Good afternoon. I’m on my lunch break and was surfing around for information on ghosts, haunting and such. Actually my wife and I purchased our first house together in Saint Paul and have been experiencing oddities for the 6 months we’ve been there. We’re mostly looking for information on how to determine if we have a spirit or whatever you might call what we’re dealing with. I did purchase a digital recorder and have used it twice but didn’t find anything, and quite honestly, I can’t motivate myself to actually listen to the two recordings I did in their entirety. In what I have listened to out of the 14 or so hours of recordings I haven’t heard voices but I have heard a couple of odd sounds that I can’t explain on both recordings, both taken in different parts of the house. One recording during the day and the other one at night. I have heard what sounds like tapping or like a ball or ping-pong ball bouncing on the last recording. The sounds could have been anything from a car outside to perhaps the cat doing something that we can’t see since it is just an audio recording.

My wife and I have heard movement in the house, actually that’s about the only consistent thing we notice regularly and our pets, especially our cat acknowledge the movement sounds. Our dog shakes violently when we put him in his kennel, but he only does that during the day when we leave for work but not at night. My wife also notices shadows. I haven’t seen shadows, only my wife. I don’t think I’d handle seeing any shadows very well but I do look for them. I get up at 4 AM every morning and I don’t turn the lights on when I make the coffee and go upstairs to my home office on purpose thinking that maybe I’ll see some shadow but I never do. The only new recent thing that happened was just this past Friday afternoon. I was at home working in my office and I heard a distinct "hmmm" or "ahhh" and my cat heard it because I looked down at her when I heard it and she looked behind me which put the hair on the back of my neck on end seeing her acknowledged the sound. I got up and looked in the closets and the attic door in my office but didn’t see anything.

Is there anything that we can do over the next couple of months that can be worked into a routine that can help us determined if we have activity? I guess I can get off my butt and start recording again. Does it matter if I only record for one hour at a time and do it when we’re home so that I don’t have hours of recording to listen to? I guess I’m looking to be told exactly what to do, like a recipe or something of action items if an investigator had access to a location that might have activity and they could be there day in and day out.

Thanks,
JR

Set up a video camera in the hot spots and see what you get. You can also take photographs to see what you can randomly capture.

Talking to the spirits to acknowledge them is also an alternative.

I know one guy who sat two cups of coffee down at a table and just talked to himself and saw what happened. He claims things got better the more he did that.

Most of the time, spirits just want to be acknowledged. If that doesnt help you, we could set up an investigation.

Sounds like if there's a lot of sounds of movement etc that it could be residual as well. What do you think Adam?

Are you hearing the same sort of things in the same sort of areas? I suppose I would keep a log of where and when you experience these things too. Locate your 'hotspots' if you will..... then you can start to narrow down where you do your investigating - which will make it easier.

I can take pictures. I never thought of doing that and I do have a digital camera however I don’t have a video camera. I do have one of those x10 cameras but they are poor quality and even worse for night video. I’ll call around and see if I can rent video cameras.

I forgot to mention a couple of things. My wife does smell periodically apple or green apple Jolly Ranchers, or that’s what she calls the smell. I haven’t noticed the smells.

The movement is pretty much throughout the house however in the past week the sounds of movement have been upstairs. Most of the time we hear the movement wherever we are not with the exception of a couple of incidents. One in particular still bothers us. We just got into bed one evening about 4 months ago and near the foot of the bed or thereabouts, we could hear clearly the cracking and creaking of what the floor would sound like if you were standing there and shifted your weight. It wasn’t quick either, it was slow and loud. The other incident that comes to mind was when we were in the basement working and we both started hearing foot steps on the ground floor above us. This was the first incident that we experienced together and it was one of those matters when you can’t quite replay the sound in your head because of the disbelief that you had at the time so the recall is rather foggy. Kind of like, you’re mind is telling you that you’re hearing it but you’re telling yourself that you’re not hearing it and so the memory of it isn’t the best.

I think the last point is that we are the third owners. The house was built shortly after WWII by a meticulous gentleman and was very particular about everything with the house. We even have all of the old receipts for equipment and materials for the house. He and his wife lived there for about 57 years. He died in a hospital and she sold the house immediately when he died and we’ve also been told by the neighbors that they had an odd marriage. They had separate bedrooms and she hated the house and he seemed to build and improve things over the years to accommodate only him and his taste and not his wife. We can’t talk to the sellers because we’re suing them for non-disclosure issues that took place during the closing. Everything we know about the house and the occupants/builder is from the next door neighbors.

Thanks again for all the advice,
JR

My wife and I did our first run of photos and recordings together. We didn’t pick up any EVPs, and as photos go, nothing really interesting besides a few orbs that might be dust. However, I did take one photo outside that I’m including in this post for feedback.

We did this first run this evening, November 4, 2005, between 5:45 PM and 6:15 PM. Perhaps we’ll try again later this evening.

Does it really matter when you do this? I would think it wouldn’t really matter much if you did hunting at 10 in the morning or 10 at night.

JR

WELCOME AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR INVESTIGATION.


LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE PHOTOS AND INSIGHTS INTO YOUR HOME'S ACTIVITIES.

No it dosn't matter if you take the photos in the day or night, if a ghost is there and he or she wants you to photo them it will show itself on the photo.

Old Soul

I think you have better success with nighttime -although it is certainly possible to catch or experience something during the day.

It's the whole a flashlight in the day time vs the night time sort of thing. Just shows better.