Sabbatical, Part 3

 

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...continued

Before I get into what happened during the camping excursion, I have a side note. This is a good opportunity to clarify and/or reiterate a few points; some of which I may have touched on previously, but they really can't be stressed enough.

I recently saw another social media post in which someone was asking for local ghost stories. Once again, there were dozens of replies. People always seem to be on a quest to determine the "most haunted" location in any given area. I understand that. I used to be that way myself. Most of the replies to these types of posts begin with,
"I always heard that [such-and-such location] is haunted..."

or, perhaps a story, like,

"[So-and-so] saw a headless man on the side of the road one night, and it turned out that years ago, some guy really did get his head cut off right near that spot!"

When I read these sorts of comments now, I sigh, because I know that places are not actually haunted-- at least not in the way most people think. Most people seem to reason that "ghosts" are attached to a place; as in the previous example. The common interpretation of such sightings would probably be that the roadside headless spirit is the ghost of the man who was beheaded near that spot; somehow trapped between worlds, lost, or tied to the place of his tragic death. That would (likely) not be the case, based on my experiences.

That said, I do think that demons can, and do, occasionally take up residence in an abandoned house or building. That's the reason why those places always feel so creepy. That's why --if you're sensitive at all-- you'll almost always feel as if someone is watching you when you visit a place like that. They most certainly are. Anyway, my point is that, even if a demon has chosen a house to call home for a time, it's not as if he's stuck there. He can definitely come and go as he chooses. Therefore, the most likely explanation of the aforementioned scenario would be that demons have heard the story of the guy who got his head cut off near that spot, and they love to impersonate him, in order to scare living people.

The reason I said that the common explanation is not likely to be the case, is this: I'm starting to consider the possiblity that some demons might have been human in life. I'm not certain; and I don't think it's something that's provable either way. It's something I sense, and something which is possibly not that far-fetched; but it's a topic that requires more research. They would, however, be evil, or they would not be here.

Along those lines, I don't really believe in haunted objects either; again, at least in the way they are usually thought of. I suppose it's possible that a demon could enjoy animating a doll, or that a demon could conceivably really love a certain piece of furniture, etc. Possibly demons might find it amusing to create a mythology surrounding "the haunted wardrobe that has been passed down through a particular family for generations." I could see that. They do love to confuse us. Still, even if those examples were factual, the truth would be that the demon enjoys torturing whomever owns the wardrobe, as a sort of game; that, and nothing more. It would not be the case that the demon is attached to the wardrobe, or trapped inside of it, or anything of that nature. Destroying the wardrobe would do nothing to stop the haunting-- unless the demon would simply choose to leave in order to perpetuate a belief in haunted objects. The object is not the problem in these cases; the object is merely a prop in a demon's theatrical performance. It's the same way with the infamous Annabelle doll, I'm sure of it. Personally, I wouldn't want the damned thing, because owning it might tempt even more demons to come to my house and mess with me; but other than that, it's only a Raggedy Ann doll.

As far as cursed objects are concerned, I've not completely formed an opinion on that topic yet. I suspect that cursed objects are just as plausible as blessed objects; and would probably be created in about the same way, only with a harmful intention bestowed upon them rather than a good one. Although, I can't imagine that they'd be as powerful; because doesn't the power of the blessing partially stem from the wearer's belief? This component would be lacking in a cursed object. Alas, I didn't mean to go so far off on a tangent. I merely felt that was something that needed to be mentioned. Anyways, these days, whenever someone asks,
"Which house in this town is the most haunted?"
I don't answer. I'm usually thinking,
"Mine."
Also, I simply don't want to have to explain that the real answer is,
"All of them." 

The Camping Trip

As I was saying, Stephanie came to my family's property in the mountains for a camping trip. She brought her entire family; including dogs, children, and even a friend of her children. There are several old abandoned sheds on the property, which lies along the banks of a river, and was a working farm in years past. Stephanie's older dog, "Sandie," was hitched to a post outside one of these old sheds whenever they needed to keep her from wandering off. My parents and I live near the field where they made their campsite, and we visited with them; but we spent nights in our own respective houses.

Nothing much happened --of which I was aware of at the time-- while they were here. Of course, the demon chattered to me constantly while I was visiting with them; mostly going on and on about how beautiful Stephanie is. That is somewhat interesting, in and of itself; because he was acting as if this camping excursion was the first time he'd seen her in person, and we'd been suspecting all along that it was the same demon haunting both of our homes. Either he was lying about never having seen her before, or there have been some replacement demons, or something. There's a ruse somewhere in there.

I've actually suspected that demons work in shifts. I realize how outlandish that sounds. I have developed this theory because I perceive different personalities and different voices from time to time, even though there's only ever one demon communicating with me at any given time. Therefore, the possibilities are:

a) More than one demon is present, but they take turns speaking to me.

b) It's all a ruse; and it's always been the same one, acting as different characters and doing different voices.

or,

c) Demons work in shifts.

What I think, but can't really know, is that there have, at times, been more than one demon present; either possessing me, or otherwise trying to scare me. I know that the same demon is capable of changing his voice and persona, so I reason that my perception of different demons could possibly be an act some of the time. But, I sense that I truly have interacted with several different demons over the past six months of having fully-developed telepathy. Some of the personalities I have encountered in the past have seemingly gone away, never to return. Those demons may have been successfully exorcised; or they may have simply moved on to another human. The aspiring rapper, for example, repeatedly "threatened" to move to New York. Perhaps he did. I suspect he's still around at times, though. I still frequently get rhyming messages. He, like some of the other personalities I've encountered, may go away for a while, allowing another demon to assume this "post," and then return at a later time. This would definitely explain the bipolar personality shifts demon appears to display. I can say with certainty that some of them are a lot nastier than others.

One night, while I was sitting around the campfire with Stephanie, we noticed that Sandie was acting a bit strangely. She kept looking into the shed where she was tied, peering through the cracks between the weathered boards, and then jumping back abruptly, as if she'd seen something that startled her. She did this several times. There was only one more odd occurrence besides that, which I was aware of until after the weekend was over. My parents' dog, "Bessie," barked nonstop upon meeting Stephanie's youngest daughter, Thea. This behavior was very out-of-character for Bessie. She is usually very loving towards all people; and there was no reasonable explanation for her being frightened of a small child, especially when that child was accompanied by other trusted humans. I think that the demon was standing behind Thea, and Bessie saw it.

The following Monday, after they'd gone home, I was thinking about Sandie looking into the shed, and the demon said,
"Yes, but this demon did not do anything to Sandie. This demon just sat down in that shed and said, 'Hey, beauty queen! What's your name?' And she said, 'I don't think I want to talk to this demon,' and I said, 'Very well.'"
My male dog, "Oswald," was acting very on-guard that day, barking at seemingly "nothing."

My Father mentioned later that Bessie had been barking the previous night, when Stephanie's family was still here. When he'd gone to check on Bessie, he'd heard something unexplainable for the first time. He said it sounded somewhat like a radio playing in the distance, but not exactly. That might not sound like a big deal to most of you, but considering that we are out in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of overhearing a neighbor's music, it's a little bit weird. If there had been music playing, it would have to have been someone in our family who was playing the music, and apparently no one was. Dad might be developing some extrasensory abilities too; because another night during that time period, he heard a cat meowing when there was no cat nearby.

Mom, as I've mentioned, has been hearing this stuff, to a certain extent, for far longer than I have. My guess is that she has a lot more natural extrasensory perception than Dad; but both of them, like many people out there, simply don't want to acknowledge it. They don't want to believe that there's anything out-of-the-ordinary out there. They want a perfectly clean house, a freshly mown lawn, something good to eat for dinner, and something good to watch on TV. Ordinary. Simple. That's how they want life to be. These days, I don't blame them! I want an ordinary existence too. There's no going back for me, however.  I wish that demons didn't exist at all; but since they do, I'm somewhat grateful that I'm aware of them. I wouldn't want to turn this perception off (forever), because that would truly be scary, now that I know what's out there! It would be nice, however, to be able to turn it on and off at will.

Here's what I mean about Mom, though. One of those muggy July nights, I was sitting on my parents' porch, talking to my Mother. During our conversation, we were hearing a rather loud, interruptive bullfrog. At one point, Mom, said,
"That frog sure is loud!"
Okay, there really was a bullfrog; making normal bullfrog sounds. But, as we continued to talk, I started hearing a deep male voice, saying out loud,
"ha ha ha... hee hee hee..."
It was intermingled, mostly, with the sounds the frog was making, but it was clearly a voice and the words, "ha ha ha... hee hee hee..." The demon was mimicking the frog; and trying to be creepy. At one point, when I was only hearing the demon and not the frog, I said to my Mother,
"Don't you hear that?"
She tilted her head, listening, and then said,
"Yeah, it's just that frog."
I said nothing.

Later on that Monday after the camping trip, Stephanie messaged me on Facebook, saying that her children's friend (who had known nothing previously about the paranormal activity we'd been experiencing) had mentioned to her that he also noticed Sandie looking frightfully into the shed. He said he got a creepy feeling as soon as he stepped out of the truck here; and that he'd felt as if something was trying to mess with him the entire time he was here. He had told them that during one of the nights they spent here, he'd heard what sounded like a door opening and closing. Stephanie said that she herself had heard doors opening and closing that entire night, and had also heard voices. Again, though, as was the case with my Dad and the radio, no one was opening and closing doors, and no one was talking. Additionally, she reported that the security cameras at her house had recorded something (that was not visible) every 10 to 15 minutes while they were here. This had apparently never been an issue any other time the family had been away.

I felt terrible that guests had been frightened or terrorized by demons while visiting our property. I feel that these occurrences were taking place because the demons are attempting to isolate us; to make me feel as if I shouldn't invite anyone here, and to make her feel as if demons will be using her house as an Airbnb if she spends a night away.

I had an idea; but it's something I can't do until after I'm baptized. I ordered a communion set, with six little prepackaged cups of wine and communion wafers. I got it from Concordiasupply.com for around $16.00. After I'm baptized, I'm going to see if Father Ryan will come back out and officiate a mass at my house. It is my understanding that this will consecrate the property, by making it essentially a church. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, as soon as I placed the order for the communion set, demon said,

"Yeah, you hard-boiled figured out a way to save Satan some money on his car insurance, because he will NEVER come back to your house again after you have done that right there!"

In the days that followed, I had severe migraines on two separate occasions. On one of these occasions, I missed church because of my migraine. I'm certain that the demon caused, or at least exacerbated these two migraines (which make a total of 4 now, which I blame on demon) because both times, I sprayed Holy water on my forehead, and wherever the water hit, the pain eased. I felt immediate relief; but then I fell dead asleep for about an hour. When I awoke, I felt much better. I have, however, begun taking Excedrin Migraine daily, as a preventative. Thus, I present yet another weapon of spiritual warfare: Headache medication!

Yet another weekend in July, a different cousin suffered a serious health crisis which resulted from falling off a porch. Without going into too much detail about his personal story, the short version is that he was injured far worse than he realized initially; having broken several bones in the fall which later caused a lot of problems. Ironically, perhaps, he and I had discussed some of my experiences with demons, not very long before his serious health crisis. He had, however, already suffered the fall before we had that conversation; otherwise, I'd be very inclined to think that a demon might have pushed him. Anyway, demon has been making some very off-color jokes about the situation. His most recent catchphrase is,
"Knock yourself off the front porch... if you think that [insert whatever]."

I had another experience with a dog I didn't know not liking me. This time, it happened at church. I walked into my pastor's office to find that another parishioner was already there, accompanied by her dog. The dog immediately started barking at me. I squatted down, extended my hand, and spoke to it gently; but this dog was not having anything to do with me. The owner apologized, saying she didn't know what had gotten into the dog. She said it never acted that way. I said that it was okay, and went to the restroom. After leaving the restroom, as I walked toward the pastor's office once more, the dog met me in the hallway. It did not sneer or growl. It was a sweet dog, I could see that. It merely stood there, looking as if it didn't want me to pass, and wasn't certain what to do about it. I tried speaking to it again. Calmly, I said,
"You still don't like me, huh? I know that. That's okay. I like you, though. I won't hurt you."
Finally, with a little whine, it moved out of the way, backing into the doorway of the secretary's office. It came back later to bark at "me" one more time, however, before leaving with its owner.
All animals usually adore me. There's something very wrong with this picture.

...to be continued