August 16, 2003
Pinellas County, Florida
The ancients believed that spirits could talk to the living during sleep. Perhaps it is because sleep was considered a version of death and was deified as Death’s younger brother. Thereby, it was natural to attribute dreams containing warnings and future prophesies to the dead.
Today, dreams are no less enigmatic. Why do we dream? What is the purpose of dreaming? And what does it mean when various members of a paranormal investigation team dream of an investigation before they arrive at the intended site?
This happened to two members of the SPIRITS team just before the investigation at Oak Moss Drive. One person, who was not attending, dreamt of an old-styled Florida house with dogs and men sitting on the front porch. She had a sense of urgency to investigate the home, and felt certain that images would be captured through cameras. Another said that when napping she dreamt the team was ordered out of the home and to end the investigation.
Yet, in hindsight, neither turned out to be the case.
The occupants of the home reported that the strongest phenomena was in the constant tilt of images within the household. Each time the pictures were straightened, the moment anyone turned away they slid askew again.
One person experienced knocks against his bedroom window. They came in a series of three, showing that they were not of a random nature, yet no known agent was found to create them. This same individual also saw a glowing ball of light floating outside his window, only to see it vanish a short time later.
The investigation, itself, showed few surprises. A few anomalous images were captured, including a line-like image that runs across a digital picture. Orbs were found in certain part of the home, including the porch area where the floating orb was reported.
Several people captured an odd flame-like image in the master bedroom. The SPIRITS team conducted a series of experiments and determined that the images were of a natural origin: a small picture glass reflected the flashes of the cameras at an odd angle. It was not a paranormal anomaly.
The team also attempted to ascertain the nature of the tilting picture. A small level was obtained and placed upon one of the most notorious of the tilting pictures. It was straightened and the room closed to outsiders. The picture was checked every few minutes. It did not tilt. A second frame was selected and tested; the results were also negative.
Yet, one of the psy-sensitives picked up on several aspects of the family. A man named Joseph began to follow the group through the house. He was in his 60’s, but little else was know about him. During the secondary walk through, the sensitive again felt his presence and “saw” a bow-legged man sitting on a couch in the study. She took a picture of him; the resulting image shows an orb neatly nestled on the cushions.
An image of an American solider in Viet Nam also appeared to the sensitive; this was later confirmed that one of the persons living in the home had been in Nam and, as the image showed, had stood guard over a camp with women and children.
The names of “Dorthia” or “Dottie” came through; this was confirmed to be a relative of the homeowner. A man named “Shorty” also made a brief appearance; he was also an individual from the homeowner’s past.
Yet, for all of this, the anomalies recorded by the SPIRITS were few. Perhaps the entities chose to appear only to the homeowners; perhaps a secondary trip is necessary to try and determine what is going on within the home. Regardless, the living and the dead appear to co-exist peacefully within the same space, each sharing a curiosity about the other.
Investigation Information
Homeowner’s Interview:
Phenomena and notes: Moved into house built in the early 1980s. It belongs to his mother and father, and the original owners are still alive.
Home has many antiques from his family heritage. He has lived there 8 years, and the phenomena have been present since day 1.
The house is located 2 miles North of Alaphy River; it was close to a military outpost from the years 1849-1850.
His wallet and keys keep going missing. For two days he searched for his wallet, then found it on the dresser.
The door on the porch slams closed. He hears knocking on windows — raps in numbers of 3. He heard it 2 times (two sets of three) the Monday before he called me to set up investigation.
One light turns itself on in kitchen. The garage door goes up and down on occasion. TV turns itself on and off.
The Cat, Smokey, was once lying on the stool, looked up and fled from the room as if in fear.
His 19 month old nephew talks to someone in the room.
Pictures that are hung on the wall always fall slanted — they become crooked. No matter how soon they are straightened, they are made to lean.
See shadow being, feels heat sensation
He has acknowledge entity.
Thinks it may be a family member; maybe a grandfather who died in 1999.
Said his sister got married in December. The cake had a topper, and the topper seemed to leap off the cake and fall a short distance away. 1 of the wedding cameras had orbs on the pictures. Middle of roll; no other images showed up with orbs.
Saw a ball of light go by porch several nights before he contacted me for investigation.
Before the investigation, two members reported vivid dreams about the investigation, both reflecting danger:
Investigation Notes:
6 p.m., Thudnerstorm started during investigation.
Lunar Cycle: waning, post full moon.
Trifield Meter, 0-3 scale.
Pre-investigation:
Bedroom 1:
EMF: .2-.5
EMF detected near the TV.
Temperature: 79, 81-82
Made note of a thermometer in the air vent.
Bedroom 2: EMF steady by computer, .2 for the rest of the room.
79-82 degrees.
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Bathroom: small spikes of EMF to approx. 1.5 (3 times), then to 2.0 (1 time), minute spikes afterwards.
78-81 degrees.
Small chills on lower legs.
Sitting room:
EMF: two spikes of 1.5, off scale for the TV.
77-80 degrees.
Chills on legs.
Kitchen: Reflections and EMF
80-82 degrees
EMF registered over the table, it rose and dropped.
80-82 degrees.
Dining room:
.3-1.0 EMF spikes.
77-80 degrees temp.
Bedroom 3:
Bright orb appeared over bed. We went through this room numerous times, found a natural reason for the orb between a telephone with metallic rings on it, and multiple framed images (glass).
Felt a cold spot. EMF registering in far right corner of the room.
80-84 degrees.
Formal living room (aka “Forbidden room”)
Discussion:
Group wanted to check the bedroom areas again.
Investigation:
Bedroom 2: One investigator sensed that this was a military man, with a green uniform with rolled up sleeves, from either Viet Nam or WWI. She sensed a great-grandfather figure, or hunting. She sensed starving children around him, but that he was not an apparition in the room; the information was filtered in some respect.
Homeowners said that the pictures in the house were constantly tipping. We decided to do an experiment with a picture. We got a level and placed it on top of a picture, noting that the level was exactly centered. It stayed threr from 7:17 to 7:31; I kept an eye on it from the bedroom (I had a clear view of it). No one bothered it, but it did not tilt as expected.
We then attempted a second experiment with another area in Bedroom 3.
Bedroom 3:
Picture experiment 2: We again placed a level on a picture.
7:34 started experiment, level. Checked 7:43, 8:16, 8:36. No change at all.
Homeowner interview post investigation:
Homeowners told us of shifting phases of pictures.
She was able to verify Josephine as a childhood babysitter for one of the homeowners, and several of the other entities may be remote relatives. Dorothea is the homeowner’s grandmother, Charles may be the grandfather of the wife of the home owner.
One sensitive picked up a little girl on the property but wondered if she was a place memory.
She thought the child ghost may call the baby the bumpkin baby….that she was responsible for the knocking and other anomalies to get attention.
Other anomalies include knocks, slams, and other noises coming from the porch area (see homeowner’s information).
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We then walked outside of the house looking for images, EMF. We checked the corner of the bedroom where we got anomalous images. Outside there were two sets of wires, one belonging to the cable box, the other possibly related to the telephone. They did not give off any EMF.
We went to the porch and took images, and several went into the garage.
Images developed for us in the bedrooms and porch, with nice dark images showing up over Denise in at least one of my digital camera images.
Oddly, some images taken with Denise’s camera and some taken with mine reflect very similar images. This is a first for this group, as several of the images appear to be like orbs.
Conclusions
It appears that the house may be marginally haunted. Many of the entities seem to be relatives of the family who come back to keep tabs on the living members of the clan.
The little girl entity is interesting. I don not know how we can verify her potential link to the living. though the homeowners will attempt to track down former homeowners and get information about them.
I am curious how Denise and I had similar images in a questionable area. This was the corner of the third bedroom where we had to take down images, cover up reflective surfaces to ensure that all natural phenomena were ended. So, either we both picked up natural images or we both captured paranormal images.