On a limb with Claudia

In a recent post, I mentioned that dead people talk to me. A lot of people asked me about my experiences with dead people.

Thursday Thirteen #9 : My experiences with dead people.

Dead people are just like live people. In my experience, they don’t have missions. They rarely have unfinished business. Mostly, they want to tell their story and have their experience remembered. They want to matter.

Please know that I take all of this with a huge grain of salt. Who knows what’s real? These are just my experiences.

1. Lady on the stairs. (Background: We live in a house built in 1907 in a neighborhood that has seen good times and really bad times. The house was remodeled in 1983. An architect purchased the home from the estate of an elderly woman who lived alone in the house for decades.)

The first night we stayed in our current home, I got up to let Rose out in the early morning. Rose flew done the stairs and waited for me on the first floor.

Standing at the top of the stairs, I saw an elderly woman fall down the stairs, then lie on the landing. Her hip broken in the fall, she lay on the landing until she died. I saw this like watching a movie. The next night, standing again at the top of the stairs, I stood with my feet solid on the ground. Without warning, I felt as if the rug was literally yanked out from under my feet. I’ve never had that experience before or since. I flew into the air, down the stairs and landed where she fell. She told me she was there for three days before she died.

2. Guy who shot himself: (Background: We were looking for a house with a Realtor. She took us to this location.)

While D and the Realtor were upstairs, I wandered downstairs. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, I turned to my right into a galley room. Standing in the doorway, I saw an elderly man with a white beard dig through the cabinet in front of him. He turned to look at me, smiled slightly then raised an old handgun to his temple and pulled the trigger. The handgun looked like a war trophy or possibly an heirloom. The mess from the wound was incredible. I ran up the stairs and out of the house. Our Realtor contacted the owners to make discrete inquiries. She said they were very tight lipped about what happened to the last owner.

3. Hit and run motorcycle accident. (Background: I was driving up a street in Denver with a graphic artist who was helping us in the Open Grove. We passed a tree that had candles and flowers all around it. The graphic artist started crying and I asked her what was going on. She said that just the night before a young man was killed by a hit and run driver.)

I saw a young man standing next to a tree holding a motorcycle helmet. He watched the people come and drop off flowers or light a candle. When he realized I could see him, he said: “I didn’t know. I just didn’t know that life was over in an instant.” I saw him once more and he said the same thing. They never found the driver but the young man seems to have moved on.

4. Crooke Patterson Mansion (part 1): (Background: I officed in the Croke Patterson Mansion for almost two years. The mansion is considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in the Western United States. I did not know this when we moved in to start my fledgling psychotherapy business.)

The red dots on this picture are circles around orbs (i.e., spirits)

The story is that a doctor married a young woman. They moved into the house. One stormy night, the doctor was called away from the house and his pregnant wife. When he returned, she had killed herself and buried the baby in the mansion.

That’s the story. This is the story that the ghost on the second floor told me. She said that she was the child of the woman. She was five or six when her mother married the doctor and became pregnant. She was in the house when her mother went into labor. Her mother died in labor, as did the baby. She stayed with her mother for five days waiting for her mother to wake up. When the doctor returned, he took the child away from the house and they never returned. She returned after she died because she was certain her mother would come back to the mansion.

5. Lady in the bedroom: We lived in this house for a couple months, when one morning I woke up to find a woman standing over D. She was wearing a yellow dress and a hat circa 1900s. Rose, who sleeps next to me, growled and lunged for the woman. The woman had such a malicious look on her face, as if D. had done something to her, that I freaked out a little bit. I don’t really know what happened next, but a large yellow hole opened and sucked her into it. When she was gone, Rose lay back down and went to sleep.

6. Acupuncturist mother: I went to see a new acupuncturist. Laying on the table face up, I could see a female spirit flying around in the ceiling fan. I asked her if someone she knew had died lately. She started crying and said that her mother had died over the weekend. The mother didn’t say anything. She just laughed and played in the wind of the ceiling fan. I told the acupuncturist that her mother was happy and the acupuncturist seemed relieved.

7. Croke Patterson Mansion (part 2): I was frequently in the mansion by myself working on a Saturday or at night. One Saturday, I could hear voices talking to each other in the mansion. It was like a conversation you can hear but not quite make out the words. I went from room to room, office to office looking for the voices. I asked the girl spirit (of #4) on the second floor. She shook her head and looked frightened. I continued through the mansion until the voices led me to the basement. Finally, I heard the voices in a small closet in the basement. When I opened the door, the wall move back and forth. I don’t think Scooby Doo moved faster. I ran out of the basement and out of the mansion. We were told later by a psychic hired by a TV station that there were demons in the basement.

8. Waiting for her soldier: (Background: we were having trouble selling a duplex we owned. The duplex was built in 1942 and served as U.S. Air Force officer family housing during World War II.)

We decided to do a ghost space clearing at the duplex. When I sprayed salt water in a particular corner, Rose and the dog in-law (we were dog sitting) began to bark. A female came out of the wall. She said that she had moved to the duplex right after she married her Air Force husband. He left for Germany soon after. He told her that he would return to her. She stayed all this time because she was waiting for her husband to return.

9. Client’s sister: (Background: A client of mine’s sister died at a young age. I saw this client two days after her sister died.)

I met a client late one night. She was crying into her hands when I could see something moving around the room. I don’t exactly remember what happened next. But what I remember is that my client was able to have a conversation with her sister through me. When I (for lack of a better words) came to, my client was not crying and felt a great sense of peace. Her sister told her about a book or a journal which my client found when she got home. I felt blessed that I was able to help – even though I’m not exactly sure how.

10. Yoga in the basement: (Background: I participate in a Yoga Cooperative. We usually meet at Cheesman Park but since it’s been cold, we moved into the basement of a coffee shop for a couple weeks.)

At the end of our yoga session, the instructor began to lead people through a light stream visualization. You know the kind – light through the top of the head, etc. Anyway, as people opened themselves to the “light” I notice a group of spirits enter the basement room. They were pressing their faces against people’s faces. So rude. When I opened my eyes and saw a face in front of mine, I was pissed. As people calmed down, the spirits began to flit around the room – like birds or trapped wild animals – almost mocking the calm. We never went back to that coffee shop.

11. Dad’s Green Orb: (Background: My father had been ill for some time. My oldest sister had him moved to a nursing home. He died a little more than 24 hours after being moved to the nursing home.)

At 2:33 am on July 22, 2002, I opened my eyes from a sound sleep. I’m not sure what woke me. I just opened my eyes and saw a green orb. It was about four inches in diameter and floated above me. It lingered for a while then floated off. My little sister called at 2:45 am to say that my father died. I woke up every morning at 2:33 am for at least six months.

12. Croke Patterson Mansion (part 3): (Background: It’s Halloween and your office is in one of the most haunted buildings in the Western states. What would you do? We hosted a large Halloween party!)

In preparation for our Halloween party, we decided to hang pumpkin lights along the stairway to the basement. The stairway is dark and needed a little light. Every time I set the hammer down, it would move. When I say move, I mean it moved up and down the stairwell. While I never saw it move, I’d look for it at the top and find it at the bottom. I look for it at the bottom and find it at the top or in the middle. Creepy!

13. Ghost Hunting University and Murder Room: (Background: Two women were murdered in a hotel. Ghost Hunting classes are held at the hotel. The instructors say that they are helping the police resolve this cold case.)

We entered this room with what’s called a Thomas Edison Box (the equipment on the table in photo on the left). The box gives off white noise which the ghosts can use to create sound.

In a series of dramatic events, the teacher said that he would help these spirits “move on”. We as a class got together and he talked the spirits through this experience. He said that it worked, but who knows? He still runs classes at this hotel and says he talks to these disturbed spirits. My experience was the spirit stood right in front of me then turned to see a familiar spirit which took her out of the room.

I took these pictures with our camera. You can see the orb.

Thomas Edison box – and orb.

Can you see the face here?

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