Got Ghosts?
I sure do!
Little did I know when I bought my 1830 farmhouse (originally built by Quakers) that I was acquiring a few spooks as well.
Luckily for me, I love everything magical—but moving into this farmhouse brought me my first direct encounter with a ghostly presence. Because of the age of the home, I was naturally curious about its long history with people both living and dead, so I asked the previous owner if she'd ever experienced paranormal activity. She immediately fell quiet for a moment, shuffled her feet, and finally fessed up. "Only once in fifteen years," she replied, "when my niece came to visit and slept in the guest room. At night we heard her wake up screaming, saying there was a Quaker man standing over her bed with a puzzled look in his eyes as if to say, 'And YOU are?' He wasn't threatening at all—just a bit perplexed. We've never had another incident."
Much relieved, I thought to myself "Allrighty, we're good then! Only once is a pretty good track record—I doubt I'll ever experience anything." Until about six months later when I was in my bed about to go to sleep, I felt a presence enter my room. It was as though the air had become as thick as jello—not stuffy, more like heavy—and then I heard a very clear man's voice say aloud, "NOW... YOU FINALLY HEAR ME." The voice was smug—vindicated even—and it shocked my socks off. How did I react? The same way I would with any unwanted person, living or in spirit, who appears to be negatively seeking my attention: I IGNORED HIM. Yes, it was hard, because I was truly frightened, but I played possum by closing my eyes and rolling over to pretend I was asleep.Did my tactic work? Well, sort of. I never heard the direct voice again, but fairly soon after I became acquainted with the "Bewitching Hour" phenomenon. I've heard it referred to as the "Angel Hour" & "Devil Hour" as well—apparently 3 am is that dark, early morning time when spirits of all kinds are supposed to be the most active (ghosts, angels & demons, etc.). Some say it's because Christ "gave up the ghost" on the cross at that hour. But honestly, I think it's because most of us are deep in the throes of REM sleep and are more "receptive" to paranormal activity with our "logical" minds at rest. Whatever the case, suddenly I found myself being startled awake at 3 am each night for about two weeks due to poltergeist activity. You know, the alarm going off loudly at 3 am (that I had set for 7!), or lights inexplicably flashing on and off, and most eerie of all, the television abruptly booming at full volume on a channel I'd never watched before! Like the auditory incident, at first I just rolled my eyes, turned off the switches, and tried to ignore the whole thing (isn't that best way to get rid of annoying people?). But the television moment truly unnerved me. So this time, I walked downstairs and stared at the program that was featured to see if I could discern any clues as to what this spook wanted.
What I saw I'll never forget: it was a rare documentary on the bombing of Essen, Germany during WWII—the very same city my father had decimated as a Squadron Leader in the Army Air Corps in that war. Very few people study up on Essen (it doesn't receive the attention of the fire bombing of Dresden in Germany or Kristallnacht in Austria), and that moment shook me to the core. My father had passed away recently, but before he died, I'd mustered the courage to ask him to tell me the truth about that war—all of those things he'd kept bottled up inside for more than fifty years because of the tragedy and horror. And he did talk, right inside my old farmhouse—he finally voiced the terrible trials he'd lived through, and I felt as though a weight had been finally lifted from his shoulders.Was it the spirit of my father who had turned on the television to perhaps thank me or let me know he was near? Or was it another phantom who'd heard our conversation and simply wanted to acknowledge the value of that cathartic discussion? I'll never really know. All I could do in that moment was say aloud to the spirits in my house: "Thank you. I'm hearing and receiving this message, and I'm grateful." Oddly enough, after that night I never experienced such disturbing poltergeist activity again.
So what I've learned in my encounter with the supernatural is that maybe restless spirits are really no different than the rest of us. We all want to be acknowledged—to simply be heard—and often times that's all that's required to put our hearts at ease and give us peace. And even though I'm glad I'm not losing sleep at 3 am anymore, a part of me feels honored that it happened, that the spirits perhaps saw me as a compassionate conduit before they gained release and went on their way. And of course, there's always that curious part of me who loves magical moments and secretly wishes it just might happen again—only during more reasonable daylight hours next time! ; )
TWIXT
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my critically acclaimed novel Twixt, a magical romance that takes place over Halloween (available on Kindle & in paperback).
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