“Aren’t you scared?!”

Once people are through asking the “What are you going to do with the building?” questions, it almost always leads to the “Aren’t you scared?” question. Almost every single time. Also, “What if it’s haunted?” My response seems to always cause people to have even more questions. Here are my responses that are said without any hesitation:“Aren’t you scared?” Nope.

“What if it’s haunted?” So what if it is? (Refer to question #1)

Now I know the vast majority of people I’ve talked to have told me there is no way in heck they’d spend the night in a super old, super huge building. But for me, no problem. Some of you might know this already but for those who don’t, I’m an avid paranormal investigator (ghost hunter). I’ve been chasing things that go bump in the night for nearly a decade. I’m on a TAPS family team (shout out to my team Pacific Paranormal Investigations!) and we get investigations funneled to us from the main TAPS headquarters on the east coast (you know the show Ghost Hunters? Those guys.) So naturally being in a very dark very old location absolutely does not scare me. Do I believe ghosts are real? Absolutely. I’ve had too many (think hundreds) of experiences that I cannot deny. I was always skeptical about the possibility of the paranormal and for most of my life it scared the ever loving crap out of me. But now, ten years into investigating, it takes A LOT to actually make me jump in the middle of the night.

I have a very strong faith which I rely on that I know helps immensely during investigations. Yes, it is possible to believe in ghosts and also have a very strong Christian faith. I am living proof of this.

Ok so back to the questions.

“Is it haunted?” My answer to that is, probably. Without actually living in the building for more than a couple nights, it’s impossible to say. And just because the building is closing in on being 100 years old it doesn’t automatically mean it’s haunted. That’s a vast misconception that many people have about old buildings. They’re not all haunted. Promise. Some of the most active locations I’ve investigated were less than 20 years old.

When Atom and I spent 3 days inside the building after we closed escrow last October (to winterize it and start drawing up plans of our ideas for once we move in) we did have a few interesting experiences that I can’t logically explain. I (as well as my team) use a scientific approach to investigating. 99% of what people perceive as being paranormal can be easily explained. You’ve probably also heard the term “debunked” — same thing. Often times people will hear creaking in their homes and think it is a ghost, when in reality it is merely the house settling due to the temperature drop at night. Another one I get a lot are people thinking they see things in photos. Nine times out of ten it is just a speck of dust either on the lens or the camera is picking up a reflection off of something in the room. Not paranormal.

It doesn’t take a trained ghost hunter or empath to be able to pick up on certain energy in a location. Have you ever walked into a room & feel like you could cut the tension with a knife or on the other hand can feel the excitement from a happy event that’s happening? Same goes with investigating.

The only ‘uneasy’ feeling I got while staying in the building for those three nights came from how deafeningly silent it is at night. When it is so silent it hurts your ears. We actually had to go to the store & buy a box fan for the second night because I needed white noise to sleep. The first night we didn’t actually arrive until almost 1:30am. We did a quick walk through of the property & building before blowing up our air mattress and going to bed (in the room that will be our master bedroom). I didn’t sleep much that night, not because I was scared, but because it was so DANG QUIET! I guess that’s to be expected with a building that’s basically built to be a stone & steel fortress. At one point I was awakened to the sound of distinct boot steps going up and down the large stairwell. It was unmistakable. It wasn’t a dream. I laid there listening for awhile (again, no I wasn’t scared) and the sounds stopped after maybe 20-30 seconds. Then back to the building being deafeningly silent. Atom woke up awhile later & I was sleeping because he had to nudge me to wake me up. He asked if I was hearing whistling. I said no. He said he heard whistling coming from the hallway. We both went back to sleep & the next morning I asked him more about it & he had no recollection of our conversation at 4am. So I can’t say definitively if what he said was something he actually heard or if it was merely a dream & he was talking in his sleep.

The next two days & nights we didn’t hear or experience anything out of the ordinary.

Nowhere in the entire building did I ever get a “creepy” feeling. There are many places I’ve walked into & had that ‘fight or flight’ reaction & need to get out of there immediately due to the intense negative energy. Not our soon to be home. It’s a peaceful place and we are very excited to move in and make it our own. Whether there are extra roommates lingering from the previous century or not 🙂

Theresa