mothaeffinxhailey
Paranormal Novice
I am relatively new to the forum, but I feel I am ready to share two of my experiences. I have had others, but I'm still not sure if I feel comfortable enough posting about them. Instead, I'll relate to you all an experience I had when I was 5 and one that I had when I was 16.
My first experience when I was 5 occured when I lived with my mom in Centralia, WA. She worked with the sherriff's department as a humane officer. Because people get so irate when you take away their animals or pets, we had to screen our phone calls. Now, we didn't have caller ID back then, so instead, if anyone needed to get ahold of us, they would need to call the operator, who would then call our private line and ask if we would accept the call or if we weren't home, they would take a message and leave it on our answering machine for the caller.
So, one day, my mom and I came home and there was a message on the answering machine from the operator to call my paternal aunt. My mom picked up the phone and dialed her number, while I wondered around the living room, situating myself on the couch, getting ready to watch cartoons. I remember my mother saying "Hi, how are you?" and then she paused, as if receiving a reply.
I'm not sure what happened or how or even why, but my heart started pounding and I stood up, grabbed my mom's shirt and said "Grandpa's dead". I remember my mom looking at me with her eyes wide as dishplates and then saying "I don't know how, but she knows. I have to go" and I ran into my room and started crying.
Skeptics would say that I probably heard my aunt through the phone and that's how I knew what had happened, but I remember that afternoon very clearly and I remember getting anxious while flipping through the TV channels and then suddenly needing to say it. I had never had a family member die and I was only 5, so that was a relatively strange idea for a child to come up with seemingly out of no where.
The second experience I will share is one I had when I was 16. In Steilacoom, Wa, just behind Pierce College, is a trail that leads around a lake and es's up a hill to an old mental institution. My friends and I use to go in the middle of the night when we were bored. Obviously, the institution itself was behind a 7ft tall chain link fence with barbed wire on the top, but there were holes in the gate and you could squeeze through and walk in.
We'd been there a few times and absolutely nothing happened. We ended up meeting new people and hanging out with them. After a few trips, I decided to do some research on what had happened to the institution itself. It was left in complete ruins. You can still go down to the boiler room and to the patient rooms, there is still pipes for the plumbing, etc, but most of the buildings have collapsed and you have to walk over a lot of rubble to get anywhere. Also, none of the buildings have a full roof as the inside walls of all of them have been knocked down.
I found out that in the early 1900's it was a functioning mental assylum where the state decided to try a new form of rehabilitation. A farm was set up on the grounds of the institution and the patients learned to care for dairy cows. They would milk the cows in a small parlour and sell it and that would help pay for the treatment of the patients there. Not many years after the institute was thriving, it shut down. A few years later, a larger institute of the same name (Western State) was built a few miles down the road.
In the 70's, the buildings were used as testing sites for the military as Fort Lewis and McChord AFB are only 5 minutes down the road. This is the reason the buildings were in such delapidation. The barn, which is still standing, sits in a field a few yards behind the institution itself. The state began using it as storage for vehicles that were involved in homicides. You can still look in the windows and see how absolutely crunched these cars are.
One night, a girl friend of mine and two of our guy friends were bored and decided to go there. It's actually very beautiful and serene. The lake is gorgeous in the dark. We crawled in through the holes in the fence and began exploring. It was rather obvious that we were alone. There was no other noise, which is hard when you're trying to hike up a pile of cement and rebar.
Together, the four of us wondered around for a while. After about a half an hour, one of our friends, James, decided to go explore on his own a bit on the other side of the grounds. Not more than 3 minutes later, he ran back to us and said "Someone else is here". I told him not to worry, that other people come here to explore just like we are.
The two guys kept seeing this person, saying that they tried to talk and wave to him, but he never seemed to pay any attention to either. After a few complaints from them, my friend and I shrugged them off and said we could leave.
We walked down the trail that lead back to the parkinglot of Pierce College where we had left our car. We got to the final es curve in the trail before it straightens out and leads back to the college. I was completely shocked to see two figures standing just off the trail at the last bend.
It happened so quickly, by the time I could formulate words, we were directly infront of the two figures. I could see the outline of a man, who seemed to have a stocky build and a white tee shirt, and an outline of what I perceived as a little boy (perhaps 5-7?), who was also wearing a white tee shirt. Their head, arms, and legs were significantly darker than the space of brush behind them and they stood there, seemingly looking in our direction (but it is hard to say exactly since I couldn't make out their face).
As we were in front of them, I said "Do you guys see that", and I pointed to the two figures. They were still there even after I said it, but my friends, who had looked in that spot said they saw nothing, but took off at a run. I eyed the pair again, neither moved or spoke, and I too took off running.
When we got back to the car, my friends asked me what I had seen and I explained it to them. The guy's jaws completely dropped and when I asked them why, they replied that that sounded like the man they had seen wondering around inside the gates.
We sped home and needless to say I never went back again. I did some further research when I got home and found that the paranormal society of Washington state had done investigations there before and there were various accounts of researchers seeing a young boy on the grounds.
There is no light in the area, so I can't believe that my eyes were playing tricks on me because I had ruined my night vision. Yes, it is illegal to be on the property after dusk, but I'm sure if it was a cop they would have said something to us (not to mention the fact that the cop would have been with a child for some reason).
I'm sure both of these experiences could be explained away, but both have had a profound impact on me and I am curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences.
And if you were able to read all of that, I give you kudos.
My first experience when I was 5 occured when I lived with my mom in Centralia, WA. She worked with the sherriff's department as a humane officer. Because people get so irate when you take away their animals or pets, we had to screen our phone calls. Now, we didn't have caller ID back then, so instead, if anyone needed to get ahold of us, they would need to call the operator, who would then call our private line and ask if we would accept the call or if we weren't home, they would take a message and leave it on our answering machine for the caller.
So, one day, my mom and I came home and there was a message on the answering machine from the operator to call my paternal aunt. My mom picked up the phone and dialed her number, while I wondered around the living room, situating myself on the couch, getting ready to watch cartoons. I remember my mother saying "Hi, how are you?" and then she paused, as if receiving a reply.
I'm not sure what happened or how or even why, but my heart started pounding and I stood up, grabbed my mom's shirt and said "Grandpa's dead". I remember my mom looking at me with her eyes wide as dishplates and then saying "I don't know how, but she knows. I have to go" and I ran into my room and started crying.
Skeptics would say that I probably heard my aunt through the phone and that's how I knew what had happened, but I remember that afternoon very clearly and I remember getting anxious while flipping through the TV channels and then suddenly needing to say it. I had never had a family member die and I was only 5, so that was a relatively strange idea for a child to come up with seemingly out of no where.
The second experience I will share is one I had when I was 16. In Steilacoom, Wa, just behind Pierce College, is a trail that leads around a lake and es's up a hill to an old mental institution. My friends and I use to go in the middle of the night when we were bored. Obviously, the institution itself was behind a 7ft tall chain link fence with barbed wire on the top, but there were holes in the gate and you could squeeze through and walk in.
We'd been there a few times and absolutely nothing happened. We ended up meeting new people and hanging out with them. After a few trips, I decided to do some research on what had happened to the institution itself. It was left in complete ruins. You can still go down to the boiler room and to the patient rooms, there is still pipes for the plumbing, etc, but most of the buildings have collapsed and you have to walk over a lot of rubble to get anywhere. Also, none of the buildings have a full roof as the inside walls of all of them have been knocked down.
I found out that in the early 1900's it was a functioning mental assylum where the state decided to try a new form of rehabilitation. A farm was set up on the grounds of the institution and the patients learned to care for dairy cows. They would milk the cows in a small parlour and sell it and that would help pay for the treatment of the patients there. Not many years after the institute was thriving, it shut down. A few years later, a larger institute of the same name (Western State) was built a few miles down the road.
In the 70's, the buildings were used as testing sites for the military as Fort Lewis and McChord AFB are only 5 minutes down the road. This is the reason the buildings were in such delapidation. The barn, which is still standing, sits in a field a few yards behind the institution itself. The state began using it as storage for vehicles that were involved in homicides. You can still look in the windows and see how absolutely crunched these cars are.
One night, a girl friend of mine and two of our guy friends were bored and decided to go there. It's actually very beautiful and serene. The lake is gorgeous in the dark. We crawled in through the holes in the fence and began exploring. It was rather obvious that we were alone. There was no other noise, which is hard when you're trying to hike up a pile of cement and rebar.
Together, the four of us wondered around for a while. After about a half an hour, one of our friends, James, decided to go explore on his own a bit on the other side of the grounds. Not more than 3 minutes later, he ran back to us and said "Someone else is here". I told him not to worry, that other people come here to explore just like we are.
The two guys kept seeing this person, saying that they tried to talk and wave to him, but he never seemed to pay any attention to either. After a few complaints from them, my friend and I shrugged them off and said we could leave.
We walked down the trail that lead back to the parkinglot of Pierce College where we had left our car. We got to the final es curve in the trail before it straightens out and leads back to the college. I was completely shocked to see two figures standing just off the trail at the last bend.
It happened so quickly, by the time I could formulate words, we were directly infront of the two figures. I could see the outline of a man, who seemed to have a stocky build and a white tee shirt, and an outline of what I perceived as a little boy (perhaps 5-7?), who was also wearing a white tee shirt. Their head, arms, and legs were significantly darker than the space of brush behind them and they stood there, seemingly looking in our direction (but it is hard to say exactly since I couldn't make out their face).
As we were in front of them, I said "Do you guys see that", and I pointed to the two figures. They were still there even after I said it, but my friends, who had looked in that spot said they saw nothing, but took off at a run. I eyed the pair again, neither moved or spoke, and I too took off running.
When we got back to the car, my friends asked me what I had seen and I explained it to them. The guy's jaws completely dropped and when I asked them why, they replied that that sounded like the man they had seen wondering around inside the gates.
We sped home and needless to say I never went back again. I did some further research when I got home and found that the paranormal society of Washington state had done investigations there before and there were various accounts of researchers seeing a young boy on the grounds.
There is no light in the area, so I can't believe that my eyes were playing tricks on me because I had ruined my night vision. Yes, it is illegal to be on the property after dusk, but I'm sure if it was a cop they would have said something to us (not to mention the fact that the cop would have been with a child for some reason).
I'm sure both of these experiences could be explained away, but both have had a profound impact on me and I am curious to see if anyone else has had similar experiences.
And if you were able to read all of that, I give you kudos.
