Monti’s was an interesting hunt but it didn’t go off without a hitch.
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AZParanormal
I'm scared too, but I gotta know what's in there…
I three days ago I was contacted (via Facebook) by a Phoenix home owner that claims to be experiencing unwelcome paranormal activity. The lady said that she can hear voices while she is in the bedroom and that her bed has been shaken hard enough to wake her up. All of her claims happen in the master bedroom.
Yesterday I met her for 20 minutes at a Starbucks near her house, although I don’t know where she lives because she doesn’t want a ghost hunter in her house at this time. I gave her a KII meter and the voice recorder that I’ve had the best luck capturing EVP’s with. This particular recorder, the Olympus LS10, has the ability to disable the noise reduction feature and has an adjustment dial for the microphone sensitivity. I mounted the recorder on a mini 6 inch tripod and taught her how to start and stop the recorder. She didn’t want the recorder in her bedroom, but agreed to place the recorder outside of her bedroom and to run the recorder all night.
Today we met at the same Starbucks and she gave the recorder back to me and she said that last night was exceptionally active. She said she the KII meter would not “come on” and that she pushed the button and nothing happened. This is most unfortunate because I we needed to rule out the possibility of extreme EMF due to the houses electrical system. It’s also unfortunate because we can’t correlate KII activity with any sound caught on the tape. She did say that she heard the voices in the same room as the recorder and she said that she felt certain that I would be able to validate her claims of voices.
However upon review, the recorder did not capture anything unusual. I have not listened to all 11 hours that were recorded but I have visually inspected the waveform of the audio and even with extreme amplification the waveform is basically flat. On the recording you can hear all of the typical things, like the client setting up the recorder and then leaving the room. You can hear the air conditioner turn on and the sound of the air being forced through the vents. You can here the sound of the refrigerator turning on and off. You can even hear the client snoring. Unfortunately you cannot hear the sound of voices or anything that could be mistaken for human voices.
About an hour ago I called the client to tell her my preliminary review of the tape. I told her that the recorder didn’t capture the sounds that she said were heard while the recorder was running. Her reaction to this news was to cry at first but then became angry and accused me giving her a recorder that was “obviously broken”. She did eventually calm down and I gave her instructions on downloading a copy of the audio file from my secure FTP server. She is at the end of her rope and she ended the conversation by saying that she thinks she’s going crazy and that the sounds are in her head. I don’t know if this is true but she is not willing to allow me in her house to investigate, nor will she allow the recorder back in her house.
I think she’s afraid that further investigation by a third party will not capture the evidence that she claims to be experiencing. I think she’s afraid that she is experiencing a mental disorder, not a ghost.
Note: One possible cause of auditory hallucinations is carbon monoxide poisoning. I told the client that she may want to consider carbon monoxide detectors.
UPDATE: 8/22/2011
I have completed my review of the audio recording captured that night and it does not contain an EVP of any kind. Every sound is completely explainable and most importantly, there were no voices or sounds that could be mistaken as voices.
Your first paranormal experience will stick with you like your first kiss. My grandmothers house was where I had my first paranormal kiss experience. The thing that I remember the most about my first encounter was how certain I was that someone was playing a trick on me. I just knew it was one of my cousins upstairs making noises and it was that belief that propelled me up the stairs. There were only four rooms and a hallway upstairs, and only two of them have closets. There was also the attic hatch, but we’ll save that story for another post.
As I reached the top of the stairs the noise could be heard from most distant room down the hall, so with a quick pivot I jugged down the hall and entered the room. This room had a window that faced the street (dirt road) but it didn’t have a closet. Even more interesting, it didn’t have a cousin in it either. I was dumbstruck for a moment while I reconciled in my mind the fact that I could plainly hear someone in this room only seconds earlier and now there is nobody in the room except me.
The moment I fully realized that I was alone… I hit the panic button and freaked out. I can’t tell you if it was really real but as I ran for the stairs I could hear something chasing me. I skipped every other stair, and I was too terrified to look back and I didn’t stop until I was outside and away from the house. I couldn’t look at the house for fear that I would see faces in the windows.
My Grandmother saw me run from the house. She had been in the garden but now was in by the barn and I ran to her. When I told her about what had happened she told me not to pay attention to the noise and not to bother it.
‘It’! she called it ‘it’. That’s not denial, in fact that’s the opposite of denial. My grandmother confirmed that the noise upstairs was an ‘it’, not a ‘nothing’. In that exact moment my mind was blown forever.
I would have several more encounters over the next few years and each one would leave me in awe. How could something be so real that wasn’t there? How does sound come from an empty room? Why was it never in the same room you were in? What was the dragging noises, and what were the voices saying?
It was easy to like this ghost because it was hard to fear it, after all, who’s afraid of something that runs from you? But the thing in the attic had a completely different disposition, but as I said, that’s another post.
It’s been a little over a year since I moved out of my old house and away from my ghostly roommate. Selling my house was a pure financial decision and it was the right thing to do but I wish I could go back and ghost hunt some more. Also, I’d love to see the face of the new home owner when they figure out that there is an occasional ghostly visitor.
Looking forward I want to help people who are experiencing a haunting, but I don’t know how to find people with ghosts… Got a ghost? Call me please!
Just to close out everything I wanted you all to know that I have moved the last load of stuff over to the new place. I am completely moved out!
It’s going to be weird living in an non-haunted house.
If this is the portal to Hell, why don’t you come up out of the ground and get me!
My ghost is running out of time, and so am I.
WTF! Is this all you got? I want to see you!
Come over here and scratch me!
Feb26
The dog just reacted to something upstairs
on February 26th, 2010 at 9:09 pmPosted In: Uncategorized
I had to steady myself before I could go up to investigate. I was brave but sometimes it’s hard to walk toward the unknown. I slowly made my way up the stairs and when I reached the to I realized that the dog was still at the bottom of the stairs — he always beats me to the top of the stairs.
I stood there in the darkness listening for a while then I called out, “I’m moving out soon so this my be your last chance to show yourself.” But nothing happened, so I walked down the hall to my bedroom in the back of the house. Again, I was brave and kept all of the lights off. Although I sat on my bed for 20 minutes listening to the darkness, nothing else happened.