Let me introduce myself since this is my first article for my upcoming column, Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House.
By Rebecca Nidey
Everything I Need to Know I Learned In a Haunted House
I have been a paranormal investigator for eight years on the investigative team of the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters Society, a student of life for all of my soon to be fifty nine years, and a developing psychic and empath. You might say I was born to investigate the paranormal since my birthday is actually Halloween!
One of the reasons I got into paranormal investigation and research is because, as a Scorpio, I love to solve mysteries. What are hauntings if not mysteries waiting to be solved! Think of the questions we ask as investigators during our EVP sessions: Do you know you are dead? How did you die? What is your name? Why are you still here? How can we help you? They are questions designed to solve a mystery. More importantly, when we receive answers to those questions we need to think about how they can be applied to our lives.
When I was first learning about the paranormal, one of the first lessons was the different types of hauntings. There is the residual haunting which is basically an event that plays out over and over again and what I call an echo from the past. Then there is the intelligent hauntings. These are the ones where you get an actual interaction with the spirits; a clear EVP answering a query or a knocking when requested. Contrary to common practices on some of the paranormal shows on television, I have always found that common courtesy, kindness and compassion when asking a question and patience when waiting for an answer always works the best. The principles a person should use when dealing with those in spirit should not be abandoned just because someone is not in body. They are, after all, just people without bodies!
When I was first learning the business, I was lucky enough to have a ready-made school for paranormal research, a house we called ‘The Robinson Spook House.’ At one time, this house had been a fine family home with both a family and a servants’ staircase. The home was old and built on a plot of land that was awarded to a local dignitary by the territorial governor at that time. First lesson, do your history on the home, building or even the land because it can explain why the location is haunted. There were several layers of ghosts that dwelled there from some of the original inhabitants to the last owner who died while living there (although not in the home).
History can be as easy to learn as going to the local library or historical society, to canvassing some of the older neighbors. Sometimes pertinent facts are not recorded in the official records, but oral history lives on. I try to apply some of those principles to my own life. One of my great joys is learning oral history from my older relatives. Of course, I am now becoming one of those older relatives so I love to repeat those stories to my nieces and nephews.
I work in a hospital with a Long Term Care Unit attached and the residents there love to tell their stories. It is always surprising to hear that the bent little lady in the wheelchair was once a dancer in Chicago or the gentleman using that cane now once flew fighters during World War 2. When I have to deal with someone who is not being pleasant, whether they are in body or spirit, it also pays to find out their history….it explains why they are acting in that manner and how to deal with them, if possible. Often the thing that people need and want the most is acknowledgment that they lived, and once again this applies to both the living and the dead.
I think this might be a good place to end my first article, but I would like to share one last thing. It has been my habit to wander cemeteries for most of my adult life. We often visit local cemeteries during our investigations, but most of all, I enjoy visiting them on my own time to wonder as I wander about those that lie in those graves. On one of the gravestones in the county we found this verse that sums up something we should all remember and that should remind us to live each day as if it might be our last:
REMEMBER FRIENDS AS YOU PASS BY
AS YOU ARE NOW SO ONCE WAS I
AS I AM NOW SOON YOU MUST BE
PREPARE FOR DEATH AND FOLLOW ME
About the Author:
Through her work on the investigative team for the Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters, Rebecca Nidey has an understanding of the paranormal, spiritual, and metaphysical worlds and how they work together.
Rebecca has trained in the Healing Touch technique (a form of energy healing). She is a certified Psychic Medium trained by Belle Salisbury, and she is a certified Paranormal Researcher.
Rebecca is the associate editor for Bellesprit Magazine and also writes a column titled Everything I Need To Know I Learned In A Haunted House. She has been a co-host of several radio programs for the Haunted Voices Radio Network and HeyZ Radio Network highlighting the Paranormal, metaphysical and literary fields.
To learn more about Rebecca or to schedule a reading you can contact her at https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.nidey.
