My business is haunted, very haunted.

This has been festering for a few years now. My wife and I bought a pizza/ice-cream shop with an apartment upstairs of it which we rent out. The building is in a small, very old town that dates back to the 1830-1840's. It's such an old town that my sister had a friend that wanted to dig up where the outhouses used to be for old bottles. We found 2 very rare bottles worth thousands of dollars, a pikes peak, and a george washington flask, both were broke. So it's an old town.

Any ways,

When my first tennants moved upstairs I'd hear this knocking noise right over my dining area. I heard it quite often, then realized that during the time I was hearing it, noone was upstairs. One day the tennant came down and asked me if I was running some power tools or something, I hadn't been running anything, including the prep eqpt we use for the business. He said his couch has been shaking really bad lately, all the time. He had his couch right over my dining area, where the noise I heard has been comming from.

So after a year they moved out, there was no other strange occurances at that time. My next tennant moved in shortly after and turned into a good friend of mine. He still lives there. One night he mentioned to me that sometimes his couch would shake. Weird huh?

So the last month or so things have gotten worse. There has been this pounding noise that started coming from the ceiling in the kitchen. I haven't witnessed it but my wife and another employee has. I told my wife it must be someone upstairs. Then the next day the pounding moved into the back kitchen area which is an addition to the building and has nothing above.

My wife cleaned the pizza prep table the other night, came in the next morning and the sauce spoon was out of the make table and laying in the flour container on the other table. Then tonight... tonight was freaky.

Theres a lady in town who claims to be psychic. She had a party one time and told my wife and mom and her friend some stuff. Some of it came true, and some of the stuff she said to my moms friend she couldn't have known. My mom and her friend is from a city 45 miles away and doesn't know this woman at all. I guess her dead husband came through this lady and sent a message only she would know. So anyways, this lady comes in our business tonight for an order. She was asking my wife some questions about the psychic party they had (this was like a year or more ago) and if anything came true. So my wife says "you are a meduim too right?" the lady says "yes, I am and you have company here, they are mischevious and like to move things, but they are not mean at all". So my wife freaks and starts to tell her about all the strange stuff thats happened, my wife says "I feel like someone is trying to give me a message, like they are trying to tell me something".

At that exact moment, there was a loud boom in the dining room, then an ice cold chill hit her and something tapped her shoulder, hard, 2 times and ran a finger through her hair. The lady looked at my wife and said with a puzzled look on her face "one just tapped your shoulder".

So now my wife wants to sell the business. But she says one thing "I'm not afraid to die anymore", that comming from her is enough for me to believe that something DID touch her tonight.

[edit on 4-2-2005 by DesEagle50cal]

[edit on 4-2-2005 by DesEagle50cal]

A haunting could be good for your business if you are up to it. Probably no one will want to live in the apartment upstairs though. What you can do is make it part of a tour.
But the main thing is that you and your wife will have to be comfortable.
In my opinion since the spirits are only mischievous and not a danger you can make some good cash.
People will go there from all over the country.

Dude that is Way freaky!! So are you considering selling the business? are you considering blessing the place or a spiritual cleansing or what not?

I don't really know. My wife tried to burn sage in there to cleanse it a couple weeks ago, well i think she burns it often actually.

I personally like the idea of a haunted store, then again, I'm not the one working up there. I quit working up there 1 1/2 years ago. So I'm not sure, we planned on selling it eventually and moving up north anyways. But maybe it'll be a little sooner than we planned. As far as any religious ceremonies, I'm not a very religious person, but whatever/whoever they are must have stronger ties to the place than we do, who are we to make them leave?

I'd say that's very lucky. Try to get some nationally known ghost hunter like Loyd Aurbauch or a psychic like Syvia Brown to come check it out and "vallidate" your haunting. You'll get tourists and ghost hunters from around the world showing up, waving EMF meters, and buying pizza and ice cream. Turn your upstairs into several B&B style short-term rental units. You don't even have to live on premises anymore if your wife if uncomfortable with the place.

Here in San Diego, more than a few businesses owe their whole livelihood to hauntings.

These are lost souls who died in a "quick and violent way" they don't understand they are dead and they don't know what to do...they need to go where they belong so just send them LOVE and tell them where to go, they will go away and thank you

Ameliaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Awesome story! At least they aren't mean. But here's what I am wondering... Why can't the psychic lady help more in this situation? Find out who they are and what this "message" to your wife is. I, for one, would love to find out!

I say, if you peacefully communicate with them (see amelia's response), most effectively, via a medium, they will go if you want them to. Try to find out who they are, why they are there, and if they are not aware that they've died, and would like help crossing over. If you want them to leave, it is best to do so in a loving way. Very few can communicate with such entities in a way that they understand and respond to well.

I recommend doing as many things as you can to make the environment seem less "haunted"... A crystal/rock water fountain, plants, art work, good lighting, mirrors, etc. A little positive decor can do a lot.

Hmm. good idea. The medium did say that there was a young girl and an older man, they had some attachment to the bathroom. The building was a barbershop long ago, it's hard to say what the bathroom was. I'm not sure where to look up those kind of records.

She also said that she sensed something about our back room, by the large grey freezer. Well, we don't have a large grey freezer, but we do have a large walk-in cooler. But that part of the building is an addition.

I also want to add that my tennants upstairs have also heard this banging noise. They swear it's comming from downstairs. They hear it at times when we are closed.

strange, because I never thought that spirits could cause physical sounds and movement. i don't know much about these types of paranormal events, but if unexplained loud banging is one of their signs, I think my house too is haunted. For me, the only neighbors I have are all businesses that are closed at night and the nearest neighbor is a few buildings down. I only have a parking lot on one side but another 1 floor building attached to ours, and we're on the second floor. Anyways, If I keep hearing banging from the side of my house where there isn't even a person in sight and it's not coming from our parking lot, I'm starting to get a little freaked out. What got me most was that it was spontaneous and I couldn't find a pattern to which the sound was going. It lasted all night untill I finally was frustrated enough to make a stomp of my own in which the sounds stopped. Btw, I tried to investigate all causes and found noone or nothing mechanical to have been responsible. My only thought was someone broke in downstairs, but had to have been messed up to bang the walls once every 5-10 minutes and pause randomly.

I try not to believe in things like this however and always try to find the best logical explanation for these types of events. Sometimes, the most logical choices happen to be unorthodox but may be more accurate then what we we see as Fact. For your case, I'll go with ghost but in mines, I still have my doubts.

I did see a ghost once in my life, and it was byfar the weirdest thing to ever witness. I breaks between the borders of reality almost, almost as if see a light contrast b&w tv character cutout but it's there. I watched it moved from when I saw it to a few feet ahead where it went through the walls. Never saw another ghost again.

Frankly, I do believe in spirits but I'm still skeptical to whether or not they are actually spirits of those that were once living or rather "Intelligent Design" creations. If spirit's do exists, that would me that all living things do indeed posses a spirit, or a mind in life. But to me, I just don't buy that, that the nature of a cell from it's creation could've reproduced a soul into everything that had evolved. Unless of course, the man could indeed be more then what meets the eye in comparison with the rest of life on earth or that there is more that we do not understand in the creation and maintanance of life. Who know's, I'm tired of ranting.

Well, something poked her shoulder, ran a finger through her hair, makes loud banging noises, moves stuff around....

I dunno wth it is but it's something.

strange, because I never thought that spirits could cause physical sounds and movement.

These events are called poltergeists.

Well we do have some amateur ghost hunters who want to come investigate. They emailed us today. I would really like to get the "real deal" though, but I'm not going to fork out a bunch of cash for someone to confirm this for us. We are solidly convinced the place has a ghost or two.

My mom had one of those old tape recorders she gave me today. We will turn it on when we close tonight and see if we can catch any noises. Maybe they will talk to us

Since the ghost hunters are amatuers, will they not do it for free??

Originally posted by DesEagle50cal
My mom had one of those old tape recorders she gave me today. We will turn it on when we close tonight and see if we can catch any noises. Maybe they will talk to us

Before you leave the tape recorder alone and leave the store you should ask questions while its recording. Ask if anyone is there. Ask why they are there. Do a few questions like this and then leave it over night.

interesting but i wouldnt sell the business. it may actually be good for business.
seems like something like a local news station would like to do a piece on and it would give you free advertising.

www.stefanbion.de...

Originally posted by Umbrax

Originally posted by DesEagle50cal
My mom had one of those old tape recorders she gave me today. We will turn it on when we close tonight and see if we can catch any noises. Maybe they will talk to us

Before you leave the tape recorder alone and leave the store you should ask questions while its recording. Ask if anyone is there. Ask why they are there. Do a few questions like this and then leave it over night.

ya said to be E.V.P. what White Noise is based off of.. I think its very possible to get these kinda things.. I think you should try using a digital recorder, and letting us hear the tapes if anything appears on it...

www.whitenoisemovie.com...

Check the site out.. maybe the movie also.. I havent seen it but I am very interested in checking it out... There is anoter site that The Movie site linked to before the movie came out but I cant remember what its called at the monment...

here is the actual site here..

aaevp.com...

its good to look at..

[edit on 7-2-2005 by ThichHeaded]

This is unravelling into a very interesting mystery. Please keep us posted. Anyway, its good to just go about the matter in a sort of helpful, open minded and sympathetic way, rather than making them feel "hunted" or exploited. Its still a smart move to have someone who is an experienced and sensitive medium there throughout the investigations to sort of mediate the process and communicate with both sides.

I do like that you said that it was clear they had more connection to the place than you do...

I think this is interesting and not something to fear. As far as your business, it may be good, maybe nothing-I think most times, in haunted businesses, they're never around when you want- at least not in the hour a customer was there.

Here in the western Chicago suburbs is a restaurant that is 'semi-known' for having a ghost (s?)

theshadowlands.net...

hope this works, it isn't much. You must sroll down to "Clarendon Hills" and "Country House Restaurant".

This place is cool (I've never seen anything though) and its always packed.
Excellent food also.
They have 'flyers' to pass out, a local news story about the haunting, etc. If you're interested, U2U me and I'll mail you a copy.

If I find it on the net (its old and obscure) I'll post it as well.

N

Well we got something on the recorder last night. No voices, but weird none-the-less. About 20 minutes after leaving there is a weird distortion comming through the tape, kind of a real garbled static sound. Very hard to explain. ALmost like some kind of electric feild was interfering with the recording. There is also 2 distinctive high pitched beeps about 2 minutes apart during this same time frame.

Electromagnetic interference is my guess. I'd like to get this online for you all, I don't know if it's possible with this old recorder. I'm only half way through the recording there could still be more too.

Wow that is very strange indeed. If you happen to hear something that may be voices, something inaudible, play it backwards if you can.
Sometimes reverse speech shows up as EVP.
For more on reverse speech I have a recent thread here.