleeves.  the buttons looked very nice too, white like pearls.  their pants were funny to the knees, short pants they used to call them in grandma's day, they were velvet and had suspenders of the same material.  they wore stockings up under their short pants.  their shoes were roughly made leather with large brass buckles on them.  yes, very strange for a halloween costume and too fine of materials to be using them for that.  i thought maybe they had to wear them to some fancy thing.  he asked me if i'd ever seen them before or if i knew them.  no i had not.  i said we should concentrate on finding out who they were and what in the world they were doing in that basment.  i mean, it's out in the sticks, way out in the country.  the nearest neighbors are a long ways away from there and only two of them.  everything else around there was wilderness.  where indeed had they come from?  i tried coming closer to them but this terrified them immensely.  i tried letting them read my lips.  my brother said, "don't you think i tried that too???!!!" i laughed at his consternation.  i was usually the one frustrated at him.  i looked back at them and told my brother i'd put a hand on them.  he yelled that he'd tell mom and dad if i did and said i didn't know what might happen.  i said, "what could they do, they're just scared kids."  he said, come on, their eyes glow red in the dark, they've got strange clothes on that look like they're from grandma's day, and they don't make any sounds with their shoes.  the last one got me and i decided he was right.  i said all we could do was tell our aunt and uncle.  he said they might not be there when they went down to look.  i asked him why and he just said i'd see.  i said, well there's no place for them to get out but the upper door into the first floor.  i said i'll stand in it to make sure they don't get out.  it was well after 10 pm.  still, i called my aunt in to tell her and my uncle came with her.  right behind them were our parents who became immediately upset that we'd been in the basement without permission.  i said, i wouldn't have gone down but rick said there were kids down there and they were really scared and he didn't know what to do to help them.  he said he didn't know how they got in or why they were even in there.  my uncle said, no one else is here but you and your family.  he asked who they were and i said we've never seen them before.  my aunt asked what they looked like and i said they had dark hair that was cut like the dutch boy paint can boy's.  i said they had funny clothes on too, like from grandma's time.  she suddenly looked very startled and they all bolted down the stairs to have a look.  no one was there.  they searched the entire room. there were no windows down there, one door which was swelled for some time into place going to the outside which also had dirt piled up in front of it. it was still stuck right there.  the coal room off the main room was still padlocked shut on the outside.  the room itself had a flap over the inside doorway to keep the dust down.  after many minutes of searching for these boys they came up to grill us on what we'd seen.  as soon as i mentioned the glowing red eyes my aunt became hysterical.  she kept yelling that she'd told my uncle that house wasn't right.  no one would explain what this meant but mom and dad told us to stop talking about it and never speak of it ever again.  he threatened to hit us if we didn't stop right then and there.  we had to stay until my aunt was calmed down a bit.  she was sobbing by then.  we sat on the bed in the room with the basement door to it.  that door was finally pushed shut and locked to help my aunt feel better.  i caught my uncle who thought this was funny and told him to please tell our aunt that these kids were scared to death of us.  i begged him to tell her.  i said it would make a big difference because i wasn't afraid of them at all the whole time.  he asked how long we'd been down there and i said it was a long time and my younger brother had been down there trying to talk to them before i went down.  i said they'd been down there quite a while during the time he tried to get me to go down there to see them.  my brother confirmed this.  he said he wasn't scared of them either but felt sorry for them.  we said we just wanted someone to help them so they wouldnt' be afraid. he seemed to stop and think for a time about this before bursting out laughing.  you see, what we didn't get, was that he felt they were ghosts that we'd seen and we'd...........scared the daylights out of them.  were they ghosts?  i truthfully don't know.  do ghosts interact with you?  it's possible i guess.  are ghosts scared of the living?  possibly.  could it be that we'd seen into another time and that other time which had kids looking at us saw into our time.  they must've thought we were dressed strangely too.  i wonder if those boys are now grown old men, still alive.  i wonder if i located one or both of them if they'd have a heart attack at seeing me again?  still, i'm curious to know if they might still be alive and remember this incident to tell us what year this happened in their time.  it might shed some light on why it happened at all.  it also might put their minds at ease to know we weren't ghosts or demons.  maybe our eyes glowed red to them?  i'll do what i can to find out.  it's possible they might still be living so i'll let you know when i find out anything. 

patty

anyone ever been to serpent mound in ohio?  i've been there more than a few times but only once did our family have a very strange experience.  as always i was keeping an eye on my younger brother while he got into trouble.  he was a hard one to keep up with so i usually watched from a distance and listened intently.  we were probably about 8 and 10 at the time from what i recall and i heard him yelling "hey come back here" at someone.  instantly i looked to see where he was and went running after him.  there were young indian boys running after some dear with bows and arrows drawn.  they just had on leather breechcloths and moccasins.  they were turned looking at my brother then at me and actually stopped to watch us with looks of terror on their faces.  they took off running around the head of the serpent mound and as i rounded this after my brother did i watched these indians and deer all just disappear.  the rest of my family who were up on the mound got a full view of the whole scene and were mortified by what they saw.  they yelled at us to come back to them and questioned us endlessly about those boys chasing the deer.  mom knew people didn't just disappear like that and so did my other 4 siblings who were there.  they were all shocked and looked white a sheets.  i and my younger brother were disappointed that they .......left so quickly before we could talk to them.  they looked so interesting and we didn't know what a ghost was or that people just didn't up and disappear like that.  i mean, we were all looking right at them when they just evaporated into thin air.  we just thought that this was an event that was rarely seen.  yep, it was rare enough at that! lol  still mom and my sisters were bent upon obtaining information to prove that these boys and the deer were some sort of reinactment by the parks commission or something. they had to look quite a while to find one ranger but went on to find the head one at the main office.  mom argued that there'd been boys out there chasing deer that were dressed like indians.  the man laughed at her and my sisters chimed in to say they'd also seen them near the head of the serpent mound.  the man swore to them that they had no reinactors and certainly would not allow anyone to harrass deer in the vicinity.  mom was utterly flabberghasted to say the least. she insisted we pack up our elaborate picnic and leave that area quickly.  i and my younger brother didn't see the purpose of this and thought this place was great fun.  the older kids and mom just kept saying it wasn't safe.  we drove a long time before stopping at a roadside picnic table to have lunch.  even then mom refused to talk about it and then said we were never to speak of the incident again. many years later here i am remembering the whole thing, laughing my behind on, at the thought that we scared people in another time.  were they ghosts?  maybe a ghost is just someone who isn't dead yet in their own time but would seem so to us.  i don't know myself but can only conjecture. 

patty

oh boy!  yes, it's true there are even ghosts at church.  as a child of about 4-5 years of age i remember two adult men i used to talk to.  mom used to always ask me who i was talking to and kept saying there was no one there.  they were in the pew behind us. my younger brother often talked to them too.  very often while we were talking to them we'd turn away for an instant and upon looking back they'd be gone.  we couldn't understand this.  the old guys looked just as solid as we did and even pulled my braids which i put behind the pew to keep rick from pulling them.  i remember very well how the men were dressed and that the often told me what certain scriptures meant.  their clothing, although not unusual to me at that time, was significant when i became an adult.  no one else dressed like that in the 1960's.  their clothes looked like that of the late 1880's to early 1900's!  they were very nice and used to tell me they'd pull their classmates braids when they went to school and dip them in the inkwells.  of course what did i know about inkwells i was just a kid.  as an adult this astonishes me quite a bit.  we didn't use inkwells in the 1960's!  even then we had ink pens with ink already in them.  i do remember seeing some that had been put in family storage one time though.  these men were always cheerful and said they'd always sat in that same pew every time they came to church.  it was the very last pew and they said sometimes they'd sit on the other end.  from what i recall they were brothers and said they'd been with the church from "before" the building was even built.  it had been built long before i was born so i had no idea of it's true age.  in retrospect i believe i did at some time later see a very old picture of it.  another brother was doing a research report on the beginnings of sugar grove, collecting old photos from the county archives and such.  a neighbor of our's not far from our home was an old farmer.  we got alot of information from him as it was his family who were in that valley first and owned much of the land for some distance around.  they had begun the small village of sugar grove by planting large groves of sugar maples.  the trees became mature and ready for making maple syrup and sugar so they imported alot of workers to do the job.  in time the erie canal made it's way through the area which brought in even more people to serve the sugar business as well as the workers.  from there it's just a hop, skip and a jump to a full fledged city.  not only did i see the ghosts of these two men in church in that small town, i also saw a whole group of indians back in the woods from the old farmer's house.  imagine standing taking a breather from hiking in the woods with the family and just admiring the landscape.  it was beautiful back there with a large cave on one end of the horseshoe shaped area.  it had a waterfall coming over it which was alot of fun.  still as i stood there admiring all the trilliums, jack in the pulpits, woods orchids, and such i was dumbfounded to see alot of people suddenly everywhere back by that cave.  they all had funny clothes on and my younger brother saw them as well.  there was a little girl running towards us and an older female some distance behind her.  where i stood there was a picket fence not far in front of me.  the girl came to within only a few feet of me and we stared at one another and waved to say hi.  i heard the older female woman yell something strange at the girl and saw the woman's face looking very scared.  her yelling evidently disturbed the men standing up near the ridge by the cave.  they all gathered at the highest place there to look at what was happening, all looking right in my direction.  i was only about 8 or 9 years old at the time but i knew they were carrying spears, were wearing leather at their waists, breechcloths, and moccassins, but no other clothing.  they had quivers of arrows with bows over their shoulders too.  everyone in that group had dark hair including the children.  i could see these people had a garden back there which was rimmed by this rough made picket fence.  as i knew i was in trouble for being in someone else's place i leaned back and all of a sudden the scene changed just like that and was gone.  it was back to the way it looked before they just appeared there.  my younger brother wanted to know if i saw them too.  i said yes, i did.  he wanted to know where they went but i had no idea.  in time we got older and when i was about 12 we met the old farmer who owned those woods.  we'd hiked in them for many years but never had known him before that.  an older brother of mine was asking about the history of the area and the old farmer was telling him how the town grew up and such.  he had many pictures.  when it was my turn to talk to him i asked about the woods and how certain things were carved into the rocks back there, and of course the large cave in which we found flint and such.  we never suspected that indians had been living back there while whites owned the land.  he said they'd been there when they arrived there to set up house.  they figured they were there first and so saw no reason to make them leave.  i asked him about a picket fence back there.  he was astonished i knew to ask this and more astonished that they'd found these indians living back there who had a picket fence up around their garden area near the big cave.  he said this shocked them as everyone always said the indians were not cultured or civilized people.  to them this showed that they were civilized and so they showed them respect.  just after these indians back there disappeared that day i turned to go down the rise but my foot caught in something.  when i raised it i found it was wire with pickets woven into it.  it was a part of that picket fence i'd just seen standing!!  yes, i gasped because i knew i'd just been back or seen into the past and so had my younger brother.  just before they disappeared dad yelled to ask who all those people were, he saw them too.  as soon as he came around to get a better look at them they were all gone.  we all looked for tracks in the soft dirt around that cave but found none but our own.  it was very strange.  sometime later our oldest brother and one sister asked me who all those people were over at that cave that were dressed like indians.  then they also wanted to know where they went to so fast.  we all searched for them but found nothing of them having been there recently. 

so, to summarize, ghosts can be in church and also in the woods, wherever people have lived, died or been. 

patty

visiting a house in mechanicsburg for the very first time i sat waiting on the wife as i was watching my husband in the next room putering with this woman's husband.  the room at some time must've been a dining room as it was large with built-in cabinets with glass doors and lots of drawer space.  now, however, it's their childrens' playroom.  as i sat there i noticed a young boy walk into the room and stand there as he looked around at all the toys strewn about the floor.  he looked very sad with his head hanging down and seemed to put off a deep lonliness.  he was about 10 years old and it didn't occur to me until he'd just vanished that this was someone no longer living.  ok, you might say that's very weird but let me tell you, it's been going on all my life.  that being said, i can now tell you the short time he was there i got a very good look at his clothes, shoes and haircut to allow me to give an estimation of when he may have been living, uh, on this earth, like us, lol.  it appeared to be around 1930 and he had some sort of soot around his mouth and nose as well as on his clothes.  his quick departure, i assume, was due to the fact that i looked right at him and smiled.  you see, i've learned from many experiences that they go through their existence without anyone doing that, anymore.  so it shocked him, judging from his reaction to it.  in a little while the woman's little girl's came to play with their toys in that room.  as i sat there just waiting and keeping myself amused i saw a man come out of a sort of makeshift doorway.  as he came into the room i could see steps leading down to an unfinished room like a basement.  the man looked like a grown up version of the boy right down to the haircut and the clothes.  he had soot around his mouth and nose as well.  odd, i thought, how they both appeared to "feel" to me to be the same person.  even the deeply sad look of lonliness was in his eyes.  he too was only there for a few seconds before disappearing.  he'd made eye contact with me and when i smiled at him he smiled back shyly.  the woman of the house came and we discussed things of interest to her.  we got on the subject of ghosts as my husband told the woman i had an interest in them as well from first hand experience.  the woman explained how she'd seen a man in her kitchen doorway to the back yard.  it startled her to look up and voila' there he was.  then just as fast as that happened he faded quickly to disappear.  discombobulate?  lol  yep!  anyway, she'd not said a thing about it to anyone, as is usually the case.  i mean, you don't want to alarm the kids by discussing a person who can disappear and come into your house doing things you don't want them doing.  in time one of their girls began discussing a man she'd seen in the house and how she'd talked to him.  it alarmed the mother as it would any parent.  she began asking the little girl to describe him, where he'd been, how he got there, how he'd left, and what he did while she saw him.  yep, you guessed it, the same guy the mother had seen in the kitchen doorway.  she wondered why he was there.  i asked if it was ok for me to tell her what i'd picked up from just sitting there.  she put the kids to bed and said i should talk quietly.  i asked her to tell me if her daughter was at any time scared of this man.  she answered no but that her daughter felt sympathy for him.  although it's difficult for me to remember everything it was determined by all that had been gathered that everyone saw black soot on him.  the first thing i'd asked the woman was where there was evidence of fire having occurred in the house and then stopped her adding ........"in the attic?".  yep, that was exactly where it was.  i added there would be signs in the walls or near the doorways in the downstairs as well as in the basement.  i told her there used to be a woodburning stove in the basement, the boy, from what i'd seen, had stoked the stove a bit too much in an attempt to warm a member of the family, which appeared to be his mother.  she was very ill and kept begging for more warmth.  somehow i picked up that others had died of the same around the same time and he also kept the fire for them.  he took it to heart that they were cold when they passed on.  he felt terrible then that his mother was now feeling that same chill deep in her bones.  thinking that stoking the fire to past it's maximum safe level would keep her from dying he had no idea what the outcome would be.  his only thought was for this woman, the love he had for her ran very deep.  what occurred?  i can guess it wasn't good.  i felt where the evidence of the fire could and should be found, saw it in my mind.  her husband, in renovating the house had found it in exactly those places.  one of these was in the basement around the floor joists.  i asked if they'd seen a big black area on the floor down there, very sooty.  yes, they had but there was also a bare spot where something big had once sat which didn't show this sootiness.  it was thought to be a woodburner or coal burning stove, maybe both.  i've seen coal miners as a kid who'd just come home from the mines and their noses and mouths were covered with coal dust.  this is the stuff that clogs the lungs to cause "black lung" in miners.  it's a terminal disease.  it's also not one that takes very long to set in.  the boy and the man did not appear to be coal miners by any stretch of the imagination but looked more like farming folk.  their boots showed dirt like you'd see on someone coming out of working in the fields.  the same dirt was evident on their clothes, which by the way, were blue denim overalls made in a certain style from the 1930's, with long sleeved plaid shirts buttoned all the way up to the neck.  the boots were of a style most consistent with those made in the 1930's as well.  my assumption was that this boy has died from inhaling smoke and soot from that fire, from what he'd shown me of this house and the woman who was cold.  he suddenly found himself all alone in the house and could not explain it.  he showed me that in time he noticed other family members were in the house.  as he tried to talk to them they seemed to be ignoring him which caused him much consternation.  he began yelling to get their attention and could not understand why they'd treat him this way.  he began to believe he'd done something unforgiveable to deserve and could only think of the coldness of the woman and how he must've failed her.  in his mind, the fire was in the house but the events were so traumatic and scattered that he could make no sense of it.  he just wanted to run from it.  in talking with him mind to mind i found he had not given thought to the fact that a fire had ensued from the over stoking of the stove that heated the house.  he felt bad when he realized this but i explained that he was young and couldn't have understood that this could even happen or he surely would never have done it.  further i explained quickly that a great burden had been placed on his shoulders because no one older could do what needed to be done.  his judgement then was a result of being too young to know, he could not blame himself.  when realization of this hit home he looked up at me and smiled.  he looked greatly relieved.  he celebrated for some time before he came back.  he wanted to know how i could see him and talk to him when no one else had been able to.  it was simple, i had died more than a few times during my own life and come back.  for me it was as much a part of the real world as anything else.  he asked if it scared me as he'd felt so very scared when the current occupants came into the house to live there.  i asked why he should be so scared, they seemed like good folk, kind and considerate.  he agreed and said he liked the man's wife very well, but dared not show it in case she decided to be mean to him.  these are the apprehensions of a ten year old and of an adult man.  were both of them one in the same person.  yes, but it's not clear to me right now why he appears as both.  the fire occurred when he was young.  maybe the older he shows up when he feels he has to fend for himself and he's scared.  at any rate the girls like him, are not in the least afraid of him.  the mother on the other hand is unnerved by his presence.  he knows this and that she's protective of her girls.  he was unsure of how to proceed.  i asked how he'd treat guests to his home when he was young, how had he been taught?  he understood completely.  the manners he'd been taught came back quick as a wink.  i reassurred him that this was scary to the woman of the house.  she didn't have the childlike innocense of the kids.  she had to look out for them and protect them from things and people, such as himself, a stranger, who might come in the house and hurt them.  i told him that not all who have remained after their death have been nice.  he bowed his head in shame.  he realized that his appearance in the kitchen doorway had scared the woman.  more like, the look of defense on his face had scared her.  i asked him what did she know?  she had no idea one of the owner's of the house was still living there, in a different way than she was.  to him, they were coming in and taking over his house.  just as the care of the fire had been his, in his kin's absence since the fire, he found himself in charge of the family's house.  simple as that.  next i asked him to change places with them, see things from their side.  they see him but he vanishes into thin air, they hear him but don't see anyone there, and their daughters saw and talked to a stranger not known to them.  i asked what if you had to protect those girls from you.  it made sense then.  he laughed at the comic nature of this.  if they only knew what he knew.  i told him it would be best not to appear or make noises when they were in the house.  they needed a normal life.  if, however, he could not bring himself to do that, out of lonliness, then he must respect their space as he would anyone else's.  make entreaties by smiling at them when he wanted company to ease his lonliness.  don't make loud disruptive noises that scared them.  when he appears, don't do it close up to them.  that would scare anyone.  i discussed this with the woman of the house and she laughed but had sympathy for the boy who had the died in the house with the responsibility of a man on his shoulders.  she felt sad for him.  he cried at her compassion for him.  i told him it would not take long for him to understand that he could go on to the other side soon.  the only thing he needed to understand was that God forgave him a long time ago and loved him yet.  a broad smile spread across his face, one of renewed self-respect and gladness.  so, when i left, everyone who needed to understand the situation did.  i know the outcome will be good for all concerned.  each will learn what they need to learn and it will make them better people for it.  before i left i told man ghost that he should return to his boy nature, as he'd been when his body had died, learn to have fun, learn to forgive himself as others alrethe ady have.  i made him look at me in the spirit when i told him done his very best with the situation he was given as a boy.  he'd done admirably to say the least.  i added that adults then and now would have a very hard time doing any better.  he seemed very suprised by that but knew i meant it.  he thanked me, i told him i loved him, he returned much thanks and love and that was that.  the house has been calm ever since and that was about a month ago. 

i hope this helps all those who are finding themselves in the same situation as my new friends in mechanicsburg.  know that i've lived through some harrowing hauntings myself in the past and that experience has taught me to talk to them as i would another living person, because in essence, they are still living and should be accorded due respect.  they have all the emotions that we have so get used to it, lol.  some are not welcome and will not leave, it was afterall their house first and they believe it still is, so give it respect and make the best of the situation by working a compromise if possible.  know that some will not compromise and the only thing left to do is to leave the place yourself and go somewhere esle or find someone who can throw out the ghost and keep them out.  the latter has not seemed to work for very long if at all. 

patty1019

Erika,

if you'd like to talk about ghost experiences this is the place!  if you'd rather email me i can be reached at calligraphy1019@netscape.net  maybe i can help you out. 

patty1019

some have supposed that seeing ghosts runs in families because you share dna.  i excepted that this might be true or it might stem from the core beliefs of the families on both sides.  stories about the paranormal do abound in irish and german traditions.  the dna, well, i found that not to be so plausible with me.  you see, i discovered 4 years ago that i'd been adopted at a very young age.  no one ever wanted me to know.  at least my "parents" never wanted me to know. 

my uncle's house is a prime example of a place so haunted that it didn't matter if you were related or not, if our aunt or uncle were home at the time, or if it had to do with a beliefs system.  all these were shot clean out of the water when it came to this house.  you'd never know what happened unless you heard a shriek coming from a woman who either lived there or one who was visiting.  hearing men and boys shriek was funny to say the least.  such a shriek came to be known as a sure sign that they'd seen one of the numerous ghosts inhabiting the place. 

you could say it was environmental but a closer check would tell you that it was no different than any other house of the same condition.  you could say it was electrical but then again there were no electric lines to the house for quite a number of years and the ghosts had been seen often up to the time when electricity was installed.  underground water?  nope, they had a cistern.  a catchbasin for rain water so they  had water to drink and use for cooking.  washing was done via a sink of water.  so what could it be, geological........maybe, magnetic lines, probably not.  those change from time to time and the map's never the same.  this was a wild area before the house was built, no one had ever lived there before that, two other houses were built much later.  so, the house was all alone on that hill out in the middle of nowhere.  the only thing that can be attributed to that house is the fact that the people who built it in the 1920's got involved in spiritualism.  they had dinner parties all time time anyway but the lady of the house decided to become a medium and hold seances'.  more than a few would be going on at the same time in that house.  too many guests for just one medium.  i was told that the woman of the house was conducting one in the upstairs of the house when she keeled over and dropped dead right then and there.  she was in the middle of a seance at the time.  people surmise that this left the doorway open to allow spirits to come and go as they wished. 

no indians have been seen although this is in indian country in southern ohio.  only white people have been seen over the many years.  this went on long before i was born.  it began with my aunt of uncle buying the place in the 1920's.  evidently the people who built it didn't live in it long.  they built it before the spiritualist craze hit and so it wasn't built to take advantage of any particular place as being more receptive of this.  i was born in 1958 so you can imagine how many years this has gone on.  two of my uncle's sisters died in the house at the same spot from the same thing.  whenever i'm there i bypass that area with a wide path.  don't want to make the same mistake! 

who are the people who haunt the place?  one's a young man in the navy as evidenced by his navy pea coat, and navy hat.  another seems to be a gardener or caretaker of the house.  he wears bib overalls with a slightly buttoned down shirt.  it has long sleeves but the jeans appear to be from the 1960's.  another one is a short old guy who's a little portly.  he's got on a grey double breasted suit.  isn't this a style from the 1930's?  can't recall.  the kids in the basement are definitely from the victorian period.  obviously from before the time when the house was built.  the woman on the stairs in a long white sack like dress with a garland around her head appears to be from the early 1900's.  my son saw a "flapper".  the syle is also early 1900's i believe maybe ww2.  one woman wore a witches costume.  everytime she's been seen she's wearing it.  there's one in the attic region which became an added on room upstairs room.  this one is a boiling black cloud with red eyes.  i ran from that one right out of the house and didn't stay in that house the rest of the day.  i believe i saw the original home owners one day.  they were dressed in very fine clothes from the 1920's, tall and well mannered.  they looked at me like they'd seen a ghost.  maybe they did, from the future! lol  i still remember the look on their faces.  they stopped right then and there.  they'd come into view at the opening from the kitchen to the dining room.  i was told the kitchen was an add on to the house much later after my aunt and uncle bought the house.  they appeared to be walking up steps when i saw them fully.  the man looked like he was closing a door though one was not there.  they saw me, looked petrified, then faded from view as they were walking through the dining room.   they'd only gotten a few steps into the room.  i went in immediately to ask who those people were in the dining room.  everyone got up to go see.  why'd they do that everytime i asked who this or that person was?  i didn't get it until i realized they knew we were the only ones in the house at the time.  they always ask each other if anyone heard a car drive up or a car door shut.  no knock at the door?  nope.  that's when they all nearly ran over each other to get to where i saw the people!  i wondered why this would get them all excited like that!  that's until i realized they all wanted to see the ghosts too!  lol  at that age i didn't know what a ghost was but i knew these people disappeared when you saw them.  i didnt' know what to make of this.  it baffled me.  still to me a ghost was a misty apparition which looked like a skeleton or someone with a sheet over their body.  you know, casper the friendly ghost! lol  even as an adult i thought they must be something else but a ghost.  denial maybe?  ghosts meant terror and fright, i didn't feel any of that with these except the one that was a black boiling cloud with red eyes!  to me that one had to be a demon or something evil.  not a ghost! 

maybe other people are the same way when it comes to identifying ghosts.  i mean, they looked like solid people just like me!  how could that be a ghost?! 

i'd like to hear the opinions of other people concerning this.  it interests me to know what others think about what is and what isn't a ghost. 

thanks,

patty1019 

news from the our current haunt.  last night about 11:30 i heard very distinctly, the sound of one of our closet doors popping open.  the house is from the '50's and so from time to time one of them pops open.  this morning though, after checking both closet doors and the two in the adjoining room i found that none of them had popped open.  hmmmmm.  my husband talked to the woman across the street who's lived there for many many years about the house.  she told him that the woman who lived here before us was hearing all sorts of things not attributible to normal house noises.  she said the noises were strange sounding.  when we first moved here i'd hear the sound of someone dropping what sounded like a large metal tub on the concrete basement floor.  several times i've heard the basement door being slammed very hard.  when i went to investigate the basement door would be open.  i'd shut it and quietly walk to the bedroom where i had a weapon, lol, and a door to put between me and whoever was in the house.  for good measure i called my husband who was on the road at work making deliveries.  i told him just in case something were to happen and i could not speak for myself for some reason i wanted him to know what i'd heard.  the dog as usual was hunkering down on the bed at these times which should've told me what it was.  this dog barks are people who walk on the other side of the street as if she owns all that area, lol.  she barks at flags waving in the breeze, trees swaying, and animals she might spot outside the window.  now, let the doorbell ring and she's right there like a seething snarling beast although she's anything but.  stomp your feet at her and she hides behind our legs, still barking like "just come on!"  lol  so when she curls up very tight and refuses to come off the bed she's scared and not of strangers.  something is threatening her space.  oh, if we could only have eyes like her's.  what might we see?  she dosen't bark at whatever it is she growls low and gutteral and sometimes snarls low too.  when we ask her what's the matter she looks at us like, "you've got to be kidding right!?" and then looks at what she's seeing and growls again.  this dog is smart.  when she sees us eating something like cheeeeeeese, lol,  she's right there watching it go from our plate to our mouth.  we ask her what she wants and she'll look right at the cheese with much intent and then at the floor like "just throw it on the floor!"  the motions she makes are very intent.  there's never any question what she wants.  so when we ask her what she's growling at she'll do the same thing.  she looks at us with her head cocked a little to the side then she'll look right at what is bothering her and growl and then look back at us like "there it is, go get it!"  everyone in the family and relatives alike translate for this dog all the time, her facial expressions are so intense they cannot be mistaken.  when she gets ticked off she'll make a sound like she's sneezing but it's more like a spit.  she's always been a very expressive dog.  one day the woman who lived here before us and we will have to sit down for a long talk. lol  no doubt she'll tell us about things we've already heard.  my husband told the neighbor lady today that my cousins kids called such entities "the people who live in the house that don't pay rent",  she laughed.  i've told the ghost to cut out the 8 am. wakeup calls.  i yell at him when he slams doors or drops heavy metal tubs.  wonder what he wants, he and his big dog.  stay turned for the next episode of the "paranormal parade" lol. 

patty1019

hi,

for anyone reading this who may know something about red-eye in photography and what causes it and also for those who know some technical things about the human eye; i'd like those of you to pay attention and see if you can help me figure this one out.

something has peeked my interest.  it's an incident that took place circa 1971.  my younger brother saw this first and practically drug me to go see it for myself or rather to see it and tell him what i thought of it.  he was always a practical joker but this time his face was extremely pale.  when he spoke his voice quivered like he was cold and the normally slow rythm of his speech was instead urgent and breathless as he tugged roughly at my arm.  it was well after dark, and one of those nights when we often left our aunt and uncle's house very late.  i was waiting for the announcement that we were heading home finally.  it was a forty-five minute drive home through hilly, twisty, pothole marked country roads which left one with a strong case of sea sickness before it was all over.  i wasn't looking forward to it but to the ride on the interstate which would be smooth and straight for the rest of the long trip.  it was already late then when my brother came rushing into the room where i was laying on the carpet engrossed in one of my cousin's comic books.  i was saving what energy i had left for the torturous ride home through the hills of southern ohio.  he wasn't dragging me into mischief which seemed to find him at every turn.  i was tired from having to follow him around all day to keep him out of such in the first place.  he was around eleven at the time and i was about thirteen.  i was more than content to wait him out and stay put right where i was.  no way did i want to endure a spanking and verbal abuse before and during that long awaited ride home.  he'd do the dumbest things when he knew full well mom and dad were tired.  it was like yanking the tail of a skunk and expecting not to get sprayed for it.  there he was begging me to come see some kids.  i told him it didn't work, that i already knew there were no other kids in the house besides us, 4 other siblings, all older, and my cousin.  yes, this is the same house where i've seen over eighteen ghosts over the span of fourty-six years.  that hadn't even crossed my mind that day as we'd spent the entire day outside.  i was tired.  i knew he was so i told him to tell me later.  he said it wasn't something he could just tell me later and began to drag me across the carpet by the arm.  that tore it!  i got up and told him to back off or he was going to get it.  that's when he offered to give me money to come and see this "something".  he actually cleaned out every bit of money in his pockets, put it all in my hand and closed my hand around it.  this was new! lol  he was very near tears and begging me to come and see.  i warned him he'd get it if this was a trick.  he said we had to go to the cellar.  i asked how the light was, lol.  there was one incandescent light hanging from the rafters down in that bare cellar which housed the coal furnace and my aunt's home canning.  there was a coal shovel against one wall near the coal room which had a cover on it.  other than that there was nothing else down there.  it was always kept clean of cobwebs and bugs by my aunt who disliked such things.  anyway, there we were at the top of the stairs which led down there.  it was a straight shot down with a small landing and about three more to the right which led to the concrete floor.  i asked him how stupid he thought i was and he didn't even laugh.  i said, "ok, how about you go first and i'll follow?"  he agreed but only if i stayed close by him.  i saw the fear in his face and eyes.  i asked what he was afraid of and he said he wasn't sure.  i asked him if there was an animal down there or something and he said no it wasn't that.  i told him, either tell me what's down there or i'm not going!  he said there were kids down there, dressed funny and well, the rest i'd have to see if i saw what he'd seen.  i asked who they were and he had no idea.  he had checked the place for another car and asked our aunt if anyone else was visiting but us.  no one was.  i thought maybe they'd gained access through the coal shute but he said he didn't think they needed a window or a coal shute to go where they wanted to go.  he said he couldn't understand but that i'd have to look myself.  down we went and i held onto his shirt so he couldn't run back up past me and lock the door on me.  it was dark down there so i made him go turn on that bare bulb by himself before i stepped down any further.  he was going to prove that the bulb wasn't burned out.  lol  he turned it on and he spoke in hushed tones motioning me to come down while he looked underneath the stairwell.  they stairs were just treads with open area beneath each tread.  just bare wooden stairs.  i came down while keeping my eyes glued on him.  my three brothers had locked me in the outhouse too many times for me to be taken by this ruse, if it was one.  i came to the bottom of the stairs and stood on the concrete floor and he told me again in hushed tones not to scare them.  he said they were scared.  i asked of what and he didn't know.  i came slowly towards him warning him not to pull anything because when i caught him i'd beat the crap out of him for it.  he reassurred me it wasn't anything like that and motioned with his hand for me to look under the stairs.  i saw them there, two boys of about my brothers age, dressed in strange clothes.  they were visibly shaken and scared.  he warned me not to touch them because he didn't know what they'd do.  i asked what he meant by that and he said just to promise not to touch them.  i agreed and he said he was going to the landing.  i asked him what was going on and he said not to worry as he wasn't leaving me down there with them.  i asked why he'd say that, they were just kids like us.  he asked me to tell him what i saw.  i began describing the basement and he said, "no, the kids."  i described them thusly, both had dark hair in a dutch boy cut, white long sleeved shirts with a wide center band of white embroidery work.  their pants were just past the knee and looked like velvet of some sort.  the outside of the legs was embroidered with much needlework of bright colors.  there was a button or two just past the knee where there was also a narrow band of cloth to finish it off.  their shoes were girly looking with big bright buckles, black leather with a square toe, and a boot looking heel.  the boys themselves looked milk white with blue eyes.  they were trembling in fear and huddling together with their hands on each other in a protective stance.  he said ok, now turn off the light and look at them.  i began to warn him and he said, "for God's sake!  just do it, i'm not going anywhere and you can beat the crap out of me if i do!"  that was strange.  i said ok.  i turned it off and said, "now what?"  he said to look over at them now.  i did and he said to tell him what i saw.  i said i saw they were still there from the light up in the room which had the cellar door in it.  the light in that room was only a 15 watt bulb or so.  just a bedroom lamp far away from the cellar door.  still i could see the outline of the boys and their movement.  he asked what else i saw.  i looked for a moment and told him their eyes were red and glowing.  he let out a very loud, "whew!" and murmured to himself that he wasn't crazy afterall.  i asked what was going on and he said to turn the light on.  i did so and there they were again.  he asked what color their eyes were and i told him blue.  he asked me to talk to them and ask them some questions to see if they'd answer me.  he said they wouldn't answer him.  i did so asking why they were afraid.  as i approached them they shook worse and were obviously afraid of me.  i told them not to be afraid because i could help them if they'd talk to me.  i took a few steps and my brother yelled this time for me to back up and remember my promise not to touch them.  i told him bug off, it wouldn't hurt them.  he said he wasn't worried about them and looked ill.  i looked at him studying his face and body language.  i asked him what was wrong.  he said to come upstairs and leave the light on.  i told the boys that i'd be back and help them if they wanted my help.  we went upstairs, my brother and i and he began asking me to repeat what i'd seen of them.  how they looked.  i did so and he kept reasking what color eyes while the light was on, what color after the light was off.  i told him and he asked why they were different colors.  i said maybe their eyes glowed like cat's eyes glow in the dark, i didn't know! lol  he finally asked me if i had ever remembered seeing anyone's eyes glowing in the dark.  to prove a point we went outside and experimented to see if the other's eyes would glow.  our eyes did not glow in the dark.  we went a distance away from the house to prove this point in the pitch blackness of the night.  there was no moon.  it had been a hot day in summer and the nighttime was cool and welcome even if it was pitch black out.  we went back in and he asked me this, "if our eyes don't glow in the dark why did their's?"  on top of that he wanted to know why their eyes were red in the dark and blue with the light on.  after some internet research into why cat's eyes glow in the dark, i found that they have a reflective layer at the back of their eyes which reflects incoming light back at the source.  at different angles it's a different color and the brightness varies according to the angle.  red-eye occurs when the flash source is too close to the camera lens.  also the photographic subject has to be in low light meaning their iris is more open.  the blood vessels at the back of the eye reflect the color of those vessels, red.  bigger eyes produce more red-eye.  when the cellar was lit with a bulb the boys eyes were blue.  when there was no light on that same area where they stood their eyes shone bright red.  true, they had big eyes to begin with.  my eyes however didn't have a bright flash right nest to them to produce the same effect that would occur with a camera.  there was no light down there it was for all intents and purposes pitch black in the cellar itself, except for the creepy red glowing eyes.  it was rather disconcerting to see them move and turn.  my brother saw their eyes the same way.  he asked me this, "if our eyes don't "glow" in the dark and the iris isn't red why is their's this way.  i went and got my aunt to discuss it with her.  i asked if anyone she knew ever had eyes that glowed in the dark.  she said no and saw the concern on our faces.  we asked her to go into the basement and turn out the light as it was left on.  she did so and came back up like she hadn't seen the boys.  we asked to see if the kitten was down there as we thought we'd lost it in the house.  she went and looked and sure enough, no cat, lol.  obviously no boys either as she searched every corner for the cat and hadn't seen them.  she asked which cat it was and we answered too quick each describing the cat in two different ways.  we were had!  she had our cousin count the kittens outside and they were all there.  we made our apologies and tried to slink from the room where our parents were.  they caught us doing so and asked our aunt what we had wanted.  i told my brother that i should've known better than to go down there with him.  now there'd be hell to pay for it, all the way home! our aunt ratted us out without one thought for us, lol.  dad asked why we'd ask such a thing and i told him we had a class project which asked this question.  i asked if anyone they'd ever known had red glowing eyes in the dark.  none of them knew anyone like this.  dad almost went right back to the discussion and stopped to turn and tell us to stay put.  i could've belted my little brother for that! lol  dad came closer and asked what we had seen.  he said it was ok to tell him and he wouldn't get mad.  he promised.  i told him and all of a sudden he and our oldest brother who'd been standing there listening to the conversation of the adults were headed down those basement stairs with my uncle coming in last, lol.  he had a fake leg and was slower.  they searched the cellar from top to bottom and found no one there.  everything was locked up tight and they came back to question us both.  satisfied that we'd told the truth they returned to the kitchen and to our aunt and mom.  they asked what was going on in the cellar and dad told them.  my aunt screamed and grabbed her chest.  she kept yelling, "they saw them too!"  and my brother and i made ourselves scarce real quick.  so, there you have it.  red glowing eyes, with no bright flash like with a camera.  so how'd it happen that he and i both saw them in precise detail?  then we saw their eyes glowing red.  why don't i see red-eye in people when i look through the view finder?  even if i'm still looking through it when the flash occurs i still don't see the red-eye but it shows up on the film.  if the camera causes the film to imprint this how does it do so?  is it properties in the film which can record this?  or has the bright flash and maybe the filtering properties of the lens make this happen?  you see, if a camera can produce this result in living human beings how could we use lenses and light to produce an optical viewing device which could see these ghosts?  it occurs to me that the jade disks of which i spoke of in one of my postings may have been such a device.  maybe whoever made these did so in order to see what the human eye could not.  the russian photographer and other photogs after him used a "crystal" lens to see things from the past and future.  maybe a crystal lens on a video camera with infrared film might show us the unseen world that so many of us knows surrounds us all the time.  for those looking for the jade disks story it's listed among my postings.  there are links to "pravda", a russian reporting agency, like a newspaper.  we both saw the red glowing eyes with our own human eyes.  neither of us wore glasses at that time or had any vision problems of any sort.  how about it people, can we all get together on this and try to find an explanation which might allow us to "see" the other side?  i'd like everyone's input even if you have no expertise at anything.  also, if you catch anything in intuition about this i'd like to hear about that too. 

take care, and i hope to hear from all of you very soon. 

patty1019

hi all,

it's been awhile since i've been on.  mom died april 20th and today is mothers' day, which is so sad.  she wasn't a kind person for most of her years but yesterday i realized why.  the enormity of it blows me away.  when i think of what she lived through i am amazed that she survived it at all.  i'd have to explain it all later to you but it just goes to show that mom is helping me from the other side.  i know it has to be her because the worst of my memories from that time so far began to flood back the day she died.  family always calls it passing on or over which is what i like better too.  i believe in the survival of the soul as did my relatives.  needless to say the memories have been of horrific things though at the time the impact of the actual situation didn't hit me much at all.  a person's mind, has a way of protecting itself i'm told and that's just what mine did by hiding memories such as this away in a little oubliette', or a little box of forgetting as the french put it. 

now, onto an update of our resident ghost man.  he's evidently given up annoying me with walking on the roof at about 8 am.  friday morning at 8 am. he woke me up by slowly moving the attic door to a small cedar room as to prolong the agony of the erie squeek it makes.  if i were to try and recreate the same thing i'd have to keep moving it back and forth several times at least to match the time it all took for him to do it.  i do wish he'd give it up already! lol  the dog is not thrilled and she herself would never go spelunktering like root and kitty's doggie.  make a noise within a foot of her tail and she's off like she was shot out of a cannon.  it's especially hilarious when she's on the linoleum floor in the kitchen as she's just treading water so to speak, for a few minutes not unlike one of the old cartoons, lol.  the morning of the extremely long squeek i raised my head up just enough to get my eyes open to see if she was laying on my husband's side of the bed, near his pillows.  sure enough, there she was looking right at me with eyes that looked more like saucers, lol.  ordinarily she loves to sleep in and balks at being chased out of bed for just any old thing.  to have heard a door open anywhere in the house would have meant that my husband was home whereby she'd have broken her neck to meet and greet him.  i could tell who was making the noise seeing her like that.  it occurs to me now also that i'd heard a noise coming from the kitchen that sounded to me like the akita we used to have, eating from a heavy ceramic bowl.  there was some loud whines like a large dog not being able to get the food out of the edges of the bowl.  it sounded like the bowl was being moved all over the floor in an effort to get at the food.  i remember waking up hearing this and thinking what the daylights is she making all that noise about!  seconds later i felt her move next to my legs as she rolled over.  i heard her let out a small whimper whereupon she moved to get next to my husband's pillow.  yep, that was one weird morning!  it looks like i'm gonna have to go upstairs and have a one on one with the "noisy ghost".  i went up there over a month ago, it's finished and unused by us but i keep my art supplies up there.  maybe he felt i was invading his space.  needless to say i do not go up there at night.  i'm a chicken! lol  for good measure i left that squeeky door open just to see if it does it again.  i'll keep you updated on that point.  i've gotta go back up to gather my paints for a project i have to get done.  i'll let you know if anything comes of it.  as for the dog, i haven't quite figured out what to do except to think about that one for a bit.  i don't want to tick anyone off! lol 

on a happier note my husband just passed his tests to become a house inspector in ohio and has been gathering different cool gadgets for use in this endeavor.  he shows me what he's received in the mail and says, clearing my throat here, lol, "it's just like what they use on ghostbusters on the scifi channel!". lol  yep, he watches it for the gadgets. 

well, nice chatting and i'll be awaiting comments on this story.  so, everyone sharpen your wits, i'm sure the lost american is full wit and wisdom for us all! lol 

patty1019

hi to all! 

in trolling the internet in search of anything ghostly i've come upon another site of which the author claims to be able to teach people how to spot a haunted house.  this, of course, would be if you were considering purchasing a property.  he goes into some detail on why some ghosts approach human beings who still have a body.  his take on the matter is that negativity draws such entities to you.  fill a house, for instance, with bad vibes and voila' instant ghost.  he also says that ghosts will flee from children.  let me say, first off, that my own children were 5 and 7 when we moved into a duplex apartment which had approximately five ghosts.  they didn't show themselves or even make noises for the first three years we were there.  disturbed children maybe?  well, let me tell you my kids were disturbed in the first place and if a ghost had any intelligence they'd flee from them at that age.  don't get me wrong, i love them dearly, but when my son was young he'd hang from the transoms of those old doorways in that house.  he was afterall hyperactive, very hyperactive.  the medicine he was on worked great for school and that's all it was meant for.  otherwise the doctor wanted him off it so he'd grow normally.  he's not over six foot four and an adult.  he rarely slept but when he did he snored loudly with his head hanging off the end of the bed.  he performed this feat while lying on his back.  anyway, when the ghosts began to appear, my future sister in law came to live with us.  she had turned 18, her parents whom she'd always known to be her parents up and told her she'd been adopted and she had to move.  they further told her that if she'd been one of their own she could've stayed as long as she pleased.  later, she got her birth certificate to find out she had not been adopted but had been abducted when he father died.  she was the smallest of seven children and the people who abducted her were her aunt and uncle.  they thought she was too cute to let her mother take her into further poverty.  before she came to us she'd tried to kill herself.  the people who lived below us began having trouble with grease fires that would come from a pan sitting on a cold stove.  the pan itself was cold to the touch and had been sitting there for hours without any heat to it.  the woman downstairs saw her skillet erupt into flames right in front of her so she knew no burner was even on at the time.  then a sheer she had draped across a floor lamp which had never been plugged into an outlet erupted into fire one day when she entered her bedroom.  there were no outlets on that wall and no ignition source could be found.  as well we had about three of the grease fires in cold pans, on cold stoves, with no ignition source.  then the noises started, polterguist i guess.  these continued for the last three years but the downstairs residents were the only ones hearing these.  they said it sounded like the kids were running up and down the upstairs hallway and tumbling all over the place.  the woman downstairs realized it wasn't my kids after she'd seen us leave one day and she kept hearing it.  she asked to look in our apartment when we got back and had been watching the apt all day waiting to see if anyone left.  no one had.  there was only one door on the side to that apartment.  when she saw our apartment was empty of people before we came into it she turned white and left in a great hurry.  as well, when my brother and his wife, son and daughter moved into the downstairs apartment they heard the same sounds.  when we moved out of the upstairs apartment they began hearing the running and tumbling all over again yet no one was up there to make the noises.  months later a single woman moved into the middle room where the strongest of the ghostly problems had been and got so depressed she tried to commit suicide by setting her bed on fire.  she weighed about 300 lbs. they said.  before we left the apartment i wanted to see into the attic of this old place that had been built in 1903.  the rafters and beams surrounding the chimney were greatly charred.  the 80 year old woman across the street had lived in this apartment when she first married and had lived all her life before and after this across the street in her parents house.  to her knowledge there had never been a fire in that house.  she said the original owners who built it must have had the fire before she was born.  there was a thirteen year stretch that the house was standing before she was born.  she stated that for some odd reason after the second set of owners lived there no one stayed more than a year at the most.  they only lived there for a few months before her husband went to war.  she moved back across the street with her parents and that's where they stayed from then on.

my sister in law is very sensitive in the esp sense.  she's seen one ghost at her own house and i've seen him once myself.  he wore the uniform of a morgan's raider from the civil war.  they made raids into southern ohio during that time but until i had read alot about them i had no idea that some were stationed in alabama where my brother and his family lives.  she said he seemed to be interested in watching out for her girls and seemed protective of them.  to me he had a nice kind face. 

in my estimation, from the ghosts i've come upon, i can truthfully say that i was just enjoying the peace and qui