Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies

I have three dogs in my house and one of my dogs for about the last year has been looking up at the ceiling SEVERAL TIMES a day at something that we do not see. The other dogs do not do this? The rooms that I have seen her do this in is the Kitchen, Backroom and Bathroom. No other rooms are involved? It at times does not seem to bother her she just stares and other times she is scared. Sometimes she will be under a table and runs out the door in a frenzy and the other dogs do not react nor do I hear anything.

 

I feel bad for her because it is as if she is seeing something it started about a year ago just out of the blue. She is four years old and does not seem to have any neurological or sight problems to my knowledge. I took her to the vet for her check up and asked him about it and he had no suggestions.  

 

Only other thing I have noticed is on occasion I have had electrical appliances that have came on by themselves like the TV & lamp. Saturday and last night my CD Player did come on by itself it could just be some sort fluke? Saturday when my husband was watching TV during the day it came on by itself then last night at 12:15am it came on creeped me out. I unplugged it last night.  I have had the CD player for a while and it seems to only do this on occasions.

 

Any suggestions you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

 

Dear Sheri;

 

Thank you for writing. While I could not definitively say what is happening the events certainly do fall in the accepted realm of haunting experiences. Stories of electronics turning on and off are often part of most stories of true haunting's and it is widely believed that animals can sense the paranormal long before humans.

 

It does seem; however, that it would be noticeable to all of the animals but who is to say that dogs (like humans) may have different levels of hearing abilities? If the vet says your dog is fine then the dog must see/hear/feel something. What that something is would be the hard question.

 

It doesn't sound as if your experiencing things that are so frightening they are disrupting your way of life (thank goodness), so you very well could have a mild haunting or even a visiting spirit. (There is a theory in the paranormal field that some spirits may be able to come and go, like visitors).

 

What is important is to keep a level head. Look at each occurrence with an eye toward finding a "rational" or normal reason for it. Too often times in this day and age the TV/Movie experiences have us jumping to paranormal conclusions that documentation can't uphold. I applaud your wanting to try to find out what may be occurring and encourage you to continue to question but with an open mind. You don't sound like the type to jump to conclusions swiftly and this will serve you well in trying to decide if you may have a haunting.

 

My BEST suggestion (as stated on our site Haunted Missouri Paranormal Studies) would be to start a journal. This is explained on that link but what it amounts to is a detailed description of occurrences YOU feel may be anomalous. Day, date, time, weather, moon phases, what happened, what- if anything- you tried to do to see if you could find out a cause for the occurrence (this isn't always something you can do, obviously), witnesses. What this will do is give you detailed accounts that over time can help you decide if there might be paranormal activity in your home. At that time you would be better able to ask a paranormal team to come in and investigate or do some investigating yourself if you chose to do so.

 

Of course, if Haunted Missouri can do anything to help you we would be happy to. Please feel free to write and pick my brain anytime you want. I'd be pleased to give you as much information as I can find, offer you our investigative services or refer you to a team better suited to your needs or location if the time comes you wish to go that route.

 

My best wishes and I hope to hear back from you. Your questions are welcome.

Sheri G.

I recently heard a story from a friend that attends school in Ste. Genevieve MO that ********* Park is haunted by a mother and her two children. I am interested to see if you are familiar with these stories and if you know if these are just rumors or if in fact there have been experiences at the Park. The reason I ask is because my aunt and cousins were murdered at the park and after so many years we are now hearing stories from people who have no idea that we were related to them.  I would greatly appreciate a response back even if you are not familiar.  

 Thanks in advance!

I'm sorry, Melissa but I hadn't ever heard this story before. I am VERY interested in it also. Perhaps the stories refer to it by another name? Would you know? I'd love to check in to this further if you wouldn't mind? I can start by getting the location as I don't know where that is. Can you tell me? This has really pricked my interest.

 Thanks for getting back to me. After doing some more research, I believe the name of the park is actually Hawn State Park . The trail that this happened on was the *************inside the park. This happened in August of 87. I would love for you to check this out further.  If there is anything that I can do to assist you please feel free to contact me.

Your welcome. Let me ask around and see if anyone can tell me any ghost stories about Hawn State Park, they can narrow it down to the trail as an authentication that the story they are recounting is the one we are interested in.

Stay tuned.

I'll want to get the details of the murder but that should come later, after I see if the place is being talked about as haunted. No need to jump the gun so to speak. I look forward to talking to you further.

Melissa H.

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I was wondering if a
person themself can be haunted.  I ask this because I
feel a presence near me, always.  Sometimes I have
these terrible nightmares about someone watching me,
like they are waiting for me,as if the moment I would
die they would snatch me up.I don't feel like it could
be an angel, it's (or they) seem much darker.  I have
had this as long as I could remember.  There even have
been instances where I have felt a pressure against
me, whether I am trying to raise myself from lying
down,or entering a room.It's as if someone, or
something is trying to squeeze the breathe from my
lungs.  At first I thought maybe I was imagining it,
or that it was the place I resided, I do beleive that
spirits tend to confind themselves to areas or items.
However, I have moved several times in my life and the
presence never has left me.  My mother has several
photos of me as a child, different places at different
times, all of them have this extra image like a white
smoke.  I know this sounds crazy, but I have never
been the religous type.  Could it be that because of
this lack of spiritual confiding, I attract the
unholy?  Should I be concerned? Or should I just brush
this off as nothing?
Please if you could reply, I would greatly apreaciate
it.

1. Hello, Jenny. Thanks for writing to me. I'm discussing your problem with another investigator who's opinion I value very much and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

 

To make sure I understand the question; you have always felt a oppressive presence near you wherever you live and you wonder if this could be a matter of your being personally haunted, correct?

 

I may have to refer you to some one more qualified to answer you than myself, if so this will be for your benefit. I am not a theologian (minster or scholar) so I will speak to a theology scholar about this and either refer you to them or give your their reply. Thank you for your time.

 

2. Dear Jenny, I wanted to try to answer your letter in a way that might be most helpful to you. Keep in mind, please; that as a paranormal investigator I am not a doctor or a theologian, I am not an expert on ghosts or the paranormal except for my personal experiences. So, having said that I want you to know I spoke with a theology scholar, my physician and a psychologist about your email. In general this is the short version of what they had to say:

 

What your experiencing "could be" (I am NOT diagnosing any one or any thing I am proposing examples of possible reasons for your feelings) a form of anxiety, related to stress, environmental causes (like being over burdened with work or expectations, even birth order) it could be a form of chemical imbalanced that causes the feeling and that can be related to allergies (foods or environmental) heredity, and many other sources. It might also indicate a physical problem such as low or high blood pressure, bi-polar disorder, inner ear or hearing problems and any number of mild undiagnosed illnesses that could cause a symptom such as this oppressive feeling.

 

Now I realize that having suffered this for many years you may not think it could be any of these things, but the experts I consulted agree that it would be best to rule out the physical first. If you start with a medical doctor and tell them how you feel, a few simple tests can tell if you have cause to be checked out further.

 

Once you know you are in good physical health, the next logical step is to make certain your mind is healthy. Most communities have mental health screenings at little or no charge and they have no reason to tell you you need help if you do not. You may even find questions on line that you can answer that could indicate rather or not a further investigation into mental health is a good idea.

 

Trust me, I believe in ghosts and the paranormal so I am NOT saying your probably mental; no. I'm saying that you need to eliminate this as a possibility in order to find and address the root of the problem.

 

Lastly, a friendly conversation or ongoing discussion with a minister or clergy could probably answer your religion question much better than I could. Most pastors are also trained counselors. If you (like most of us) do not like being "preached at" (who does?) then you could always make an appointment with a theology professor/teacher to discuss it. A "holistic" practitioner is also a good choice. Talking to a minister who is not a family member is a good idea, generally; because those in my family (for instance) just can't help but preach. A non denominational pastor could be of help but if you have a denomination of course that may be where you would want to start.

 

If you were my friend or family these are the steps that I would ask you to take in order to isolate the cause of your feelings. After these are addressed then you could talk to me or another paranormalist of your choice about spirits. Without checking these options thoroughly, first; it would be improper (and possibly dangerous to you) to try to deal with this problem as paranormal.

 

This is not a cop out, these things ("Normal" things) must be ruled out BEFORE you can consider a "paranormal" cause. As in all things the more you rule OUT as the cause the easier it will be to zero in on what the actual cause is. Always assume some thing is natural and rule out all of those causes before you begin to think it might be supernatural.

 

That's my best advice and I hope it helps. I can answer your questions about my beliefs about ghosts haunting people but really hope that you will go through the proper channels to rule out the other causes first. An inappropriate answer from me might cause you undue stress or worry and rather or not this is paranormal there is no reason to panic. Your symptoms have been with you for a long time and you do not mention them escalating, so you have time to figure this out in a rational and methodical manner. That would be your best course of action.

 

Jenny G.