Journaling ~ The Paranormal

Welcome to my Paranormal Journal

We live in a house that has always been very active on a paranormal level. So much so, that I began recording some of these events in a Journal to keep track of these unique experiences, and I'm so glad that I did. It's interesting to go back and review the activity and to see how it was also touching other family members.

The Doll From Hell

I received the doll when I was 3 or 4-years-old. She was a gift from my Aunt, and she was the same size as me. She had shoulder length auburn hair and bangs, big blue eyes with dark lashes, a stretchy narrow gold headband, a light blue and white party dress, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. She eventually found a permanent spot in my upstairs bedroom, and this is where she stayed for many years to come, and so did I.

I grew to be very afraid of this doll, and I grew to hate her.

It started when I was about 6-years-old. I would get an uneasy feeling around this doll. She stood as a sentinel at my bedroom door, and I would have to pass by her every time I entered or exited the room. I noticed that when I did this, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up. This is something that I kept to myself, thinking it was just me. I never told anyone of my experiences, or even how I felt about this doll.

But there was an even more disturbing phenomena, which became more pronounced and troubling with time, and it’s also something that I never told anyone… out of the corner of my eye, with my peripheral vision, I would see this doll move. She would raise an arm slightly, or turn her head. And I always had the unnerving feeling that it was watching me.

One day, when I was about 9-years-old, I was exiting my bedroom door, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw the doll raise her arm. Without hesitation, I bolted down the short hallway, spun around the banister at the top of the stairs, took the first 2 or 3 steps, and then leaped from the staircase to the floor below. I don’t know how I did this without getting hurt. I didn’t go back upstairs for hours that day. I put it off as long as I could, dreading going back up to my room.

When my grandmother passed away, I was 28 and still living in this house, still the inhabitant of the upstairs bedroom, and that wretched doll still stood guard at that bedroom doorway. Now, having the house to myself, I picked it up and shoved it in the upstairs hallway closet. Everytime I passed through my bedroom doorway and walked down that short hallway, past the closet door, the hair on the back of my neck would stand up.

Fast forward decades later, I’m 36-years-old. I’m visitng my Aunt in South Dakota, and my sister had come out to her house to visit as well. My Aunt dug out photo albums from our childhood, and my sister and I sat in a huddle at the kitchen table, pouring over these photos and reminicing. We came to a photo of a 4-year-old me and the life-size doll. My sister lowered her voice, leaned in close to my face, and she said…. “Did you ever see her move?”

Patti PlayPal 1959 ~ everything is identical to my doll, except the hair, which was more auburn, straight, and to the shoulders.

How Do You Detect the Presence

of Spirits in Your House?

• 1) Scents: It’s happened to me before, I’ll smell my grandmother’s perfume, or her favorite flower (roses). You might smell cigars or cigarette smoke in a house where no one smokes. You might smell a loved one’s favorite food. Anytime you pick up a scent that is not explainable on a physical level, you might want to consider that it’s coming from another source. I’ve heard about (but never experienced personally) the unpleasant and obnoxious odors of malevolent spirits. This is just something to keep in mind. Most of the time it’s all good, but once in a while you might run into something unusual. The sense of smell is just another one of our six senses, just another way we learn and experience and process information about the world around us.

• 2) Noises: Here we go again, another one of our six senses. Several times over the past few decades, since my grandmother’s death, I have heard her call my name. Often this has happened in the dead of night and woken me out of a deep sleep, but there have been occasions where this has happened during the day, when I’m wide awake to begin with, and usually when I am alone. It’s cool, nothing scary. She’s just touching base, letting me know that she’s still near, that there is still some sort of connection. (Death isn’t the end, it’s just a different plane of existence.) Besides hearing voices, there are other odd sounds– knocking, scraping, footsteps, growling (not usually a good thing), hammering, human sounds (like hand clapping, finger snapping, muttering)…and always, you will have no logical explanation for these sounds.

• 3) Temperature Changes: We’re talking big in-your-face changes that are unexplainable through normal physics. This means the furnace man won’t be able to explain to you a 40 degree drop in 5 seconds. If you ask him to explain this he’s just going to stand there scratching his head; and if he’s a really savvy furnace man (who knows about ghosts and all that paranormal stuff), he’s liable to be throwing tools in his bag and scurrying from your house so fast all you see is the back of his head. I guess there are more subtle temperature changes you can experience, but people are more liable to explain them away– a sudden cold breeze that wafts through a room, gently lifting the pages of a newspaper; a momentary “chill” that gives you a shudder. Besides unusual temperature changes, you might experience drafts– the kind of draft that flickers and toys with candle flames, the kind of draft that can’t possibly come from anything of this world because there is no place for the draft to originate from.

• 4) Electronic/Electrical Malfunctions: We’ve often heard that the spirit world has the ability to collect energy from our electrical gadgets and use this energy to manifest all kinds of paranormal phenomena. I don’t know if any of this can ever really be scientifically proven, but it seems that a lot of these occurrences (odd things happening with your electrical gadgets, lamps, lights, computers, etc.) almost always seem to precipitate a mad rush of paranormal activity. Do you have appliances, lights, a television, computer, or other gadget that turns itself off and on? …that turns itself off and on regularly?

• 7) Moving Objects: This is pretty extreme and the fodder for many movies and television shows. But it does happen, and the most basic kind of activity that I’ve personally witnessed (with moving objects) involved a series of cupboard doors that would be closed one minute and all open the next; drawers or doors, same thing. I’ve yet to see anything as dramatic or theatrical as portrayed in the movies. Remember, for a spirit to move a physical object, an object of atoms and matter, it would take an incredible amount of energy.

• 6) The Goose Bump Factor: Some people are more sensitive to the paranormal and its energy than others. There are a lot of people (a lot!) who can actually “feel” the presence of spirits, even if they are not sensitive enough to communicate with them (as a medium or psychic), they still know dang well that there is something there, and they can often pick up on positive or negative energy. Never underestimate The Goose Bump Factor.

Below you'll find old entries 
from my personal journal.

Monday, March 31, 2008

Last night...

I had been lying awake for quite some time, as usual, tossing and turning in the dark.  I glanced at the glowing face of the digital clock one more time as I fluffed my pillow.

It was going for 4am.

I lay down and closed my eyes—hoping I could get back to sleep.  Suddenly, I heard a soft “click” sound.  I opened my eyes to find the room aglow in the soft light of the lamp on my nightstand.
Later in the morning my 12 year old daughter told me that on a visit to the bathroom during the night, she heard a soft knocking sound.  She thought someone was at the bathroom door and she opened it...no one was there.

She turned around and a small mirror hanging on the wall was gently swinging back and forth.  This wall is a divider for the shower—there is nothing on the other side of it other than the shower head.

Update:  At 2pm this afternoon, one of the girls was going to enter the bathroom and stopped short.  She called us to come quickly and look...there was the mirror, swinging away on the bathroom wall.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Last night I had a nightmare.  One so sharp and startling and real that I was covered in goosebumps when I woke up.  And then, of course, I couldn't go back to sleep, so I laid there...and laid there...and...

About 3:45 am I heard the front door being opened-- my Isabella coming home-- I heard her taking keys out of the lock and I heard her give the door a mighty slam so that it shut all the way.
Then I heard someone crying-- a female voice-- soft.  I raised my head off the pillow to listen better and to see if I could tell who was crying.  I thought it was either Isabella or our Resident Elf (our youngest).

I got up, put my robe on, and went to see what was going on.  Our little Elf was sound asleep, I pulled the covers up over her.  I peeked out the living-room window, to look for Isabella's car-- the driveway was empty.

To be sure, I went to the front door-- had to unlock it-- and looked outside, stuck my head out to see clearly...the driveway was indeed empty.

I knew I had heard someone come into the house.  I knew I had heard the front door being slammed shut.  I knew that I had heard someone crying.

I went downstairs to the family room.  My son was still awake, absorbed in the computer.  I told him what I had heard.  He said that he hadn't heard a sound.  He went around the house with me (all 6'1" of him with a baseball bat) to check all the rooms in the house, as well as the back doors and the garage doors.

I peeked in the girls' rooms--  everyone was sound asleep and all was quiet

Tuesday, November 8, 2007

My 12 year old daughter and I were kept awake most of the night by all kinds of “noises” in the house, including the sound of a large round object being rolled up and down the wooden floor of the hallway outside our bedrooms.

When we would get up to investigate these noises, there was nothing there.  Everyone else in the family had a good night's sleep and heard nothing.

 March 19, 2007

A couple nights ago I sat up in my bed and watched in fascination as a small ball of light moved very slowly and deliberately back and forth, back and forth, and then up and down, up and down at the foot of my bed.

This went on for at least 3 to 5 minutes and then the light disappeared.

January 2007

I was lying in bed...I thought that my husband had turned over and laid his leg across mine—I could feel the weight on my leg.  It was uncomfortable and I reached down to push his leg off mine—There was nothing there.  My husband was clear over on his side of our queen sized bed.  I laid back down.

A few minutes later he said, “Did you hear that?”

I asked what and he said, “It sounded like something running across the floor.”

The sensation of weight on my leg was gone.

Sunday, August 13, 2008

My 19 year old daughter told me she has begun to see “spiders” out of the corner of her eye—spiders that aren’t really there.  I have also been experiencing this strange phenomenon with spiders, and this is why I found it so extraordinary—I hadn’t discussed my experiences with her.

Friday, June 17, 2006

During the past couple of weeks...

1.  I was working at the island in the kitchen.  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw my husband standing in the kitchen doorway (in his yellow shirt and blue shorts).  It startled me and I was just ready to blurt out, “How did you get home so early?!”...

There was no one there.

2.  I was lying down—getting ready to settle in, when I looked in the dresser mirror.  Reflected within this mirror was the mirror across the room.  Rising within the mirror within the mirror was a dark object.

I was startled and at first I was not going to look, but I did—

It was the image of my husband wearing a yellow shirt and dark shorts.  He was staring at me.
(His physical self was lying beside me, sound asleep.)

3.  I’m doing a tarot spread by candlelight on my bed.  Everyone is out in the living room watching TV.  I suddenly feel the bed push down, like when someone leans on the mattress.

I thought it was my husband and he was getting ready to say “boo” to scare me.  I spun my head around, starting to shout, “Don’t you dare!”...

There was no one there.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005

I was lying in bed awake and my husband was leaving the room to go make coffee.  I turned over in bed and glanced up—I saw a large spider, larger than anything I’d ever seen before.  It was seemingly dangling in mid-air, suspended—I presumed-- from a thread of web.  I sat up and opened my mouth to call my husband back into the bedroom.

Then I looked at it again.  It began climbing up the invisible “thread” to the ceiling.  And suddenly it began disappearing—very gradually, as though it were slowly crawling behind an invisible curtain.
I was stunned.  I stared in disbelief as I said to myself, “It wasn’t real!”

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

The other night, while lying in bed, it felt like something had hold of my foot.   I quickly sat up, thinking that my husband was teasing me.  There was no one there.  I lay back down. 

 
A few minutes later something took hold of my left arm, which had been lying limp on my side, and tossed it in the air.  I’ve never had this type of experience before.

Tuesday, June 2004

While standing in the main bathroom yesterday, between noon and 12:30pm, I was at the counter when someone touched the back of my head on the left side.  It felt as though they were gently lifting my hair.

I turned to see who it was, thinking it was one of my daughters.
There was no one there.

I turned back to the mirror.  Suddenly I felt an overwhelming “tingling” sensation, a “hair standing on end” sensation – but only in the spot on my head that had been touched! 

My oldest daughter said this happens quite often to her, here upstairs, after everyone has gone to bed and she’s watching TV by herself.  She said that something “messes” with her hair.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Yesterday, one of my daughters told me about two different occasions when she “saw” someone out of the corner of her eye walking through the hallway, passing from one bedroom to another.  When she went to see who it was, she discovered that there was no one there.

My husband I and my oldest daughter all experience this phenomenon in this house.

 Friday, May 14, 2004

I was awoken abruptly out of a sound sleep—someone was crying, calling out to me.  I thought it was one of my children and even called out, “I’m coming!”

I got up and checked the house—everyone was sound asleep.

The next morning I told my husband about it.  He said, “Last night I thought I saw someone walk into the bedroom and I thought it was you—until I realized my hand was on your hip!”

Also...yesterday, the lights in the living room turned themselves on three different times.

• Note:  The day before these odd occurrences, I had been released from the hospital from an overnight stay for a minor procedure.  This is the same hospital that my husband’s girl friend had passed away in three years ago from colon cancer...Her name was Cheryl.

1.  The nurse I had the two days I was in the hospital was named...Cheryl.
2.  The nurse who prepped me for the procedure was named...Cheryl.
3.  The lady who came in to clean my room was...Cheryl’s aunt, her mother’s sister.

Thursday, April 22, 2004

On the last weekend in March my husband and one of my daughters left to take care of some business in Iowa.  My oldest daughter and I took advantage of an evening alone, putting the babies to bed early.

We lit white candles and placed them around us on the living room floor.  We sat in the midst of it with a Ouija board and tried contacting spirits.

We asked “Are there any spirits here now?”

The board answered, “Y’ no?”

Ever since, we have been waking up during the night this past month to find the TV in the living room has been turned on.

During the night, my youngest daughter called out to me in distress from her bedroom.  When I went to her, she was thrashing around in her covers, upset and frightened.  I asked her what was the matter.

“There’s ‘A Lady’ bothering me,” my daughter told me.

After a few more questions, this is what I got:  “The Lady” had been standing beside her bed off and on during the night.  The Lady was angry or upset or sad.

Unlike the majority of parents, when my children describe unseen entities and paranormal activity to me, I believe them.  Also, while standing by my daughter’s bed talking to her, I had a rush of tingling goose flesh run from the bottom of my feet up my legs. I knew that some kind of presence was in the room. 

In order to clear my daughter’s room of this “Lady”; I lit a white candle and some incense, tossed a handful of salt about—including under her bed, and left a small bowl of salt on her night stand.  I told my daughter that if “The Lady” came to bother her again, she could just take a pinch of salt and toss it at the entity and it would go away.

Reassured, my child—and I—went back to sleep.

The next day came the daily local newspaper:

Yesterday evening a pregnant young woman, along with her year old baby, was killed in a head on collision with a semi-trailer truck just a few miles north of our home.

This young woman had been the daughter of the people we had bought this house from several years ago.

My daughter was sleeping in what had been this young woman’s childhood bedroom.

Shadow People, Hat Man, Sleep Paralysis,

Old Hag, Negative Energy Vampires, Djinn

Art Bell discusses Black Eyed Children

with David Weatherly on Midnight In The Desert