One of my favorite places to visit is Virginia City, Nevada. This little town, nestled in the hills above Reno, is a living piece of the American Old West. Originally settled in the 1800's as a silver mining town, in recent years it has become a quaint Western tourist attraction and paranormal haven. Rich in history, visitors to Virginia City have included Mark Twain, and Richard Matheson, an author who was inspired to write the book "Bid Time Return" after his visit. His book later became the cult classic movie, "Somewhere in Time" starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.
My first visit to Virginia City was on the weekend of Oct. 13-14, 2001 for their very first Virginia City Paranormal Conference held at the Silver Queen Hotel. It was hosted by Janice Oberding, the author of Haunted Nevada, psychic Michele Hardison, and Khris Hamlet.
During the course of the conference, I began to feel very cold. Over the next few minutes I got steadily colder, until my bones literally felt like they were made of ice. I got up from my seat and went upstairs to my hotel room to get my jacket. When I returned, there was a group of people gathered around someone with a video camera. I walked over to see what was going on, and discovered that while I was sitting freezing in my seat, a person at the conference had scanned the room with a video camera, capturing what appeared to be a person-sized white misty "tornado" or "vortex" moving across the room behind where I was sitting. It was very compelling and exciting, and I knew exactly why I had been feeling so icy cold!
I was to find that this experience would be the first of several for me during the weekend, which I will be adding to my blog individually...including my experience with an angry shadow ghost and another ghost named Bobby McKinney, who shared his death experience with me.
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death. Show all posts
Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
The White Lady
When I was in my 20's, I lived in a town in Northern California. One night, a date and I went out to dinner at a popular place called Robin Hill, in Upper Lake, California. The building was a beautiful two story Victorian, built in the late 1800's by a wealthy merchant. The home was gorgeous, and sat on a hill overlooking the "top" of Clearlake, so that the view was of the lake sweeping south from the shoreline in front of the house. It was breathtaking and romantic.
The story behind the home was that the merchant who built it had a daughter. The stories about her vary...she either died in a fire or threw herself from the second story of the house because she was pregnant and unmarried. I heard the story of the fire more often than I heard the other story, so I always had a tendency to believe the former.
Over time, the home passed from different owners, eventually becoming a popular local restaurant. The first floor housed the restaurant, while the second floor was used for offices and storage. Workers at the restaurant would frequently report on paranormal activity that occurred in the restaurant on a regular basis. Workers would report that they would lock up the restaurant at night, with everything neat and orderly, only to open up in the morning and find things in a disarray. There were reports of silverware going missing, only to be found on the second floor, in the offices.
The approach to Robin Hill off the highway was from behind the house. The long driveway went towards the rear of the house, then passed around it on the left, to end in front where the parking lot was. You could park either facing the lake or facing the house. This particular night, my date parked facing the lake, which put the house to our back. It was the first and only time I had ever been to Robin Hill.
After we parked, I got out of the car, and as I got out, I felt a sensation on my back like someone was staring at me. The feeling was so strong that I could even "feel" where the eyes were focused most intently on my back. I turned, and instinctively knew where to look...the feeling on my back was so strong that I was able to pinpoint its origin.
I looked up at the second story of the house. There were three windows there, each divided by a wall space that was just as wide as each window. As I turned, I looked directly at the middle second story window, and right into the eyes of a ghost.
She was beautiful...there's no other way to describe her. Just absolutely beautiful. The three windows of the second story were all dark, as the lights were off. But she stood out in that middle window...all white, glowing softly but brightly, just like a florescent light. She was bright, but her light was gentle on the eyes. She was all white, and her details were in a very light grey, like shadows, so that her features on her face seemed to be shadowed with this light grey, while the rest of her face glowed white. The details of her dress were the same...I could make out her Victorian dress easily enough, and I could see that the pleats and other details were that light grey. There were no other colors to her...just the bright glowing white and soft grey details.
We stood there, staring at each other with our eyes locked. Then I felt the strangest sensation, like molasses was being poured over me...and when the "molasses" got to about my waist, I suddenly sensed her emotions as though I were her. I have never encountered anything like this before or since...I could feel her emotions as though they were my own, but they were separate from me. I wasn't being possessed, because I could still feel my own emotions and was still in control of myself, but it was more like her emotions overshadowed mine, and I could feel both my emotions and hers separately, but at the same time. That's about the best description I can give. It was an amazing experience.
The emotions that came through were feelings of sadness, loneliness and despair...as though she were very, very sad and reaching out for some kind of help. I stood there, dumbfounded, just going with the flow as it were, and feeling her emotions flooding out my own. It seemed like we stood there, our eyes locked together, for an eternity.
Then she abruptly turned to her right, breaking eye contact, and walked behind the wall partition that divided the windows. I waited for her to reappear in the next window, but she didn't. At that point, I heard my date say, "Ready to go?" and I looked over the top of the car at him, to see him getting out of the driver's side and looking at me while shutting the door. I remember feeling surprised that only a few seconds had elapsed when it seemed like the moment I had shared with the ghost went on forever. When I looked back up at the window, and she was gone.
My date and I had an uneventful dinner that night, but I never forgot my paranormal experience there. I have often wondered if she wasn't looking for some king of help...she felt so lonely and sad.
I have since heard that Robin Hill burned down in a fire a few years after I moved away from Clearlake. I have always wondered if the white lady there ever found the peace that she was looking for. I hope so.
The story behind the home was that the merchant who built it had a daughter. The stories about her vary...she either died in a fire or threw herself from the second story of the house because she was pregnant and unmarried. I heard the story of the fire more often than I heard the other story, so I always had a tendency to believe the former.
Over time, the home passed from different owners, eventually becoming a popular local restaurant. The first floor housed the restaurant, while the second floor was used for offices and storage. Workers at the restaurant would frequently report on paranormal activity that occurred in the restaurant on a regular basis. Workers would report that they would lock up the restaurant at night, with everything neat and orderly, only to open up in the morning and find things in a disarray. There were reports of silverware going missing, only to be found on the second floor, in the offices.
The approach to Robin Hill off the highway was from behind the house. The long driveway went towards the rear of the house, then passed around it on the left, to end in front where the parking lot was. You could park either facing the lake or facing the house. This particular night, my date parked facing the lake, which put the house to our back. It was the first and only time I had ever been to Robin Hill.
After we parked, I got out of the car, and as I got out, I felt a sensation on my back like someone was staring at me. The feeling was so strong that I could even "feel" where the eyes were focused most intently on my back. I turned, and instinctively knew where to look...the feeling on my back was so strong that I was able to pinpoint its origin.
I looked up at the second story of the house. There were three windows there, each divided by a wall space that was just as wide as each window. As I turned, I looked directly at the middle second story window, and right into the eyes of a ghost.
She was beautiful...there's no other way to describe her. Just absolutely beautiful. The three windows of the second story were all dark, as the lights were off. But she stood out in that middle window...all white, glowing softly but brightly, just like a florescent light. She was bright, but her light was gentle on the eyes. She was all white, and her details were in a very light grey, like shadows, so that her features on her face seemed to be shadowed with this light grey, while the rest of her face glowed white. The details of her dress were the same...I could make out her Victorian dress easily enough, and I could see that the pleats and other details were that light grey. There were no other colors to her...just the bright glowing white and soft grey details.
We stood there, staring at each other with our eyes locked. Then I felt the strangest sensation, like molasses was being poured over me...and when the "molasses" got to about my waist, I suddenly sensed her emotions as though I were her. I have never encountered anything like this before or since...I could feel her emotions as though they were my own, but they were separate from me. I wasn't being possessed, because I could still feel my own emotions and was still in control of myself, but it was more like her emotions overshadowed mine, and I could feel both my emotions and hers separately, but at the same time. That's about the best description I can give. It was an amazing experience.
The emotions that came through were feelings of sadness, loneliness and despair...as though she were very, very sad and reaching out for some kind of help. I stood there, dumbfounded, just going with the flow as it were, and feeling her emotions flooding out my own. It seemed like we stood there, our eyes locked together, for an eternity.
Then she abruptly turned to her right, breaking eye contact, and walked behind the wall partition that divided the windows. I waited for her to reappear in the next window, but she didn't. At that point, I heard my date say, "Ready to go?" and I looked over the top of the car at him, to see him getting out of the driver's side and looking at me while shutting the door. I remember feeling surprised that only a few seconds had elapsed when it seemed like the moment I had shared with the ghost went on forever. When I looked back up at the window, and she was gone.
My date and I had an uneventful dinner that night, but I never forgot my paranormal experience there. I have often wondered if she wasn't looking for some king of help...she felt so lonely and sad.
I have since heard that Robin Hill burned down in a fire a few years after I moved away from Clearlake. I have always wondered if the white lady there ever found the peace that she was looking for. I hope so.
The Body Basket or Wicker Casket
For those folks who are interested in the paranormal, most usually develop an interest for things that are paranormal or darker in nature. Things that the average person might not collect or even think about. I happen to be one of the former, and sometimes things migrate into my life without my even trying. Take the Body Basket...or Wicker Casket as it's also known. There isn't much history on them, but what little I do know I will share here.
The earliest records of them being used that I can find is during the Civil War. They were used as temporary caskets for the many, many soldiers that died every day. The wicker was a cheap material to use in large quantities as compared to the cost of wood, and wicker was lighter to transport. After the Civil War, and during the Victorian era, wicker caskets were used in the funerary business, mostly for viewings, and occasionally for funerals. They were popular for children. In the early 20th century, up until the 1930's, body baskets were used routinely by police and coroners to remove bodies from crimes scenes. After that, I wasn't able to really find any more information on them being used commercially any more. However, I did stumble across a message board a few years ago where a person posted that they'd seen about a half dozen or so of these wicker caskets in a dumpster behind a mortuary in their neighborhood! Such is the way of life and death, and as an antique collector and history buff (especially Civil War and Old West), it hurt to hear about those antiques and bits of history being discarded in such an awful manner. However, as luck would have it, a different wicker casket literally landed at my doorstep out of the blue one day. Here is a photo of my wicker casket:
It's actually reinforced with metal ribbing spaced throughout. It also has metal hasps to lock the top and bottom together. Metal handles, covered in wicker, are attached at the top and bottom for lifting and carrying. The wicker is wrapped over a wooden slat and metal ribbing frame and is very sturdy. I can stand it up on its' end to display it, provided that I lean it against a wall. The bottom isn't flat, but slightly rounded and it will rock because of its' own weight. But it will support its' own weight to stand up for display. Anyway, this was what I felt like blogging about today...just the paranormal history lesson for the day. Thanks for reading this far. Happy Hauntings.
The earliest records of them being used that I can find is during the Civil War. They were used as temporary caskets for the many, many soldiers that died every day. The wicker was a cheap material to use in large quantities as compared to the cost of wood, and wicker was lighter to transport. After the Civil War, and during the Victorian era, wicker caskets were used in the funerary business, mostly for viewings, and occasionally for funerals. They were popular for children. In the early 20th century, up until the 1930's, body baskets were used routinely by police and coroners to remove bodies from crimes scenes. After that, I wasn't able to really find any more information on them being used commercially any more. However, I did stumble across a message board a few years ago where a person posted that they'd seen about a half dozen or so of these wicker caskets in a dumpster behind a mortuary in their neighborhood! Such is the way of life and death, and as an antique collector and history buff (especially Civil War and Old West), it hurt to hear about those antiques and bits of history being discarded in such an awful manner. However, as luck would have it, a different wicker casket literally landed at my doorstep out of the blue one day. Here is a photo of my wicker casket:
It's actually reinforced with metal ribbing spaced throughout. It also has metal hasps to lock the top and bottom together. Metal handles, covered in wicker, are attached at the top and bottom for lifting and carrying. The wicker is wrapped over a wooden slat and metal ribbing frame and is very sturdy. I can stand it up on its' end to display it, provided that I lean it against a wall. The bottom isn't flat, but slightly rounded and it will rock because of its' own weight. But it will support its' own weight to stand up for display. Anyway, this was what I felt like blogging about today...just the paranormal history lesson for the day. Thanks for reading this far. Happy Hauntings.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Hello and Welcome!
Welcome to my paranormal blog! I am a lifelong empath with a gift for being able to connect with the Afterlife. I can remember having paranormal experiences as early as age 4. Little did I know that it was only the beginning of a pattern that would follow me throughout my life. Finally, in my 20's I realizeded that I was having more experiences than anyone else I knew, and decided to start researching what and why this was happening to me. Along the way, I learned alot about myself, and I learned alot about ghosts. My experiences with them have been numerous and come to me in a variety of ways...I have been touched, spoken to, scratched, threatened, protected, and had ghosts physically share their feelings and deaths with me. Eventually, the internet came into my life and greatly expanded my learning and teaching process. In time, I became a partner and major contributor on a large paranormal website, literally helping to educate thousands of people all over the world through my personal interactions with ghosts and spirits, as well as through experiments I've conducted. I have also been doing photo and video analysis for over 10 years, and have analyzed literally thousands of photos. It is my great desire to continue learning as much as I can through my experiences, and share what I learn with the paranormal community.
"In sharing, we learn".
Dark Angel
"In sharing, we learn".
Dark Angel
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