Strange Lights in the Night Sky

This night will forever be engrained in my memory. Fourteen years later, I continue to try and make sense of what I saw. It was a stormy summer night, the rain was heavy and the lightning blinding. This was no ordinary storm though...

Earlier that night, I noticed the atmosphere was ripe for a wicked storm; I could sense one was about to erupt at any moment as I exited my university building. Everyone had the same idea as me, to get home fast!

I made it home safe, with just minutes to spare before the skies opened up and began beating on my town below. I was tired, so I decided to head up to my room and watch TV for a while. I have always loved a good storm, so like many times before I kept the vertical blinds open and all the lights off in my room- except for the glow from my small TV.

Soon, after getting comfortable in bed, my attention was drawn from the TV to my bedroom window. I noticed what appeared to be a craft of some kind descending rapidly and coming straight towards the back of our house. It was difficult to make out at first from the large, old tree dividing ours and the neighbors' backyard property. I was convinced that a small plane was in trouble due to the pounding rain. Just as I was about to run for cover, the object stopped nearby a small branch of the tree. I could see a cone shaped light emanating from the base of the object and a light beam of some sorts coming off the nose. It was there for a minute or two - suspended in air. When lightning lit up the sky, I could see that it was some sort of solid object. Suddenly it became surrounded in a bright blueish-white light and passed effortlessly through the tree branches! This ball of light was now in our backyard, hovering just 20 feet from my 2nd floor bedroom window. It was approximately the size of a lid from a round garbage can. I could see green and red rotating lights directly in the center of the object; similar to a string of lights at Christmastime on the chaser setting wrapped once around a ball. That was when I ran out into the hallway and began pounding on my brothers' door to see if he was seeing what I was - as his window also faced the backyard. He responded that he was and from the sound of his voice I could tell he was completely freaked out.  I then ran to get my parents and without any thought - pushed open their bedroom door to yell "ma..dad..there's a UFO in our backyard, come quick!" My father mumble a profanity at me in Serbian for waking him up on a work night but my mother quickly got out of bed and came into my room. We both stood there at my window in awe watching the blueish-white, orb-like object hover there for about 20- 30 minutes. In that time the storm let up quite a bit and my mother left to go back to bed. I got back onto my bed and continued to be hypnotized by what I was witnessing. Then, the object disappeared... or so I thought. Within 30 or so seconds, it reappeared as an amber orange colored ball of light - about the size of a Frisbee. And this is where it gets even weirder - the object then split into two amber colored balls of light and began zipping around the backyard in a pattern similar to that of the infinity symbol. Then it would move fast vertically up and down. Both stopping on a dime each time before ascending or descending again. They moved so fast, I could see the lit path left behind from the luminous objects.   It would fuse together back as one and then split and do the whole "dance" again. Talk about weird!  This went on for 4 hours before it disappeared completely. Now one would immediately ask - did you film it? Regretfully I did not. There was no film in my camera and our video camera at time was completely dead of batteries.

The next day I went next door to talk to our neighbor. I asked if he noticed anything odd the night before.  He said no, but he did tell me that his outdoor dogs were freaked out , feverishly scratching his back door and, as a result, he had to bring both inside for the remainder of the night. He did mention that storms in the past never caused them to panic and he found that odd. 

This event was witnessed by three members of my family. To this day, we have no idea what the strange lights were. Oddly enough, my fear was suppressed the entire time by a hypnotic-like fixation on what I was seeing. It was only after that I found myself totally creeped out.

Children Haunted by Ghosts

It's common for kids to have nightmares, and the majority of the time they are nothing more than frightening dreams. However, there are cases where children experience a terrifying, recurring nightly vision of someone or thing that has parents convinced it is not just a bad dream.

One such a case involves a 5 year old boy named Dagan who is haunted by a 'man with grey skin'.  The boy began telling his parents that the 'man with grey skin' sits at the foot of his bed at night and talks to him. Dagan's father says that they have evidence that there is something happening, claiming the ghost has moved furniture in the bedroom which is impossible for Dagan to do himself. Another creepy thing happened in the home that the family spoke of - a strange face appeared on a newly plastered wall. The family has also stated that the neighbors who are on the other side of the plastered wall have also had unexplained activity happening in their home.

Article Source: The Anomalist & Daily Mail ( photos incl.)

I hope that this family can get to the source of these disturbances and rid their home of whatever is causing them. I also wish little Dagan peaceful nights ahead. I too experienced frightening disturbances in my bedroom at night as a child and do not wish them on anyone - especially innocent children.

Our Spirit Dog Returns

Recently, my mother phoned to tell me of a personal experience she and my father had at home. It was late one night and they were both getting ready for bed when they heard the distinct sound of our dog ( Sasha passed away in 2006) walking on their hardwood floors. Anyone who has a dog who hated having its nails trimmed and a home with hardwood flooring would know this sound. Anyways, it lasted a few minutes before all became silent again and they turned in for the night. A short time later, my mother got up to use the bathroom, and when she returned to bed she felt as though her hand was being licked. Moments later she felt our dog jump onto the bed and cuddle up beside her - this was a nightly routine when Sasha was alive. My mom was very comforted by this and did not startle or wake my father. The next morning, my father told my mother that he felt Sasha jump onto their bed and cuddled along side of him - before my mom told him of her experience.

In the years since her passing, they have had a number of experiences with Sasha's spirit. After such a tragic passing, it's comforting to know that she lives on.

Spirit Dog

Streetlight Phenomenon

Street lamp interference (SLI) is a phenomenon that occurs when one walks or drives beneath them, causing the light to turn off. People with this ability are being called SLIders and research is underway to see if there is a psychic link to this event.

I began to experience this phenomenon as a teenager. The street lamps would go out when I'd walk or drive underneath them. It happened so often that I began to feel that something unusual was going on. Even those with me noticed how regularly it was happening and left them wondering what was going on.

I was told that a person with this ability emits a higher amount of kinetic energy- resulting in electrical disturbances. I cannot help but wonder if this has any link to the paranormal phenomena that I have experienced over the years.

I continue to experience this phenomenon today. The light bulbs in my house go out quite a bit and while in the kitchen preparing dinner, the lights will flicker and buzz. I hope to learn more about this and what others think on the subject of SLI.

The Grim Reaper

Perhaps the most universally recognized harbinger of death is the Grim Reaper. It is believed that he appears to those who are at deaths door silently beckoning them to join him.

The most widely known image is that of a tall, slender, male entity with a monks robe tied at the waist and a sickle or scythe in hand. The figure is known to glide effortlessly, rather than walk, and overall brings an overwhelming sense of death to the observer.

I have my own story to tell of the Grim Reaper coming to visit a loved one. It was early 2000 - my great grandfather woke one morning to tell us of a dream he had the night before. He said, "the man with the sickle came for me last night." That immediately sent a chill right through me. He continued by telling us that the door bell rang and when he opened it there stood the hooded man with the sickle in hand. He looked at my great grandpa and said he was here for Jacob (he said his last name also). When I asked my great grandpa what he then said, he proceeded to tell us that he told the entity that he had the wrong house and slammed the door shut in its face!! That caused each of us to let out a giggle or two and set our fears aside for the time being. We knew it would not be long before we lost him, as he was saying other things relating to the "other side". A few months later grandpa died at the age of 92- three days following my great grandma.

Every time I hear Blue Oyster Cults "Don't Fear The Reaper", I think of them.

Who or what haunts my childhood home?

This is the question that I hope to learn the answer to someday.

Recently, I went home to Indiana to visit some family and friends. I was unable to capture any of the ongoing phenomena on film which I had hoped to share with you, my readers.

I did hear the sound of a door knob rattling when no one else was in the home and saw a dark shadow move across the wall during the daytime while laying down for some rest.

While talking to my mom one evening, I saw a figure dressed in white float down the stairs. Seeing that gave me the chills and caused tears to well up in my eyes. I have never experienced anything like that before in the home and am now questioning what exactly it was that I saw. It happened so fast and just when I became aware of what it was my mind was telling me I was seeing....it disappeared.

I try to approach all my experiences like Jason and Grant do along with the rest of the team from Ghost Hunters, with a rational explanation first. All too often, I can't come up with one!

So, who or what is in the home? Some members of my family believe strongly that it is a loved one, who has passed on, trying to get our attention. Perhaps we will never know. There is a lot of turmoil right now surrounding one immediate family member. Maybe this is the cause for some of the recent activity? There are periods of little or no activity and then something very apparent will happen. Why? Hopefully with further research into this phenomenon, I will learn the answers to my questions.

Haunted Land

In the summer of 1990, my parents discovered a rustic vacation getaway tucked along Kentucky Lake. The resort lies in a densely forested area, not uncommon in the state of Kentucky, where at one time the nearby grounds were a stopover for supplies during the Civil War. As a 12 year old child the place gave me the creeps, especially at night. Today, I love it and take my own family there once a year.

Over the years we have heard a number of stories from the locals about ghost lights seen dancing in the woods at night, sightings of apparitions dressed in Civil War uniforms, and strange sounds. Friends of ours who own property there along the lake have also seen and heard strange things.

Nine years ago, my mother and father were looking to buy some land in the area. They found a nice piece of property along the lake with an old home on it that needed to be torn down. Their plans were to build a brand new summer/vacation home there in its place. When my baba (grandma) joined us on vacation one weekend, my mother wanted to show her the property that they were considering to purchase. Being a short distance from the resort, they decided to walk there. As they neared the property, the came to a well known little dirt/gravel road that runs through where the land for sale was. As my mother began talking to my baba about their plans for the place, she felt a hard push on her back causing her to take a nasty fall. When they came back we found my moms legs and hands all scraped up from the fall. She was terribly shaken and it took a stiff drink to calm her down to the point where she could tell us what happened. After this incident my parents saw this as a sign of warning and chose to look elsewhere.

Some years later I spoke to my baba about what took place that day. She told me how she saw my mother go flying forward by some unseen force. She felt strongly that something was there that did not want them around. The next thing she did was cross herself, say god help us and changed the subject.

The well known dirt/gravel road that I mentioned earlier was the path that soldiers took to pick up supplies during the Civil War. Every time I see this road (which was made by those who marched on it) I think of where those soldiers were headed and the emotions that they carried with them.

Back Home

I phoned home the other day to see how my family was doing. We once again got on the topic of the strange happenings going on around there. Doors that continue to open and close on their own, and the sound of footsteps when no one else is there are the most frequent things being witnessed by members of my family.

Recently my brother and his fiancee were sitting downstairs when they heard our dog walking around the upstairs. Our dog passed away last October after being struck by a car, yet they distinctly heard the sound of her dog tags jingling along with the sound of her paws walking on the floor. With hardwood throughout, all the sounds are twice as loud then when there was carpeting in the home. My brother, who recently moved back home, turned white and was at a loss for words.

One Possible Explanation

For so long I have wondered what was the cause for all the unexplainable phenomenon that has occurred and continues to in my childhood home. At times I wanted to believe, although I never fully convinced myself, that it was a family member trying to contact us. I even looked into the possibility that it could have a connection with the native Indians who once occupied the area. Then I remembered something...

There was a home there in the 70's that burned down. I can remember finding personal belongings in the soil the day that construction began back in 1988. Items like forks, broken plates and picture frames. At the time, the neighbors told us no one was hurt and the family who lost everything left. Recently, my mother told me something that gave me a bit of a chill. She struck up a conversation with a neighbor who for years kept to herself. She has lived adjacent to our lot since the 60's. They got to talking somehow about the house that once stood where ours now does. Apparently the family who lost everything in the fire did not have insurance on their house. The women also told my mother that weeks after the devastation of losing their dream home, the male homeowner died of a heart attack.

I now sit here and wonder if this is who could be making all the "noise" in my parents home. If so, maybe the emotional ties he had with his home and the loss are so strong that this is what is keeping him around.

The Bedroom Door

Another strange thing that happens often in my childhood home is the opening and closing of a door. When my great grandparents were alive it was the door to their bedroom. Today, my oldest brother sleeps in there and on the other side of this door is our family room. A number of us have all witnessed this door closing by itself while in the family room. My mom even went as far as putting a weighted object at the bottom of the door to prevent it from shutting. The door continued to close on its own, and the object used as a weight would simply slide across the hardwood out of the way. Sometimes when the door was closed it would slowly open as if someone was trying to quietly open it on the other side.

My mom figures that it is my great grandparents way of letting us know that they are around. When they were alive, they disliked us closing their bedroom door when we were in the next room. We saw it as a courtesy to them, while they felt like we were "shutting them up" in their room.

An Unseen Visitor

In recent years my mother has been experiencing the sound of footsteps in her home. On a number of occasions it has happened while she is in the basement doing laundry. She told me that it sounds like someone has come through the front door, and is walking around. A lot of times she figures that it is my dad returning home for the day. After calling out his name, and getting no response, she'll head upstairs only to find that no one is there. Initially it creeps her out, but with each occurrence she is beginning to become more comfortable with their unseen visitor.

I have had a number of experiences while living at home, but I never heard footsteps throughout the inside of the house. I told my parents that they should consider contacting someone who could come to the home, and perhaps give them some insight as to who or what is causing these disturbances. If it was me I would want to know.

I have always had an interest with the paranormal, but it was those moments where I had my own encounters with the unexplained that eventually got me to start this blog.

Flight Of The Oil Painting

Recently my parents were in town for a visit. After showing them my blog, we got to talking about the unexplained experiences that happened while I was living at home. They then began to tell me of a recent incident that left the both of them spooked.

My mom and dad were sitting together on the main level one evening after dinner. Unexpectedly they heard a loud crash coming from the foyer/living room area. It startled the both of them and they both got up to see what it was. Once in the foyer, they found one of their oil paintings had somehow come off the wall and was lying on the hardwood floor in the dining room. A ceramic bowl was also broken. This bowl was on an accent table which is directly under where the painting was hung. What is puzzling about this is that the wire mounting on the back of the painting was intact and had not broken, which would have explained why the painting fell. Even more interesting was the fact that the hook which the painting was hung on was still in the wall!?!? Anyone with this type of mounting in their home knows that to take the painting off, you would first have to go upwards to clear the hook.

I'm spooked....

Fallen Angel

When you enter my parents home the first thing you see to the left of you is an oak staircase leading upstairs, a large chandelier hanging in the foyer above you and a beautiful wooden shelf on the wall, which faces the doorway, with 3 ceramic cherubs sitting on it.

My mom phoned me one day to tell me that she came home and found one of the cherubs laying broken on the landing. Now, one would expect the angel to have fallen straight down to the ceramic tile below. However, in the position it was found in, it would have had to fallen sideways a least a whole foot to make it on the landing. As I sit here and type this, I am picturing the position of the shelf to the stairway. I can not come up with a reasonable explanation as to how the angel got there.

This made my mom pretty uneasy. It is not the first and last time that an object came down in a way which gave us the creeps. I will save those incidences for future posts.

Photo of Orb

Here is a photo that was taken with my digital camera on Christmas Eve. A number of photo's that were taken over the holiday showed one or more of these. I have had this camera since January of 2006. I have taken hundreds of pictures using this same camera with the flash and never had anything appear in the photos until recently.

A close friend and neighbor passed away this past October. I can not help but wonder if this could be his way of letting us know that he is still around. In a previous post, I uploaded a photo of my son on Halloween which is the time that these Orbs began to appear in our pictures. The property behind my son is where our neighbor lived. Is this all just a coincidence? What do you all think?

Invisible Hands

Years ago, back home in Indiana, me and a friend of mine were up late watching TV one night. This was something that we did a lot after coming in from a night out. So we were sitting there and all of a sudden we heard a clapping sound. It seemed to be coming from the space between us. It sounded like a person was sitting beside us clapping their hands. It was freaky! It lasted for a number of seconds and then stopped. A lot of times my friend would crash at my place but this really scared us and she left shortly after.

Satanic Church

Years ago, me and my friend were out driving around in Crete, Illinois on the back roads late one evening. We had her boyfriends Tracker, which had one hell of a sound system in it, and were having a pretty good time. Out of nowhere we came upon a very strange looking church. My friend slowed down a bit so that we could get a better look. I could tell right away that it was a church, but unlike any other I have seen. It was in the shape of a traditional church, but it was dark in color with stained glass windows that were all black. Then I noticed a number of wooden crosses on the church. To me they appeared upside down. The steeple had a large wooden cross on it, and again it appeared upside down.

We noticed a car with a strange looking person in it heading towards us. We sensed that something was not right and began to drive away. The car began to follow us. As my friend sped up, so did the other car keeping close behind. Suddenly, the car took the opposite lane and came along the drivers side of the Tracker. We could both see a guy wearing a brown hooded robe inside. He looked very angry and determined to stop us. Thank god my friend knew how to lose someone. It also did not hurt that she was very good at driving stick shift. We eventually lost him and were able to make it home okay.

In a previous post, I talked of a place called Axeman's Bridge. Some people think that the strange happenings there are linked to this nearby Satanic Church.

Three Knocks

Here is a short true story that happened to my great-grandma.

When my great-grandmother was still alive, she had an experience that would happen to her on the same date every year. On the evening of March 18th she would hear three distinct knocks on her bedroom window. Two things are very interesting here. The date and the window.

First- March 18th is the day that my grandma (my great-grandma's daughter) died. Second- The window is on the first floor behind a thorn bush.

There was one evening where I had forgot my keys and was locked out of the house. It was late and I thought that I could knock on her window so she could let me in. I could not get near it. As soon as as tried to get close, I got pricked by the thorns.

I believe that this was my grandma's way to comfort her mom.

Spooky...

This is a short story of an experience I had at home in Indiana.

It was the weekend and everyone was gone from the house except me and my mom. She had decided to head upstairs to take a shower while I found something to watch on TV.

About 15 minutes into my show, my mom came down the stairs soaking wet with a towel on. She was very upset and asked me why I came into the bathroom and left the faucet on. The sink was plugged and the water was turned full blast to hot when she opened the shower door. I told her that I had been sitting on the couch the whole time and she was silly to think that I would do something like that and walk away. My mom became a bit uneasy at that moment and headed back upstairs to get dressed.

We never had that same experience twice.

Orbs

(this was originally posted Nov. 2, I had some editing problems and the original was deleted)

Here is a photo of my son that was taken on Halloween. I did not notice the two orbs until I uploaded the pictures on my computer. The smaller one is on the sidewalk by his left arm and the larger one is on his left side above his red bandanna.

I took a number of pictures outside that night and this is the only one where this occurred.

If, like me, you are using a laptop you may have to adjust the screen position to see them more clearly.

What do you all think?

Noises On The Roof

At my old home in Indiana, there was a period of about two weeks where I was woken up in the morning by sounds on the roof. Each day, at 7:30 a.m., I would wake up to the sound of stomping above my room. To me it sounded as though a grown man was on the roof stomping around. It was really loud and it made the light fixture on my ceiling shake. In the beginning I tried to ignore the sounds until one morning it became too much. I got dressed and headed outside to our backyard. I walked to the end of the property so I could get a good view of the roof. When I turned around I could not believe what I saw. On the roof there was a huge black bird. This thing looked to be about 2 1/2 feet tall. It had very large feathers and to me resembled a vulture. I started to shout at it to frighten it off, but it just starred at me and would not move. I did not like the way it was looking at me and it really freaked me out. Finally after a few minutes it walked to the edge of the roof and flew onto my dads shed. It was hidden in some tree branches so I decided to get a closer look. When I got to the shed and looked up it was gone. What I can not figure out is where this thing went. I should have been able to see it fly away. It was as if the thing just vanished.

I do not know what the heck that was. After that, the noises on the roof stopped and I never saw the thing again. Weird...