Ghost Investigators

One of the things I love about October is my favorite morning radio station gets involved with some local ghost investigators. I've always been fascinated by things considered "other worldly," going so far as to write a research paper on it for an english class in high school.

The Chunga Show brings these investigators on, where they answer callers' questions and bring sound clips. I have to tell you, the sound clips (even the nice ones) give me chills. For example, they were visiting a place where one guy had to walk down some steep, cement stairs. His camera and audio recorder were going when he fell down the stairs. As we hear the sounds of him falling, a woman's voice comes in saying, "Are you okay?" There was no one there with him.

Obviously, that's one of the nice ones.

They invite the radio hosts to come investigating with them close to Halloween, and then come on the show a week or so later to once again share audio clips. I love listening to the stories, though some have had me fairly scared.

My kids frequently hear, "there are no such things as ghosts," and I firmly believe that. What we haven't gone into (and no way will I while they're so young) is what I do believe. I believe the veil between this world and the Spirit World is very thin. Sometimes it's so thin we're able to glimpse what some spirits are enduring as they wait for the Resurrection. These spirits are benign. They can't move things around or put our lives in danger.

Barbara, the female "religious" half of the ghost investigators, has said she feels nothing but compassion for these lost souls, even those who, when going back through the tapes they've compiled, were mean or harsh. She's never felt frightened by a spirit (which makes her a great person to do this research). In fact, she says the more compassion one shows to these spirits, the more likely they are to try to communicate. Rarely, though, do they hear or witness anything in person. It's always as they go back through everything they've recorded that they discover all the "activity" going on around them.

Barbara shared with us today that she has felt more than once that there are evil 'entities,' as she put them. She describes them as those who never had a body, who only want to do harm. They will frequently pose as children (freaks me out!). Barbara highly warns against doing anything that will invite these entities in, like Ouiji Boards (never tried it myself). As she says, "Just because you're done with them and put the board away, it doesn't mean they're done with you." She has witnessed firsthand the harm these entities can do.

Are you all thinking I'm a complete nutter? I just think there's so much more going on than we can possibly know, and lately it seems the veil between this world and the next seems to be growing thinner. More and more friends and family have confided in me lately about experiences they have had, or are having.

A sign of the times?

These morning show hosts have invited their listeners to write an essay hoping to win a chance to come investigating with them. Am I tempted? Maybe a little. Mostly I think I'd run screaming from wherever they went.

Now I pose my question. Without going into details (unless you really want to), do any of you believe in ghosts? ;)