Linda Zimmermann - Ghost Investigator Volume 5: From Beyond the Grave

GHOST INVESTIGATOR Volume5:

From Beyond the GraveWritten

Linda Zimmermann

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 Linda Zimmermann

ISBN: 978-1-937174-02-6

Spirited Books Printing 2005

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Ghost Investigator: Volume 5

Copyright 2005 Linda Zimmermann

All rights reserved. This book may not bereproduced in whole or in part without permission.

Print Version ISBN: 0-9712326-7-9

CONTENTS

ParanormalPassenger

More on Grandma

Tragic Figures

Upstairs,Downstairs

Death Breath

If at First Youre NotBelieved

Window to the OtherWorld

Home for Elderly LadiesUpdate

Body in theBasement?

Introduction

The popularity of all things paranormal, andghosts in particular, appears to have greatly increased in the pastfew years. As evidence of this, I was recently in Gettysburg whereyou cant walk half a block without someone trying to sell you aticket to a ghost tour. And where battlefields were once desertedafter dark, youll now find crowds of people hoping to catch aglimpse of a phantom soldier.

This is all well and good, but it doespresent some problems. For example, one group of people at theTriangular Field in Gettysburg was conducting an investigation ina rather unique manner. They were sitting in lawn chairs whilemusic played on their boom box and every once in a while someonewould lift a camera over his head and snap a picture of thefield.

They seemed quite pleased with the results oftheir armchair investigation, too, as they kept announcing thenumber of paranormal orbs they were photographing. The fact thatthe air was filled with lightning bugs, countless other insects,dust, cigarette smoke, and that there were dozens of people andmultiple flashes from other cameras didnt faze them. They wereconvinced they were capturing images of the spirits of Civil Warsoldiers, accompanied by appropriate patriotic background music,and nothing was going to convince them otherwise.

Therein lies the dilemmawhile its greatthat so many people have enthusiastically embraced thepossibilities of a spirit world, a whole lot of nonsense is nowflooding the field of paranormal research. Its so tempting tothink that every fuzzy orb on your flash photo is a ghost, or thatscratchy sound on your old cassette recorder is a voice from thegrave, but resist temptation and examine the evidence criticallyand honestly!

For example, orbs havebothered me for years. If you have read any of the other books frommy Ghost Investigator series, you know that I have included photos of those fuzzy,round spots, but that I have often questioned their validity asevidence of the paranormal. I didnt know what they were, and noone had been able to provide a rational explanation. Then a fewmonths ago, I found an interesting article on the Fujifilm website.There was a picture of a teddy bear in a chair, with severalclassic fuzzy white orbs around it.

This was not a haunted teddy bear the Fujiexperts had photographed. This was an example of a common problemcaused by, Flash reflections from floating dust particles. Theexplanation went on to say:

There is always a certain amount of dustfloating around in the air. You may have noticed this at the movieswhen you look up at the light coming from the movie projector andnotice the bright sparks floating around in the beam.

In the same way, there are always dustparticles floating around nearby when you take pictures with yourcamera. When you use the flash, the light from the flash reflectsoff the dust particles and is sometimes captured in your shot.

Of course, dust particles very close to thecamera are blurred since they are not in focus, but because theyreflect the light more strongly than the more distant main subjectof the shot, that reflected light can sometimes be captured by thecamera and recorded on the resulting image as round white spots. Sothese dots are the blurred images of dust particles.

You can reproduce this problem relativelyeasily by taking a picture right after you put away goods thatcreate a lot of dust, such as feather bedding. In actualphotography, this problem frequently arises in shots taken atconstruction sites, etc. It may also occur when it is raining orsnowing. Compact cameras in which the flash and the lens are closetogether are particularly susceptible to this problem.

Do I now think that every suspicious spot ona photograph is dust? No, but this illustrates how important it isto exhaust all rational avenues before rushing headlong down theparanormal highway. All of the evidence at a scene needs to beconsidered, and things such as orbs and EVPs (electronic voicephenomena) can easily be deceiving.

All this being said, I am very excited aboutthis past years investigations. The cases have been extraordinary,and I have personally experienced some mind-blowing phenomena. Ihave also been fortunate to meet psychic Cyra Greene, who has beenable to add a fascinating new dimension to some of these cases.

I hope you will enjoyreading these adventures From Beyond theGrave

The ParanormalPassenger

As a rule, I only take the time toinvestigate a place if the owner agrees to allow me to write aboutit. Then again, even a ghost hunters rules are made to be broken,and I will occasionally look into a case with no expectation ofever publishing the results.

In November of 2004, I went to check out ahouse where a woman had died under tragic circumstances. Whileseveral family members had since experienced unusual phenomena,they did not want any details of the case to be revealed. Irespected their desire for privacy, and was fully resolved not towrite a word about it. However, something so remarkable happenedthat the owner agreed to allow me to relate that part of the story,and that part alone. (So please, dont even try to ask me for anyother details on this case!)

I had concluded my investigation, and theownerlets call her Maryand I walked to the driveway. My car wasparked on the left side of the driveway, and Marys SUV was parkedon the right, with the front of both cars facing the house. As shewent to the passenger side of her vehicle to get a piece of paperto write down her email address, I opened my passenger door. I putmy large case of equipment on the seat and gave the door a shove toclose it.

Suddenly, from inside my car, came aloud, but muffled sound of a woman crying out! My brain had a splitsecond of disconnect, and I tried to grab the door, thinking thatsomeone was yelling because I was about to close her arm or leg inthe door. The door slammed shut, and reality slammed against mybrainthere wasnt anyone in my car! Yet the voice was so loud, soinsistent, so terribly close!

My head was reeling and I staggeredbackwards. It was like all my neurons were firing at once, tryingto make some sense out of what had just happened. This was nocomputer-enhanced, faint, fuzzy whispering EVP on a scratchycassette tape. This was a clear, loud voice within two or threefeet of my face!

Could there be any logical explanation? Mymind raced to find one.

The tape recorders! That must be it, one ofthe tape recorders had somehow turned itself on. I pulled open thecar door, yanked the zipper on the case and tossed equipment asidesearching for the tape recorder I had used on the investigation. Itwas not on. My heart and head were pounding. Wait, I thought, I hadbrought another tape recorder, and even though I hadnt used it,perhaps it held the answer. I pulled it out of a side compartment,but found that it, too, was not on.