Tuesday, April 24, 2012

A Veil Between Me and rhe Dead? Ewwww

Wow, it's Tuesday already, and I feel like I've had a lost weekend.  We've been waiting for two weeks to get all the adapters, cameras, and cables to set up an IR camera, daytime camera, and microphones in the art room.  Last night, we finally had everything assembled, put it all together, and it didn't work.  In my mind's eye, I could see me grabbing a hatchet and going Lizzie Borden on the whole computer setup including the IR camera, web cam, cables, adapters, and the boxes they arrived in!  The computer, which I might add, disconnects from Ustream at the slightest provocation and will be my first target.

It seems that the adapters we purchased, which incidentally took over a week to get here, do not allow the microphone that is on the IR camera to work when plugged into the computer system for which the adapters were purchased.  Add to all this, the IR camera is on permanent close-up, and would only be good if one wanted to focus on spiders running around the edges of the haunted closet.  After two hours of frustration, I decided to shut everything down and go have a dish of ice cream.  Today, after a good night's sleep, I'm back to my somewhat sane self, and will order more equipment from Amazon.

I've received some interesting comments from people watching and listening to my haunted art room cam.  It seems that anyone who listens to the microphone with good headphones or good ear buds can hear whispering.  Some words and sentences do come through quite clearly, but much of the time, it sounds like just a group of people whispering to each other.  I've heard it several times now, and it is creepy!

Today, I received an explanation by one person who does the audio work for a television show about paranormal experiences. This is part of her explanation:

I also took the liberty of listening to your audio off the webcam. In all my experience of doing audio I have never heard what I heard from your audio, except once when I did the Mud House audio.  Very few people are aware of the phenomenon that I have named/labeled as "Sounds beyond Silence" Only a few choice audio analysts know of it. I witnessed/heard it at the Mud house and now again in your audio.  In this phenomenon, the veil between life and death is so thin that one can actually hear the sounds beyond silence in the death realm. Whole conversations on the other side will be heard but not audible. I wouldn't doubt that you have experienced many active spirits throughout your home.

This is an excerpt from an analysis of my house and situation by a paranormal team leader who has investigated this house several times:

Caterina’s house was filled with energy, readily apparent on our first visit. I mean good energy, her personality spilled over into everything.  Neighbors in her area experience similar haunting. We call that a cluster.  But, spirits are like roaches, where there is one, there is usually more. They are also attracted to high energy people. Caterina's house is a magnet for these earthbound spirits.  I have never experienced a home like hers, where we can consistently anytime, catch Class A EVP.  And intelligent answers at that!

As I get the website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter pages organized and updated, I will put more comments and findings from the different investigations on the web sites.  The above analysis was done by Vishi Garig of C.A.P.E. Paranormal.

Barring any more unforeseen technical problems, we should have the IR camera and new microphones working in about one week.  Until then, you can watch the website and listen to the EVP's through the equipment on hand.

Caterina

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Hump Day Thoughts

I guess it is over a week now that the cam has been on. Thankfully, the ghosts must not mind the new stuff in the art studio. They haven't appeared visually in my bedroom, hallway, or dining room. The lights haven't been going on and off by themselves, and they havent thrown any of my stuff around. All is peaceful. I like peaceful.

I still hear chatter in the background. I wonder what causes the footsteps. If a ghost can pass through a wall or door, then what is keeping it from falling through the earth and ending up in China coming out of the ground there feet first? Also, how can they make loud footsteps? They don't weigh anything if they are a mass of ectoplasm. By the way, I looked up ectoplasm.

Ectoplasm
(from the Greek ektos, meaning "outside", and plasma, meaning "something formed or molded") is a term coined by Charles Richet to denote a substance or spiritual energy "exteriorized" by physical mediums. Ectoplasm is said to be associated with the formation of spirits, however since World War II reports of ectoplasmic phenomena have declined and many psychical researchers doubt whether genuine cases ever existed. (Jan Dirk Blom A Dictionary of Hallucinations 2009, p. 168)

Here's something else from Wikipedia: Ectoplasm on many occasions has been proven to be based on fraud. Many mediums had used methods of swallowing and regurgitating textile products smoothed with potato starch and in other cases the ectoplasm was made of paper, cloth and egg white or butter muslin.

I hope you aren't eating breakfast while reading this!

Back to the football-player-sized ghosts with the tap-dancing cleats on their cowboy boots. I can hear them stirring through my pencils and brushes which are sitting in different parts of the room in plastic coffee cans. I like Folger's Simply Smooth. I also hear my chair creak like someone just sat down in it. Sometimes it sounds like it is rolling around. They also talk to each other and whisper a lot. I'd think it would be difficult to find something to talk about with the same group of people after 150 years.

On a deeper note, if I died, I'd want to move on to the "next act" in our existence. I wouldn't want to hang out in some artist's studio, by the way, which I share with my cats. Especially, when my two cats were having urine-squirting wars with each other and the new cat across the street. The exclamation we recorded on one EVP during this time was "It sure stinks in here, lady!" I agreed with her and hosed the place down with No More Spray cleaner and lots of hot water mopping before they settled their territorial dispute.

I hope the ghosts at least sit down and watch TV with us at night. The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, and Blue Bloods could help them along with some of the boredom one might suffer with an eternity trapped in a 2400 s.f. ranch home. They told one team of investigators they like hanging out here because we are fun people. See, they do get bored.

Caterina

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Last night was entertaining. A Hollywood comedian, Michelle Jordan, joined us on the ghost cam chat. That certainly livened things up and gave us all some good laughs. A paranormal experience seen through the eyes of a comedian certainly adds color to the evening.

It seems if you wear a good set of headphones, you can hear what the ghosts are saying. If the volume is turned up be careful of the loud advertisements. I want to strangle the Pine-Sol lady. She is the one responsible for any nerve damage to my ears. :o)

Here is a list of things people have seen and heard so far:
  • Very small balls of light moving from the door to the hallway into the art room closet. This phenomena has been reported by people living in our house, guests, paranormal investigators, and now people watching the studio cam.
  • A male voice saying, "We need to get control back." This one made me laugh, because it sounds like my husband when he stands in the middle of the chaos which is our house and exclaims, "This place is out of control."
  • The name Carrie.
  • The name Angela.
  • The sound of my pencils or brushes rattling in cans around my room.
  • The sound of footsteps walking around in the room.
  • The shadow of a figure sitting in my desk chair.
This is a lot of activity for one small house. However, it seems to be in keeping with what paranormal investigation teams have found.

Caterina

Friday, April 13, 2012

What's a Troll?

It's been three or four nights in a row watching and listening to the new cam. I'm beginning to lose track of time, and I really need some sleep. I've been hearing some amazing things on the mic. The conversations between ghosts are disturbing. I'm still not sure what I'm listening to, and this could be addictive.

Tonight has been difficult. I had my first experience with someone getting nasty in the chat channel. Thankfully, there were people on there from the Knickerbocker Hotel website, and they kicked the person off the chat, and taught me a few things about monitoring. It was quite an uncomfortable feeling personally. I guess to some they spend so much time online that they fail to see the people they are talking to as humans. Anonymity breeds some very odd behavior. I'm sure the person who was being "aggressive" would not act that way in public. Or, I hope they would not act that way in public. If they did, someone might throw a net over them.

It is my first time being verbally accosted by someone claiming my house is full of demons. I guess these things will happen. The person online told me to pray... so I did. I prayed that person wouldn't come back to my cam and chat room!

The whole incident, brought the same questions to the surface that I have always had. I come from a very religious background, and the experiences I'm having in this house do not fit in with my religious teachings. It's a "slippery ice" feeling when you've had a certain belief for 50 years, and now you are confronted with something that seems to contradict everything you've been taught.

It is almost 5 AM, and I have been up for most of the night. I'm going to have to keep all the philosophical thinking for another day. So for now, since I believe in God, I'm going to let the art room and my haunted house up to Him. I'm going to get some sleep.

Ciao,
Caterina

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

First Night With the Cam

My first evening listening to the art room ghost cam was a success. The night before, I didn't get much time to listen to it. I also didn't have a chat on my website, and we were having all sorts of technical problems with the microphone, WebCam, and page design. I hate techno stuff. I'm a right brained artist, and technical things just make me crazy.

I am only going to turn the microphone on at night. There's so much happening in this house during the day, the human kind of happening, that you would not be able to hear my ghosts. I also need time during the day to work in my studio, and I always play music while I'm working. I can't paint and make jewelry without listening to music. One time I asked the ghosts during an EVP session if they liked my music. One of the ghosts said, "Catchy!" I've always wondered if they enjoy the music that I play in the art room. I guess I figure, if I had the problem of being dead and stuck in someone's art room, I'd like to hear some good music during the day. I guess I play the music for myself and for my unseen art room partners.

As soon as I turned up the volume on my headphones, I heard some of the same voices that I hear in the EVP's from the different investigations. There was lots of whispering. At one point, I heard the woman spirit's voice humming near the microphone. I know it was her, because by now, I recognize her voice. I've also heard her do this humming during paranormal investigations. During the evening, I had some visits from other paranormal enthusiasts. They were treated to lots of tapping, a few growls, the lady humming, and the man talking. At one point, they asked me to go check on the room to see if I was hearing these noises in the room, and to find out where some of the taps were coming from. I walked out of my room and into the hallway on the other side of the house where my art studio is. I could hear absolutely nothing there. The whole house was silent.

I returned to the other side of the house from my art room and continued to listen. I heard loud footsteps, more tapping, and whispering. Sometimes the whispering is audible, and I can hear it without the aid of a digital recorder. I think the difference, from the night before, was I opened the closet door and left it open. I will close the closet door during the day.

My black cat Lucy joins me while I'm working in the daytime, and she likes to get into my closet and root around. I also don't want her to scratch the paintings that I store in there. Many times, you will see Lucy watching me from her perch on top of the white canvas chair. The white canvas chair, called a Sedan chair, was purchased at a garage sale in St. Augustine Florida sold by someone connected to Zorayda Castle in St. Augustine. I thought it was one of the coolest chairs I've ever seen. Now, it serves as my thinking chair. Before it found a home in my art room, it could have been used to ride on one's camel, or have one's servants carry one through the streets of ancient Arabia. It has that Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves flavor. Lucy just thinks it's her observation deck.

During the evening, one of the listeners, said they heard a man's voice say, "We need to get control again." That sounds like the one grouchy ghost who lives here. The listeners asked me to go to the art room. I went in there for a little while and started making a bracelet. I was having a problem seeing, and I couldn't find the cord to light my drafting table light. I said, "Oh, great." The listeners said after I began searching for the light cord, they heard a man's voice say, "What's the problem?" I've heard questions like this before while I'm painting. It seems that one ghost in particular likes to monitor my drawing, painting, and jewelry making, adding comments as I work.

When the first team, CAPE Paranormal did an investigation, they were in my art room asking questions. They asked the ghosts if they like my paintings, like to watch me work, and like when I sell a painting. The answers to these questions were they like my paintings, like to watch me work, and do not want me to sell my paintings. When asked if I have a reason to be uncomfortable in my art room the ghosts answered, "Yes." I can feel them in there behind me watching me. Now that I know they are there, I'm not as uncomfortable.

During the TV show, the ghosts were asked to knock on their favorite painting. They knocked several times on a painting that I now have hanging in my art room. You can watch the TV show called Local Haunts on the www.hauntedartist.com webpage. During the show, you will hear the female ghost say "they make me laugh." I agree with her. The crew and stars of the show were fun to work with and made the whole experience a good time. Local Haunts should be a nationally broadcast show. They bring humor to the ghost hunting genre, and they did an excellent job communicating with the ghosts and getting interesting EVP's. The cowboy ghosts here in this house thought Amy was quite attractive. She is. Amy is the producer's sister and a lovely person.

I will let you know what happens during my next chat and cam monitoring.

Caterina

Monday, April 9, 2012

Thoughts on the first 24 hours with the WebCam

Putting a web cam in my art room was not an easy decision. I've been asked by several paranormal investigators to put a web cam in the house. If you are an artist, you can understand the need for a distraction-free environment when you are creating. Having a camera invade my workspace is difficult for me.

I'm also not sure how my unseen guests, the ones living in my art room, will react to this intrusion. I do try to keep everyone in the house and the house itself peaceful. Technologically speaking, I don't know what I'm doing as far as web cameras, IR cameras, and microphones. If you are a techno-geek, I am open to any advice you have to give me.

Since this is not a moneymaking project, I cannot afford expensive cameras and other ghost hunting equipment. I'm not sure that what I can afford is adequate enough to produce good results for paranormal investigators. I will upgrade the equipment as time goes on. If you are a fellow artist reading this blog, you understand that an artist's finances are usually sparse. If I wanted to be rich, I would not have picked art as a career.

Other people have asked me and I have asked myself why am I pursuing this? I have always believed that there is life after death, but I didn't believe in things like hauntings. When I moved into this house, I attributed my daughter's stories to her wonderful imagination. As time went on, I started seeing and hearing things myself. I became concerned about my own sanity.

It wasn't until I saw a Ghost Hunters marathon and heard EVP's and saw the video of something peeking out over the railing of the St. Augustine lighthouse, that I had to admit there might be such things as ghosts. The only thing I know for sure is that they are some form of energy. I think attributing it to the spirits or souls of dead people is more a belief than actual scientific proof.

While the paranormal team packed up their gear after the first investigation, I still had a hard time with the idea that my house might be haunted. As they loaded up their vans, I apologized to them for bringing them all the way from Orlando to investigate something that was probably just my imagination. At the same time, I asked different members of the team if they found anything. They told me they would review the evidence and get back to me.

Not really believing that my house is haunted and it was just some kind of weird thing happening in my life, I decided to put a tape player in the art room while two of my friends were in there painting with me. They asked me why I was running a tape player, and I laughingly said, "We're going to talk to the ghost today." that night after my friends left I downloaded the recording into my computer, put on a set of headphones, and listened to the recording.

I couldn't believe what I heard. In between our conversation, during the silences, I heard one woman's voice and several men's voices butting into our conversation. I took the headphones off and just quietly sat there staring at the computer screen. I had opened the recording in audacity, so I could see the little blips in the line where the ghosts were actually speaking. At that point, I was not amazed just scared. There was undeniable proof something unseen was living in my house, watching what I do, and listening to everything I say. Along with this fear was anger at my privacy being so completely violated. How dare something live with me uninvited. I didn't go into my art room for weeks. All painting and jewelry making stopped, and that gave me an overwhelming sadness.

I had trouble sleeping, concentrating, and staying in the house. I spent a lot of time in my Van sitting in parking lots. I didn't want to go back in the house. I thought about selling the house, but we couldn't afford to move. This was my house, the only one I would ever own. I didn't want to move. I would just have to learn how to live with something like this.

By the time, the investigator showed up to give me the research, video and audio evidence, I was starting to adjust to the idea. They assured me these things in my house were human spirits. However, because they are human spirits they have free will. They told me they could bless the house and quiet things down, but they couldn't force them to leave. Other people, told me they could be forced to leave.

These last couple of years, I've just been waiting to see what happens next. During that time, other things have happened. I had a group of investigators train their newbies here. I figured I owed the paranormal organization that much since they did all the investigating for free. I also allowed a TV show to be filmed here. Both the investigations and TV show gave me more information about the ghosts. The one company did extensive historical research on the property. My house is sitting on land first homesteaded by a man from Machias, Maine. His name was Alonso Small. I have never really found out why they are here. One person told me, they want to communicate with me. I'm not a psychic, and communicating with me is probably not going to happen. I'm a little afraid and very wary.

As far as the book I mentioned in my first blog, that started out a couple years ago when I joined a NaNoWriMo contest. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a fiction writers' month of writing. I wrote a 60,000 word draft of a fiction based on real events. Later, I decided to take a fiction writing course for something to do over the winter. It was during that writing course, that my teacher talked me into writing the whole story as the memoir.

I've never really been interested in reading memoirs, so I didn't know much about them. After I learned about memoirs and how to write one, I began to enjoy the whole process. Memoirs, as you know, are all about the internal journey and what the writer has learned through it all. Approaching my story from that viewpoint, has helped me to sort out my feelings, fears, and beliefs. I'm also not as afraid as I used to be of life or death.

Keep watching the ghost cam, and let me know if you see anything. If you do see anything, make sure you get a screen capture of it.

Caterina

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Introduction To My Haunted House

This blog is about my haunted house. In the mid-1990s my husband retired from the military, and we bought our first home. It's just a small house in an old neighborhood at the beach. The day I bought the house, I was driving around looking for for-sale signs. This house had only been on the market one day, and the elderly couple who were selling it said they were anxious to sell because they were moving back to their hometown in North Carolina. I took a brief tour through the house, and fell in love with it instantly. We closed the deal that evening, and the owner even offered to pay the points, so our mortgage was very reasonable.

The first night we moved in the house, my daughter came screaming out of her bedroom because she saw a man float through her bedroom wall and it looked like he was going to float through her. She was a young teenager prone to trips in Fantasyland, so we assured her that there are no such things as ghosts. Then, I went back to her room with her and stayed there until she fell asleep. I explained to her that she was just stressed because she was sleeping in a new bedroom in a new house and everything felt strange around us.

Her father and I didn't believe in haunted houses. I've always held a firm belief that when someone dies they go on to eternity. They don't stay around to hide out in my art room. My daughter continued to have problems with her bedroom. She saw small balls of light streaking through the room going from the hallway into her closet. She complained that her desk vibrated when she tried sitting at it to do her homework. She also saw a dark solid figure walk through her room and would sometimes awaken to the dark figure standing beside her bed watching her.

I had to admit that the house was a bit weird. Many times in the late afternoon I heard the front door slam and footsteps to the middle of our Florida room. Thinking that someone was home early because they were ill or my husband was having a problem with his job, I would call out, "You're home early. Is there a problem?" When I walked out to the Florida room no one was there and the front door was locked. At other times, it sounded like someone was in the kitchen rattling dishes as if they were preparing a snack or getting something to drink. The only problem is, I was in the house alone.

These things kept on for years. When you have a haunted house the entities kind of sneak up on you. The paranormal incidences increase gradually. They become a part of your daily life, and although it can be creepy, it's not the kind of scary you see in movies.

In the early 2000's the television show Ghost Hunters aired. Their Halloween special was the first time I had seen video proof that something does exist and heard my first EVP's.

Months later, I heard on the evening news that Dustin Pari was in St. Augustine doing a ghost hunt. My husband and I got in our truck and drove down to the St. Augustine lighthouse. We talked with Dustin, and he assured us that we were not crazy and referred us to a paranormal team in Florida. The paranormal team found evidence that our house is indeed haunted.

Since that time, we've had two teams of investigators research our house. We have also had a television show produced about the house. Another unusual thing about this haunting is this is not the only house in the neighborhood with paranormal activity. There are at least three other houses in the neighborhood we know to have paranormal activity. It is known as a cluster haunting in paranormal circles.

I am not a psychic, paranormal researcher, or paranormal enthusiast. I just happen to have purchased a haunted house. I don't really know what these things are in my house, but I know they exist. The only thing I know for sure is they are a form of energy. They are also intelligent and can answer questions and carry on conversations among themselves and with investigators.

This blog will give me the opportunity to share with others what happens in a real haunted house. This is such an incredible experience, I decided to write a memoir. Have you ever wondered what happens after the ghost Hunter team leaves the house? What is it like to live with paranormal activity on a daily basis? I found writing the memoir helpful to define my own feelings about this. I'm still working on the book, and I discovered a lot about myself and my beliefs through writing the book. It's not just about things going bump in the night. It's about what happens to someone when their entire belief system is challenged.

I hope to hear from others who have a similar situation and deal with paranormal activity every day. My house is what is also known as very active. Things happen here on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. It can be frightening. It can be creepy, and it can be funny.

I've gotten many requests by paranormal groups to investigate this house. Since this is not a commercial property and it's my home, investigations are too invasive. I realized that the research is important to paranormal groups. Therefore, I've set up the ghost cam in my art room where most of the activity happens. This is not a moneymaking site. We do not offer ghost hunts, T-shirts, or other souvenirs.

I am a working artist, so I will be using the art room at different times during the day and evening. You will just have to put up with my intrusion. That might not be a bad thing since the ghosts say they like to watch me paint and make jewelry. I've noticed activity when I'm in there working. I hear things slide around on the shelves behind me, knocks and banging in the closet, and occasionally my drafting table starts vibrating. As time goes on, we will refine our cameras and audio equipment. I appreciate any technical advice you can give me. I want the site to work well for true paranormal investigators. The paranormal teams have helped me to learn how to live with this type of activity, and I want to help them in their quest.

I will try to post new happenings and updates on the house. You can watch the art room at http://www.hauntedartist.com

Ciao,
Caterina