A restless spirit seems to disapprove of a family's interest in the paranormal and makes its resentment known in a most disturbing way
SPIRITS ARE THOUGHT to be the type of ghosts known as intelligent hauntings. In these cases, the essence, the energy, the personality - the spirit - of a deceased person seems to linger (for whatever reason) on this plane of existence, able sometimes to interact with the living. They usually hang around a place - a residence, a work area - that they loved, were intimately familiar with... or where they died. And they have been noted to retain aspects of their living personalities. Kind and caring people result in kind and caring spirits. People who tended to be mean and sometimes violent in life can become mean and even violent spirits (hence "evil" spirits that can be mistaken as "demonic").
We don't know what the true nature of this spirit existence is like. Many researchers think that these ghosts are not aware they are dead, lingering in a state of confusion and frustration. They cannot understand why there are strangers in their homes, intruding on their space, and acting in ways of which they might not approve. And the reactions of these spirits can be mystifying, frightening - even terrifying.
Michelle G. and her family encountered such a spirit - one that got a bit too physical for them to feel safe and normal.
A DISTURBING VISION
It all began on the very first day that Michelle and her family moved into a home with a two-year lease. Michelle was busy unpacking and setting up the various rooms. Knowing that they would all need some down time from all the work, she set up the family room with the television. Needing a brief rest, Michelle positioned a chair in front of the TV and sat.
Within minutes of sitting, she felt a compulsion to keep looking to her left and had a fleeting vision of an elderly woman on the floor, reaching up for assistance. Michelle had no explanation for the strange vision, so she tried to put it out of her mind and continue on with the many tasks at hand.
The thoughts of this old woman on the floor returned, however. "This happened every time I sat in the family room," she says. "I even rearranged the room, but every time I sat down I would get this thought or vision of an old lady on the floor needing help to get up, like she had fallen."
ANNOYING PRANKS
The visions soon gave way to more physical manifestations, and not just in the family room. Numerous times while Michelle was driving alone in her car, she would feel the back of the driver's seat getting kicked, as if someone was in the back seat purposely trying to annoy her. "Several times I would be in a deep trance and think it was one of my kids," she says, "then realize no kids are along."
There was also that strange incident with a CD. Michelle only had 10 music CDs in her car and had a particular favorite that she would often listen to. "It had a song on there that spoke of voodoo," she says. (Michelle always had a fascination with many areas of the paranormal.) "I started to notice the connection - that song and the seat getting kicked."
One day the CD just vanished from the car. Michelle checked everywhere it could possibly be in the car: in the CD player, the CD holder, on the floor, under the seats, even in the back of the car. But her favorite CD was gone. "After long forgetting about it," Michelle remembers, "one morning I came out to my car, got in - and there was the long-lost CD just sitting on the center console."
PINCHES OF DISAPPROVAL
Michelle wasn't the only victim of these unexplained pranks. In fact, the activity was escalating beyond just pranks. One morning during the usual hustle and bustle of getting everyone off to school and work, one of Michelle's daughters went into the basement to get clothes out of the dryer. As she was doing so, something pinched her quite hard on the shoulder.
Michelle only listened to her daughter's complaint only half-heartedly, assuming that her daughter was being overly dramatic about a muscle twinge we all feel now and then. But after everyone else had left the house, Michelle herself went to the basement to fetch clothes from the dryer when she felt a hard pinch on the back of her calf. "It actually stung and left a red welt," says Michelle. "I instantly looked for a bug or anything that could have caused it. Nothing. Then I recalled what my daughter had said earlier."
Next page: Footsteps on the basement stairs
