A House Possessed: My Paranormal Journey

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of guest writers share their encounters with real paranormal phenomena from haunted hospitals to haunted graveyards to haunted houses. Today, Dawn Shepard shares some strange paranormal activity in her own home, which seems to be possessed by multiple spirits . . . and these aren’t the friendly kind. I’ll let Dawn take it from here.

My paranormal journey has been one of the most difficult, dangerous, yet intriguing paths I’ve taken within my life. Since my childhood I’ve always believed in ghosts, spirits, entities and have been told by many that I have a gift of being a sensitive or empathy to them. Personally, I never attributed myself to this belief of a gift until four years ago, and that’s when I started to believe differently. I had some experiences after my grandfather’s passing but not ever the intensity of what I’ve been dealing with in my home.

I’ve lived in my rented home peacefully for ten years, but things started occurring after being here for only seven years. Activity started in October 2010 after a Ouija board was found while cleaning the attic. It was noticed that sometimes objects would disappear in our home, but because of a hectic lifestyle, it was thought to be a result of being absent minded or forgetful and never questioned. Sometimes you could hear a door open or close, but having pets in the home seemed to be the answer to these occurrences too.  On March 11^th, 2011 the unexplained reality of paranormal happenings became very real and began my journey into the realm of another real and true existence.

  While it's difficult to tell in this image, I snapped a picture of 

a young man's face looking out of the window 
from one of the rooms in the attic.

The following are some unexplained messes that started in our landlord's home in the beginning.

After having six investigations which also included two different mediums and a psychic medium, EVPs (electronic voice phenomena), EMF (electromagnetic field) readings, pictures, ghost box sessions, my own investigating, countless hours of research along with researching the history on the home, I was able to start to figure some things out but didn’t realize there was going to be more to be learned.

It is known that I have eight spirits in the home with the possibility of more. Three of the eight are evil and the others I’m still not quite sure because trickery can be used and they don’t like to be honest. The three evil ones―two are deceased relatives of mine and the third is believed to be an attachment to the home since the 1800s.

My daughter and I have encountered several different odors such as sulfur, burnt toast, wet dirt, rotting flesh, apples and cinnamon, and wild musk perfume. We have been touched, heard growling, evil laughter, whispering, and sometimes voices. Objects have been thrown at us such as knives, hand held pruning shears, CDs, VCR tapes, etc.

I have been pushed down the stairs, touched in my sleep, have had the towel pulled off me after getting out of the shower. My daughter has been scratched, had some small unexplained bruises, and also had two incidents happen that she has no memory of but I was told that I intercepted what was the beginnings of a possession.

The following 3-minute video is from a paranormal investigation at our house where we captured some sound of the spirits.

can of cat food opened 

and thrown at the ceiling and wall

garlic powder dumped on the floor

Sometimes the phone will ring right before or after activity and there will be no one on the other end, or you will hear a muffled voice but can’t understand what’s being spoken.

My daughter and I have also experienced some activity while being in the car together, when we pulled into the driveway and stopped. In the following pics is the scratch my daughter got while we were in the car together. The scratch is in the shape of a letter "Z."

 

And there have been occurrences that have happened from time to time when she visits or has a sleepover at her friend’s home across the street from my home.

This was a written message left for me when my daughter was staying at her friend's home across the street. Some activity was happening and they had called me to come over. When I went to get my phone to take pictures, this written message was next to my phone. The message reads, "BN AND RM ARE MINE” (my daughter's initials and her friend's).

The next message was written on my daughter's bedroom mirror in red lipstick while no one was home. She and I had gone to the doctor's and then the store. We found this message after coming home and I went into her room. This was two days after the priest had done a full blessing on our home for the third time. It says: "YOU CANT STOP ME".

We’ve experienced communication from written messages, symbols, on Facebook and from several messes made using edible items and even paint.

 

Below is cat litter taken from a litter box and made into a circle. Circles were always being made and it's a protection for the entities and means never ending.

          

This symbol below is a drawing and only because I was away when this symbol was made out of fruity pebbles cereal, black pepper, and onion powder. The word "DIE" was written underneath. 

My husband at the time had found it and tried to shield our daughter from it and didn't think to take a picture. They were asked to describe what they saw and to draw it in separate rooms. I found out it's a satanic symbol to represent the devil.

The next symbol is a “triquetra” made out of black pepper and garlic powder along with a circle and a written message. The messages says:   "I WANT THE GIRL NOW I NEED HER TO JOI ME."

 

  My daughter, a few years older

The second written message was written on my daughter's bedroom wall next to her closet door with a mirror on it. It says . . . "SHES MINE JOI ME AND YOU WILL DIE DAWN.”

 

This message was written after I had intercepted what was the start of a partial possession of her. She has blue eyes and her eyes were black when I had opened her door to see if she was okay.

The calendar was thrown at me while upstairs in my landlord's place and the word "DIE" was written on it for me. I have been constantly told to die.

While all of this may seem unbelievable, it’s been proven that these incidents weren't from someone playing a joke or trying to be scary, and I have copies of all the messages received. The home has been blessed three times inside and outside using holy water, incense, many prayers, crosses and other religious objects. Gregorian music has also been tried, sage, crystals, salt, and other things. Each time though the activity escalates and becomes stronger and more difficult.

I’ve been told that I have a combination of demonic activity along with witchcraft that was either practiced or dabbled with, and there was also some kind of satanic worshipping or practicing. I have names of those whom lived in the home from the 1800s up until now but can’t say for certain what was ever practiced or believed in.
 

There is much more to my story but wanted to try to give some insight into my journey that I am still facing and working at resolving. I understand there may be those that feel moving out of the home would be in my best interest but the spirits can and do follow. I am not one to give up very easily, nor will I give into what they feel they can have or control without trying for a resolution.

   

Here is a video of another paranormal investigation. This one is 18 minutes.

A link to my blog called “My Paranormal” is: www.cinn2you2blogspot.com

I haven’t updated since June 13, 2013 but can answer any questions via email lilsis72@hotmail.com

Many thanks to Dawn Shepard for sharing her paranormal story on Dark Lucidity. I love posting paranormal stories. If you have evidence of ghostly encounters with photos and video, or know someone who does, please contact Brian(at)BrianMoreland(dot)com.

Haunted Places: Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital

Today’s guest author is Denise K. Rago, known for her paranormal romance novels. Here she shares some history and photos of a haunted hospital near her home in Morris Plains, New Jersey.

"They have stripped me of my madness, 

that disease had sown and cultured,

They have granted me the spirit 

and the will to smile in healthy gladness,

When I’d once frowned like a vulture, 

in six months time on Greystone’s verdant hill." 

~ Richard Davis Comstock, patient at Greystone, 

from his book Rhymes of a Raver, 1930 ~

I know it as Greystone Park, a sprawling complex of buildings set on a massive hill smack in the middle of suburbia. Samuel Sloan’s New Jersey Hospital for the Insane opened its doors on August 17, 1877, to 342 patients to accommodate the overcrowded “lunatic asylum” in Trenton, New Jersey.

Greystone Park is synonymous with the famous Kirkbride building, built in the Second Empire Victorian style, and at 673,706 total square feet it alleges to be the largest continuous foundation surpassed only by that of the Pentagon built in 1943. 

The State Hospital at Morris Plains, ca. 1899, Morris Plains, New Jersey

“Courtesy of The Morristown & Morris Township Library, 

North Jersey Historical & Genealogy Center”

The Kirkbride Building 

~ Photograph taken by Denise K. Rago, 2013

Nestled in the lush green hills of Morris Plains, New Jersey; Greystone sat on 743 acres.  The plan for the main building called for 40 wards split into two wings, one to house men and the other for women with the center wing housing administrative offices. New dormitories were built to accommodate the inpatient population and the grounds spread to 1000 acres to include staff housing, a chapel, a post office, fire and police stations, a working farm, vocational and recreational facilities, ponds, a morgue stables and greenhouses. The hospital had its own quarry as well as gas and water utilities.  A trolley line connected the hospital with New Jersey Transit. 

Photograph of the train depot 

taken by Denise K. Rago

In later years, tales of the abuse and neglect of patients were synonymous with the institution but in the nineteenth century the belief was that 70 to 90% of insanity cases were curable, however the proper architecture was essential for the comfort, security and recovery of the patients.  Mental illness had been attributed to demonic possession and moral weakness, however, Dr.  Thomas Kirkbride, a Pennsylvania born Quaker, believed that the mentally ill could be treated and cured with kindness and care in an environment designed to treat them. 

Greystone was just the place, complete with airy rooms filled with Victorian furniture, housing only two patients per room; however, to decrease the chances of fire, stone, brick, slate and iron were used in the construction of the buildings. His design, called the Kirkbride model, became popular around the country, written about by Carla Yanni in her book The Architecture of Madness. 

Known to us locals as ‘Greystone’ it was once a place I would avoid, fearful of even driving near the grounds. My mother would jokingly accuse my brothers and I of “sending her to Greystone” with our bad behavior, which meant we were driving her crazy.  It was an anomaly in our middle-class, suburban world. A place for crazy people. And as rumors spread about the patients and how they were treated, most people stayed away. 

The hospital population peaked in the 1950s with the return of soldiers from World War II suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Perhaps Greystone’s most famous patient was folk singer, Woody Guthrie, committed to Greystone on May 29, 1956 with Huntington’s disease, which he inherited from his mother.  Guthrie nicknamed Greystone “Gravestone” and called his hospital ward “Wardy Forty” for Ward 40.  Although he was moved to a New York hospital in 1961 where he died, his daughter Nora has joined in efforts to preserve Greystone. 

Photograph taken of an abandoned building 

by Denise K. Rago

Dormitory photo taken by author 2014

In the 1970s and 1980s, trends in mental health shifted towards the deinstitutionalization of mental patients, and by 2003 the hospital closed its door. There had always been much bad press about the hospital, including stories of patient suicides, the sexual assault of patients and a twice-convicted rapist escaping from the hospital.  In 1974, community homes were built as halfway houses for the patients. 

A new hospital has been built on the same grounds and covers over one square mile and consists of 43 buildings.  Though the historic Kirkbride building remains standing its fate is unclear. An organization formed to preserve the hospital and several of the historic buildings continues to work with the State of New Jersey to take over vacant structures for non-profit agencies.  The County purchased Greystone Park from the State for $1.00 while exploring its options for the park and buildings.
 

Ghost Stories

Once abandoned, rumors of hauntings clouded Greystone, especially involving the dank underground tunnels which connected various building and were used to transport patients and other commodities.  I myself know of people who have worked on the grounds, sharing their tales of “feeling watched” while there or “not able to get out of there quick enough.” 
   

Even while taking photographs, I stay in my car and especially now that the grounds are patrolled daily by the local police.  Still, I cannot imagine the landscape without the Kirkbride building. It is a part the community, for better or worse. 

Filmmaker Sean Stone, son of movie director Oliver Stone, set his sights on making a movie on the grounds of Greystone Park.  Simply titled Greystone Park, the filmmakers came here in 2009 to explore the haunted asylum famous for electroshock, insulin therapy, and lobotomies; however the crew got more than they bargained for and the film is based on their experience 

Here is a trailer for the film Greystone Park.

Weird, New Jersey, a popular magazine, has numerous articles written about the abandoned buildings, the possible demolition of the Kirkbride building, and touring the asylum.  Presently, there are working non-profits on the grounds but the energy feels oppressive, even on a sunny day.  The Kirkbride building has been used in numerous television shows and films, including Marvin’s Room and House, M.D.

Did Jack The Ripper Die in Greystone?

The title of the article in Weird, New Jersey stated, and I was immediately drawn in further to an article published in 1923 in the Empire News about a Norwegian sailor named Fogelma who was committed to the Morris Plains Lunatic Asylum in New Jersey, better known as Greystone. Apparently he was subject to fits of rage and insanity, describing scenes and incidents that clearly connected him with the crimes of 1888 in London.  His sister also found press clippings in his belongings about the Whitechapel murders, and although Scotland Yard was notified, no follow up was ever done.  The archivist at Greystone said there was no record of such a patient, and one wonders about the validity of the newspaper article. But still it’s a great story and who knows?

References for further reading and great photographs:

a)   www.wierdnj.com

b)   http://www.jfpl.org/NJHistoryHome.cfm

c)    https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/4881238-greystone-psychiatric-hospital-morris-plains-nj-sept-16-2013/

d)   http://weirdnj.com/stories/greystone-park-psychiatric-hospital/

e)   Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital – Wikipedia

http://www.forbidden-places.net/urban-exploration-New-Jersey-State-Hospital-for-the-insane#gal/

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Author Denise K. Rago, grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, minutes away from Greystone Psychiatric Hospital.  Author of two paranormal romance novels, Immortal Obsession and Blood Tears, you can learn more about her at www.denisekrago.com.