Cops' True Stories of the Paranormal: Ghost, UFOs, and Other Shivers

by Loren W. Christensen

  Apparitions

  An apparition is a full-body sighting of a ghost or spirit. Most sightings are partial or in the form of a mist or shadow, and experts believe the appearance is in someway connected to a place or an object; the dead has materialized so as to be seen. Also, the apparitions are seen wearing the same clothing and doing the same things they did when alive. Some observers report that the apparitions they experienced were good while others found the ones they came into contact with to be evil in some way.

  Automatic Writing

  Automatic writing is believed to be the process of unconsciously writing words or drawing pictures. The act doesn’t come from the author’s mind but is rather done without conscious awareness of what is being put down on paper. Psychologists argue that it comes from the subconscious, while others believe it comes from the spirit world.

  Cold Spot

  A cold spot is a small space that is at least 10 degrees colder than the area surrounding it. The dropped temperature, which sometimes occurs suddenly, cannot be explained by the obvious: open windows or doors, air conditioning, or exposure to snow or ice. Paranormal investigators use instruments to measure the temperature change. The phenomenon usually occurs in conjunction with sightings, moved objects, and sounds.

  Divine Intervention

  This is a direct and obvious intervention in the affairs of humans by a deity.

  Ghost

  A ghost is the residual energy of a person or animal. It’s believed not to be an intelligent form but rather a kind of “recording,” that is, an image or sound similar to an audio or video that continuously replays. Sometimes the energy weakens over time but other times it somehow recharges.

  Ghost Lights

  These are an outdoor phenomenon, usually witnessed from a distance. Most often, they are described as balls of light, sometimes rod-shaped, capable of moving at varying speeds. Typically, they are white but they can also be yellow, orange, red, blue, and green. Some people believe they are simply swamp gas or the reflections of car lights. Some believe the lights are UFOs (which technically is true), and others believe they are ghosts or spirits.

  Hauntings

  We often think of a haunting as a full-body apparition but those are actually considered quite rare. Typically a haunting involves noises—footsteps, music, sounds, and/or voices—and can happen any time of the day. Sometimes these occurrences last for only a few days while other times they go on for eons. Hauntings might arise on specific dates, a particular anniversary, or certain times. They can happen on a foggy eerie night or on a bright sunny day.

  Hauntings can be seen, heard, smelled, and touched. Witnesses often feel unexplained cold or hot spots in a location, as well as breezes. Some people report an odor of flowers, cigarette smoke, or perfume, which can be associated with a deceased loved one. Sometime the association is unknown.

  Hauntings can affect your emotions. Some witnesses report a sense of dread, depression, irritation, and anger. Others experience the opposite. One person said she felt “cheery.”

  Intelligent Hauntings

  Spirits interacting with the living are called intelligent hauntings. It’s said they retain the same personality they had when alive. This means kind people become kind spirits, and unpleasant people turn into troublesome spirits.

  Knowing

  Knowing that something is about to happen can also be called psychic, ESP (extra sensory perception), and possessing a sixth sense.

  Mutilation

  For many decades there have been reports of farmers and ranchers finding mutilated animals on their land. In most cases the animals have had their eyes, sex organs, and other organs removed. The removal is almost always done with precision and without leaving blood. In some cases, the animal appears to have been dropped from a great height.

  Orb

  Orbs are usually circular in shape, sometimes visible to the naked eye but more commonly captured in photos. They move all about seemingly at random and can quickly change direction. They appear both indoors and outside, sometimes twinkling and sometimes containing a nucleus or concentric circles. They often react in some fashion when people are near. The best orbs are those captured in photos when there are other phenomena present, such as apparitions, moving objects, and sounds. False orbs—dust, raindrops, lights, insects, and snow—can be transparent, pale white, or blue.

  Remote Viewing

  One trained in remote viewing can perceive a target located in a nearby room, on the other side of the country, or anywhere in the world. To a skilled person, time and space are irrelevant. Remote viewing is different than ESP in that it uses specific techniques and can be learned by almost anyone.

  Residual Haunting

  This was touched on under the definition of “ghost.” The residual is considered the most common type of paranormal activity. Experienced investigators believe it’s a result of trapped energy from an event or activity in the past. For example, at the turn of last century, many witnesses reported the sounds of cannon fire, shouting men, and screaming horses at the Gettysburg battle site where over 50,000 men were killed or injured in three days.

  Residual hauntings include sights, sounds and smells. The ghost isn’t aware of the living around them and is therefore unable to communicate. Since this is residual energy, the living can’t convince the ghost to move on. It has to dissipate over time, which could take years.

  Sensitive

  A sensitive, commonly called an HSP, a highly sensitive person, typical demonstrates these basic traits.

  A person who responds to occult influences.

  More caring and easily affected by the emotions of others.

  HSPs are more conscious of stimuli than others, such as noise, energy, light, atmosphere, odors, texture, and temperature.

  They are often in tune with the feelings and emotions of a spirit, and they can feel subtle nuances in paranormal events.

  Because of their ability in matters paranormal, an HSP can be religious or spiritual.

  They might view themselves as different from others because of their abilities.

  They are often thorough and exhaustive in their work, outside interests, and all other areas of their life.

  HSPs are most productive in a space that allows them to work quietly and without interruption.

  They are creative people that intensely enjoy art, music, and the beauty of the outdoors.

  They are not comfortable in an environment that is unclean or in disorder.

  Most HSP’s are introverted and enjoy quiet time to replenish themselves.

  ~Thanks to Manchester Paranormal Investigations

  Shadow People or Shadow Beings

  Shadow people are most often seen out of the corner of the eye. However, as we see in Colleen Formanek’s story “Hospital Morgue” and in one of the news pieces, they can also appear in full body. Skeptics say it’s nothing more than one’s imagination, a trick of the eyes. People who have actually experienced them say otherwise. Often those who have experienced shadow people say there is a sense of malevolence associated with the sightings, which has led some paranormal followers to wonder if they are demonic in nature.

  Spirit Possession

  This occurs when a spirit temporarily or permanently attaches itself to a living person. Paranormal investigators refer to partial possession as when a spirit affects the behavior of the person they are attached to. Commonly, a spirit will only influence a living person in some way, as opposed to completely taking them over, as seen in the movie, The Exorcist.

  Spirit

  A spirit is the soul of a person or animal that remains in this world after the body dies. Some paranormal investigators believe spirits have been to the afterlife and revisit the living for some reason. They use sounds and smells to remind the living who they are.

  Trapped Spirit

  Fictional TV shows like Ghost Whisperer often depict a plotline in which a spirit is unable or reluctant to move on from this world to the next. But par
anormal investigators say this is rare. When it does happen, it’s called an “intelligent haunting” or “intelligent spirit.” This is because the deceased is aware of where it is and of people, both of which are familiar to it. In some cases, however, experts believe a spirit was not connected to a place at all, but simply decided to dwell in it.

  A trapped spirit might be confused and not know it’s dead. Once they are made aware they are dead, they move on.

  The spirit might want to say goodbye to a loved one. These types of trapped spirits are often short-lived and frequently appear in dreams or when the living person is fully conscious.

  A spirit might have unfinished business and will often stay as long as it takes to draw the attention of the living or until it’s somehow convinced everything will be taken care. Then it moves on.

  There are many other reasons.

  UFO

  The unidentified flying object flies but it can’t be identified as an airplane, helicopter, weather balloon, bird, kite, or anything else that moves about the skies. UFOs are most often associated with claims of visitations by aircraft from another planet. The lack of scientific study has given rise to researchers and groups outside of the scientific community, such as the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). The word “Ufology” (you-fall-ogy) is used to describe the study reports and related evidence of UFOs.

  Vortex

  A vortex can occur anywhere but most often are found in a home or building, or as noted in the Introduction, a ship. As usual, there isn’t a consensus as to what it is. Some paranormal investigators say it’s the spirit of the former resident of a home. Others believe it’s a conduit to transport spirits—often in the shape of orbs—from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living. Still others say it’s a temporary opening to the other side.

  SECTION ONE

  ON PATROL

  My first night on patrol with my training coach turned into a long one. Instead of getting off at 11:45, we didn’t return to the precinct until 4 a.m. A drunk driver had sailed off the road and into a slough, and we had to wait for a tow truck to extract it so we could get a body count.

  My second night on the job, I stepped on an aorta, which 30 minutes earlier had been inside of a drunken stepfather’s chest. But his 16-year-old stepson, angry from watching the man once again beat his mother with a glass ashtray, had retrieved a 12-gage shotgun loaded with slugs and fired one into the man’s heart, blowing the aorta 10 feet down a hallway.

  I was assigned the most active district in the city right out of the academy. As a recently returned Vietnam veteran, violence and gore didn’t bother me much, but I was forced to learn the ways of a street cop at an accelerated rate. Within a few months, prowler calls, burglaries, drunk drivers, family fights, and bar brawls became routine, occasionally punctuated with a felony car stop at gunpoint, a man with a knife call, a terrible traffic accident, and a child abduction.

  My experiences were probably no different than most cops that work in the city. Some would agree with me that although police calls involve different participants, at different locations, and under different circumstances, there is still a sameness to them. The complainants are basically similar, the suspects are the usual bottom feeders, and the paperwork is always the same. In time, street patrol becomes monotonous, routine. So how can a bar fight or a drunken car crash be mundane? When the officer has seen it all before a hundred, maybe hundreds of times.

  Then on one occasion the officer sees something, hears something, or feels something and it doesn’t compute. It doesn’t fit the norm of the police job (and the police norm is crazy to begin with). In fact, it doesn’t fit anything outside of it either. It isn’t logical. It isn’t normal. It doesn’t fit the officer’s self-prescribed rules, tactics, or worldview of how things are supposed to work.

  The something I’m referring to is what this book is about: ghosts, spirits, UFOs, demons, sinister sounds, uncommon feelings, strange touches, sudden and profound depression, people vanishing in clear view, and haunted places.

  In an article in the Scientific American (“Ghost Stories: Visits from the Deceased” December 2, 2008), the University of Goteborg found that over 80 percent of elderly people experienced hallucinations of their partner within a month after their passing. Almost one third of the 80 percent reported that they spoke to the partner.

  On a personal note, a week or so after my mother died I was in my office working. As clear as a rung bell, I heard “Loren” whispered in her voice from behind me. I startled and turned around to find only an empty room. It was at once unnerving and sort of comforting. Some would say she was saying goodbye.

  The Scientific American, being scientific and all, call these sightings hallucinations. But they admit their knowledge ends there. They say, “Despite the fact that hallucinations are one of the most common reactions to loss, they have barely been investigated and we know little more about them.” They then went on to say that the majority of people reading the article will “re-experience the dead.”

  There are many, many stories in books, magazines, YouTube, and in blogs about the recently deceased being seen again by loved ones. There are also stories of people minutes away from death seeing loved ones that have already died waiting for them on the other side.

  Cops respond to death scenes all the time. I worked an area for a while where I was getting at least one dead body call a week, so many that other officers were calling me the “Death Car.” I didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary at these but other cops have, and unlike those in the Scientific American study, they didn’t know the recently deceased.

  Still, they experienced something.

  VANISHED

  By Kerry L. Wood

  Roanoke’s busy city center is abundant with striking historic buildings, fine dining, and a variety of small shops and large department stores where one can while away a fun-filled day. It’s a medium-sized town with crime problems typical of other like-sized cities across the country. I served on the Roanoke Police Department for 27 years, retiring in 2002 as a detective sergeant.

  In the mid 1980s, my partner, David Ragland, and I were working a burglary detail patrolling in uniform in an unmarked van. It was just before twilight when we spotted a suspicious looking vehicle moving slowly through a neighborhood. We began to tail him, thinking he was possibly casing houses, but he quickly made us and took off at a high rate of speed.

  We called for a uniformed car to stop him and though he was doing 70 mph, we did our best to keep him in our sights as we followed in our unmarked. It eventually became apparent that he was heading toward Shaffer’s Crossing, a 100-foot-long concrete railroad tunnel.

  Pursuits are always risky and never more so than when a desperate man is pushing his vehicle close to 75 mph. Then, as quickly as it began, the pursuit came to an abrupt, explosive stop.

  We’ll never know if the driver over compensated his steering, or lost control in a moment of panic, exhilaration, or any number of other causes. But for whatever reason, he navigated his two tons of steel, chrome, and rubber straight into the concrete archway.

  Dave Ragland and I were about 200 feet behind the speeding car when it crashed, and we both watched in shock as the destroyed vehicle lifted about two feet into the air. We remained in control of our van and ourselves, and stopped a ways behind the crash.

  Just as shocking was when the suspect driver—a white male, 5 feet 10 inches, and husky at about 180 pounds—squeezed out of the small driver’s window, seemingly unscathed, and dashed off into the tunnel.

  As long-time partners are disposed to do, we didn’t waste a second talking about it but instead took off at a dead run after the man. He was running hard but so were we, and we never lost sight of him. We managed to close the distance and got close enough see him clearly. That is, until he—

  —vanished.

  We stopped. What the …?

  There were no exits in the tunnel, period. We looked
all around, examined every inch of the passageway but there was simply no trace of him. None.

  We were disconcerted, confused, and feeling every other kind of emotion as we reluctantly headed back to the tunnel’s entrance. As we neared the crash site, we could see our van, the totaled suspect car, and …

  The driver. The suspect.

  It was the same man, clothes, height and weight, we had just been chasing—but he was sitting in the car, in the driver’s seat. The steering wheel and the dashboard had crushed his chest, killing him.

  Shocked, we managed to call for a supervisor and a traffic unit to come to the scene. We told the supervisor what had occurred: How we had spotted the suspicious vehicle, pursued it, witnessed the crash, ran after the driver, but lost him when he simply vanished right in front of us, only to find him a few minutes later behind the wheel of his car, his life crushed out.

  The supervisor was an older and wiser man, especially wise in the ways of the department and how other cops think. He told us to write our reports but leave out all references to us pursuing the dead man on foot. In short, don’t say anything about chasing the … spirit, or whatever it was.