 Welcome to Paranormality Magazine. Each week, Paranormality Magazine explores all 40 subjects from phantoms to UFOs and every cryptid creature in between. Each week, you are treated to a collection of well-researched and investigated stories, interviews and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects and topics they know you crave. And here in the podcast, I share stories from the magazine to give you just a taste of what you receive in every issue. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Paranormality Magazine. We begin our journey by exploring the mysteries of the afterlife, from paramedicine to the paranormal, thanks to contributor Cody Sharp. Being an emergency medicine, you see all kinds of injuries and more tragically, death, which always had me wondering, what happens after we die? And is it true that we stick around if we have unfinished business? I'm a national registered EMT and up until last October I was on track to being a paramedic, literally two months away from completing the program. However, that changed. I decided to play it safe and went back to my logistics job where I can focus more time on answering the question, what happens when we die? We as humans fear death because it's the unknown, the only thing in life that is absolute. Death doesn't have to be a negative thing, I personally think that death can be a beautiful thing. I've always been fascinated with the paranormal. Growing up in a small town in Ohio with really not much to do, I decided to read books like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark or even Haunted Ohio to further my curiosity. June 2000 had me questioning many things when the night before the passing of my grandfather, I had a dream he passed. It was that father's day 2000 my father called me crying that grandpa Sharp had passed. Was this just my 10 year old brain processing the fact he was sick or was it something more? This is a question that I want to answer. I may never get that answer but that isn't going to stop me from trying to figure it out. I throughout the years always had weird feelings in certain places. I could feel the energy of rooms or places. I remember looking at a house for sale once. I was in the basement and felt a dark presence only to learn days later that someone had been chained up and murdered in that very basement. I also can feel people out like I can sense if people are evil or not. I have been told on many occasions, oh this person is a great person. Just for them to backstab the person I have warned. Is it being sensitive or being a good judge of character? I will let you the reader decide that one. So I have decided to start the sharp side of paranormal to answer these questions. I joined a public paranormal investigation with my wife last July at the Indiana State Sanatorium and from there I was hooked. The whole night was a crazy experience. While we were waiting for the groups to get together, I peeked in the kitchen between the nursing home and the residential building and I immediately felt dread and a bit nauseous. I told the one tour guide and she advised me that she had the same feeling there. Now, I was part of a group of about 15 people during our group rotations. We started on the third floor of the psychiatric hospital. I kept getting bad feelings about the place and then the most shocking thing happened to me or at least at the time it was. I was standing next to another member of the group with a shadow figure just came out of a room and rushed in between us before disappearing. The night progressed to the point where our group was in the nursing home section of the building. We were doing exercises in the dark, including the walk down the hallway solo in the dark while I was waiting for my turn, something grabbed my right leg. There was nothing close to me. The nearest person was about 10 feet away, so when it was my turn, I got maybe 5 feet before I chickened out. We then did another experiment where they placed each of us in the doorway of the rooms spaced out in the dark, but I was placed in the middle of the nurses station. That was until I started screaming because I saw a white misty figure come out of the linen closet attached to the nurses station. My wife did this day loves to make fun of me because of it and I really don't blame her. She is braver when it comes to stuff like this. Anyway, I digress. So our tour guides decided to sit me in a chair in the intersection of the four hallways which gave several other people in the group the perfect view to see a white nurse figure come out of the nurses station, walk right up to me, place its hand on my shoulder, and then just disappear. This would be my first real experience with an entity making physical contact with me. It felt cold, which was crazy because it was a warm July evening. This wouldn't be my last experience with this figure. During my follow-up visit in April, I was in the middle of an estus session when someone in the group told me they saw a white figure standing behind me. Of course, I was sitting in front of the nurses station facing down the hallway. This has left many questions. Who is that nurse? Why does she keep trying to communicate with me? Is it the fact I was in the medical field? Is it the fact I can feel their presence? These are just the questions I am out here trying to answer. Indiana State Sanatorium has this dark and heavy feeling to it. Considering the tragic history of the location, thousands of people came here to die, many allegedly buried in unmarked graves. While this is not 100% certain, it does raise many questions. Combined with the fact that many patients were abused and neglected, this leaves them with the desire to reach out. The spirits at Indiana State Sanatorium take a bit too warm up to strangers, but you need to be careful that you don't make them angry. I remember during my visit in April we were doing a dual estus session with me asking the questions. While I was asking the questions, I started taking still photographs with my digital camera and I will have to admit that it totally freaked me out when we got the response, pictures. I then asked the spirits if it was okay for me to take their photograph, to which they replied, no. It then quickly went downhill when I asked if they wanted us to leave. We got the response, yes, and then from the other person, right now. That was probably the most intelligent response I have personally experienced. What crosses the line is when people keep pushing the spirits after they have been warned to stop. This causes the whole experience to be negative and could lead to a place where the spirits do not want to interact with people anymore. We are guests in their home. We should treat it as such. This is again very similar to healthcare. I just recently went on my third ever paranormal investigation at Posttown Elementary School in Middleton, Ohio. It was a completely different vibe. It wasn't as dark as Indiana State's Anatorium. The spirits there started early making noises and setting off trigger devices. It felt like the spirits there wanted to play games and were mischievous as opposed to malevolent. Going to these locations and reaching out to these lost souls, giving them the chance to tell their story and finally be heard is what is important to me, the history of the building and the forever inhabitants of it. The spirits at Posttown loved the trigger devices. They kept playing with the cat balls, motion lights, and any other device that we deployed. I have seen groups go into these buildings and be so disrespectful to the building and the spirits themselves, which reminds me a lot of the healthcare industry. I saw other providers treat patients terribly and that's not right. Everyone, including spirits, just wants to be treated with dignity. They didn't choose to be stuck there forever, but we as investigators have the opportunity to communicate with them and share their story with the world. I feel giving those in the afterlife the opportunity to share their story might give them the closure they deserve. Author Jason Hewlett takes us on our next journey to Gooding, Idaho to spend time with the ghosts at Gooding University Inn and Resort. The attic was dark, the only light provided by the headlamps worn by my colleagues Peter Ren and Trevor Palmer and the red, blue, and green glow created by our equipment. A third investigator stood nearby filming us, but that didn't matter. I was focused on the sounds coming through the headphones I was wearing. Ren and Palmer had captured what they believed was the voice of a spirit responding to a question with a yes. I was listening intently to the audio to see if I heard the same, my GoPro dangling from my right arm filming darkness. Seconds ticked by. Ren played the clip a second time. I heard it, a yes, clear as a bell. Yeah, I heard it, I said, smiling. Ren and Palmer grinned back, excited. Then a fourth colleague, Olivier Asselin, jumped. Startled, he took a step back and pointed. I just saw a shadow, he said, right behind you. Was it caused by my light? My GoPro had a light attached to it. No, the light pointed away from me and no other lights were aimed in my direction, ruling out such a shadow, especially one that walked behind me, as Asselin said this one did. This got Palmer excited, as he's seen shadow figures at Gooding University in and resort before. They stand about a child's height, roughly four feet, and the head and shoulders are clearly distinguished. What Asselin saw matched this description. Having worked with Asselin for the better part of two years as part of our Canadian Paranormal Society, Ren and I have no cause to doubt his account. Asselin is honest and possesses great character and integrity. If he said he saw this shadow walking behind me, he saw it. Ren, Asselin and I had traveled some 800 miles and 15 hours from our home in British Columbia, Canada to Gooding, Idaho to join Palmer's Western Idaho Paranormal for a two-day investigation. We'd been at the former Tuberculosis Hospital turned hotel for about two hours and had already caught a handful of EVPs and spotted a shadow being. Suffice to say, the trip was worth it. As paranormal investigators with more than 50 years of experience between us, Ren, Asselin and I have visited hundreds of haunted locations, many with claims of being highly active. Most of the time these claims turn out to be just that, and we leave with barely a whisper caught on our audio recorders. Not so with Gooding University in and resort. The owners and past guests claim to hear footsteps running up and down the second floor hallway and the voices of children throughout the building. Shadows peek out of doorways and the spirit of what is described as an angry man has been seen stomping around one of the rooms. The attic which we investigated that first night and the basement are rumored to house a dark entity. Such stories attracted Zach Baggins and his Ghost Adventures TV show as well as bringing Western Idaho Paranormal to the locations for several years. Palmer said his team has never been disappointed with a stay. The inn was originally a college campus that was eventually donated to the local Methodist Church, which in turn donated it to the state of Idaho with the purpose of turning it into a tuberculosis hospital, said Palmer. It opened in 1947 and remained in operation until 1976 when it was all but abandoned and several of the buildings bulldozed. A private buyer purchased the site in 2002 and turned it into a hotel. New owners recently took over and embraced the haunted history, opening the facility to groups interested in exploring the paranormal. Palmer and his team have been investigating there for 12 years. In fact, the inn was Palmer's first paranormal investigation. Every part of the inn is haunted from the basement to the attic. Palmer and his team have seen shadow figures and light anomalies in the basement, not to mention captured numerous ghostly voices on audio. We have captured a couple of apparitions on camera too, Palmer said about the basement. The team has recorded the voice of a small child on the main floor, which is home to the kitchen and eating area as well as some guest rooms. Palmer said they had also caught a female's voice speaking in a foreign language on that floor as well as footsteps wandering the hallway. We also occasionally see shadow people peeking their heads out of doorways, he said. On the second floor, which is home to most of the guest rooms, footsteps have been heard running up and down the hallway, and shadow figures have been spotted. One investigator had her room ransacked when she left it unoccupied. She hadn't slept in her room yet and had done some investigating. When she went in, all her stuff had been thrown about the room and her bed had been unmade, said Palmer. Later on, we caught the voice of the man who didn't seem too happy that we were here. A lot of activity has been documented in the attic, said Palmer. Again, many an EVP has been recorded and disembodied voice heard, not to mention shadow people seen flitting about, much like Aslan experienced the first night our team was there. An investigator claimed a cat rushed against their leg, but no cat was present. Pete Kruger is the operations manager and head tech for Western Idaho Paranormal. He is responsible for setting up cameras, audio and other detection devices throughout the Gooding University Inn. This includes a full-spectrum camera and laser grid system in the downstairs hallway where shadow beings have been spotted. The camera is set to take a picture every 10 seconds, hoping to capture an image of one of these beings, said Kruger. This particular hallway appears to be home to the spirit of a little girl other teams have filmed using infrared cameras. The camera was bumped and when it was bumped, it ended up taking a picture of a shadow that was as tall as a ping-pong table or a little taller than a ping-pong table flying by the camera, he said. So that's why we have this here. It's more of a motion thing in this hallway that we hope to catch. Having so much equipment throughout the inn makes for a daunting task when it comes to reviewing evidence. In fact, it takes a whole year between investigations to complete the review. Why go to so much effort? Kruger's answer echoes the plethora of activity Palmer relayed to Ren, Asselin and myself. This place is really, really haunted, said Kruger. Our Canadian Paranormal Society team had a scant 36 hours to spend at the Gooding University Inn, so we opted to keep our work simple in order to maximize our time. Aside from a couple of late night investigations Asselin undertook, he ran an eye stuck together, working as a trio or with Palmer and other members of his team. We also kept our equipment to a minimum, using GoPro and Canon cameras for visual documentation and our digital recorders to capture audio. We stocked with simple EVP sessions and when ambient noise was too loud, used a spirit box to attempt communications with the dead. For the uninitiated, a spirit box is an AM-FM short-range receiver that scans multiple channels at the same time. The theory is ghosts can communicate using this device, which makes it controversial. In order to offset that, we do our due diligence in terms of research and ask questions that prompt an intelligent response. No yes or no questions are asked. We want answers to questions like, what city are we in? Or who was the owner of this property? During our EVP and spirit box sessions, we made sure we deployed trigger objects like motion-activated lights that light up when touched. These devices are not sensitive and pretty much must be grasped in order to go off. Our team typically keeps it simple like this, relying more on our own intuition and variables like shifts in temperature to track and record paranormal activity. We started early on our first morning, beginning in the basement and working our way up to the attic. Our trip concluded with a large EVP session involving both teams at dusk after we had completed our own series of investigations throughout the inn. I could write a whole book about our experience at Gooding and might do so one day as detailing every encounter we had in this article would be a daunting task. Between the three of us, we recorded more than 30 EVPs and had several personal experiences which can't be quantified scientifically, but they happened and some were quite profound. Starting in the basement, Asselin saw a shadow figure move across a window. His description of what he saw matched that of one Palmer and his team witnessed in the basement before that of a little girl. During a later session, one of our trigger objects, a string of Christmas lights designed to go off when touched, lit up on its own. It was hanging in the middle of a hallway where Palmer's team had spotted a shadow lurking about. Motion lights we'd set up on the floor around us also went off, almost like we were surrounded by spirits. Given how many voices we captured on audio, we may well have been. Then during a spirit box session a few minutes later, I asked a spirit if it could say my name. Within seconds, a voice came through first saying hello and then, Jason. A few hours later, during another EVP session in the basement, Asselin and I saw a series of bright flashes of light come from a hallway. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, but Asselin saw it through the open doorway. Two quick flashes, then a third followed seconds later by a fourth. We went to investigate and determine the flashes must have come from a fire alarm light, although no smoke or heat could be detected. We brought this up with Palmer who was a firefighter by day. He investigated and said the fire alarm was in working order and had never behaved like that before. The pattern of flashes Asselin said he saw also behaved like other light anomalies Western Idaho Paranormal has seen in the basement. The attic proved most active. In addition to Ren, Palmer and Asselin's experience that first night, we also had something reach out to us using our trigger objects. When we asked a spirit to make its presence known, one of our motion-activated lights went off. In order to confirm it was a potential spirit, Ren asked for the light to be set off again. And it did. This behavior went on for a minute or two. At one point, a different light lit up. In order to ensure we were dealing with something intelligent, Ren asked the spirit to light up the previous light again. Seconds later, the original light glowed once more. Those same lights performed again during our group EVP session at the conclusion of our investigation. We'd contacted a spirit identifying itself as Sarah, one which Western Idaho Paranormal had communicated with before. Ren asked Sarah to touch or move an object in order to make her presence known. Bang! Something moved behind where he and I were standing. Did someone knock something over? Palmer asked. No. The sound came from a spot where no one was standing. One of his team members went to investigate. A small ornament appeared to have fallen off a box. Again, no one was near the spot nor were any vibrations felt. Was that you, Sarah? Ren asked. As if in response, one of the lights lit up. On a personal note, myself and Palmer's daughter Elena awoke on the first night to footsteps walking in the second floor hallway. I thought it might be one of the investigators heading to his or her room, but Elena got out of bed and looked into the hallway. No one was there, and the room I heard the footsteps walking into was unoccupied in the morning. These are just a few of the experiences we had while at the Gooding University Inn. In all honesty, the 36 hours spent there were not enough and we planned to return for a longer investigation next year. Ren has been an investigator for 30 years and explored haunted locations all over the world. He considers Gooding to be the most haunted location he's investigated. I concur, and although Asselin has only been doing this a couple of years, he doubts he'll find a location with more activity. Our experiences were the hot topic during our 15-hour drive back to Canada, with the consensus being if you want to find proof of paranormal activity, just spend a night at the Gooding University Inn. Want more Paranormality? Subscribe to Paranormality Magazine and each month get it delivered digitally or via mail in our print version. Paranormality Magazine is a collaborative endeavor featuring works from people like you who have a passion for all things mysterious and unexplained. Our goal is the pursuit of knowledge, gathering captivating stories from our own team of writers, researchers and investigators, as well as from writers such as yourself. Each monthly issue also includes a list of paranormal, horror, UFO and cryptozoology events around the country, incredible paranormal-themed artwork, articles and writing sent in from our readers, suggested books and podcasts to consume and more. Visit ParanormalityMag.com and subscribe today for as little as $3.99 a month. That's ParanormalityMag.com ParanormalityMag.com On September 8, 1920, a five-masted schooner named the Carol A. Deering set sail. The secure vessel arrived in Rio and continued on to Barbados for supplies. By January 31, 1921, the ship would be spotted for the last time on the outer edge of an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Rescue teams found the Deering's sails set and a galley full of food, but she held no crew, no captain, and no obvious explanation of what happened to the ill-fated ship. Within a few months of the ship's discovery, a bottle washed ashore along the North Carolina coast containing an ominous message. Some say the cryptic note explains precisely what happened to the infamous ghost ship, the Carol A. Deering. It's easy to be captivated by a good mystery. By land or by sea, a curious situation is sure to grab the attention of anyone keen on solving a puzzle, mainly if the puzzle includes an unfortunate crew of multiple dead or missing men, a sad fact that is morbid but true. A ghost ship is defined as a physical vessel spotted adrift at sea or found sailing with no crew on board. There have been many stories over the years of ghost lights attached to cruel ships that are seen gliding along the water, only to disappear within moments of being spotted. These timeless, spooky stories tell of literal ghost ships that can be seen but not touched and apparition of sorts. An excellent example of such a legend would be the haunting story of Bechelor Phantom, a riveting mystery of a phantom ship. Natives of the area tell tales of strange ghost lights appearing along the waters of Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada. If you're daring enough to step foot into the icy waters of Chalor Bay, townsfolk say you can immediately hear the screams of the passengers on board a burning ship. The bulk of the reports, interestingly, allying with a hot summer night. Digging into the flesh and blood ghost ship mystery, grim discoveries that include wayward ships have muddied our deep blue waters for centuries. Sea-worthy craft have been found bobbing along the water, sometimes in working order and often stocked with rations with no signs of life on board. Ghost ships are a kind of chilling revelation that has had the maritime community scratching their heads for hundreds of years. There are many reports from all over the world of vessels appearing in the middle of the ocean or along the shore with no one on board. Unfortunately, there is no precise data on how many of these deserted ships have been spotted in the vast expanse of the sea. However, since 2004, there have been 438 ships carrying 5,767 souls abandoned worldwide. If we take our data back a few hundred years, the number of potentially dead or missing people with no explanation of what happened is staggering. In 1872, the Mary Celeste, a dual-mast vessel, was discovered drifting off the Azores Islands with no one on board. Originally under British registration, the Brigantine vessel was found by the De Gracia Sea-worthy and under partial sail. When Mary Celeste left New York City for Genoa, Italy on November 17, 1872, she was in working order, had plenty of provisions, and had a cargo hold full of industrial strength alcohol. The only thing missing when she was found by a Canadian Brigantine other than a lifeboat or her passengers, seven crew members, her captain, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter. During the salvage hearings, court officers suggested the vessel may have come under siege. Could the crew have fallen victim to foul play at the hands of pirates or possibly a crew member himself? As for the full story of what happened to Mary Celeste, no one will ever know for sure. The few undeniable details are that the vessel turned up deserted with no easy explanation and none of her occupants were ever seen again. Off the coast of Thailand, another inscrutable ship was found wandering solo, although the identity of this companion-less ship was difficult to assess as it had no identifying papers on board. Chevron oil rig workers discovered the Erie vessel on January 6, 2022, about 100 nautical miles from the start of Songkwa Lake, the largest natural lake in Thailand. The 262-foot tanker contained no registration documents and only one identifying feature, the name Jin Shui Yan Tu, written on the vessel in Chinese. No crew members, food, or cargo was found on board. In 2006, another ship was found abandoned on the coast of Queensland, Australia. Curiously, what we now know is the vessel the Zheng Seng was located not far from an island said to be rife with mysterious magnetic forces. The unmanned ship had no identifying markings and no crew. However, the 80-meter-long ship was found floating with a broken tow line in the shark-infested waters, carrying an abundance of rice. To this day, authorities have not been able to identify the ship's port of registry or its nationality. Could the crew of this mysterious ship have been sent to a watery grave by a band of nefarious one-eyed pirates? Maybe it was the work of a solitary madman looking to seek revenge on a blameless crew. Sadly, the details of this bizarre cliff hangar are as mystifying as the sea itself. With the average price of a tanker ship hovering right around $10 million, a very conservative number, what could possibly be the reason for abandoning such a pricey sea-worthy vessel? Other than the exorbitant price of gas today, your guess is as good as mine. Back to the Carol A. Deering, most of what happened to the unfortunate ship is still a mystery. What we do know is that there was some contention between the captain of the ship and his first mate, so much so that the first mate found himself in jail following a deadly threat he made to the captain while intoxicated. Oddly, it was the captain who eventually bailed his first mate out of jail, and they once again set sail. Twenty days later, while en route to Virginia, the Carol A. Deering hailed a Cape Lookout light ship off the coast of North Carolina. A tall, thin man with reddish hair held up a megaphone and hollered that the ship had lost both anchors and chains during a storm. The man advised that the ship's owner should be notified, but the light ship had no working radio, making communication impossible. Later, the Cape Lookout captain said the red-headed man spoke in broken English, and his speech and manner did not reflect that of an officer. He had also observed that the ship's crew was milling around on the quarter-deck, an area that they would not ordinarily be permitted to be in. Two days later, the ship was found run aground in the graveyard of the Atlantic, a.k.a. the Diamond Shoals, abandoned. The rescue teams noted that the steering section of the ship had been badly damaged, the wheel had been shattered, the steering equipment disabled, and the biblical box was broken. A sledgehammer was positioned preternaturally nearby. Adding more mystery to the story, it looked as if the crew were preparing for a meal immediately before their disappearance. As we stated earlier, there is no clear explanation concerning what may have happened aboard the bedeviled schooner, but history does offer us one more fascinating clue. In April 1921, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus Gray found a bottle that washed up along the North Carolina shore. Inside the bottle was a note that read, Deering captured by oil-burning boat. The new evidence sparked suspicion and outrage among the people with citizens attempting to pin the dastardly deed on the Russians. Papers began reporting about the possibility of Bolshevik, a Communist Party of the Soviet Union, plot. Fortunately, the fear was unfounded, but the people were still left with no closure to the ship's bizarre mystery. To this day, there are many theories, but nothing that makes this strange nautical case as closed. In 1918, 306 crew members went missing from the USS Cyclops. It remains the largest loss of life in the history of the United States Navy not involving combat. The vessel was due to arrive in Baltimore, but never made it. The Proteus-class Collier was thought to have been sunk by a German vessel, however no one claimed the ship's destruction or capture. Carrying 11,000 tons of manganese ore, most thought she may have sunk due to the overloading, but investigators in Rio confirmed that the vessel had been loaded and secured properly. No wreckage has ever been found and the case remains unsolved. The ocean covers more than 70,000 of our planet and protects more than 220,000 known species of life. Conversely, it is also home to more than 2 million more forms of life that remain a mystery. Is there a living, breathing, terrifying creature out there that is causing our brave, young military men to suddenly jump ship? Is the middle of the ocean the perfect aquatic lair for an alien abduction? Are swashbuckling pirates capable of taking over an entire crew of armed military men? Whether the threat is coming from above or coming from below, it has successfully kept us from solving some of the world's strangest mysteries. In that instance, it appears to be much smarter than us. And unfortunately, from mariners who make the sea their home, even for a limited time only, it's patient. I'll end our episode with this last bit of spookery. Gina Black talked to us about whispers in the dark and conversations with spirits. Let's play a game. Close your eyes and imagine you're walking on a crowded street and you hear someone call out your name. You might initially feel startled because you were not expecting it. Instinctually, you might turn around. Perhaps a friend or family member has recognized you. Even when you turn around and your eyes scan the unfamiliar faces and cannot find the source of the voice, it probably would not alarm you in any way. More than likely, you would simply turn back around and move on with your day. But what if there was a chilling plot twist? What if you are alone in a dark haunted house and you hear a disembodied voice whisper your name? This shift in perspective changes how a person may react. One might take off running from a jolt of adrenaline. Others might freeze in fear. But we paranormal weirdos might grin from ear to ear and ask the spirit to repeat themselves. If you are the latter, then perhaps we can dive down the rabbit hole together. When it comes down to it, there are two main kinds of hauntings categorized as residual and intelligent. In a residual haunting, it is as if we're observing a scene or action being projected in a location over and over. This could take the form of footsteps on a staircase at the same hour each day, or perhaps a shadow that paces in the same hallway every night. It might even be phantom music whose source cannot be traced. Oftentimes, the activity is non-responsive to the observers. Essentially, this scene is a harmless loop of an imprinted memory on the location. The other, perhaps more chilling category is referred to as an intelligent haunting. In cases such as these, the spirit will directly communicate through audio, visual or tactile responses. Tapping or knocking to answer questions is a common way to connect to a spirit. This can also be great for those without traditional ghost hunting equipment. Asking a spirit to dim the lights in a room or using flashlights as a form of yes or no questions can also be done. Other forms of intelligent haunting might include physical touching such as tapping or hair tugging. These are harmless examples of the spirit simply trying to get your attention. Audible voices are more rare but can happen in some locations. So, you're in a haunted house and you've heard your name. Now what? You should begin to ask yourself a few questions at this moment. Did you introduce yourself at the beginning of the investigation? Is there a possibility the spirit heard someone else use your name? Or is the answer none of the above? That, my friends, is when things get a bit darker. If no one else mentioned your name, is it demonic? I believe the possibility is extremely low but certainly never 0%. If you come to the conclusion that no one could have possibly revealed your name and you heard it spoken, it might be a safe bet to conclude the investigation. In my experience, more often than not, my name being spoken by a spirit was perfectly innocent. I usually introduced myself before an investigation and I always travel with others who use it. Introductions are an easy way to establish a great connection. When you get that interaction, it is simply the best feeling. Creating a bond with an intelligent entity is a rush. My suggestion is to try and keep the conversation going, keep the line of communication open as long as you can and if you are able to return to the same location, you might find the spirit may just remember you. This can come in handy because over time you can develop a relationship of trust with the spirit and the information they share may become more personal and it will be more tangible for your research. An important tip to keep in mind would be to do your homework beforehand. For example, you may want to brush up on the history of the location you are investigating. Really dig into the meat of the story. Separate rumors from facts. Just because you heard something nasty went down in a location does not necessarily make it true. Find human connections to names of people who might be haunting the space, important life events and deaths. I like to lean into the names personally. It is surprising how much more paranormal interaction can happen when you single out an entity by saying their name. You can also refer back to your research when analyzing evidence in order to bring some real credibility to your findings. Do ask light-hearted questions such as favorite activities, period pop culture questions and daily life inquiries. The time period is also important to consider. If someone lived in the late 1800s they might not understand current slang or topics. I find when I bring up activities the spirits seem more willing to keep the conversation going. Perhaps asking if they like music, singing or dancing might jog fond memories for them. Asking them questions such as what their favorite ice cream flavor was or if they drove a car may also seem enticing to them. Thinking of questions beforehand is a great idea because it can become difficult to think of meaningful content on the fly. Keeping a journal is a great tool for this. It can be a great record during evidence review as well. Do not ask how someone died. This is literally the most singularly personal experience in the human existence and not exactly appropriate for a new relationship. It could absolutely set the wrong tone for your investigation. What you can do is ask what the last thing a spirit remembers and perhaps you may gather more insight to deduct a manner of death. If they are forthcoming and offer this information by all means, roll with it. In the end, it is all about building your connection through trust and the same way you would interact with a living person. Every paranormal interaction is bringing us one step closer to knowing a little more about the unknown. Even if you only gather a small amount of evidence, try not to get discouraged. Some nights the spirits may be willing to speak and other nights they may not. If you have the opportunity to visit a location multiple times, you can certainly see what works for you and what does not. I have captured my name countless times on my digital recorder, portal device and spirit box. Every time it really does feel like I won the lottery. Everyone has to develop their own style when it comes to investigating. This has worked for me personally throughout my many investigations and if you try this formula, you might just hear a spirit say your name. Thanks for listening to Paranormality Magazine. Get more information about the magazine and subscribe to our monthly publication at ParanormalityMag.com or click the link in the show description. And if you are a researcher or investigator, send us your stories. We might feature you in our next issue. If you have a paranormal podcast, you can add it to our website so our readers can find your show. And artists, if you'd like your work to be featured in our magazine or on our back cover, contact us. Again, our website is ParanormalityMag.com. I'm Darren Marlar and I'll have more paranormal for you next time from Paranormality Magazine.