A Hazard of being a Paranormal Investigator

  Paranormal investigating is a hazardous hobby. Wondering around in dark homes, dilapidated buildings, or buildings being renovated can lead to bumps, bruises, cuts, and more serious injuries. All those things can be prevented if you are safe, cautious, and watch out for each other. There is another hazard of investigating. That hazard is attachments. Attachments are when the energy or spirit of a dead person/entity “attaches” to someone and usually shows up at home.

  Ask any paranormal investigator about attachments and they will probably tell you stories about the activity in their own homes. Attachments are an unintended consequence of paranormal investigating. It seems even if you take precautions by saying prayers before investigations or do smudging afterwords, they will sometimes find a way to come home with you.

  I have had strange activity going on in every single house I have lived in since I started investigating. Over my ten years of investigating, I have lived in seven different homes in four states. I always think that when I move, I can just verbally demand that whatever is there stays behind. It never does. Once we get settled into our new home, the activity starts right up again.

  One would probably think that since I am a paranormal investigator and experienced a lot of crazy stuff that activity in my own home wouldn’t really bother me, but it does. It does a lot! It’s one thing to go into someone else’s house, have some experiences, and then go home. It’s something completely different being woke up in the middle of the night by something you can’t see! I guess the only benefit of this is that I am able to understand exactly what our clients are going through.

  The activity started after I conducted my first couple of investigations. It was subtle at first. I would hear footsteps in the house, noises around my bedroom at night that couldn’t be explained, and a general feeling of being watched. Over the years, and during certain periods, the activity has increased. In the last ten years since this all began, I have heard voices of women and children, been poked in the back while I am going to sleep, heard knocking on the walls, and had drawers and other things open and close at night. The activity only happens in the bedroom and only takes place once the lights go out and I am trying to go to sleep.

  After every night of increased activity, I share with my wife what happened. She always thinks it’s just my imagination, even though I see her wake up and react to whatever is going on. She already thinks I am crazy enough going out looking for ghosts. Lately I have been able to get her to take it more seriously. One night I was working a night shift and she was in bed reading. She started feeling like something was moving around at the end of our bed. Thinking it was the cat, she looked down and saw nothing was there. As she stared at the end of the bed, she could see the sheets moving. A couple of minutes later a blanket we had at the end of the bed moved about four inches, while she was watching it. She believes me now!

  The activity continues no matter what I do. When it picks up, I just tell it to knock it off. Well, I sometimes use a little bit harsher language than that! If it is really causing me problems with getting sleep I will use some sage and try out a prayer of protection or removal. It usually helps for a little while, but than it’s back again.

  One common thing we hear on every investigation is the client saying that they don’t want us to think they are crazy or they want us to help prove that they aren’t crazy. My response to them is that we don’t think they are crazy at all and that they should come check out my house! There isn’t a person on our team that doesn’t have some kind of activity going on in their house. At this point, I would think it would be strange if they didn’t!

  So, if you are an investigator, thinking about being one, or you just like to visit places that are reported to be haunted, be careful out there and at least try and take some precautions to protect yourself before you go! You may be bringing home more than memories from your investigation or visit.

The Queen Is Elegant

When you are an enthusiast for paranormal places and happen to be visiting Southern California, pretty much the main hotspot you will find in any online search is the Queen Mary- a luxury ship that has been docked in Long Beach for decades. Now a hotel and museum with classy rooms, timeless hallways, and so many exhibits to see, there is plenty of room to get lost and find yourself... or something else.
Music from an older era plays in the lobbies, helping to lend an antique feel to the environment. Stairways and corridors go on for hours, and one can easily find themselves in places they did not expect.

Some of us leave with fantastic experiences to store in the memory banks. Others leave in the middle of the night.




The lights of Long Beach are incredible from the bow. There is plenty on the surface to discover.  Preserved quarters of the captain and his mates, along with old communication rooms can be found in random places along the deck. There are perfect locations to watch sunset, smell a cool ocean breeze, and see where past ceremonies have occurred- such as this pavilion near the rear of the ship.

But upon further searching, I found that the room in which I had the least interest became the spot where I felt the most overwhelming energy.
A sense of fear pervaded my mind and body the moment I stepped into that darkness. A dim, greenish light shined in water down below where you could see the large propeller at rest. Around it were coins and floating dollar bills, as if people considered the room to be a wishing well. Perhaps it was my phobia of enclosed areas filled with water, or perhaps the stories of men who died in the propeller's grinding twist are not legends after all.
The moment I went around to the next entryway and exited back into the museum, I felt immediate relief.

Although the entire ship is said to be haunted in one way or another, the area where most evidence has been recorded would be the first class pool- said by some to be a gateway for entities. Now off limits for safety reasons, it was saddening to not be granted access and witness this area in all its eerie glory. The pool is currently under renovations to be returned to its original state and may open some time in the next year. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, all we have to indulge our fascination is the locked doors leading inside.

I explored all night and could not decide if I should be happy or worried that people seemed to disappear after 1AM. When I finally did retire to the room I woke up hours later in one of the most chilling cold spells I have ever suffered. My travel companion had to wrap around me to stop the shivering, and even she became frozen trying to warm me.

What an amazing feeling when it subsided.

The next day we were allowed access to the infamous B340- a room surrounded by rumors and no shortage of paranormal tales involving death, poltergeist tampering, and activity so prominent that guests are no longer privileged to stay. We found a gutted, empty room. And we were not allowed to hang around long.

The paranormal tour was intriguing. It included the tale of a security guard who still works his shift there, even after a small child held up its arms then walked right through him.  The tour guide also mentioned ghosts in a front lobby area, the aforementioned propeller room, and the spirit of a man who was crushed in the engine room #13 door.

  It wasn't just the comfy accommodations and their cool portholes that allowed me to leave smiling the next day. It was not the surreal experience of a place that has long been on my bucket list. It was the thought and further realization of this strange world that, many times, the most elegant and gorgeous places also have plenty of ghosts to hide.

Have you visited the Queen Mary? We'd love to hear your experience.  Comment below to tell us all about it....

A.L.P.S. Investigates with Solano County Paranormal in Sebastopol, CA

Investigators:

Scott Wolf

Faye Navarro

Roxi Rodriguez

Jennifer Furgerson

When our team gets a call to investigate with another team we jump at the chance. We always enjoy being able to see how other teams run their investigations. It is a great learning opportunity for all of us. It doesn't matter how long you have been investigating, you always have something to learn.

When we were contacted by Solano County Paranormal to help out with a case they had in Sebastopol, CA we were very excited to help out and be able to work with their team. As it turned out, it was well worth the trip!

We arrived at the property to find a fairly large amount of land with several buildings, a house, horse corals, and wooded areas. It was very beautiful!

We all met up and Scott, Beth, and Melissa, of Solano County Paranormal, took us on a tour of the property, buildings, and the places where activity takes place. Next we came up with a game plan of how we could split up and cover all the major areas.

I chose to be one of the five that started in the house. I set myself up at the kitchen table which allowed me full view of the kitchen and a portion of the living room.

After about five minutes of sitting quietly, trying to get used to the normal sounds of the house, I began to smell a very strong odor of pipe tobacco. I looked around the area to see if there was anything nearby that could be giving off that odor. There was nothing. The smell quickly disappeared.  While I was at the table I would smell it several other times only to have it quickly vanish.

After about 30 minutes I moved into the living room where Scott was trying to capture some video. I sat with my back to an open window and once again I smelled the pipe tobacco. There was no way it was drifting in from outside.

As we sat in the living room we began to hear footsteps coming from the kitchen. It was so loud that I thought that someone was coming up the stairs, outside, that led to a deck near the kitchen door. We heard the footsteps several times during our time in the living room but, we were unable to come up with a logical conclusion as to what was causing it.

Later in the evening Jennifer and Melissa came down from upstairs and joined me in the living room. All three of us smelled the pipe tobacco throughout our time.

I had an opportunity to speak with the home owner later on in the night. I asked him if by chance he smoked a pipe and he told me he did not. He also mentioned that he had never had any experiences where he smelled it.

After about an hour we decided to move people around. Scott and I went down to one of the barns where a little girl had been seen. We set-up and started an EVP session to try and communicate with the little girl. 

Shortly after we started, one of the home owners came down to talk to us to see how things were going. We talked for about 5 minutes and went back to our EVP session.

What happened next I still can’t explain! As we sat there we began to hear footsteps on the gravel road just outside the barn. The footsteps started getting louder and louder as if someone was walking up to the door. Since there were no lights outside the barn, we wouldn’t see anyone coming until they appeared in the doorway. The footsteps stopped and no one appeared in the doorway.

Scott and I quickly ran outside and scanned the area. There was no one anywhere near us! What an amazing experience! We had no way to explain what was making the footsteps since there was no one around and no way anyone could have walked by without us being to see them when we ran outside.

Faye, Roxi, and I decided to head down to the edge of the property near a wooded area. Earlier in the night Roxi was filming in that area and she felt like someone had walked up behind her even though no one was there. Faye also had an experience in that area earlier as well.

Faye was near a wooded area when she started hearing something splashing around in the water. She later found out that there was a stream that ran through the property in that area but, there was no water in the stream. It was completely dried up!

This investigation did not disappoint any of us. It was a great experience and we are very thankful that Solano County Paranormal contacted us and asked us to help out. They are a great team and we are looking forward to working with them again in the future!

EVPs

Please click the link below. You will be re-directed to SoundCloud. The following EVPs were captured by Faye and Jennifer during our investigation.

 Sebastopol, Ca Investigation EVPs

When a Spirit Speaks Your Name

I have had many crazy experiences in the years I have been investigating. I have seen and heard things that I have never been able to explain. I have captured audio that gave me the chills, and sometimes freaked me out a little. 

Occasionally I recorded an EVP that captivated me. It made me want to find more answers for the client and the spirit that allowed me the privilege of capturing their voice from beyond. The answers were rarely available. 

Spirits don’t speak on command. They don’t always communicate in ways that we understand. They don’t carry on a conversation or always answer questions. It’s one of the many things about the paranormal that as investigators, we simply don’t understand. I am not sure we ever will. 

I have been on investigations where I captured a spirit, on audio, speak the name of one of my fellow investigators. I always wondered how that person felt when they heard their name. I always thought it must be a little unnerving to hear.

I always wondered why a spirit would have such a connection with one of us that they would feel the need to connect on such a personal level. Did they have a message for us? Were they trying to tell us something? 

Shortly after I joined A.L.P.S we went out to one of our first investigations, a residential. There was an orchard located right next to the property and there had been reports of activity in the orchard. Feeling that the close proximity of the orchard could possibly be causing issues with the property, we decided to send investigators into the orchard throughout the night.

Later in the night, Anna and I decided to move out to the orchard. I brought my new camcorder with me so I could record our experience. I was excited about being able to capture something paranormal on video.

As we walked around the orchard, in complete darkness, Anna saw something moving ahead of us. I heard her comment on what she saw, but I was too busy trying to change my mini-DVD that had just run out. I didn’t realize that she had moved on ahead of me.

As I fumbled with my camcorder, in the dark, I lost track of where Anna was. I remember wondering where she was as I made my way through the orchard. I eventually met up with her.

I went home and listened to the audio from my digital recorder. When I came to our time in the orchard I captured some audio that really shocked me. As I was wondering where Anna was in the orchard, I captured a female voice clearly say, “she’s up ahead Scott.” The voice had a pronounced accent. It was a “class A” EVP, which is the best quality you can capture. 

I let Anna listen to the EVP. We were both amazed at the quality and intelligence of what we captured. It had us both a little puzzled, but like most evidence we couldn’t explain it.

We moved on to our next residential investigation. During the course of the night I captured a female voice, with a heavy accent say, “Scott.” I was stunned! It was the same female from the orchard. Anna even listened and confirmed it.

Our next residential investigation none of our investigators captured an EVP, except for me. As Anna was speaking, I captured the same woman, again, say my name.

Our next investigation was The National Hotel. It was, as we call it, a “fun” investigation. We had no client. We were only there to see what we could find because the hotel intrigued all of us with its age and incredible history. My female friend never showed up.

I started to see a pattern. She always showed up during residential investigations, but she never showed up during our business or “fun” investigations. I would even try to get her to communicate with me during EVP sessions and she never came through. 

The more I heard her speak my name the more I wondered why she was following me from investigation to investigation. who was she? Had I somehow known her? Was she trying to tell me something? 

In the end I decided not to dwell on it. Maybe it was better not to know. Maybe we aren’t meant to know what it means when a spirit speaks your name.