True Confessions Of A Paranormal Researcher.

In a previous entry I gave a quick introduction of myself, however the one thing I did not get into was what set me down the path that I tread upon today. First off I would like to make something abundtly clear to the readership, I am a Geek. Now I know you may think that characterization is a bit harsh but please allow me to explain what kind of geek I am not and the kind of geek that I so proudly declare myself to be.

First off I am not the kind of geek who sat in his buddies basement for hours deciding whether or not he wants to be a Paladin or a Troll. And secondly I am not the sort of geek who dresses up in his favorite Starfleet jammies and stands in line for hours on end just to catch a glimpse at George Takei or Bill Shatner. No I am the kind of geek who researches those things that we are told we are supposed to fear and dread. I am the kind of geek that delves into the unknown and loves every second of it. I would like to share my memoir of the strange and unusual and the things that has made me the geek I am today.

My first meeting with the paranormal was at the age of eight. My grandparents lived in an historic home in the northwest suburb of Franklin Park Illinois which is perhaps a quick thirty minute drive from downtown Chicago. I loved my prandparents immensly and enjoyed every second I could spend with them. My grandfather was a white man from Huntsville, Alabama and my grandmother was a full blooded Cherokee from Tennessee so of course not only did I grow up with some good old fashioned southern fried ghost stories but I also grew up hearing legends of my grandmother’s people. One hot night in the summer of 1982, my cousin Chris and I fell asleep in the front room. Sometime in the middle of the night I felt nature’s hand grip my kidney’s, I had to pee so bad I could taste it. My grandmother, always left the bathroom light on so us kids could safely navigate the long hallway and find the bathroom.

As I made my way down the hall rubbing the sleep from my eyes I was shocked to see the bathroom light turn off but the greatest shock of my tender young life was still to come. Of course I thought one of grandparents was leaving the bathroom and turned the light off by mistake. I called out for whoever may be in there and then a strange form came walking out of the bathroom. Whoever this person was was not one of my grandparents instead it was a little old lady that I had never seen before. I said hello, and the strange lady turned and smiled at me and floated down the hall that led to the kitchen. Did you catch that? floated not walked she had no feet. I watched in terror as the vision before my young eyes completely vanished.

Now I know what some of you may be thinking, “Yeah right, you were just an eight year old snot nosed brat. You were just dreaming.” I wish this were so. After the lady vanished I ran back into the front room and ran headlong into my cousin who was just turning the corner. I let out a yelp when he hit me in the arm, my cousin although only a year older was much bigger than me. He called me a dweeb and told me to go back to bed. I watched him go down the hall completely unable to warn him of what I had just seen.

The next day before I left my grandmother asked me at breakfast if I had got up in the middle of the night because she heard someone moving around. I didn’t know what to say. What was I supposed to say that she has some weird legless lady living in her bathroom. My grandmother must have been able to read the fear in my eyes because she leaned in closer and asked, “You saw her, didn’t you?” I could not even so much as squeck a word out I just shook my head all the while staring at the smile on my grandmother’s face. “Oh that’s ok if you did, sugar, that was just your grandmaws invisible friend.” Everyone knew that there was something strange about the building on Belmont Avenue I remember hearing footsteps and feeling so cold in certain areas of the house I thought the boogers in my nose might freeze. After I left that morning I felt that my grandmother and I had a special bond, we were the only two people in the family to ever see the invisible friend.

From that moment on I was hooked I had to know so much more and I had to know now. Keep in mind this was back before the days of the super collasol franchise book stores back then we still had to go to the library. Later that summer, after bugging my mom about getting a library card, she drove me up to the Round Lake District library and I got my first card. After the lady handed the card to me I asked her, “Where can I find the books on ghosts?” She looked down at me probably wondering why such a small boy would want to read something that would most likely give him nightmares but she took me to the section anyways and handed me a book by the great paranormal researcher, Hans Holzer. After absorbing his terrifying narratives of ghosts in American Homes I knew that I was hooked. I was to become a paranormal researcher.

Let’s jump in the time machine and flash forward to September of 1992, I was eighteen and just fresh out of high school I had no real plans such as going to college or getting a full time job for that matter, but I continued my research. It had been ten years since my initiation into the world of the strange and unusual and I had not seen a ghost since. However I knew they existed and wanted to not just research them while reading others words. Nope, I wanted to go out and investigate alleged hauntings and that golden oppurtunity would present itself in a situation that well, scared the living shit out of me.

Through my church I had become involved with a family who belonged to a very special ministry, they helped those who wanted to escape from cults and the occult. They and others like them, would travel all over the country when they were contacted by a young person who was afraid for their lives because they turned against a cult and the cult wanted to take them out. One young girl , we’ll call her Beth, wanted to desperately escape from a coven of witches who practiced black magic and she believed her unborn child would be used a kind of sacrifice to their dark lord and master. She also claimed to be cursed by what we call these days, Shadow People.

When I was told this young girl was coming I wanted to study and try to understand the situation that she was coming from and most importantly to see if I could document the presence of these supposed shadow people. One night as I was watching television, my friend gave me a call and said that Beth had just arrived and if I wanted to meet her I should come over right away.

Beth, was a shy girl of about seventeen she didn’t talk much because she believed that her and her unborn baby were in mortal danger. Finally after awhile she opened up and told me about these shadow people. Beth, said they came every night and threatened to kill her and steal her baby they appeared as this great black shape that seperated into three black shapes that resembled people. She further went on to say that you could not see any features such as a mouth or a nose they were just pure black, dreadful and Evil. I took my friend to the side and asked her If I could stay overnight and see if I make contact with these shadow people and find out what they want. Sometimes the intrepid paranormal investigator must do what they must to get that one shred of physical evidence that proves the existence of otherworldly beings and if that means walking the fine line between bravery and stupidity then so be it. I felt brave that night but I fell over the line into stupidity real quick.

I’ve always been a night owl so staying up as the rest of the house slept was no big deal. Periodically I would get up from the chair I was sitting in and peak into the other room where beth slept on the couch. Around 3:00AM the fun began and all hell broke loose. I could hear Beth shout from the other room they are here. I ran into the room and was immediately shocked by how immensely cold the room was compared to the room that I had just left. As I stood in the room the only light coming from the streetlight outside, I began to provoke the spirit, “Who are you? What do you want? You’re not such a big man. Come on face me.” Remember what I said about stupid? I stood there for a moment with my friend by my side and noticed only was it much colder but a strange tapping sound was coming from the walls. Before I could open my mouth and comment on what a coward the spirit was a great black shape appeared before me and shoved me to the ground. I had made physical contact with this unclean spirit and it scared the bejeezuz out of me.

This was just the first of many haunting and poltergeist activity that seemed to surround this girl over a two week period I documented over twenty examples of phenomenon which resided outside of the explainable. We documented cold spots that moved around the room, shadows that crept along the walls and I personally watched as a book flew off a shelf and crashed into a wall. This girl was a poltergeist focus as well as a cursed person. After the evidence was gathered my friend presented it to the church and an exorcism was performed. That last time I spoke to Beth was seven years ago and I am happy to say that she had relocated to California and married the love of her life.

As you read this I have to question, do you believe all this or are you skeptical. I hope you are skeptical because you don’t know me from Adam. All you have are these words written in a blog by some dude you don’t know. I can attest to you that every word is true and factual and to me, it is the objective truth. To you however it is subjective as well as anecdotal. My only hope that you, the reader will keep an open mind and perhaps look into these things yourself. It is a great big world out there and there really is so much to see and experience the seen as well as the Unseen.

Rick E. Hale
t_seeker@hotmail.com