Phantoms...........

Mid-September, a chilly evening spent with friends around the fire, and visions of quick moving shadow figures.   The Autumnal Equinox takes place in the early hours of Friday, September 23 - just days away.  This annual movement of our sun moving along it's yearly journey to the far side of the equator marks the coming of long nights and cool days; the death of plants, flowers, grass and all things green and growing.  The Fall equinox is a time of balance; equal amounts of light and dark before the dark becomes more than the light; it is also the time when the veil that separates the world of the living and the world of the dead begans to thin, and spirits from the other side begin to penetrate the thin shield.

Last night, after an exhausting day selling junque to raise funds for SIM, we relaxed with our friends, the majority of them a part of the SIM Crew.  The evening was chilly in more ways than temperature as I kept seeing dark shadows moving to and fro.  Though I could never get a good look at them, I know without question they were ghosts.  Several times throughout the evening one would catch my eye, but of course the moment I looked at it fully, it would vanish.  Later, at home, I asked my husband Jerry if he had noticed anything out of the ordinary there.  He said yes, ghosts.  He felt he had seen a full profile of a ghostly shadow. 

Since we have become ghost hunters, our sensitivity to to the supernatural has increased exponentially.  Of course these otherworldly beings have always been there, right along side of us, but now that we have become pararnormal investigators we take notice when they slither by.  Honestly, I'm a little spooked out sometimes when I take note of all the beings crowded around us.

Ah well, it will indeed be a long season, and the SIM Crew has plenty of investigations throughout this bewitching time to practice this sensitivity on.  To all my fellow ghost hunters out there, HAPPY HUNTING, it will be an awesome season.

A spooky mausoleum...

San Juan Island, Washington. It is a beautiful, magical place teaming with wildlife, forests, and history. Our family travels to this slice of heaven each year. We are captivated by the Orca whales who call this place home. To us, this is the only place to vacation, and we enjoy sitting out on the west side of the island, waiting for the whales. They are magnificent, and we fell in love with them over 15 years ago on our first visit.




Afterglow Vista

Earlier this week, Kacie and I returned from our beloved island, and while we were there we checked out a spooky old mausoleum that we had learned about, but never seen.  For many years we have heard about the Afterglow Vista from a lot of islanders, including our friends Gayle and Hugh. Tales of  ghosts materializing after midnight and cruising the place as well as well asother otherworldly events abound. 

I have to share a little history of the place, it is quite interesting. John S. McMillin, an industrialist, came to the island in the late 1800's and bought a company that mined the pure limestone once in abundance on the island, "cooked" it in ginormous kilns, and then barreled it, and shipped it off to distant places worldwide to be used as a strengthener in concrete and mortar.  After the San Francisco earthquake in the early 1900's, most of that city was rebuilt using the island's lime in a concrete mix that is stronger than the normal concrete and mortar.

John S. McMillin built Roche Harbor Resort which is quite the place, and today it is lavish with every amenity available. As he was becoming an old man, he decided to build a mausoleum to house his and his family’s ashes after they died.
Today, the old cemetery on the hillside and the mausoleum is open to the public, and so Kacie and I made our way up to the exclusive resort and found the trail marked “Mausoleum”. We parked in the lot and began ascending the hill on the twisting and turning trail that lead us through the very old cemetery, where almost all of the graves date back to the late 1800’s. We arrived just as the sun was beginning to set and the woods were dark, the sky above was still light and streaked in the beautiful colors of the sunset.

Orbs/ moisture and supernatural

It was, well, eerie walking through that old place. Each grave was surrounded by either a picket or wrought iron fence; some of the grave sites held an entire family. The tombstones were cracked and falling apart; some of the graves had trees now fully grown inside the fences. We stopped at one of the large gravesites, and I could feel a presence. Kacie could also feel this spirit, and though we had only our cameras, Kacie took her cell phone out and hit the record button. We did a short evp session, but we knew that chances of catching anything were slim as the big resort was ending the day with the big daily ceremony performed  when taking down the flags at sunset.

We couldn’t find any kind of building, and it was after sunset and quite dark when we climbed down the hillside and left the area. Photographs we shot show various orbs which indicate paranormal activity, but all in all no concrete proof, no ghosts flying overhead for example.

The next day after talking with our friends, they told us that we hadn’t gone far enough, so the next night we went up and on the trail we went. It was about a half mile trek from the end of the old cemetery to the mausoleum, and worth every step. This place is unbelievable, and so surprising. Who knew? We go to this island yearly and never knew that this masoleum was so grand, well we had heard stories of the place but we never expected it to be quite as, well, unbelieveable as it is.  We were quite amazed to say the least. A big pillar old world looking structure stuck way back in the woods. Can I just say -- CRAZY? Well, it is, but also quite otherworldly.

Old man McMillin built this structure with pillars built to the specifications of King Solomon’s temple from the Bible; one of the pillars is broken, indicating life’s unfinished business. Inside the structure is an enormous round limestone table with limestone chairs surrounding it, one for each family member; inside the base of the each chair is the cremated remains of the family McMillin. Creepy? Oh ya, but very, very interesting. The sun had set by this time, and so we shot several photos, some in this blog, and made our way back through the woods to the car.

An investigation of this amazing dedication to John S. McMillin’s family as well as the old cemetery would be awesome to do. The ghost stories of this place are many and as with all stories, there probably is a small slice of truth to them. We did feel a presence in the cemetery and our photos show paranormal activity, it would be phenomenal to investigate there.

Perhaps the owners of the resort would welcome an investigation.  The SIM Crew would do an awesome job, I have no doubts.  You just never know, the summer of 2012 may be Afterglow Vista's very first paranormal investigation ;)

 

For more detailed information about this historical landmark, you can click on this link: http://sanjuanmasons.com/mausoleum.html

Scared.......

I pride myself for not fearing the supernatural.  Being a paranormal investigator, I am among ghosts on almost every investigation.  I have always been able to feel them, an ability I inherited from my mom and my grandma, but to be honest I have never been face to face with one until last weekend.

The SIM Crew was invited to lead two ghost hunts and present at an event called Northern Frights in northern Minnesota.  On the second night while investigating with Katie and a group of event attendees, I had to leave for a moment to bring a key to another room to Jerry and his group.  As I walked out into the dark hallway (no lights were on for the investigation) and began the walk to that room, I sensed something to my left.  I turned to look and found myself looking into the face of a ghost.  No more than two feet away, the apparition of the face of an otherworldly being appeared to be coming out of the door to one of the rooms. 

Obviously I don't have nerves of steel, and I screamed (yes I screamed) and turned to move away from this apparition.  I turned back though to see it again, but it had disappeared.  Even though I could no longer see it, I felt this spirit follow me down the hallway, and I nervously kept looking over my shoulder for it.  Now, what should I have done?  I should have stared that ghost down and asked some questions.  Instead I called Jerry on my walkie and told him the story.  A missed opportunity to be sure.  Sigh. 

Jerry and his group were anxiously awaiting my arrival.  I finally arrived at the room, key in hand, wild eyed and obviously shaken up.

"Are you OK?" They asked, concern etched on their faces.  They wanted to hear all about my experience, but I'm pretty sure they were taken aback my wild appearance.

"I'm scared.......and I am a GHOST HUNTER" I blurted out.  Now what I meant by that was that ghost hunters aren't supposed to lose it like I did and be afraid.  Now this statement will be forever in the minds of the SIM Crew.  They laughed and laughed at this, and immediately began planning t-shirts that will read:

"I'm a ghost hunter......and I got scared!"

OK.  Whatever.  So I ran and screamed like a silly school girl.  Sigh.  I was scared, no doubt, but I'm still trying to figure out if I was really scared or just startled?  Scared? Really?  I've been with and around a lot of ghosts and not been scared.  But I guess there's something about coming face to face with one that drains the blood from your face.

Later on during the investigation, Jerry and his group got the key to the room where the manifestation occurred, and as they entered they were hit with a palpable force.  They stood their ground and entered the room where they observed a filmy shadow move across the room.,  The same ghost that scared me I'm thinking, and I'm sure that ghost had a good laugh at Northern Frights, which to me at that moment was indeed frightening ;)

--SA