My First Official Ghost Hunt 2012

For a school film project I started talking to people who have experienced paranormal veil crossing, as well as those who are more agnostic about the subject. I recorded first-hand stories and later reached out to a local group, Metro Paranormal Investigations, to chat about some of their experiences as well. 

Then they offered to host a night of investigations at Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit and I about squealed with joy (but hopefully sounded SO cool about it with Wayne). So, despite hours of work interviewing people about private homes and all things ookey, I traded in my second-hand first-hand stories for an adventure of my own. Some of my classmates heard about it and asked to help out, so, off we went!

We learned that it's not just ghosts and goblins, but science. We went through some EVPs with them, heard their tales on the very specific places we were going to be working in for the night, learned about their techniques and processes, and then finally, once those are broken down, we rule if it's an actual haunted location. In which Fort Wayne is. 

I have since come back here a number of times, and have had encounters that I still look back on with smiles- Hi Tom! I've learned to ask ghosts not to follow me home, but to keep in touch, and made some (actual human) pals. All of that will be in future posts. 

Without further ado, my doc:

Shout out to MPI: Jo, Wayne and Chris, to my team: Kyle, Carolyn, Kyle, Melanie and a double shout out to Megg who spent the whole night with her eyes closed and curled in a ball.

For more information on MPI click here, for more on Historic Fort Wayne (which is now a State park) click here.

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A Bad Energy at a Stranger's House

First off, for the sake of privacy, I will not release locational information.

But I will post a photo. 

Sometimes when I need to go for a walk I take to the area around my city's Public Library. It's not a big place, but it's near enough to home that I can get a lap or two in, usually listening to some tunes, returning books and/or catching Pokemon. Also usually at night. 

My path is typically the same, head down my block, cross the street, police/library/city building all in a lump there with residential homes on the other side of the street. And there is it. 

The rub. 

There is a pair of houses, normal looking, unassuming houses but it always draws my eye in between them. Always. In a shifty sense, though, like someone's watching me from the window and I can sense it. My intuition flares to keep my eyes keen and have my wits about me. Every. Time.

Last night, and this is what inspired me to mention it, I took my walk in the opposite direction than usual so that for majority of my trip back from Catching Em All my back was turned against the houses directly. But I could absolutely feel it boring into me. I was so uncomfortable about it that I stopped and took these creepy stalker style photos of some guy's house. 

The dark duo

You know when you're walking at night to your car or something and someone is behind you? That tense feeling of situational awareness that spikes your heart rate and causes your back to straighten? That's exactly how this feels. Whenever I walk down the street I can feel it staring me down. 

But it's just a house, probably. I just feel weird about them. I feel like we're watching one another as I walk. I know it sounds cliche or cheesy to say it has an energy, but this pair, it just feels like a black cloud. It's a perfectly normal suburban home duo- flag pole, decorations, the works- but there's something extra. It's hard to explain without getting a closer look, but from an innocent standpoint across the street, something is brewing or has brewed in that area. It's almost incredible because there's no way for me to know anything about this place, no reports on a murder, fire or haunt. It's just a gut feeling. My brain perks, my senses flair, my third eye (if that's your thing) pictures it as some sort of moving black cloud or vortex over it. I don't know if that means anything, that's just what manifests itself into an image when I pass by. It feels like a black spot. 

Sometimes I even get confused as to which house it is because it feels so menacing that it's hard to decipher. I think it's something in the front that's bothersome and possibly moves lawn to lawn or porch to porch. I can't tell from any photos, but again, they were sneakily stolen from across the street.

These are poor quality of one house because I'm acting like I'm hunting Pokemon at 10pm to the neighbors on the porch a few houses down. Plus, I'm not yet ready to venture across the street. Next time?

So what do you think? Am I imagining it like all non-believers would say I am? Or is something in my intuition correct about this place? From the very first time I crossed it whilst walking I felt eerie and followed. So is it in my head on repeat or cold I be right? Who's to say for now. I can't just knock on the door and ask if any murders, deaths, destruction or haunts have occurred there. Or could I?

What would you do?

Why I'm Starting This.

A note from the editor:

Just kidding. I'm not serious enough for that. 

Now, let me start here- I'm not a scientific type of investigator (thought I know some), I'm no expert at geothermal changes or manifestations (thought I know some), and I in no way want to lead anyone to believe that I am anything other than an ordinary civilian with paranormal tastes. I have done a few ghost adventures of my own, seen a few things for myself and spent basically my entire life looking up different ghost stories in books, online and in print.

What I always thought was this: Out of all of the books (probably at least 25 about paranormal Michigan alone) they all are mostly interview style, word of mouth or rumors of places. Most of the books will say something the likes of "reports say..." or "I interviewed someone who said the basement is creepy" and that's cool but never enough. I always wanted to hear about actual experiences, not word of mouth from a word on a page. I wanted to read YOUR experiences in a book you wrote about haunted places and spaces. I don't (always) want to read a compilation of word of mouth stories about people you met once who think they saw a ghostly mist or heard a footstep after the bar was closed. (Note: not the throw shade here- it just seems less cool to not report your own findings but I do still buy the books.)

Ya know?

So I started thinking about this zine, and how I would like to base it on my own experiences or of those that I trust by way of interviews, expose and their first-hand accounts here. It will be me (and possibly friends) looking up places, researching and heading out, talking to others while there and actually looking and hoping to find out own moments of the paranormal type. It will be my own stories in my own words of places that I have actually gone to. No he said/she said stuff. I'm talkin' ghosts, specters, mystics, haunted spaces, devil's gates, untouchables, mental hospitals, old bars and hotels, psychics, Ouija, spirits, cemeteries, historical sites- all the stuff.

In the pro circles they call experiences "Crossing the Veil".  In regular terms, the veil is what separates us from the other side, and those with abilities or experiences are referred to as having crossed it. It's easier to think of the veil as a communication method. In my life the most common experiences I have are called shadow people. Shadow people are the figures you see out of the corner of your eye at any given time and when you look to confirm a person's being there, they're gone. Most people just say "your mind is playing tricks on you" but but I'm not positive that your mind can  put shadows in your side vision that causes your gut to feel that sense of something else there.

Because this is my medium, Shadow Places was named. And here we are. I hope you find intrigue and potentially test your own adventurous limits by any one of my page's stories. I'd love to hear more stories, learn of more places and see (literally) everything. I'd love to meet you. I'd love to hear your first-hand accounts. Feel free to send me recommendations, ideas, thoughts and stories.