Undisclosed Residence

On Oct 26th 2009 we were contacted via email about a family that was complaining of paranormal activity that has been going on at their home.  The client complained of paranormal activity following her throughout her life.  She grew accustomed to it until it decided to take things a bit too far.  When it crossed the line, she reached out to N.O.R.S. for help.

Not to quote directly from her email to us for privacy reasons; her initial contact went something like this: “I’ve been living with what I call a ghost in my life for the past 10 years.  I could always dismiss or laugh away the strange things that would take place.  I am not one to talk about this publicly, but things have gone from friendly to assaulting.  I read about your group in the newspaper and I have no one else to turn too.  I have been attacked by something that was not there or that I couldn’t see.  This first happened while I was away on business in a hotel room.  It scared me but I thought maybe I was in a haunted room and something didn’t like me there.  It weighed heavily on my mind but I started to get over it.  A few weeks later, I was laying on the couch in my living room watching one of my favorite shows that I had recorded.  The same attack happened again in my own home!  Except, this time it was different.  I could hear moaning.  I couldn’t breathe.  It felt as if the couch was sucking me in.  As soon as I couldn’t take it anymore, it let go just as fast as it grabbed me.  I immediately ran into the bedroom and woke up my husband.  I don’t know what to do or where to go.  If this thing can scare me like that maybe it can hurt us or someone in my family.  We need help.  Can you help us or direct us to someone who can help?”

This is of course a brief version of the actual email.  As I sit here typing this account, I read over the actual initial contact and got that feeling in my stomach that I had the night we received the contact.  It was very descriptive and sounded as if it was written in a panic.  The honesty and descriptive accounts were all too familiar to us as investigators.  We could tell this was very serious so we assigned a specific member of the group to be the primary client contact on this case.  The reason we chose this specific member is that she had experienced something in her own life that was very similar.  That’s how she met us, worked with us and eventually joined N.O.R.S. to help others who are going through what she experienced.  As with any investigation or initial contact, you always sit your feelings or thoughts aside until you meet the client and then you let your instincts and evidence take over on the validity of the claim.  This was one of those rare times that after meeting the client and her family, you just knew they were good, honest people who really needed some help.

The end of October and early November are the busiest times of the year for our group.  I knew it would be difficult for us to schedule this investigation and I didn’t want a lot of time to pass between the initial contact and our response.  We found a way to overlap a public event we were having on November 7th 2009 that would bring the entire group together with an investigation of this residence.  Our team responded like the pros they are.  We split the group into two teams.  One team was focused on the new clients and the other group was focused on the public event which all took place the night of the 7th.  The Client Team showed up to the residence two hours before the public event and started the set up on the residence, while the Public Team moved on to the event to coordinate logistics there.  We all met at the public event which started at 7pm.  It lasted about 1 ½ hours and then we all went back to the clients residence to finish some final set up tweaks and start the investigation.  I was very proud of the team.  They received a request for help and every one of them were on scene, wired and ready to go within 13 days of the initial contact.  For a busy investigative group with full time day jobs, that is an impressive response time.

Prior to the investigation night, a small logistics team was sent to meet the clients, tour the home and review their claims of activity.  That homework gave us a floor plan of the residence, a great location identified for a command center that would control pollution or contamination of evidence and we got more reinforcement that we were dealing with genuinely concerned clients.  On the night of the investigation, we had five stationary infrared cameras and one mobile camera all tied to our DVR systems.  We incorporated the mobile camera to also act as a remote audio for the command center.  We had one wireless audio system recording with the same capabilities of being monitored from the command center.  We had digital recorders posted statically throughout the home and also handheld recorders with investigators while they were inside the home.  We placed a network of motion detecting lights throughout the home that coincided with the claims of visual activity.  We conducted an EMF sweep of the entire residence.  The home was flat throughout except in two places.  The alarm clocks in the master bedroom and their daughter’s bedroom was leaking EMF up into the 30 milligauss range.  We unplugged the leaky alarm clocks for the investigation.  The client complained of a humming noise.  If you would sit quietly in the master bedroom, you could hear the DVR recorder from their satellite company writing to a hard drive.  That explained the humming noise.  We felt very good about explaining two of the concerns right at the beginning of the investigation.  We were not able to explain away anything else after that so we began the investigation.

The other N.O.R.S. Co Founder and I took the command center for the first rotation through the home.  We like to start most investigations at the command center versus being the first to investigate for many reasons, but mainly, to sync all the timed recording devices and start the log in a manner that will make the review and counter-surveillance of evidence as simple and accurate as possible.  The first group started their investigation and they immediately experienced one of the client’s concerns first hand.  We had an investigator sitting in the hallway between the living room and the master bedroom.  He heard footsteps walking through the hallway.  The footsteps were not documented on audio.  The reason I am writing about them is because I got to hear them myself while I was in the master bedroom.  Another client concern that was experienced that night was knocking on the walls.  The home owner’s daughter and our Co-Founder were sitting in the living room asking questions out loud and asking for a response in a knock.  There was knocking coming from the walls that coincided with questions asked.  While they were sitting in the living room, they also heard something sit down in a leather recliner.  That was another concern brought to us from the client.  Right before they heard something sit down in the recliner, I heard the footsteps in the master bedroom.  Coincidence?

The investigation moved on smoothly.  Some of us had experiences and some did not.  The night was almost over and the last team of investigators was in the house.  One of our investigators started complaining of the chair moving that she was sitting in.  A motion light in the dining room was triggered and it was confirmed on camera that one was in or near the room at that time.  The investigator complaining of the chair moving then suddenly jumped up and immediately exited the room.  She said she had a sharp pain in her chest like something was poking or stabbing her.  This incident was also caught on camera.  At the time of the attack, we recorded one of the clearest, most audible electronic voice phenomenons we have ever caught.  It was a male voice and the house was only occupied by females at that time.  After the investigator rushed out of the house, a few male investigators rushed in.  The male investigators saw a shadow figure move across the living room into the master bedroom.  That same shadow figure was seen again in the master bathroom as the guys took chase through the house.

Once all the excitement settled down, the family asked us what they can do about the activity.  This question plus the events that took place that night took us to a crossroads with our responsibility as investigators.  Our experiences said that this family was having some legit activity.  We showed up to investigate and our own team members experienced most of what the client initially complained about most importantly the attack of one of our own members.  We ended up joining the family on a walk thru of the home having the family members announce in each room that this spirit or entity was not welcome here and needs to leave now.  I call taking back the home a crossroads because our responsibility as investigators is to: investigate, analyze, review and refer to clergy if necessary.  We crossed that road joining the family in the denouncement due to the personal connection we had created with them.  Our intentions are to stay indifferent but our emotions got in the way.  After experiencing their aggressive claims first hand, we did not want them to have to live with this for one more day.

We maintained contact with this client daily after the night of the investigation.  The activity seemed to have come to a halt.  Our team was reviewing the evidence in record time.  This case had everyone on high alert and they all chipped in and took more than their share of evidence to review.  After about a week of silence from our group talking to each other, the clips and video segments started pouring in for confirmation of normal or paranormal.  As with any investigation, most of the clips or segments could be dismissed or explained, but there was those few that are just plain impressive.  We caught the motion light coming on with no one around.  The two audio clips were crystal clear.  Multiple video clips that are not necessarily paranormal, but very interesting.  We normally schedule a review of the evidence with the client after everything is reviewed.  In this case, the clients were reviewed with after each clip was found and confirmed to be paranormal.  Their curiosity was through the roof.  They were almost excited that we did what we did and they have moved on.  We would email our evidence to the client as it came in and was verified to the best of our ability.  After we emailed them a clip, we would conference call with the client to discuss what we have sent them and why.  This all seemed like it was going smooth until “it” showed back up stronger and more aggressive.

When the activity returned, I would listen to the client explaining what was going on but the difference this time was that I was not there.  It almost sounded as if something was mad or upset with them.  The footsteps went from soft but obvious to almost a stomping.  The footsteps would enter the master bedroom and walk up the bed.  The bed would be hit so hard it would shake.  I know this sounds crazy and I wouldn’t believe it myself if I didn’t hear the steps to begin with.  The bed shaking is a little scary.  Their bedroom suite was new and very heavily built.  I made a point to shake the bed at the investigation.  It does not move.  The knocking on the walls became more frequent.  The husband of the home and I would have separate conversations regarding the up rise in activity.  He was always very skeptical.  He called me to tell me that he was the last one to go to bed.  He walked the house out every night because he was not intimidated by this.  He went to bed and woke up very early in the morning.  There were lights on in the house that were not on when he went to bed.  He had a hard time explaining this but was very sincere that no one was up at night.  He confirmed with me that the knocking and noises were more predominant now.  The stress level in the home was now at an all time high.

This was uncharted territory for our group.  We denounced this spirit at the investigation.  It should be gone?  Right?  Instead it was back and more intense than ever.  Hindsight being 20/20 there were many different situations going on at once that continued to feed the activity, but we still had this family struggling to even stay another night in their home.  They would actually stay at a lake home they owned just to get out of there for a night.  Things were going from bad to worse.  The family reached out to the local minister.  The minister and a few close friends from the church, though entering uncharted territory, showed up at the home to perform a blessing ceremony.  The family asked me to join them during this ceremony.  Being so close and feeling somewhat responsible for the situation, I did.  Meeting the friends and the minister was a little uncomfortable at first.  All eyes were on me when I entered the room.  I think that was the first time they met a paranormal investigator??  We did find some common ground and I think they became very comfortable with me once they realized I wasn’t going to pull out my proton pack and ghost traps on them!  They were genuinely concerned and willing to help the family.  Most of them were there because the family was experiencing some issues unexplained to them.  The homeowners asked me if I would tell them the story about what was happening at the house.  I asked everyone there if they knew exactly why they were here and if they heard about what was going on.  Most of them answered no so I realized I’d have to start from the beginning.  Luckily enough, we had been sending the family our evidence as we got it and they were saving it on their computer.  I asked the friends if they would like to see and hear some of the things that we caught during our investigation.  Of course, after hearing that story their curiosity was through the roof and they all wanted to see it.  I could tell that this was everyone’s first time to ever hear or see anything from the paranormal field.  I could tell this by the jaws that were literally on the ground after they heard that class A evp we caught in the living room.  Let’s just say that the serious meter went way up after they got to hear and see what this family was experiencing.  The ceremony was conducted in a very professional manor.  The minister was prepared and sincere.

After the blessing, things seemed to settle down again, but not for long.  It was back and worse.  The family reached out to the husband’s church almost immediately.  The priest also took their concerns very seriously.  They scheduled a meeting to talk with the priest and after he heard their story, he said lets go to your home right now and deal with this spook.  The priest showed up and performed a ritualistic ceremony.  He was very detailed.  He did warn the family that there were three levels of ceremonies he can perform and this is level one.  That ceremony seemed to take.  Things settled down again.  Until they returned.  By that time, the family was at their wits end.  We were not sure what to do.  This thing wasn’t going away.  Ceremony after blessing, these things are supposed to work?  The family made contact with a Native American spiritual man.  This man was very knowledgeable about what the family was dealing with.  He even tried to explain to the family why the two prior attempts failed.  He did not blame it on the clergy.  He explained that the clergy are well capable of pushing these out but a single attempt will often not work.  He scheduled a cleansing ceremony with the family.  He gave them a list of items that they needed to have prepared for the ceremony.  I’ll keep that list confidential but the items were very interesting.  He spoke of the cleansing with confidence.  He said that he can make these spirits leave and never come back.  He said he does it all the time.  You can imagine the need to believe him after all the family has been through.  You wanted to believe him.  He showed up to the home with his family.  They were there to assist in the ceremony.  He conducted his ceremony.  Only the family was allowed to see it.  He did not want any other distractions to the ceremony.  The family described lights flying around the room that sounded very familiar to what we have seen at other locations.  Each family member had a separate experience during the ceremony.  It took many hours to complete and once it was done he said they were gone for good.  He said that there was a man and a young woman in the house.  He said that they were attached to the house because of the area it is in.  His comments are matched our audio evidence perfectly.  Coincidence?

The family reports that the activity is all but gone.  They did admit to hearing very light footsteps.  Almost playful but again all is quiet.  We maintain our contact with the family.  They are willing to share their story with new clients of N.O.R.S.  I think they will be an asset to the group.  Someone who has experienced a very tough situation and pulled through it says a lot to a new client with nowhere to turn.  We as a group learned a hard lesson and wanted to share this story with others in the field.  Be careful out there.  If you find yourself connected to a case personally, know that you could be going down a very tough road.  Not to mention the possibility of attachments.  Remember your responsibility as an investigator: investigate, analyze, review and refer to clergy if necessary.  If you decide to take on the removal of a lingering spirit or energy, prepare yourself.  It may run away, it may stand its ground.  IF I choose to enter into this situation again in the future, I will do so with my eyes wide open.

Dustin