Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Orbs

This photo was taken by a guest at one of our events in Downtown Morristown
who said that it felt like someone was following her down the steps. She turned
and took this photo over her shoulder...and then ran once she looked at it.

One of the buildings located behind
the Thomas House.
Orbs . . . proof of the afterlife or that it's dusty? This is a much debated phenomena within the paranormal community. What are orbs? The usual 'orb' is round, may have a 'face', 'eye', rings, or spots in it, and varies from transparent to white, and they even come in different colors on occasion. In my opinion, most orbs occur when the camera flash reflects off of dust or moisture that is in the air, or even a bug.

When I took the photo to the left, I didn't look at it and say, "Wow, I just took a picture of a ghost." I was outside, on a humid Tennessee night, and knew that it was moisture. This is what often happens in photos from cemeteries—taken at night, moisture in the air, orbs abound. Just Google 'orbs' and it will pull up several photos that depict exactly what I'm talking about. We even have some orb photos on our website and facebook page that our team has taken. But in my opinion, 98-99% of orb photos are not paranormal.

I think it's so funny when Zak Bagans (Ghost Adventures) captures an orb going across the camera and can 'debunk it as not being a bug or dust'. If he has no proof that there wasn't a bug or dust that happened to go by, how can he debunk it? From one fellow paranormal investigator to another, I've never been able to see a particle of dust or a small bug in the dark. And believe it or not, dust doesn't always travel in groups. A single dust particle can float around on its own, so dust doesn't always have to look like snow. I've even seen dust flicker like a strobe light on camera, and as cool as it looks, it's not paranormal.

Bethesda Church
But on the other hand, aside from dust, moisture, and bugs, I do think there are actual orbs, sometimes called light anomalies, that have been caught on camera. Take the photo to the right, which I took one evening at a cemetery while filming a documentary. The sun was behind the trees, so I saw no reflection onto the church, I wasn't using my flash, and this is the only photo that had this anomaly in it. Now this is the kind of orb photo that piques my interest; misshapen, misty around the edges, and fairly unexplainable. If it's not a reflection, either from the sun, dust, or moisture, then what is it? I don't know, and that is why I investigate the paranormal.

So, what's you're opinion on orbs?
Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts.





Wednesday, August 14, 2013

My Ghost Story


 
A lot of people ask me how I got involved in the paranormal or why I'm a 'ghost hunter'. I think my reason for getting involved in it is the same as many other investigators; I've had an experience. And when you experience something you can't explain, you want answers. So when people ask me why, I share my ghost story.

As a teenager, we lived in the second oldest town in Tennessee—the beautiful town of Dandridge. Shortly after moving into our house, we noticed some strange things happening. My little brother, who was around one or two years old at the time, would look into his dark bedroom and talk (gibber-jabber) to someone who we couldn't see. Then things started getting moved, usually while we were asleep or not at home. I came home from school one day to find the drawers under my bed pulled out and my clothes hanging out of them, pulled right out into the floor, yet no one had been in my room. And my mom couldn't find her tea, only to find it in the oven a couple of days later. In the oven! We would also hear noises, especially whistling, that seemed to come out of nowhere. It was always something, and something strange.

I remember being pretty frightened, especially at night. It felt like someone was always watching me. I was so scared that I rigged a thin rope up to my light so that I wouldn't have to walk from my light switch to my bed in the dark at bedtime. We all pretty much knew that we weren't alone.

Our house had been used as slave quarters during the Civil War, and the house at the end of the street had been used as a hospital. Civil War relics had also been found in our yard with metal detectors, so we knew that the area we lived in had probably been very populated by soldiers at one point in time. We knew about the Battle of Dandridge, we just didn't think it would affect us so many years later.

Sharing our experiences with family members prompted one of them to contact a friend of hers who was a sensitive. We had never talked to a sensitive or psychic before, so we didn't know what to expect. But we were curious, so we let her come to our home to do a reading, not thinking too much about what she may find, because honestly, we were a bit skeptical. She proved us wrong.

She wasn't told anything about us or our experiences, just that we thought our house was haunted. As she walked in, we just stood back and let her do her thing. The first place she went to was my little brother's room, which I was sure was just a coincidence. But then she went on to tell us the name of a woman who supposedly stayed in that room, and that she was waiting for her son to return from the war. But what really blew our minds was when she told us that the lady wasn't looking out the window, that she was sitting by a door. What she couldn't see, because it was covered by curtains and a changing table, was the old frame . . . of a door. The house had underwent a lot of renovations over the years, and that just happened to be one of them.

She proceeded into our kitchen, where she blew our mind, yet again. "I feel like I'm standing outside," she said. "This used to be a back porch." Yes, yes it was. "And I see a boy . . . whittling wood. Whistles? I see him whittling whistles." Well, that explained a lot. My mom and I were just staring at each other with our mouths open. This lady not only sensed spirits, but she knew structural things about our house that she couldn't have known. But that wasn't all.

Before she left, she gave us the names of the spirits she had felt; one was the lady's name, and the other was of a soldier she felt was on the property. And I knew first hand that we had a ghost outside because it had chased me across our neighbors yard one night—funny story, actually. Anyway, we ended up doing some research, hoping to find these names, doubtful that we would. But guess what? We did. The soldier's name was listed on a hospital record as having been a patient . . . in the very hospital that was at the end of our street.

For several years we lived with the ghosts who resided with us in our home and on our property. The psychic had said they were harmless, for the most part, and just wanted us to know they were there. Oh, we knew. That's when the paranormal became our normal.

As a paranormal investigator, I empathize with our clients, knowing how scary it can be to have things happen that seem to be out of your control. That is why our team, Eyewitness Paranormal, volunteer our services to help those experiencing paranormal activity, either to debunk some things, putting their mind at ease, or to document proof of paranormal activity so that they know, and can prove to others, that they're not crazy.

If you have your own ghost story that you would like to share,
feel free to share it on our facebook page.