Phantoms & Specters. Lisa Yorio
apartment that I lived in. Such as my brother and I seeing apparitions of an old woman sitting in the same chair rocking back and forth and a misty figure resembling the devil or a demon looming over me when I was trying to sleep. These two stories are in my first book "Walking with Ghosts."
I remember telling my parents about these apparitions. My father opened up the closet and pulled out the huge doll and showed it to us and said" this is what you saw" and dismiss this as our over active imaginations. I protested and said "no that's not what I saw. I saw an old woman and a devil figure at my bed", however this doll was just as scary. I felt really uneasy and sick around the doll. I begged and pleaded with my father to get rid of this doll. When he finally did, I don't recall seeing anything else in the bedroom. I never saw the apparitions again. The room felt lighter and brighter. I didn't feel afraid anymore. I believe there was a negative spirit associated with this doll. It could have possessed this object and caused the occurrences in my bedroom.
Many years later, I asked my father where he bought that huge, life like doll. And he said "I didn't buy it, someone that used to live in the apartment before us must have left it behind". He said when we moved in he found it in the closet.
Another weird incident that happened to me was when I decided to buy a weird looking Halloween decoration. This was much later on when I was in my late 20's.
I saw this 3 ft figure of a devil in a local hardware store called Luhrs in Milford, Pennsylvania. The strange thing is that I would never go into this store all the times that I passed by it. However, something that day made me curious to go inside and check it out. I was in the process of moving and wanted to go look at some various paint colors for my room. As I was walking over to the paint section, I glanced over to my right and discovered the scary looking figure.
The figure had a red porcelain face and small black horns. The hair was coarse and made of a thick straw like material. The body was made of two sticks covered by a burlap robe. The contours of the face were shaped perfectly, given it high cheekbones a pointy nose and chin. The eyes and face were intricately painted making it look very realistic.
When I brought it home, my dog was immediately afraid of it. He would growl and bark at it. I thought it was funny because it was so tall and he was small, he thought it was a real person. My dog Kiki, is a pug, which is a small dog, so anything to him would appear big. The figure had a pitch fork attached to his hand. I would chase my dog with it and he would run away. I then began to realize my dog seemed to be truly frightened of this figure. I decided to stop teasing him with it. I noticed every time he walked by it, he would duck quickly and run away from it. Almost as if it was lounging towards him to grab or startle him. It would fall over and my dog would avoid going near it. I photographed it and some orbs appeared hovering above it and around it. Could there possibly be a spirit attached to this object? I had the figure for a few years and it started to get worn. The face cracked and I decided to dispose of it. The problem was that I got attached to it and I didn't have the heart to get rid of it. I finally moved it out of my apartment and left it in the hallway. I turned it around and faced it towards the wall so it wouldn't startle or scare me when I walked around the corner. Something prevented me from throwing it away. I asked my friend to get rid of it for me. I told her not to tell me when or how she was going to dispose of it, just do it. One day I returned to my apartment after work and I realized the Devil statue was gone. I asked her, when did you get rid of it and she said "today but I had it in my car for a week. I kept riding around with it every day but kept forgetting to throw it away?. I couldn't believe it was finally gone.
I had a startling experience when I attended a ghost tour in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The tour guide brought us up to the attic of the Farnsworth House. He showed us many artifacts such as bullets, swords, guns, and various other objects that were recovered from Devils Den and other haunted areas of the battlefield. They were encased in glass displays but you could get close enough to examine the many artifacts. There were even several hooks that were used to pick up the body parts that were scattered all over the battlefield. Could these objects hold energy from the soldiers that were killed? They could have been holding on to that particular object at the time of death and transfer their energy into that object.
As we were viewing the macabre display, I noticed the door started moving and we could hear banging sounds. The door hinges made a creaking sound and it flew open. The tour guide got startled and closed it behind him. However, it continued to open and close several times during his presentation. He acted as if it didn't bother him. He continued to talk over the commotion. He claimed this type of activity happens frequently and it wasn't anything to be frightened of. Finally, he put a chair against the door and propped it up under the doorknob to stop it from opening up. I found it fascinating that this type of paranormal activity occurred in the room with possible haunted objects.
The popular reality TV show "Ghost Hunters" featured two episodes with haunted objects that were the main premise of the investigation. One was about the "Titanic Museum", which has authentic artifacts from the famous ship that tragically sank. Erie sounds, flashes of light and cold spots have been associated surrounding the Titanic artifacts. In May 2011, I went to the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and photographed the outside of the entrance to the "Titanic Exhibit". I captured several orbs floating above this area. Could the spirits energy trapped in some of the objects still be lingering around after all these years? I think this is possible.
The other episode was about investigating objects that were in Cooperstown, New York at the "Baseball Hall of Fame." There have been many reports of hearing voices near certain pictures, footsteps heard walking in the hallways and dark shadows seen late at night.
The thorough investigations concluded that both museums were haunted. Recently, I was talking to a friend about haunted objects. She told me that since she received a porcelain clown doll from her sister in law she has been experiencing sadness, depression and an overwhelming uneasiness inside her house.
It was ironic that she was experiencing this at the same time I was doing research on haunted dolls. She asked me if I thought negative energy can be associated with certain objects. When she told me that the doll she received was from an antique store, I thought this was definitely possible and asked her if I could see it. We both work together in the same medical facility. She brought it to work the following day. She put it on my desk and sand fell out of it all over my desk. I reached over and touched its hand. I immediately felt nauseous and extremely sad and depressed. I took my hand away and asked her if she could carry it to another room where it was darker so I could photograph it. She agreed, but placed the clown back in the bag and walked over to the back room. When she took it out of the bag she said it felt like it was hard to breathe and she felt sad and depressed again.
I took pictures of the doll with a full spectrum digital camera. This camera is a favorite among ghost hunters. It is able to photograph anomalies in the infrared spectrum of light as well as the ultra violet spectrum of light. This is where ghosts are usually found. A normal camera cannot capture images in these fields. This device is good in ruling out certain anomalies that may appear to be a camera glitch. There is also a higher chance of actually capturing something truly paranormal. I tried taking several pictures of the doll close up and far away. I also took pictures of the doll on my desk and in complete darkness with a flash but the camera could not focus. When I used the flash the picture came out like a blank white screen. Only one clear photo was processed out of all the pictures that I took. It was almost as if the clown didn't want to be photographed. This is typical in some ghost photography. Sometimes a spirit doesn't want to be filmed or photographed. They may manipulate electronic devices in order to prevent this from happening. The most common occurrence is a camera malfunctioning.
My friend told me that she also noticed she started seeing shadows in the first two rooms in the front of the house. Her son saw this as well. He also stated that something grabbed the tail of his shirt and tugged on it. He was startled and turned around quick to see if it was his mother but no one was there. He also felt sad and depressed when he was working in the front room. He said he felt uneasy and like someone was watching him every time he entered this room.
My friend told me that the clown was hanging in the doorway of this particular room. I came to the conclusion that she needed to get rid of this doll. She double bagged it and took it out of the