My Experiences with the Paranormal

"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible." - Stuart Chase

One of my favorite expressions is, "There are two types of people in this world…" In this case there are skeptics and believers. No matter which you are, I invite you to approach the following recantings with an open mind or at least a willingness to be entertained by the happenings which I have witnessed, whether or not (in your opinion) they could be explained away.

I think it is important to note my religious upbringing. My parents converted to Protestant Christianity before I was born and my siblings and I were raised accordingly. From an early age, much emphasis was placed on spirituality and communing with the Higher Beings and general interaction with and preparedness for the Spiritual Realm. I believe this all helped tune me in and provided what was basically training to become aware. There have been definite pros and cons to this, as awareness of the other side is not always a blessing. In fact, they say that the more you are aware of the presence of spirits, the more they are also aware of you.

One interesting factor that is common with almost every place I have lived is the close proximity of my home to a graveyard or cemetery. I do believe this has played a role in the events I have experienced. The house I was raised in is quite near an official cemetery, as well as a graveyard, which until recently had been lost to common knowledge. My childhood home is where I experienced the majority of events, and it is worth noting that all three of my siblings who lived there with me experienced events as well. Alas, I will only relate to you that which I, myself, encountered.

I first started experiencing things in my house when I was in my early teens. At first, it was mainly noises. I most clearly remember it seeming like someone would walk up the stairs and even peer into my room sometimes. Occasionally, I would be frightened enough to wake up my dad and insist he search the house.

There was one evening when my parents had an event to attend and we were left at home, as at this point we were old enough to no longer require a babysitter. Our house had recently been closed and was undergoing repairs. There was a large hole in the drywall leading from the garage to the basement, which we tried to conceal as best we could. Before they left, my father had instructed my older brother and I to go down to the basement and flip the breaker for the same room. When the time came, both my brother and I were apprehensive as none of the lights in the basement worked and it was already dark outside. We opened the basement door and immediately felt even more uneasy. I descended first, just a couple stairs, when I heard a rustling and then footsteps running from the other side of the basement. A dark figure came into view and began ascending the stairs. I turned around and yelled, "GET OUT!" as we ran back into the kitchen and hurriedly pushed our younger siblings out of the house and ran to the neighbor's. As my brother was explaining what had happened and the neighbors called the police, I stayed outside and watched the house, but no one ever came out of it.

In my mid teens, there was a day I was home alone and was on the computer in the dining room adjacent to the living room. Lately, I had been uneasy staying at home by myself, as I began to feel like I was not truly alone. As I was working on the computer, I heard the faint sound of a single note being played on the keyboard in the living room. At first I tried to ignore it, but the single note persisted until at last, I had to get up from my chair and investigate. Of course, when I entered the room, there was no one sitting at the keyboard and the amplifier to which it was connected was turned off. Curious, I walked over to the piano, turned on the amplifier, and at random I struck a key. The key I struck was the exact same note as I had been hearing while in the dining room…

Once I left for university, I began to resent every time I had to return home. I never quite understood this, but whenever I came home I would be in a rotten, even dejected mood. Did this have anything to do with my experiences? I am unsure. That being said, one of the most intense experiences I have ever had happened while I was home from University. Both my younger brother and I were home on holiday and once more sharing a bedroom. Our beds were situated one on each wall with a dresser in between. I awoke one night around two or so, I had no sense of fear but immediately sensed a presence in the room. I turned my head to the right and saw the black silhouette of a man leaning casually against the dresser with his arms folded. Several times, he stood up from the dresser and looked to the left and right over our beds as if he was waiting for something with growing impatience. I was not afraid as much as I was confused. I squeezed my eyes as hard as I could several times and the figure never disappeared. I racked my brain for possible answers as to who it could be. I could see the figure clearly enough to tell it was a man, and I could even make out that he was wearing basketball shorts. I arrived at the conclusion that it was my brother's university roommate. Still not having moved anything but my head, I ventured to speak. "Brady?" (the name of my brother's roommate) I inquired. The figure stood up from the dresser as if startled, turned to me, put his hands on my bed and leaned in close to where I was looking him dead in the blackness that was his face. At this, I jumped away and out of bed as quick as I could and turned on the nearest light. In the illumined room I saw not but my brother sound asleep in his bed. Now, I was completely vexed. After sitting stunned for a time, I attempted to wake my brother and ask if he had any friends over, but he merely grumbled and rolled over. I sat with the light on for a few minutes longer, and then simply resigned myself back to sleep.

After university, I moved to Estes Park, Colorado, to work at the large, YMCA resort there. The town was famous for many things, including the reportedly haunted Stanley Hotel. There were also rumors that a certain, large, family lodge on top of a mountain which overlooked the resort was also haunted. It just so happened that I found myself living in a small cabin but a stone's throw away from said lodge. I lived there with several roommates, two of which were best of friends who had moved from the east coast. Not too long after I had moved in, the two friends started to disagree, then bicker, then go full on "dude-vorse". Over this period, I could see the mental state of one of the friends deteriorating. He became increasingly darker, more sullen, and angrier. It all culminated when this friend (allegedly) attempted suicide. That was the end of that pair. After that event, everyone moved out except for the original denizen and myself. My sole roommate lived in a detached shed so I was the only one living in the cabin major. Winter was setting in and it was not long before I started experiencing things. It started with footsteps. Just a few at first in the main room or the room adjacent to my own, but eventually it sounded as if someone was walking throughout the entire cabin. One night, I heard more than footsteps: just behind my own closed door I could make out the voices of a man and a woman having an argument. I thought perhaps I was hearing my roommates TV, but upon inspection his shed was dark and empty. Sometime later, my roommate came home with a self professed medium, without me having told him anything of what I had experienced. The medium walked around the house and stated that there were several spirits present, and in fact they quite enjoyed watching me from the hole in the ceiling which separated me from the attic room. He also told me that he could sense as soon as he saw me that I was "sensitive". Needles to say this did not comfort me. As soon as I was able, I moved back to Kansas. A few years later, I found out that several of the people I had worked with at the Y also had paranormal experiences while working there. Up to and including waking up with unexplained scratches on their bodies.

After returning home, I moved into a house with a couple of good friends of mine. It was a normal house more or less, but the hallway leading to the back rooms and cellar always made me uneasy. I didn't experience much in this house besides a feeling of being watched or not being alone when in fact my roommates were gone. The only other interesting thing I can mention is that living in this house was the point at which I started having "false awakenings" and eventually sleep paralysis.

I stayed in that house for a year before making a decision that would change my life: the decision to move to Russia. During the time before I left, I stayed with my brothers in a house just down the road from where I had been living. I slept in the basement and whereas I had no waking experiences, I suffered from frequent sleep paralysis. Years later, having talked to my brother's, I found out that they also had suffered from sleep disturbances such as sleepwalking and night terrors. A couple instances of my own sleep paralysis include waking up to see a goblin sitting in my window, wringing his hands and grinning malevolently, and waking up to see a large, black dog next to my bed snarling at me. The latter instance was more frightening, as what had started as sleep paralysis turned into a false awakening, and as the true dream started the dog bit my arm and dragged me out of bed.

Another strange occurrence that happened while I lived there took place at the dog boarding business where I worked. On a certain night, I had a dream of seeming insignificance, where I was standing in the large dog pen at work, and I looked down at a chocolate lab as he looked up at me and turned his head in a certain way. The next day was dark and a storm was brewing. I went to work and I found myself standing in the large dog pen, and I looked down at a chocolate lab as he looked up at me in a certain way. In that instant I was rocked by deja vous so hard that I could no longer determine if I was awake or dreaming. I walked over to my colleague and said, "This is going to sound crazy, but am I dreaming right now?" And he assured me I was in fact awake. Later on that same day, I had calmed down and was going about my work, when again in one instant, all the warning alarms in my head went off and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as the dogs all started to go crazy. I did my best to calm them down, then went back to the same colleague and told him to be ready because something was about to happen. Not even five minutes had passed when a city inspector walked in and demanded to inspect the building.

I moved to Russia in April of that year, and my time there was quite calm in this regard. I lived there for a year then moved home for six months. One notable experience I had during this time was one night as I was lying in bed, I began trying to focus my consciousness as I let my body fall asleep. In my mind's eye I stood upright and everything around me was a blue haze. I started to walk and began passing by shadowy figures, until eventually I was passing through what seemed to be a large group of people. The further I walked, the more the shadowy figures noticed and turned towards me. All of the sudden, the figures moved to and surrounded me. I fell back into myself and was one again in a lying position, but the shadowy figures were still pressed all around me. At this point, I forced myself back to worldly consciousness and quickly turned on a light, but after a few minutes attempted true sleep.

Another thing worthy of note, is that before I left for Russia and before I left the US the second time, I had the very strong sensation of being divided in time. My physical body was present in Kansas but it felt as if a larger part of my being was already where I was moving to. I felt as if I were sensing the present and the future instantaneously. Several times, I experienced what I came to call "flash forwards". By this I mean that a memory of something I had not yet experienced would flash into my mind. For instance, I was sitting in the living room of a friend's house speaking with him and his roommates, when suddenly, in my mind's eye I saw the room grow dark and saw the shadowy silhouettes of people talking and walking around. Looking like I had just seen a ghost, I asked my friend's roommate if they were planning on having a party. He looked at me curiously and said that yes, they were in fact having a party the following night and asked if I'd like to come. I said yes, and told him I felt I should come because I had seen the party happen. The party turned out to be quite enjoyable, and I faced a test which I felt was of great importance.

In January of that year, I moved to Tbilisi, Georgia and got married. The first apartment my wife and I moved into was in the city center. She was the first to feel uneasy there and before long we started hearing unexplained noises. It got to the point where she would not sleep without a light on. The next apartment we lived in was halfway up a mountainside, just below a large cemetery which spanned the whole front of the mountain. Here, I noticed more than she did. As with the last apartment, it mostly manifested as unexplained noises, but there were several nights it seemed like something was messing with papers on a small table in the corner of the room. The one time my wife and I both noticed something, we were lying in bed when we heard noises around the room, then we felt what seemed to be a cat jump onto and walk across the bed. I could track the footsteps with my eyes but I saw nothing. We jumped out of the bed, tossed the blanket, turned on the light, and saw nothing.

After Georgia, we moved to Hrodna, Belarus. Although we lived right next to a cemetery, I experienced nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing to report during those two years was thefrequency of which I had false awakenings. No sleep paralysis, and only rarely nightmares, but more so than any other place I had lived, I had these false awakenings.

A few years back, as I was recounting some of these stories to a friend, she pointed out something that was obvious, but a possibility I may have been trying to ignore: was it not more likely that everywhere I went was not haunted, but that I myself was haunted? As I mentioned previously, things notice you noticing them. I think it is quite likely that entities were perhaps drawn to me on account of my awareness. As I have also said, this can be just as much of a curse as it can be a blessing. I have not noticed anything for a couple of years, and this may be due to the fact that I am becoming less sensitive as I get older, or simply that I have chosen to ignore any happenings which may be supernatural phenomena. Regardless, this will always be a topic which I find most interesting, and I cannot say that I do not wish to have any further experiences.