Creaking Floorboards: Of Spirits and Sleepwalkers

N.A. Reiter and L.L Schillig

22 July, 2002

Introduction:

In April of 2002, we were contacted by a woman in Utica, Ohio, whom we will refer to as Jessie. Jessie had contacted Haunted Ohio author, Chris Woodyard, regarding ghostly and unexplained activity in her house. Chris, in turn, provided Jessie with NR's e-mail address.

A young professional woman, Jessie lived alone with her dog Timber and a couple of cats in a well-kept two story frame house dating to the 1890's. Since purchasing and moving into the house three years ago, Jessie had experienced a variety of low to moderate level paranormal activity:

1. Whispers or muted voices in the night.
2. Sounds of walking or creaking floors.
3. Sounds resembling those of very large dogs fighting viciously.
4. Feelings of presence that Jessie's dog, Timber, would respond and react to. (Several specific spots in the house)
5. Certain household objects that would be removed from shelves when no one was present and placed on the floor.
6. Neighbors reported that Jessie's TV would come on and shut off on nights when she was out of town, and no person was in the house.

At the time of our first contact, Jessie was not sure about the particulars of the house's history, apart from the fact that the owners before her had lived in the house for about 6 to 8 years. The house had also been on the market a while before Jessie purchased it. After moving in and becoming familiar with folks in the neighborhood, Jessie learned that there had been a haunted reputation to the house extending back to at least the previous owners, and possibly earlier.

During some initial conversations with Jessie, a rather unique factor emerged that we felt might conceivably play some role in the phenomena reported, although we hesitated to define how or to what degree. The factor was one of sleepwalking! Jessie explained to us that over most of her life, she has experienced intermittent sleepwalking episodes. These episodes appeared to have become fairly dormant up until the point in time when Jessie moved into her Utica home. However, in the three years since, she has experienced many sleepwalks.

Another factor of a unique nature concerns a close friend of Jessie's, "Jody" who appeared to produce a near violent stimulation of anomalous phenomena in Jessie's house when she has on a couple of occasions roomed with Jessie.

We placed Jessie's case on our roster. Finally, in July of 2002, we made our visit to Jessie's house.

Our Visit:

On the early afternoon of July 20th, we arrived at Jessie's house in the quiet old town of Utica. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by Jessie, a cheerful and attractive young woman, and her dog Timber, a beautiful Husky nearly as large as Jessie herself!

Jessie's tidy housekeeping and love of antiques helped emphasize the mood of the old frame home, which in turn reflected Jessie's primary passion in life: horses, horsemanship, and all things Western.

The local weather conditions upon our arrival were pristine, with the outdoor temperature in the low 80's F and a mostly clear sky. Rain had fallen the night before, so the local humidity was slightly higher than average, around 65% RH.

We proceeded in our usual fashion, with LS initiating a walk through with dowsing rods. L's daughter, Chelsea, accompanied us, and assisted her mom by writing down notes dictated by L as she wandered the rooms of the house. NR followed after with our digital camera and our "light" instrument assortment, consisting of our Hall gaussmeter, magnetic compass, electroscope, high gain microphone, and ultrasonic detector.

We covered the first floor of the home before examining the upper story, then ending up with a short excursion into the basement.

Midway through our survey, Jessie's friend, Jody, arrived and looked on as we continued.

Following LS' intuitive survey and NR's instrumentation, we relaxed with our hostess for a while and compared notes. Of particular interest was a possible symbolic or archetypal motif in some of the unusual events experienced by Jessie - objects being taken (unseen) from shelves or high places and being placed gently on the floor. A kinder, gentler poltergeist to be sure. We interviewed Jody as well, learning some of the details of her frightening experience with a situation in which an unseen force had tried to choke her in the spare bedroom on the second floor. Some time was spent also, discussing possible ties between sleepwalking and the anomalous events occurring in the house.

Finally, we spent some time examining a device that had been designed and built by NR to try to look for inexplicable body weight changes during sleep walking. The original intention had been to set up the device, a mechanical recording scale, near Jessie's bed, and look for unusual weight alterations that might be related to an altered state of consciousness. Such unexplained weight losses have been reported by researchers in Eastern Europe. The device appeared to be problematic, though, and we decided it was best to go "back to the drawing board" with another design.

At the end of the afternoon, we bid our new friends adieu and headed off.

Physical and Photographic Results:

First floor:

The ground floor of the home appeared to be fairly quiescent magnetically. One region of magnetic distortion was noted, at about a 10 to 15% of ambient level, near the lower landing of the main stairway. No immediately identifiable mundane causes were observed (such as appliances, etc). No electroscope deflections were noted. The location of the magnetic deflection may correspond with one of LS' dowsing reactions, as well as being a location where Timber the dog had often taken alarm.

In the small dining room, we find two photos in which orb images appear in succession. The matter of orb images showing up in sequential time lapse photos, giving the appearance of real world movement or translation is a matter of on-going interest. It presents yet another paradox for a phenomenon that would otherwise be very easy to write off as an artifact of dust, flash, and focus. Another orb image is seen near the oven in the kitchen.

Second floor:

Another region of modest geomagnetic distortion was observed at a height of about 2 feet above the dead center of Jessie's bed. This is a subtle feature we have observed previously - an apparent magnetic residuum associated with a bed and not necessarily being associated with magnetized bedsprings or frames.

No other magnetic or electrostatic anomalies were noted on the second story.

Basement:

No magnetic, electrostatic, or acoustic anomalies were noted in the basement. We do, however, find an interesting series of orb image photos, again displaying the property of apparent real world movement. Copies of these have been forwarded to our hostess Jessie, however we attach a set of them here for review. See the photos below.

LS' Intuitive and Dowsing Conclusions:

First Floor:

A dowsing response was noted near the television set in the living room and near the room-dividing ledge in the north east corner of the same room. No imagery was detected.

A faint dowsing reaction was recorded in the southeast corner of the kitchen and near the refrigerator, however neither of these reactions were strong. In fact, neither energy spot seemed to remain stationary, but rather what was detectable on the first pass seemed to disappear on subsequent attempts to locate it. No imagery was sensed.

In a foyer area at the base of the steps, a very strong dowsing reaction was present and seemed quite stationary. There was distinct imagery in this area. I sensed a male and female presence. The male was either the father/uncle/etc. of the girl (who seemed to be either a teenager or very young adult). There seemed to be an emotional or possibly a physical abuse issue surrounding their relationship. She seemed quite intimidated by him. (This is the area that her dog seems to occasionally sense a presence and near a ledge where photos were carefully removed from the center of a grouping of frames and gently placed on the floor).

The stairway leading to the second floor seemed to also be permeated with the presence of these two individuals. I sensed her descending the stairs quite quickly or possibly being forcibly pushed or dragged down by the man.

Second Floor:

There was a dowsable reaction in the south east corner of the bathroom, however no imagery accompanied this.

In the computer room, energy was dowsed along the closet doorway. There was a sense of having a great deal of difficulty breathing, however no distinct imagery. (It was later disclosed that this was the room where Jessie’s friend experienced being awakened by a choking sensation from an unseen presence).

Basement:

In the west end, I sensed a female curled up/cowering as if afraid.

General Conclusions:

The matter of Jessie's house remains perhaps a little less easy to categorize than some of our more recent investigative cases. In one sense, the metaphor and symbolism of some of the unusual physical events noted by Jessie appear to satisfy the profile of a poltergeist mechanism. On the other hand, the on-going reaction of Timber and Jessie's cat to unseen stimuli suggests perhaps a more classical repeating energy pattern type haunt. Certainly, we have seen that repeating pattern and poltergeist type events can coincide and feed each other. The singular and disturbing encounters of Jessie's friend, Jody, suggest a situation whereby a repeating or old pattern of human emotional energy was temporarily fed and violently re-animated by a fresh influx of energy. The possible role of the unique states of consciousness present during somnambulism, or sleepwalking, cannot be ignored either, although we are not yet sure of what that role might be.

In most of our poltergeist cases, we are able to find a symbolic link to emotional situations in the lives of one or more of the residents in a "haunted" house in relation to the presence(s) intuitively detected. Sometimes, the link is blatantly obvious, however not in this case. We offer the following possible connections for our host to ponder in the event that she may come to recognize a connection to her own life. If such a parallel connection exits, this may produce a re-animating effect in old energy that had a similar pattern to her own:

1. Emotionally and/or physically abusive relationship between a teenage girl/young woman and her father or a father-like figure.
2. Our host had photos/objects of her current non-blood family representative of a surrogate-like family (close friends/pets) carefully taken down from a shelf/place of importance/prominence and placed on the floor. This could be symbolically representative of the need to take something (friend/animals) down off the pedestal that they emotionally fulfill in her life because of the psyche’s need to review older issues (possibly related to an emotionally abusive father-like figure) and thus heal old wounds.

We cannot rule out entirely the possibility of a departed spirit or free-willed entity. The reputation for being haunted over many years time, as well as the neighbor's observations of the TV being turned off and on in Jessie's absence, might support this. We would suggest that this is a fairly slim possibility, however, due to the fact that LS did not sense or pick up any of the hallmark strong images or impressions of a mobile personality.

For now, our impressions might best be fulfilled by the former explanation, a repeating energy pattern type haunt, occasionally re-animated or given symbolic aspects by PK.

We plan to carry on an on-going dialog with Jessie, to track future events, as well as pursue the admittedly speculative notion that sleepwalking might be accompanied by an anomalous bodily weight change. (A matter for a future research paper, hopefully!)

In closing, we would like to thank Jessie, Chris Woodyard (who sent her to us!), Jody, and Jessie's "Fur-kids" as she calls them, for supplying us with a rewarding and interesting case. Hopefully, further investigation and understanding will be forthcoming, and will reward all involved.

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