Today I'm going to tell you about one of the weirdest brushes with the supernatural I've ever had.
Jefferson, Texas, bills itself as the most-haunted small town in Texas and hosts a twice-yearly paranormal conference. My Mom and I have attended this conference a few times. It always includes a touristy ghost investigation on Saturday night, where attendees get sent in teams to various historic buildings around the town in a round-robin fashion to see what evidence they can turn up. Each group of conference-goers is paired with an experienced ghost hunting group who shares equipment and gives guidance along the way. Real ghost hunting isn't much like ghost investigation TV shows, though. It's best done in small groups and is pretty boring. Nothing usually happens.
Mom and I had already had spooky experiences in Jefferson before we ever participated in a ghost investigation there; the town seems to have its reputation for a reason. When we stayed at the Excelsior House Hotel -- which doesn't bill itself as haunted, even though Stephen Spielberg reputedly got his inspiration for the movie "Poltergeist" after an experience there -- something unseen forcefully pulled our room door out of Mom's hand. I tried to explain this as a vacuum effect, but no combination of open windows and doors could recreate the weird way the door jerked away. I also woke up that same night and saw a floating green thing in our room. Mom wasn't sad she missed that. (We stay at a lovely unhaunted bed and breakfast when we visit Jefferson now, in case you're wondering.)
Anyway, at our first paranormal conference, we got paired up with an investigative team from the Houston suburbs who seemed to know what they were doing, which was a relief and an odd coincidence, as Jefferson is over 250 miles away. We didn't expect to experience anything or find any evidence, but we were happy to go along. We didn't have any specialized equipment, so I took a lot of digital photos, and Mom used the voice recorder on her phone.
The first two places were quiet, and as far as I could tell, completely ghost-free. They just felt like ordinary buildings, but the third place we visited had another vibe altogether. It was an old-fashioned main street sort of commercial building with retail space on the ground floor. The building was being renovated to turn the upstairs area from offices into modern apartments at the time, so it was pretty dusty and chaotic up there. People say that renovations can stir up ghostly activity, and maybe that's true. Something was undoubtedly stirred up in that building!
I began to feel sick as soon as we got inside and went up the stairs. My head was pounding, and I started to feel nauseous. I was dizzy and just felt awful. I whispered to Mom that I was heading downstairs to get some air, being as quiet as I could because other members of our group were trying to capture EVPs (electronic voice phenomenon, or supposed sound recordings of spirits). It's especially hard to get EVPs in large groups because it's so challenging to get everyone to stay silent at the same time.
I paused in the hallway, trying not to make noise, and my nausea intensified. I was about to bolt for the exit when something barrelled past me, bumping hard into my left shoulder -- something I couldn't see…in an empty hallway. It felt like a tall person hurrying past and clipping me in their rush. It felt solid and ice cold -- and I could even feel the air moving behind it, in its invisible wake, exactly like a real person quickly walking by me. I stood there in shock for a second, then got Mom's attention and told her what had happened. The group was ready to move on to the next location by that point, and I was more than happy to go, too. I felt completely normal physically by the time we reached the sidewalk, too. (I've learned in subsequent ghost investigations that those nasty physical sensations are a pretty reliable indicator of a negative presence, and I can tell when other less-awful ghosts are present, too -- they just don't make me nauseous.)
There were a couple of other minor creepy happenings that night, but nothing so spectacular. I filed it away in my "weird things that have happened to Sarah file," which was pretty thick already, and put it out of my mind.
The following day, Mom started listening through the voice recordings she had made on her phone. She mainly just let it record while she stood quietly. There was a lot of rustling and footsteps (almost certainly from the group we were in) and people talking in the background. The only place the whole group had managed to stay quiet for any length of time had been that commercial building where the unseen thing had touched me. She had been listening for quite a while when she gasped, "You have to hear this!"
She ran the recording back and pressed play. Just a few seconds after I heard myself whisper that I was going to get some air, a horrible disembodied voice growled, "Get out… OF HERE!"
It was as clear as if it had been spoken aloud right by the microphone, but we hadn't heard it at the time. I still get goosebumps when I think about it!
Current Obsessions and Compulsions
Here’s some creepy art for you. Shiver!
Have you been reading Thumper’s new, award-nominated blog at Patheos? If not, you should be.
FYI: It turns out that you can get Robert Smith to do a collab with you if you basically write him a Cure song, as CHVRCHES discovered.
I don’t know how I missed this track from Bloc Party when it came out approximately a million internet years ago.
Sure, “All We Do” by Oh Wonder is the theme song from a bleak cop show, but it’s also beautiful and haunting.
I swear I didn’t spend the entire past three months listening to music, but here’s some Radiohead, too. (Sorrynotsorry? Nah, sorryNEVERsorry for Radiohead!)
What I’m Currently Writing
My other newsletter, A Little Better, is still going strong, I’m pleased to say. I have been missing my fiction writing, though, so I’m going to dust off an old unfinished manuscript for National Novel Writing Month this year. I know I may be too busy to put in my best effort, but I’m going to try. (True story: I asked my therapist to talk me out of attempting Nanowrimo this year, and she said, “But Sarah, you’re so much happier when you’re creating!” So here we are.)
Until Next Time
I hope that your Halloween has precisely as many scares in it as you prefer and zero disembodied voices that haunt your nightmares. Eat some candy on my behalf!
Happy Halloween!