I often get calls or emails from people that believe their home is being haunted by something threatening and are, at the very least, nervous in their own home. Sometimes these people actually leave their own home out of fear. I received such a call this past week. So, I hopped in the car and went to check it out over the weekend.

I did, indeed, find several ghosts in their old home. Most of them were perfectly content where they were and were not causing any kind of disruption. Some of the energy was residual due to the age of the home and it’s history. Then I went upstairs.  There, I found those responsible for scaring the occupants of this home.

The Crying Woman

I was lead to a bedroom and immediately heard the crying of a woman coming from the closet area. I could feel her pain. This young woman was lost, confused, desperate and really seemed to have no idea what to do now that she found herself in the situation she was suddenly in. I knew she just needed a point in the right direction because she certainly didn’t want to be there. I sat down on the floor next to the closet and connected with her. She immediately moved to sit down next to me on the floor. She understood I was there to help her. It only took a few moments for her to find her way to those waiting for her on the Other Side. With gratitude, she moved on.

After talking to the owners of the home, they said that they had heard a woman crying upstairs from a closet. They suspected it was a family friend (that used to live in the house) that had recently died from a drug overdose. This made sense to me because of the feelings of desperation and confusion I felt coming from her. Sometimes when people die in a state of confusion, they stay that way while earthbound. While they were shaken by hearing the crying coming from their closet, obviously this woman was of no threat to the family. I really think she just didn’t know where else to go to find help.

The Frustrated Man

In another room on the second floor, I found a very different presence. This energy gave me a headache upon entering the room. This was a man exuding frustration. He also seemed quite confused. His confusion was causing him to be angry and to do what he could to get the attention of the occupants in his house. I believe this man lived there at one time and simply didn’t understand that his family has been long gone from the house. I sat down to connect with him and help him move along to where he should be. He clearly didn’t trust me (he seemed a bit chauvinistic, to be honest). After a while of attempting to make him understand, eventually, a woman (I’m assuming his wife) and a dog showed up to help him to the Other Side. When he recognized them, he moved along easily.

After I finally completed the task at hand, I discussed this entity with the owners. They had been woken up at night with a strong male voice shouting “Hey!”, among other attention getting activities. When I explained his situation, they seemed less fearful.

Often, behavior of those that are earthbound is misunderstood. Living people feel as though they are being  threatened, or are just fearful of the unknown. Neither of these ghosts meant any harm to anyone. They just needed someone to understand their situations and help them move on. Which seems to be the case more often than not.

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a local paranormal research team about me being of assistance with a case they had in their schedule. This particular case involved a scared young girl, so how could I say no?

I showed up for the preliminary interview and walk through of the home. I immediately picked up a spirit, but one that seemed to be suspicious of us and wasn’t forthcoming with any information. But between that, and seeing how exhausted this family appeared to be, I knew a full investigation was in order.

What I really appreciated about this family was that they weren’t just angry and wanting to boot this spirit out, even though it was clearly causing them grief. They wanted more information and wanted more than anything to understand and help whoever was visiting them.

So we set up a time to launch the full scale investigation.

Before I left the house, I told this spirit why we were there, that we would be coming back and proposed a deal. I told her that this family was scared by her antics and they needed some rest. So, if she would let up for a few nights, I promised I’d be back to help her get where she needed to go.

A couple of days later, we heard from the family that things had been quiet since we left. She was holding up her end of the bargain, so I was going to fulfill mine. Truth is, I would have regardless.

When we returned, I sensed a girl about the same age as the daughter in this family. The spirit was clearly confused and frantic about the strangers (mostly men, and she was very leery of men) running wires and setting up cameras in the house. I did my best to calm her down and explain what everyone was doing. And that I still intended to hold up my part of the arrangement, but the family and the team just wanted to communicate with her a little before she left. That now was the time to say what she wanted to say. Her energy changed immediately. She still wouldn’t provide me any information about where she came from, who she was or why she attached to this family. All I could gather was that she was from the 1800′s and felt some sort connection with the young girl in this family. She was earthbound and really just didn’t know where to go. I suspect she had been wandering for quite some time looking for someone to help her.

We did the standard investigation stuff. Sweeps with the EMF detectors, temperature readings, EVP sessions, etc. Then it was time to help this girl move on. I felt it was best for just me and the daughter to do this. Besides wanting to facilitate peace for this spirit, I wanted to do this for this living girl as well. She was very tuned into the energy of this spirit and I wanted her to feel the shift in the home when she left. This way, she didn’t just have to take my word for it.

We sat together in her bedroom and connected to the spirit. She had many people on The Other Side who came to assist her with her journey forward. After she left, we walked through each room of the house together. It was so great to see her smile and say it felt like a “normal” house again. Her relief came from having someone validate her experiences and knowing the spirit bothering her was now where she needed to be and no longer wandering aimlessly and suffering.

On Halloween weekend I participated in the annual “Stake Out” with The Spirits of La Grange Ghost Tours. On the agenda was our oldest cemetery here in town.

In my experience, ghosts don’t usually lurk about the graves that hold their remains. If you go to visit a loved one’s grave, they may show up, but will leave when the visit is over.

This particular visit was a little different, however.

I rode along to the cemetery with the first group of investigators and a fellow psychic. After we skulked about the cemetery awhile, I felt pulled to a specific area and followed the pull alone.

Soon, I realized there was a man at the end of the path I was taking. His sadness came through clearly. The closer I moved toward him, the sadder I became on his behalf. I was able to gather more information from him as I walked in his direction.

He was waiting. And had been for a very long time.

It wasn’t long before I knew he was waiting for his wife. He refused to cross over without her. Perhaps he had made a promise to her he had intended to keep.

The only thing I could think to do to help this man was to call his wife in to take him to the Other Side with her. As I was calling her in, some of the group began heading my way. Within a few minutes, my fellow psychic approached and said to me, “I’m not sure what you’re picking up, but there’s a man and his wife here now.”

She heard my call and came to get her husband.

Over the next few minutes, I felt the sadness lift and they moved on together.

I’m not sure who he was or just how long he’d been waiting there, but he waited long enough…

I know I probably seem a little over-excited lately…well, because I am! The film is finally released for sale. I am the psychic-medium featured in the film, so of course I’m excited about the release! Go grab a copy and then please let me know what you think of it!

Over a year in the making, ‘The Spirits of Bourbon Country’ is available! A must-see documentary on the ghosts of Bardstown, KY featuring world renowned ghost hunter Patti Starr, psychic medium Jamie Best and paranormal investigator and film maker Chris McGill.

Special thanks to Drew Cook, AlohaTikiDesign, Webichanga & Farley & The Upside-Down Tiki Men.

$19.99

*please note there will be shipping charges calculated upon checkout with PayPal of $4.00

**6.0% sales tax will apply for Kentucky residents

You may also enjoy Waverly Hills: The True Story

Or take advantage of our limited time Set Special!!

Get them both for $29.99!

I’m crazy excited and I want to tell you why! I will be at The Scarefest again this year! Except this time I will be at a booth with our film crew all three days. I’ve pretty much been counting down the days to Scarefest 2010 since I left last year’s event. It was amazing! What is Scarefest?

The ScareFest Con is the Largest Horror and Paranormal Convention in the USA where you will be able to experience three horror- filled- days in November 5th, 6th, 7th at the Lexington Center in Lexington, Kentucky one of the largest convention centers in the state with an abundance of parking on site. Come and meet your favorite celebrities in the horror and paranormal community. ~TheScarefest.com

In case that doesn’t sum it up for you, here’s a little highlights video from last year:

If you can make it out to the convention, make sure to swing by our booth and say hi! We’ll have copies of Waverly Hills: The True Story and the new The Spirits of Bourbon Country available.

Here’s some cool links with info about this year’s event:

Horror Guests

Paranormal Celebrities

Get Tickets!

Over the years, I’ve taken to listening to that little inner voice that gives directions. Sometimes I take a different route while driving and find later I avoided something as small as a delay in getting to work on time or perhaps something bigger like a car accident. Or maybe I grab my phone out of my purse just in time to answer an important phone call from a friend in need. Either way, I have found that this subtle voice always leads me in the right direction.

A few nights ago, this voice was not so subtle. And it lead me to do something I would not ordinarily do.

It was pouring rain as I got off work and was heading home. At the first stop sign I approach every night leaving, I take a right to head up the hill toward my house. This particular night, however, something took control of my arms to steer the car to the left instead.

Well, that was weird…why am I going left? Too late now. Guess I’m taking the long way home this evening. The route to the left from the stop sign took me to the bottom of the steep hill, instead of the top. At the bottom of the hill I noticed a few cars in front of me driving slowly around something in the road. It was dark and rainy, so I didn’t see until I was much closer that they were slowing down and swerving around a man walking in the middle of the road attempting to get their attention.

But no one was stopping.

I “knew” this is why I was directed to the left instead of the right. Then I took a risk, as a small woman alone on a dark night, I would ordinarily have never taken.

I stopped the car.

Of course, I had the warnings of society playing in my head…would this man weasel his way into my car and chop me into a hundred pieces? Maybe I’ve seen to many movies… When I looked in his eyes I knew this wasn’t the case. He was in genuine distress. He was having difficulty breathing and was struggling to take one step at a time. I offered to call him medical attention or a loved one, but he said all he needed was his heart medication and he lived just at the top of the hill, but simply could not make it on foot and only needed a ride the short distance.

I let him in my passenger seat and talked to him as we drove slowly up the hill. He mumbled some thing incoherently about Vietman, chihuahuas, and no one stopping to help him.

When he pointed to the house I was to stop at, I knew why he was mumbling about chihuahuas. I had driven by this house several times and seen the pack of chihuahuas running about the yard. He struggled to get himself up out of my car. Before walking away, he turned and reached his hand in my car. I grabbed the hand he extended to me as he thanked me and said I was his “angel”. I watched him struggle to his front door and go inside.

I am by no means an angel, but something was working through me that evening to get him home safely.

Perhaps his heart would have failed on him trying to walk up that steep hill on his own that evening as others just drove around him. I guess I’ll never know. But I do know that listening to that subtle (or not-so-subtle as the case may be) without question has never lead me down the wrong path.

Scary stuff happens to me. It has all my life. A lot of my daily experiences would send some running and screaming, but I’m pretty used to it for the most part. Not much actually terrifies me any more. I get startled sometimes, but realize that ghosts are just people without bodies. I’m not scared of most people, so why should I be afraid of ghosts? So, you see my logic…

The other night, however, I had an experience that caused a panic in me that I had never experienced before.

It all started while I was sleeping and having an intense dream I desperately wanted to wake up from. So that’s what I did. I woke myself up.

My eyelids popped open. But then I couldn’t close them again. I was breathing extremely shallowly and was having trouble getting air in any deeper. Then I realized I couldn’t move any part of my body.

At first I had a small episode of panic, but then logic took over. I’m science-minded enough to realize I was just having sleep paralysis. This was a biological problem brought on by waking myself up too abruptly from my dream. My body just wasn’t ready to be awake yet. I calmed down a bit, as I knew I’d just have to wait it out and it wouldn’t probably only be moments before I’d be able to pull my arms out from underneath the pillow and all would be well again.

I assessed the situation by trying to move one part at a time hoping something would shake loose.  I started with my head, then arms, then legs…wait…legs…this is when the real panic set in.

I could distinctly feel someone holding my legs at the backs of my knees and firmly pressing them into the bed as I laid on my stomach. I then began to internally struggle more than ever desperately attempting to turn my head to see who or what was holding me down. My eyes were drying and burning from not being able to blink and I felt I was suffocating from not being able to breathe in deeply.

Suddenly, I felt a release of my legs, followed by a dismissive smack on my right side as if to say, “we’re done here”.

My eyes closed, I gasped in a huge breath, and every part of my body exploded up off the bed at once. I looked around but could see nothing in the dark room.

Falling back asleep took several hours. I’m still uncertain of what this experience was, but I am certain that I never want to experience it again.

Over the course of a few days, I was aware of an ethereal man wondering about my house. He was gaining attention by showing himself to my seven year old and just being generally noisy around the house. I’ve drawn a pretty clear line to the ghosts around here that if they show up, they will be moved on with my assistance. Most of the time this is why they have shown up anyway, so it works out alright.

This was not the case with this man.

Late in the evening, I was winding down the day by watching some television alone on my couch. I felt him coming before he walked into the room. I could see him plain as day. He stopped at the end of the couch and looked at me.

He was wearing jeans and a flannel shirt. He had a full beard and appeared to be in his forties. Immediately, I began my process for connecting to him and helping him move from this world to the next.

But instead of willingly leaving, he walked closer to me, sat in front of me on my coffee table and looked me square in the eyes.

I will admit, my heart rate elevated significantly at this point.

Then he leaned over closer to me placing one elbow on his knee, never breaking eye contact, then slowly and seriously states, “You can’t do that to me.” Followed by a smug grin.

At this point I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I jumped up to turn on the light behind me and grabbed the remote control to raise the volume of the television to a window rattling level. I knew this would jolt me out of a state of mind where I could see or hear him.

And it worked. He disappeared. I slept with the lights and TV on that evening (I did turn the volume down a bit eventually).

I was on edge the next few days expecting to run into him again, but didn’t. My son had no more experiences with him either. I’m not sure who he was or what he wanted. Maybe he just wanted to scare me, which he succeeded in doing.

Have you ever sworn you heard a recognizable voice call you from another room when you’re certain they aren’t home? Maybe you thought you saw a friend or family member out of the corner of your eye when you know they aren’t around?

This is common for me and my kids. We call them “The Mimickers”.

The first time this happened to me, I was sure I was going crazy. It was Valentine’s Day when I was in my freshman year of college. I had prepared a heart-shaped pizza for my boyfriend and as it was coming out of the oven, I heard him call for me from the bottom of the apartment stairs letting me know he was home. Perfect timing I thought, as I had just pulled the pizza from the oven. I yelled a hello back and waited.

And waited.

Nothing. I went to the stairs to find the door still closed and locked. He arrived several minutes later and I decided to not say anything to him about hearing him arrive earlier. I actually thought I was hallucinating and knew he would think the same. In all my dealings with spirits up to that point, none had ever attempted (and succeeded) tricking me in this way.

Nowadays, I generally ignore this attempt at trickery. My older son has also grown accustomed and learned to ignore it. But every now and then, they get us. There have been times one of the kids will get up and run to the stairs and when I ask what they’re doing, they’ll say, “Daddy’s yelling for me!”. I then remind them that Daddy is at work.

Sometimes, they will come to me and say, “What?”. When I look at them quizzically, I’ll be told that they heard me yelling for them.

Usually it’s just a word or two and most often our names. There’s never any sort of response or conversation if I yell back. But one day, they got me good.

It was a morning my husband was heading to work and I knew he wasn’t feeling well. But he toughed it out and got up and headed into work anyway. Still laying in bed, I heard him leave and the car drive off. About 30 minutes later (still laying in my bed), I heard the front door open and close. Then I heard my husband’s keys jingle as he hung them on hook by the front door where he always does. He then proceeded to the bathroom, followed by some shuffling in the kitchen. I assumed he had decided to call into work and come back home to bed. I listened as the stairs creaked when he walked up them. Then his office door opened and shut. I figured I see him back in bed any time now…so I waited.

And waited.

Eventually I decided to get up out of bed and check on him in his office, only to find he wasn’t in there. Or anywhere else in the house for that matter. Even though the routine of sound was exactly what he normally does upon returning home. I assumed he had left to go back to work and I just missed that part. Maybe I dozed off?

Later that morning I called him at work to see how he was feeling and to ask what he forgot and had to come back to the house for that morning. He seemed genuinely confused. “I didn’t come back to the house.”, he says.

Oh.

Then I knew what had happened. He was quite alarmed as he was convinced someone had been in the house. I did manage to convince him that no one had been in the house, and he calmed down a bit.

Recently, I spoke with a woman on a blogtalkradio show who has had similar experiences, only instead of auditory trickery, it’s visual. She and her children have seen her “husband” about the house when he’s not home. She says he never talks, just as mine never show themselves.

I’m not sure why they do this. I’ve never felt threatened by this activity, sometimes annoyed, but never threatened. So I suppose it’s just something I’ll continue to experience…