A Strange House

This is a personal account of mine and dates back to the late 1970's when I was about 19 years old.

I had moved into a newer home with four other roommates. One of my roommates mother had passed several years prior and she missed her a lot.

Me? I had become very interested in the paranormal and psychic things. I had developed enough skill to sense spirits sometimes hear and see them in the corner of my eye.

We also had a friend who definitely had psychic ability. Her mother was a tarot card reader, followed astral charts and planned their activities around them. Our friend's name was Robin; we called her "Bird" for short. Bird did not live in our house but was friends with all of us.

There were a lot of strange unexplained things that happened in that house. Lights would turn on by themselves; the bathroom sink faucet sometimes turned itself full on for a few seconds then it would turn off.

One night I was home alone. None of my roommates were due to be back for hours so I just hung out in my room reading a book. I heard the first of my roommates come in the front door and began shouting something like:

"What the H*ll- OMG who did this!"

Alarmed, I opened my bedroom door and smoke poured in. Somehow the coffee pot got on the electric stove burner, and the burner switched to high. The handle melted causing the house to fill with smoke. No one else could have entered the house within those few hours without me noticing so he was sure I did it. I was reading in my room the whole time and have no explanation. Most of the time the house felt fine other times you felt like you were being watched. One of my friends told me he came by and rang the bell only to be greeted by an overwhelming feeling of dread. It made him so nervous that he ran back to his car and left.

One night my roommate wanted very much to communicate with her mother. Bird agreed to lead a séance so only me, Bird and my roommate were in the house. Bird lit a number of candles and we began. I was sensitive as possible, offering as much positive energy to the atmosphere.

It progressed to the point where we believed her mother was near when I felt and saw a very dark shadow approach us from the hallway. It didn't have form other than causing black darkness from that area and it didn't like what we were doing. I didn't say or do anything other than notice it. I could tell Bird was aware because she kept looking at the hallway too.

Suddenly there was an extremely loud "BANG" from one of the back rooms. It sounded like a six foot 2x4 was slapped hard against the wall. All candles went out at the same time as the bang. It was loud enough to cause us to jump. The séance stopped and we went to investigate the noise but couldn't locate a source. We checked all the rooms, closets and even outside the house thinking maybe a tree had fallen. Finding nothing at all, we relit the candles and began again. It progressed like before. The black shadow eventually manifested and eventually another loud "BANG". We stopped what we were doing at that point.

All of us roommates threw a big party one weekend. There were probably thirty people there. Remember my friend who ran from the house? He was there. Four of us were in my bedroom along with my friend who had run. He surprised me with bringing a candle in the room. He lit the candle and wanted a séance to find out what was in the house. Me? I didn't want to do that but it seemed like a party game so I went along. He said things like "Any spirits in the house show yourself now". I felt a terrible negative malevolent presence in the top corner of my room. I felt a wave that terrified me which it seemed to feed off of, which made the next wave stronger, making it stronger and so forth.

It wasn't just me either. Looking at the faces of the others, it seemed to be hitting us one after another and I had to stop and tell it to leave. I was angry at that point, shouting at it. The feelings disappeared but I asked my good friend to stay in the room all night, which he did.

Other things happened in that house. Objects moving, objects breaking.

The only explanation to the strange things experienced in the house was the possible effects of EMF. It was located right next to a 9 tower AM radio station. You could hear the station in the phone, on the TV- heck even on the FM radio band.

I could see how it might effect thoughts and perception but not physical things like coffee pots, bangs and simultaneously extinguishing candles. I don't know how it could possibly switch on/off appliances, radios and other things.

I would consider EMF might effect remote control reception effecting appliances but this was the 1970's and none of our things had a remote.

My few years in that house marked the first and most significant paranormal experiences which some last even today.