68th Street North
11.10.02
Private Home
St. Petersburg
Published in Bayside News in 2002 by Brandy Stark:
It can be said that children have a unique relationship to ghosts. Perhaps it's the innocence of the young that allows them to see into the unknown. Or it's their susceptibility to the pranks of older children that make them tremble deep in the night. Regardless, every parent has dealt with an awe-struck child's amazing accounts of paranormal activity, be it real or imagined.
The SPIRITS have a unique perspective with children and ghosts. The team experienced two separate investigations based upon the reports of children.
The first investigation took place in August at a residence on 5th Ave. South. A mother and son recently moved into the new house, and were puzzled by sporadic occurrences of unusual phenomena.
The events included a toy motorcycle revving up, a cat dish flipping over, and the house alarm resetting itself. The boy also reported bathroom doors that locked of their own accord when he was taking a shower, and both found the bathtub plugged and filled with water and ooze one morning. Pink dots also mysteriously manifested themselves in the carpet during a single night, with several still visible despite a steam cleaning.
Three members of the team arrived to survey the scene. During the investigation, there was very little EMF (electromagnetic field) energy. Images picked up no anomalous activity. Temperatures fluctuated only near windows, an obvious place of heat exchange. The family pets acted normally.
While the pink dots could not be explained, no one witnessed them being created. They were not there that night when the family went to bed, but were discovered by the mother the next morning. However, the cats roam freely through the house, and could be suspects.
Similar circumstances surrounded the mysterious bath water filled with ooze. Could it have been muck in new pipes that had somehow gotten into the bathroom?
The interview revealed that the young man was the sole witness of activity. The mother saw the results of the manifestations, but viewed nothing directly herself.
Her son also enjoyed reading volumes of the Goosebumps series. He could quote passages from his favorite texts, which did include a story about ghosts. One book also inspired a nightmare about an entity holding him down in bed.
The team concluded that the son had a wonderfully creative mind that was possibly stimulated by the excitement of a new school year and the recent move into the family's first house. No evidence was found of haunting activity while the team was there.
A second investigation on 68th Street North in November had different results. The homeowner's 7-year-old niece was witness to several manifestations of her deceased uncle, who died in the house after a long battle with cancer. The child had shown strong psi tendencies in her former residence, where she and her family witnessed haunting activity.
The SPIRITS team arrived with 6 members, who split into two teams of three. During the investigation, sensitives picked up a strong male presence throughout the home, particularly in rooms where, it was later learned, the uncle spent a great deal of time in life.
EMF spiked several times, including in the exact place where the man died. Temperature fluctuations were recorded throughout the house, extending to several large pockets of cold air.
During the interview, the homeowner's two brothers revealed a strong psi ability that ran through the family line. Both had interactions with ghosts before and both felt the presence of the husband through dreams and the home itself.
The most unusual aspect of this investigation was the sheer number of orb images captured. Four different people brought cameras, including Polaroid, multiple digitals, Advantix, and 35 mm. Each had photographs containing orbs: a whopping 20 images were captured throughout the night, validating, in the SPIRITS opinion, the experiences of the young niece.
As children, how many of us awakened to things going bump in the night? Can we truly say that there was nothing there, that it was simply the byproduct of an active imagination? It could be that we did experience something fantastic, now a memory corrupted by time and the rationing of an adult mind.
Interview of the home owner:
Interview: Learned that homeowner's husband died in the house after a long battle with cancer. A heavy smoker, he died of lung cancer.
He was an unusual man who enjoyed long periods of solitude. He appeared to have strong ideals that ran somewhat contrary to standard and accepted ideology.
After the husband died, various visiting members of the family reported seeing smoke. The homeowner reported a strong scent of decay coming from the guest room, where the husband had previously spent long hours doing research on the internet. Homeowner's brother, Mark, reported the scent of smoke even in the shower.
It was the homeowner's neice, and Mark's daughter, who "saw" the deceased sitting at his computer one night. The child is 7 years old, but displays strong psi tendancies. She lived in a haunted house prior to coming to Florida, and apparently accuratly described the deceased and his dog, who died a short time later.
Homeowner's other brother had continual dreams about the deceased. In these dreams, the deceased was able to accurately describe changes being made in the home and reported discontent at these changes.
The area where Amy got a danger spike was where the husband's hospice bed was. He died in that area; the spike was exactly where his head would have layed.
Various members of the team, and various members of the family, felt dizzy and depressed. Many of the SPIRITS members were exhausted during and after the investigation. I felt drained for days afterward, which is unusual for me.
In addition, the sensitives on the team picked up male and female presences, apparently unrelated to the deceased husband. These could possibly be realted to the family's antiques which had recently been moved into the home. These heirlooms came from the homeowner's parents and extended back into the history of the homeowner's family.
Conclusion: I believe that the husband's spirit still dwells in the area and that he keeps watch over his wife and son. I understand that he preferred things be kept in a particular manner, and the changes to the house may have caused him distress. The other entities may be family members or memories attached to items that came to the family recently.
The majority of the family appears to display strong psi abilities. These abilities reach at least one generation back and appear to be concentrated in the male members of the family (an uncle was mentioned, both brothers professed abilities, and the neice also showed sensitivity). This sensitivity may make them more receptive to the haunting activities.
