My Ghostbusters Job

Back in the late 1980's, a guy I knew decided to start a "ghost busting" business. That decade gave us two Ghostbuster films, a few Amityville Horror films, couple of Poltergeist files, and I'm sure several more that I'm forgetting. The point is, awareness of ghosts and haunting was at an all-time high. It was the perfect time to start such a business. Or, at least, that's what he kept telling me.

There were four guys in the group besides me. I'll call them A, B, C, and D. A was the guy I mentioned before. He was a "sensitive" who could detect ghosts. He had this psychic act he would do at parties where people would pass him small objects and he'd tell the stories of the object, who owned it, etc. B was a "sender" who could pass messages to the other side. Sometimes he'd join the act and send secret messages to A at parties. C and D had the world's largest monstrosity of a shoulder-carried video camera. It was their job to document the ghosts we busted, with hopes of turning it into a movie or TV special.

My job was to be the "muscle." Since I was a hard-line skeptic who thought ghosts were total BS, my very disbelief would prevent evil spirits from being able to manifest fully and would greatly reduce a spirit's ability to hurt us. I might drive out evil spirits just by being there. Or, at least, that was how A put it. Actually, I'd said no such thing about ghosts. My skepticism was about him, that his business idea was BS, etc. Still, it sounded interesting, so I told him to call me if he got any jobs.

Job #1: It was a standard suburban home with the standard family: husband, wife, two or three kids, maybe a dog/cat. The kids were scared to go into some rooms of the house, there were strange noises at night, the wife thought the place was haunted, the husband thought the whole thing was BS but was willing to pay a bunch of college students $50 if it calmed his wife down. We showed up about sundown. A and B made a big show of "scanning" the house, being sure to agree with the wife that areas she said had shown paranormal activity were indeed "hot spots." C and D pretended to film the whole thing. I say pretended because I never actually saw any of the video they produced, and I'm not entirely convinced there was ever any film in that camera. After the family went to bed, we stayed up half the night in the living room drinking beer and watching TV. No ghost activity. In the morning, A gave the family some BS report, we collected the $50, and drove back to the dorm.

Job #2: Standard home, standard family, standard ghost. The basement was supposed to be the hub of the supernatural activity, so we did our drinking there. No ghost activity.

Job #3: Standard home, standard family, standard ghost. This time, or perhaps it was on Job #2, it was the husband who thought the house was haunted and the wife who thought it was BS. No ghost activity.

At this point, I was getting bored, and I begged off the next couple of jobs. C and D quit about this time as well. I think there were a couple of other guys who helped out for a while, but I never met them.

Job #4: A convinced me to give it another try. Small home on the outskirts of town, little old lady living by herself, a demon haunting the kitchen. Lady asked that we be sure not to do any busting in the living room next to the recliner, as that was where her dead husband manifested. She would occasionally enter the room and see him sitting there for a second, or hear him call to her while she was elsewhere in the house. She admitted that her hearing and eyesight weren't what the used to be, and that she missed him very much, so she was probably just imagining seeing and hearing him, but it comforted her to think that he was still around. She was very logical and matter of fact about the whole thing. She didn't really think her kitchen was haunted, but couldn't explain what was going on. According to her, she could be in the living room or another part of the house and hear things clanging and banging around in the kitchen. When she'd reach the kitchen, everything would be quiet, but she could see activity in the back yard. The old screen door had rusty hinges and a big rusty spring that was supposed to pull it closed. It made a nasty screech screech screech sound when opening or closing. After going out, finding nothing in the back yard, and coming back in, she would then hear the back door open and close on its own, as if something had followed her in from the back yard. Thing is, she could see the door and see that it wasn't opening or closing, even though she could hear the screech screech screech of the hinges.

This was much more interesting than cold spots or indescribable sounds or the kids refusing to play in certain rooms. We sat in the living room for a while listening to the old lady share stories about her dead husband. Suddenly, there was a bang clang rattle from the kitchen. We all rushed to the kitchen to find... nothing. Everything was where it was supposed to be, nothing was disturbed, everything was quiet. The A shouted "Something just moved past the window!" I hit the back door at a full run, B right behind me. Screech-screech-screech-blam as the door swung open and slammed against the side of the house. We found nothing out there. B went back inside while I poked around for a bit, looking for a place a teenage prankster could hide or get through the fence. I started ducking my head to avoid something swooping down at me. I didn't even realize I was doing it until after the third or fourth time. That's when I realized I knew what was going on.

I went back into the house. The door was still standing wide open. I pulled it closed, screech screech screech, and approached A, B, and the old lady. "I know what's going on. It's not a demon. It's bats. They're bouncing off the window screens, trying to catch the bugs attracted by the lights, and that's causing the clanging and banging back here. They fly by the windows really fast, so they're hard to see, but..." That's when I noticed that nobody was looking at me. They were looking past me at the back door. I heard a slow screech screech screech indicating that the door was opening. I very carefully turned around and saw that the door was closed and not at all moving, even though I could hear the screech screech screech of the hinges. I very gingerly approached the door, waited for it to stop making noises, and then opened and closed it a few times. I called everyone over.

The long rusty spring that was supposed to pull the door closed was sometimes getting hung up in the wooden parts of the screen door. As it pulled through one coil at a time, it made a screech screech screech noise that sounded just like the rusty hinges. We oiled the hinges, re-mounted the spring, and hammered in a few nails to bring the screen door closer to square, as I'd done a number on it running into it earlier. We accepted our $50 and didn't even have to stay the night. For the first time, I actually felt good about this ghost busting thing.

To be continued...

a reply to: TroyCheek

No doubt, someone will claim it was your staunch disbelief that was keeping the ghosts at bay.

It's a good read, though, so keep going.

Awesome post the videos. It would be great to see them claiming everything was ghosts.

Edit: Just saw you don't know if they even videod it, shame.

Job #5: Standard house, standard family, standard ghost. The husband had cleared out a bunch of junk from the attic to make a play area for the kids, but they refused to play up there because of the ghost, preferring to play in the dirty, cluttered basement where they had stashed most of the stuff they'd moved from the attic. The house was laid out with the living room, kitchen, dining room on the first floor, three or four bedrooms on the second floor, and the attic on the third floor. There was a big fancy staircase right through the middle of the house connecting the three floors. A door in the back of the house led to another staircase that allowed access to the basement. When A and B scanned the house, they detected a lot of "energy" in the basement, but the family denied anything every happened down there. Everything supposedly happened on the fancy staircase: cold spots, gusts of wind, feeling that someone was standing beside you, etc. And, of course, the ghost in the attic that kept the kids from playing up there, but the kids were short on details about that.

The attic was a pretty good sized place, though the sloping roof on either side made it seem a bit claustrophobic. It was the standard spooky attic with a dress-maker's dummy in one corner, an old rocking chair that seemed ready to start rocking by itself at any second, creepy clown dolls on the shelves, children's toys scattered on the floor in a pattern guaranteed to make an adult fall and break his neck, and all the lamps were sitting on the floor or on low tables, lighting everything from underneath. No wonder the kids didn't want to play up there. I didn't like being up there myself.

The father thought this was all BS, that the mother was spoiling the kids, etc. He stayed up with us in the living room drinking beer. A big thunderstorm hit about midnight. There was a tornado warning in effect, so we followed the wisdom of the day and opened all the windows in the house. This supposedly kept pressure from building up when a tornado got too close, keeping your house from exploding. What this really meant was that there were strong random winds blowing through the house, knocking over lamps, causing doors to open or close by themselves, the house creaking ominously, etc. After a while, the father looked up at the ceiling. "One of my daughters is up. I can hear her moving around up there." We listened closely. It was hard to tell because of all the storm and wind noise, but it did indeed sound like somebody was moving around up there. Then we heard the thump thump thump of footsteps that were way too heavy to belong to a little girl. The father was first up the stairs, A and B behind him, and me taking up the rear.

When I got to the second floor, the father was checking every bedroom. He said that his wife and all three daughters were asleep in their beds. Then we heard thump thump thump from the staircase, sound for all the world like a heavy person moving up the stairs. I was first on the stairs this time. Just as I looked up, the attic door slammed shut, obviously from the wind whipping through the house. I rushed up the stairs, A and B right behind me, the father behind them. As I reached the top stair, I stumbled, missed a step, and almost fell backwards. A caught me and pushed me upright. I tried the door. I rattled the knob and kicked at it. It wouldn't open.

"It's locked," I told the father. "Do you have a key?"

"It doesn't have a lock," he replied.

Bracing against A, I gave the door a good push and it flew right open like it had never been stuck. I stormed into the attic, looking for that teenage prankster I always assumed was behind these haunting cases, but saw no one. All the spooky stuff was still there, mind you, and I was glad I wasn't up there alone. Then I turned around and noticed that I was alone. Everyone else was still on the stairs. A was kind of staring into the doorway past me, B and the father were kind of milling around behind him, moving but not really trying to get past him. I declared the attic was empty.

We checked on the kids again, then returned to the living room. The storm died down, we closed the windows, and eventually went to sleep. In the morning, A gave his BS report to the wife, we collected our money, and went back to the dorm.

I never got another call for a busting job, and I never heard from A again. I ran into B many years later. He said that A had died of AIDS a few years later. He also said that since A was dead, he could tell me the story of what really happened on that last job if I wanted to know. Here's the story of what A experienced, as told to me by B:

A had detected a lot of bad energy in the attic, but had told everyone it was in the basement because he hoped we'd focus on the basement so he wouldn't have to go into the attic again. During the storm, he'd heard and sensed several things upstairs long before the father had, but had kept it to himself so he wouldn't have to go up there. When we went to the second floor, he stayed near the stairs so he could be the first one back downstairs. When we all rushed up to the attic, he got swept along and ended up right behind me at the lead, even though he didn't want to go at all.

As I approached the top of the stairs, A saw the most solid, fully-formed ghost he'd ever seen come through the door. He had apparently seen many, but always wispy fragments and never a solid being. I stumbled when it hit me, and the ghost actually rebounded off me back through the door. When I forced the door open, the ghost was standing there. I ran through the ghost to get into the attic, shattering it into a million pieces that turned to smoke and drifted away. That's what A was staring at when I returned to the group.

B said he didn't see anything, and didn't believe that A ever saw ghosts, he was just repeating to me what A later told him.

And that was the story of my ghostbusters job.

Best thread I've read in awhile.

Thank you!

Great read! Thanks so much.

I look forward to hearing some more

a reply to: chr0naut

That was the general consensus in my circles back then. Someone who completely and utterly disbelieved the possibility of paranormal activity could, by this very disbelief, prevent such activity from occurring while he was present. Or, in the event that such activity did occur, he would simply not see/hear/experience it even as others standing right next to him did. Or, and this accusation was thrown around more than once, even if he saw/heard/experienced paranormal events, he would categorically deny this to others for fear of being thought of as crazy, and would tell himself that he was mistaken until he believed it.

What Mr. A was attempting to do was weaponize this. Or, at least, that's how he explained it to our clients.

a reply to: TroyCheek

That was a great story. Thanks for sharing. I've been a lurker on ATS since like 2008 and you sometimes hear from people this place isn't what it used to be. Well this story reminds me of why I feel in love with this site.

How did this end up in Philosophy? I swear I posted it in Paranormal Studies. If some moderator wants to move it, I won't be offended.

Good read thanks for sharing.

Well written really enjoyed that. I'm sorry to hear about A. I've seen ghosts before too, but not in a while. I think it's true if you are filled with disbelief or like me wanting to make contact or not be afraid, they won't come.

Very good story OP i feel it was genuine .

Thanks for sharing!


Kap

originally posted by: TroyCheek
a reply to: chr0naut

That was the general consensus in my circles back then. Someone who completely and utterly disbelieved the possibility of paranormal activity could, by this very disbelief, prevent such activity from occurring while he was present. Or, in the event that such activity did occur, he would simply not see/hear/experience it even as others standing right next to him did. Or, and this accusation was thrown around more than once, even if he saw/heard/experienced paranormal events, he would categorically deny this to others for fear of being thought of as crazy, and would tell himself that he was mistaken until he believed it.

What Mr. A was attempting to do was weaponize this. Or, at least, that's how he explained it to our clients.

I'm not sure I disbelieve in ghosts.

I think that somehow there can be recordings of times and places that are often misunderstood as ghosts. When playback occurs, the apparitions repeat actions not appropriate to the existing situations. They don't even seem to be cognizant of the observers.

The situations that induce playback are uncomfortable to sensitive people and so are assumed to be malign.

Anyway, entirely hypothetical, an attempt to make sense of experiences & accounts of others.

I enjoyed the read. Thanks for sharing.

I do think there has to be a level of acceptance to have such a paranormal experience but from my experiences they were never because I sought them out. Not that I'm saying I've seen ghosts mind you...

a reply to: TroyCheek

You weave a good tale, and I like your writing style. I look forward to more.

Thanks TroyCheek!

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
Just saw you don't know if they even videod it, shame.

Yeah, I think they were film students at the same university I was attending at the time, but I didn't know them outside of the job, and they mostly kept to themselves. For all I know, there may be film stored at the university somewhere documenting our exploits, but I don't recall anything supernatural happening when they were with us that was worth documenting.

a reply to: TroyCheek
Interesting account, well told. For me the jury is still out on the whole ghost thing, but I just sat in on a paranormal investigation of an old county building. Areas that I personally found creepy were identified as 'active spots'. I'm still waiting on the final report after all the data has been processed. I'll report back when I hear more.

a reply to: TroyCheek

That's one for the campfire.

I've been skeptical and even dismissive of ghost encounters, and I was when my ex girlfriends roommate refused to sleep in her room because something in it spooked her, so I walked into her room and began chastising this-spirit? to prove that there was nothing there and the room went from ambient temperature to cold as a meat locker in a matter of seconds, and then came the feeling of dread that gave me claustrophia, so I got outta there quick.

I don't believe what happened was paranormal-the mind is capable of playing tricks on us at any time. But that feeling just doesn't manifest, so what happened in that room? I don't know.

a reply to: TroyCheek

Great story, this is the reason i started to lurk on ATS in the first place. I too have some similar tales from my experiences as a paranormal investigator, i was the sceptic of the group but ended up a believer! Shame there isnt any video even if it probably didnt include any paranormal happenings.

Want to say much thanks for sharing. It's surely a learning experience for some, whether you find yourself convinced or not of the paranormal at the end. When I started investigating my skepticism(despite prior incidences) was present until a whole group of people, more than just once, are viewing the same thing.