WALKING AMONGST THE SHADOWS
TALES FROM OUR VAULT
Very early in my career as a paranormal investigator, I would go to cemeteries at night, with written permission, of course. It was a much simpler time, instead of complicated setups and gadgets galore, I was armed with just a digital audio recorder, a digital camera and an electromagnetic field detector. At that time I didn't fully grasp that I was sensitive and an empath. This was before I founded our old paranormal investigation group and well before we pivoted to group paranormal investigations and helping historic properties.
Many, many years ago I visited a small cemetery that was close to my childhood home. It always grabbed my attention when I was younger whenever my family would drive by. Since I had just decided to start investigating the paranormal, I was surprised how easy it was to get permission from the cemetery association to investigate its grounds at night.
Overall, it was a very peaceful cemetery. The other two members of our group arrived before my wife and I did and they were taking a number of photographs. When I arrived, I did a quick walkthrough of the cemetery and there was one spot where I felt something strong. I pointed out the spot to my wife and told her that the spot might be active. I continued to walk through the cemetery and waited for the sun to set. We investigated the entire cemetery and it was very quiet and most of it had a very strong serene feeling to it - except that one particular spot.
Christiana and I decided to walk to the spot that I identified as having a strong energy. I ducked under some overgrown vegetation and stood in front of several gravestones, many I could not make out due to overgrown weeds. I had once again felt the strong energy in that spot. As I mentioned, at that point I had not embraced the fact that I have unique gifts, so I thought that everyone would have felt this. As I stood in that location, I felt the energy get stronger and I felt a strange pressure just below my sternum. I felt the pressure push into me and upwards - it felt like someone living had pressed hard and upwards in that area. Then all of a sudden I was overwhelmed by grief. I had known that those feelings were not mine. To me, the grief was as powerful as if I had lost someone incredibly close to me. My eyes started to tear up and my throat became very tight. I started to cry inexplicably. Christiana noticed me wiping my eyes and asked me what was happening. I could barely eke out any intelligible words as I was so overwhelmed.
I walked away from that spot to the more peaceful section of the small cemetery to collect my thoughts. When I settled down, I walked back to that location and knelt down at the gravestone in which that emotion was centered and pulled some overgrown weeds. I was then able to read the gravestone and saw that it was one for a toddler. Seeing the grave of a small child made me completely understand that overwhelming grief that overcame me. This was the first time that I had took on the emotion of a spirit during an investigation, so the concept was foreign to me. I quickly learned through my investigations that I am very open to the paranormal realm.
A day later, I was surprised by an email from one of our other team members, stating that they went through all of the photographs they took before the sun set and one photograph had an image of a woman in what looked like mourning clothes in the cemetery. When I was sent the photograph and looked at it on a large screen, I too saw the image of the mourning woman. Then I gasped when I realized by the gravestones in the photo that she was standing at the exact location where I had been overwhelmed. I had been standing in the exact spot as this grieving spirit was a couple hours prior.
I still drive by that cemetery when we visit my parents. Most times I look towards the cemetery and the spot wondering if I would see this poor woman with my own eyes. On one occasion several years after investigation the cemetery, I drove by without thinking of that woman or looking towards the cemetery. It could have been that I was distracted by having two small children in the backseat. Suddenly, it hit me that I almost forgot about the cemetery because when I did, I felt someone tap the top of my head three times. After I snapped out of being on autopilot, I realized that I was adjacent that cemetery. Both of our kids were strapped in child seats and there was no way their little arms could reach the top of my head. I sheepishly asked them if they had seen anything strange without explaining what happened. They did not. Just another day as a paranormal investigator!
