Research into a Paranormal World

Greetings ATS. I have been a member for some time now and check the site almost daily, I thought it was finally time to tell my story. I promise what you will read is true. I can offer no other comfort to this than my word. So get yourself a drink, sit back, and enjoy my very long tale. 

If there is serious interest in hearing the EVPs I retained, I will find a way to make them public and try to post them sometime this weekend. But please, let me know.

I didn't believe in ghosts until I turned twenty five years old. Prior, I was always a skeptic to claims of paranormal experiences. I believed wholeheartedly that there was a logical explanation to people's delusions of spirits terrorizing their lives and keeping them up at night. Whether the witnesses were truly delusional, fell victim to hype and mass hysteria, or their brains were putting an illogical spin to a logical event, I didn't know. But I knew, without a doubt, ghosts could not exist. That narrow minded thinking came crashing down over the course of months, as I delved deeply into the paranormal world.

Eight years ago I began working as a security officer for a medium sized hospital. The hospital had two buildings. One building was for medical patients and the other was for psychiatric ones. When I was hired, I was told that I would be working at the medical building. This remained true for my first two years. Then, after a brief absence pursuing a different career path, I came back and was immediately assigned to the night shift at the psychiatric building.  It was there that I met the woman that would change my life. 

When I first started in the psychiatric building I realized very quickly that it was a different type of environment. We would go hands on with violent patients at minimum two or three times in a twelve hour shift. During these altercations I would occasionally see the woman who later become my friend, but it was always in passing. 

One night, about a year after I started at the new building, she mistakenly locked herself outside. She called in a panic on an exterior phone and requested for security to let her back in. When I arrived at the door a few minutes later she was in tears. It wasn't due to the dark or the danger of being locked outside in a dangerous neighborhood. No, it was because a cockroach had flown into her hair and she couldn't get it out. Watching a grown woman cry is difficult for me to do, so I offered to dig through her hair and find it. She enthusiastically agreed. After an extensive search of her hair with no signs of life, she finally stopped crying. After thanking me several times too many, she went back to work.

A few weeks later I bumped into her during an episode with a violent patient. After the patient was safely locked down in leather restraints, she asked that I come by the nurse's station on her floor so we could discuss something important. She seemed distraught, much like the night I searched her hair, only without the tears. I agreed and met with her a few hours later when I became available. Quietly, she pulled me back into the nursing station and asked if I would examine a picture on the computer for her. She said she had taken the picture in an abandoned part of the hospital and there was something in it I should see. Not sure what to expect, I looked.

I recognized the area instantly as one of the areas we patrol. I saw nothing out of order and stated so. She zoomed in. It was then that I saw something very, very peculiar. It was what appeared to me as a bald man, wearing a monk's robes, with his head pressed against his hands in prayer. What was particularly odd about the man was that the lower section of his body was missing and you could see right through him. 

Knowing a bit about photography at the time, I convinced myself that it was nothing more than digital manipulation. I thought to myself that she had to be playing a prank on me and that I would have no part of it. I scolded her for taking the picture and told her if I caught her doing it I would be forced to report her. I then left her at her desk and continued on my rounds. 

I stewed over the prank for days. Why, of all people, would she show me? Because I had helped her? Was it her way of testing my gullibility or my loyalty?  But why was she so distraught? I knew that there had to be something more to this. She was a registered nurse. She had to be at least somewhat intelligent. Why would she go through so much trouble of digital manipulation to fool someone with whom she was so thankful of having helped her weeks earlier? Especially during an obvious time of personal crisis? It seemed odd. My curiosity was getting the better of me. 

I sought her out the next night. When I came across her late in the evening, I pulled her aside and apologized for reacting so harshly. She contested her innocence and said she could prove that the area in the picture was haunted. She said she would be going on break in a couple of hours and asked me to escort her through the area. Knowing she couldn't possibly be right, I decided to accompany her and put an end to this charade. Maybe then, I decided, I could get to the root of this.

We met a few hours later and we began exploring the area. It was the oldest section of the building, dating back to the late 1800s. Over the years they had torn down most of the original building and placed a new one over parts of the foundation. We began to go from room to room with her calling on the spirits she believed were there. Nothing happened. We spent a full twenty minutes in the area with no results. Both she and I became irritated. She for not being able to summon spirits on demand and me for allowing the nonsense to continue for as long as it did. 

As we were walking back to her floor I took her through a shortcut. It was a locked off area that very few people could access. I was talking to her about her strong belief in spirits and how it could be signs of mental illness. She was upset, naturally, but remained civil. As we got about halfway through my shortcut, I heard a noise in a room off of the main hall. We both stopped in our tracks. I approached the door and, finding it locked, found the correct key on my keyring. I opened the door and entered while she stayed in the hall. 

It was a small office area with three equal sized rooms attached. I searched every room and found nothing but old equipment and paperwork. Figuring something must have just fallen over, I proceeded back through the main entryway. She smiled as I shrugged my shoulders. As we began to walk away I heard the doorknob jiggle behind me. We both turned around and saw nothing. Her face lit up. Before she could open her mouth I turned around and headed for her floor. Reluctantly, she followed. With her back in her area, I returned to the door alone.

I searched the rooms again, thinking someone might have been hidden that I just didn't see. This time I did a more thorough search. Satisfied at having found nothing, I exited through the main door and once again locked it. I moved a few steps away and placed my flashlight beam on the doorknob. It visibly moved side to side. It appeared as if someone was attempting to enter. 

I knew that there was a rational explanation. I couldn't figure it out right then, but I knew there had to be an explanation. I put it out of my mind for the night and finished the rest of my shift. 

-continued~

The next night I retrieved an on campus engineer and asked him to come check out a doorknob. I told him I was having an issue with it and was concerned someone might gain access to the room. With paperwork still inside, I told him, my main concern was former patients' right to privacy, quoting the HIPPA law. We went and looked at the doorknob. He examined both sides and found no fault. With the door once again locked and with him walking away, I focused all of my attention on the doorknob. I stood there for thirty minutes watching it. It never budged.

My future friend found me later that night and asked what I thought about the doorknob jiggling that we had heard. I told her the truth. I told her that I went back and saw it physically move, and that I had a hospital engineer take a look at it. I told her that although neither of us found fault in the doorknob it didn't automatically mean it was a spirit. I told her I would look into it further and get back with her.

Over the next two weeks, I spent a lot of time in the locked off area. The more time I spent there the weirder things became. The doorknob, it seems, was just the beginning. I began hearing footsteps, things shifting in empty rooms, and breathing. There were knocks on doors, doorknobs jiggling and doors slamming that I could never locate. I began to think that I was spiraling downward into a delusional state. I needed proof.

One night I sought her out and told her everything I experienced. I told her I wanted to explore other locked off areas as well and begin documenting what we experience. I told her I wanted evidence that only I would collect that we could both independently analyze to verify it wasn't my mind buying into delusions or hysteria. She told me to bring in an audio recorder and digital camera and we would go ghost hunting together. 

Over the course of a few weeks my pursuit to clarify my own sanity became an obsession. We spent thousands of dollars on more intricate gear including better digital cameras, video cameras, voice recorders, and EMF detectors. But the monetary cost was not the only price to be paid. It took a toll on each of us as we began to delve even deeper into a world neither of us fully understood. 

Maria was the name we gave the demon who plagued us. She oft presented herself as a little girl, somewhere between the ages of nine and twelve. Today she continues to manifest in this form for people who roam the now deserted halls. Countless people have seen her over the years and she has been reported as recently as six months ago.  Only a handful of us know she is more then just a lost spirit. She is evil, through and through, and also takes on the form of a black, shapeless mass that is approximately eight feet tall and three feet wide. Only a couple of people have seen her this way, but each of us know what she is, and who released her from her prison.

During our investigations in various locked places throughout the hospital, we came across a hotspot of activity far greater than any area we had seen. We thought it a good idea to leave the other areas alone and focus all of our time on this one. This, we thought, would be a great place to obtain substantial proof that neither of us were mentally ill. Little did we know the results of which would release something neither of us fully understood or were entirely prepared to deal with. 

During the course of several weeks of research in this hotspot area, which I will further refer to as the Recovery Room, we spent hours taking photographs, video and audio. We obtained quit a bit of audio evidence but our lack of photographic and video evidence was disappointing. When we could get the cameras to work properly, for, it seems, whatever existed in the room would drain new batteries to empty within seconds, it often contained nothing usable. 

Naturally, as any two people spending a good deal of time together pursuing a similar goal, the nurse and I became close friends. It was then she felt confident enough to confide in me the secret she had been withholding all this time. 

Late one night, while both of us were off work, she called and told me she was a Sensitive. She explained that she is hyper sensitive to spirits and can "feel" when they are around. She further explained that she sees them more often then most and that she has the capability to speak to and listen to what they say. And, she said, after she and I interacted for the first time, she knew that she had to make a believer out of me as I was important in a way she had yet to understand. I was floored. I had no idea of how to react. I told her I believed her, although secretly I wondered if she was schizophrenic, and that we would discuss it further the next night while investigating.

~continued~

I guess she was able to determine my disbelief in her story, because what she did that night was unpredicted and, without a doubt, what started the process of setting Maria free. I took our normal gear with us: cameras, voice recorders, EMF detectors, etc. She didn't plan on investigating that night. Her plans were much more twisted then I thought her capable of. As I began setting up our gear in the recovery room, I happened to glance over and look at her. When I saw she was setting something up at the empty nurse's station I didn't think twice about it. I finished what I was doing and headed in her direction. Then I heard her speak. 

She asked, of the spirits in the room, to make me see what she does. She then said something about offering the spirits blood as I saw her make a cutting motion on her hand. Seeing the motion and hearing the word "blood" sent me into a sprint. When I got to her it sank in what she had done. She sliced open her thumb with a razor blade, dumping her blood onto a towel, as a sacrifice to the spirits. I was furious at her for hurting herself over something so stupid. After I helped her get patched up and collected our gear, I gave up all hope of investigating for the night and went back to work. 

Two days after the event was the first time I met Maria. She did not appear at the hospital but in my dreams. In the dream, I was investigating the recovery room alone, when Maria revealed herself from an Isolation room off to the side of the main room. As stated earlier, she was a child of approximately nine to twelve years of age. She had long dark hair that covered her face and a 1950's style, white nightgown that went down to her ankles. Imagine, if you will, the ghost from the movie "The Ring" and you would have almost an exact match. The primary difference was that Maria was covered in dried blood. In the dream, after revealing herself, she immediately charged directly at me. I woke up in a start, sweating from head to toe. I didn't pay much attention to the dream, since we all have the occasional nightmares. The fact that I had seen the movie, albeit a few years prior, further helped me explain the issue as just a nightmare. 

It happened again the next day. And the day after that. By the end of the tenth day I had the exact same nightmare nine times. In each dream I would wake up before she reached me. Finally I confessed to my friend what I was going through. Her face turned white and she immediately started shaking. She had been having the exact same dream.

We started focusing our research efforts on the Isolation room.  If Maria came out of the same room in every dream, it was quite possible she had a connection to it. We recovered nothing the first night nor the second. But each following day of sleep was dreamless so we knew we were on the right track. We continued for a week with not so much as even a whisper on our recorders. Our cameras, both still and video, still suffered the dead batteries. It was extremely unusual to have silence in the recovery room, any part of it, especially when the batteries died in our equipment. So we continued looking for an explanation in hopes of catching something that could help us.

It was around that time that several of the psychiatric patients started complaining of a small girl in a white dress that would be in their rooms at nights. It was written off by the doctors and nurses as part of their hallucinations and delusions, but my friend and I knew the truth. We let her out of the isolation room by our continued investigations. We agreed to stop investigating any part of the hospital for awhile, fearing that our research might let something else out, or strengthen Maria further. But, now that she was free, Maria was able to gain strength from other sources and she was far from done with us.

During one day of sleep well into our break from investigations, Maria came at me again. This time, she did not present herself in the Isolation room, but in the Morgue. When she charged at me, I did not wake up. She grabbed me in a bear hug fashion, digging her fingernails into my back, and pulled me down at an angle until my lips touched the top of her bloodied hair. This jolted me awake. 

Two things occurred when I woke up. If nothing else we had experienced up to that point had convinced me that I was a sane person, and not some delusional, hallucinatory hysteric, this was it. When I started to come to I detected a foreign object in my mouth. Using my tongue I pushed it out and grabbed it with my fingers. What I held turned out to be a single, eight inch long, gray hair. Finding a hair in one's mouth is nothing to get excited about, except for the fact that not a single person in my house had gray hair. 

~continued~

I bent over my bed and got sick, losing the hair in my thick carpet at some time during the process. After I finished hurling out my last meal, I got out of bed to find something to clean it up with when I noticed a sharp pain in my lower back. I rushed towards the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and noticed eight distinct fingernail markings, two of which were bleeding. I realized then that Maria was not just some aimless spirit. She was very real and very dangerous.

When I told my friend what happened, she was horrified. She admitted having her own experiences inside of her house during the previous weeks of our break, including waking up with Maria staring at her, but she never thought a spirit could truly cause harm. She told me that this type of thing was outside of her understanding and that she wanted to bring in a third person to tell us what to do.

Weeks went by without me experiencing any type of dream. On some nights, however, while patrolling the floors of the hospital I would get scratches on various areas of my body that I could not identify. My friend would tell me of her encounters with Maria, and how she had been becoming increasingly hostile towards her. Not only was she now waking up with strange scratches, but her young son was complaining about a young girl who keeps him up at night. 

Finally the night arrived when we brought in a third party. She was an RN, like my friend, but worked at the medical building. I had known of her from when I worked there before, but we were not acquaintances. That night I found out she was a self proclaimed psychic. She said she could seal Maria to the hospital so she would no longer be part of our lives outside of it, but that was as much as she could do. First, she needed to see where Maria came from.

We proceeded to the recovery room. As the three of us entered into the main area, we saw it's face in a television screen across the room. I knew instantly it was her and that it feared and hated the psychic for being there. It took the face of a bald man with red eyes. I was paralyzed with fear. Despite every desire to leave the room, my legs would not move. 

My friend got closer to the television, drawn to the true face of Maria, almost mesmerized. The television screen warped outward as the face began to open its mouth. My friend's reflection in the tv became fully encompassed by Maria's mouth. It was then the psychic intervened, grabbing ahold of my friend and pulling her backwards with all her strength. She pulled her directly into me, which helped me start the process of running towards the exit. I grabbed both my friend and the psychic, and with a maddening feat of force, pulled them both out of the room in one motion.

Now outside the room, the psychic kneeled down and began calling on God to help seal Maria to the hospital. For ten minutes she prayed out loud. She closed her prayer, smiled satisfactorily, and said it was done. We helped her to her feet and escorted her down to her car. She then asked two things of us. She asked that any picture, audio or video recording we had of the recovery room be destroyed. She said that Maria had come into our lives as a direct result of our investigations.  She said that if we would destroy every piece of data we had on her we would completely destroy the link. She also asked that we never investigate inside the hospital again. We both agreed and she went on her way.

While I do not know the outcome of my friend's purge of data, as we quit discussing all things related to Maria or investigating at all, I kept to my word. Mostly. I did delete all pictures and video that I had. It was essentially worthless to us anyway since no real evidence was present. I kept all of the audio. Some it it was lost due to a hard drive crash a couple of years later, but I did have some EVP files that survived on my laptop.

As far as me not investigating the hospital any further, well that was a broken promise too. Three years ago, two years after our agreement, I once again set a recorder in the Isolation room. I had another friend with me, one who claims to have faced off with his own demons while living in Hawaii as a kid, in case I got in over my head. Inside the isolation room, I let the recorder start, stating his name and our purpose, and walked away leaving it to record the white noise. We remained in the main part of the recovery room, approximately fifty feet away, separated by a wall and two doors. We stayed for approximately fifteen minutes to try to identify any sounds that may show up on the recorder. I then approached it, said we were leaving, and we both proceeded out of the hospital.

An hour later I retrieved it and listened. As it started you hear my voice and you hear us walking away. And within twenty seconds of our last recorded footsteps, it caught the most unnerving piece of audio evidence I have ever captured: the sound of the demon known as Maria, in her truest form. Neither of us heard a sound during our time inside the recovery room, and as evidenced by the recording of our footsteps walking away and the sheer volume and proximity of the sound, we properly cleared ourselves as the culprits. 

What it said, I am not entirely sure. I clipped it and cleaned it up through every available piece of audio software I had. I've sent it to dozens of people, some experts in paranormal research and some not, in the hopes of getting it analyzed. Not one of them could answer me as to what it was or what it said. But clear as day, without a doubt in my mind, it was Maria. I have not been back to the room since. Luckily, Maria has left me be.

To this day the building still stands. It is deserted now of all psychiatric patients. Security, maintenance, and housekeeping still roam the halls searching for squatters, doing repairs and cleaning up messes. Every once in awhile, Maria makes herself known. She does not want to be forgotten. She waits, patiently, for the next idiot like me to set her free. 

first page done lol

this story of yours is very very compelling evidence of the paranomal i my self have had encounters with the other side and its mind changing dude dangerous stuff mann

Wow! It was a long read but a very interesting read nonetheless! I usually stay away from the long walls of text, but this one pulled me into it and made me read the whole thing. Thanks for sharing your personal experience.

reply to post by Sanity911

Thank you posting your story it is a terrific read.

Events you reported, such as, rapid battery discharging, doorknob rattlers, doors inexplicably closing, large black shadows, are common to many paranormal, and some UFO encounters, for a very long time. Personal accounts of doorknob rattling from 300 years ago exist (no link but you can do the research). In summary, your story is very believable and consistent with other reports collected over the last 100 years.

The only aspect of your story I personally question is the existence of "true evil". Is it possible that you experienced "evil" or is it possible that you interpreted unfamiliar events using preconceived ideas implanted in all of us through sensationalized Hollywood horror films. I ask this question because after researching, and occasionally personally experiencing, similar strange events, I have always eventually found benevolent explanations to events that may initially appear to be malevolent. Waking with bleeding wounds would certainly be terrifying, but assuming without question these were of paranormal origin, it also demonstrates that more vital organs, such as the eyes, were deliberately avoided. I suggest that it is at least possible that minor injuries could be the result of "uncontrollable contact uncertainties" and not malevolent intent.

I would very much like to hear your opinions on my theory.

Thank you and best regards,
Z

reply to post by DrZrD


Whether you consider Maria an angry spirit, a demon or a benevolent spirit; it's intent doesn't appear to have any ounce of friendliness. Even more jarring is the fact that it kept freaking people out, which appeared to be it's intent. The nightmares, scratching & stabbing (of nails) definitely doesn't give me confidence or in a spiritual sense that it has any desire to make friends with any living being. The blood sacrifice that the OP's friend did to it, definitely speaks of blood magic & binding/unbinding of spirits. That probably wasn't the best way to approach a spirit who's intentions were masked until they "released" it. Just food for thought.

wow, what a great read ! thanks for sharing with us.
it almost sounds made up but for some reason I believe you. Maria sounds like she was definately up to no good, demons can be quite deceptive.
Wish I had a job where I could ghost hunt...

reply to post by Sanity911


oh, I forgot. Yes, if you can somehow post the evp's I'd love to check them out !

reply to post by CrimsonKnight13

To "freak someone out", that person must have learned that a particular sight should induce a state of fear. For example, below is a well known graphic that exemplifies this point.


An innocent child looking at this image only sees 9 dolphins playing while adults usually see an amorous couple first and must strain to see the dolphins at all.

My own research suggests that a significant portion of "evil" paranormal encounters are the result of Hollywood imprinted fears and not true malevolent intent. No different from how environment causes adults to see the amorous couple first when they could only see dolphins as children. Preconceived ideas will always control how we initially respond to unfamiliar sights and sounds.

All comments are welcome, this is just my theory for most, but likely not all, negative paranormal encounters.

Best regards,
Z

reply to post by eye0see0with0my0third0eye

this story of yours is very very compelling evidence of the paranomal...

Not exactly. It's a story.

reply to post by DrZrD


I can understand your approach on this, though I tend to believe that we have inherent instincts towards the paranormal as well. As humans, we usually have a propensity to freak out from the unknown.

I appreciate that you explained your reasoning. Opposite views keep conversations interesting (when peaceful).

reply to post by QuantumQuackers

A quick review of the OP's profile and prior posts should satisfy anyone that everything "Sanity911" claims in this story is consistent with every other post Sanity911 made to ATS during the prior 2 years. Furthermore, nothing in Sanity911's prior posting history even remotely suggests hoaxing intents.

I agree that hoaxes are everywhere today, but I will be accepting this post as genuine until contrary evidence is presented.

Best regards,
Z

Originally posted by DrZrD
reply to post by QuantumQuackers

 

A quick review of the OP's profile and prior posts should satisfy anyone that everything "Sanity911" claims in this story is consistent with every other post Sanity911 made to ATS during the prior 2 years. Furthermore, nothing in Sanity911's prior posting history even remotely suggests hoaxing intents.

I agree that hoaxes are everywhere today, but I will be accepting this post as genuine until contrary evidence is presented.

As you wish. Note though, I never made claim to the OP fabricating...or not...his story. The poster I responded claimed that the story is "proof of the paranormal". The story is no such thing.

If the story is true, then it still does not prove paranormality. That proof can only be ascertained by an onsite investigation by someone like myself or others with similar experience in performing such an analysis.

I've heard different things over the years that I could list here. Lots of people think they've seen ghosts or experienced paranormal activity. It's actually pretty common. I could go on and on. Honestly, I'm not joking. On and on and on. People have so many stories you'll never ever hear.

I remember when I was a small kid I was leaning against the wall with my sister and the music was on. I think we were just talking. And then I felt the wall behind me push in towards me and then sag back. I don't think my sister felt it. But for some reason I've always remembered it. And there were other things like that. Like one time the whole wall shook in our living room. We never found out what caused it. I remember watching a movie with someone and we heard knocking on the door. He was creeped out by it. He moved slowly to the door and opened it. Nothing was there. Several years ago I came home and a friend had heard things knocking on the roof and walls. We've had things happen like that. Our house ain't haunted or anything, that's for sure. Just a normal, everyday house. But I think these types of things are very very common and most people have experienced them.

Everybody assumes it's rare and unique so they don't say anything. You just assume that everybody else is normal and you're the weird one. I don't think there're normal people.

It's kind of sad. So much in our world is buried by history.

But WHAT are those things? Well... I imagine the wall settling in or a board that finally loosens up. All sorts of things can explain noises in houses. We just attach magical meanings to them.

Originally posted by jonnywhite
I've heard different things over the years that I could list here. Lots of people think they've seen ghosts or experienced paranormal activity. It's actually pretty common. I could go on and on. Honestly, I'm not joking. On and on and on...But I think these types of things are very very common and most people have experienced them...Everybody assumes it's rare and unique so they don't say anything. You just assume that everybody else is normal and you're the weird one. I don't think there're normal people.

Very intuitive. Yes, paranormal activity is quite normal, much more common than is reported and those who are associated with paranormality are often socially stained.

Well, it is one thing when you hear of walls shaking or doors slamming shut, but the OP's story is quite another. It involves a spirit clearly witnessed by multiple people, and sometimes at the same time. If true, that would be incredibly hard to disprove. The problem is, only the OP knows if it is true.

Definitely post the audio. At the very least, it was a cool story to read and well written. There are a lot of hoaxes, but spending two years to lead up to a hoax would be rather sad. That, or you just really love writing lol.