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As a young child I would wait anxiously for sleep. Bed never seemed a particular secure place. It was dark; I felt alone and vulnerable in the night. The subtle play of shadows on the walls and the flowing, bulky curtains danced the waltz of the unknown. The night closed the door to sight and light. There was no comfort, no warmth; it was very still. It would happen then.

From the depths of mystery a vision would begin. Spiralling, spiralling, the image would draw closer ever brighter and clearer like a shooting star at night.

My eyes, forced to open, were pierced by light. Filled with terror, I would shake and scream aloud from the suffocating feeling in my room. As quickly as it occurred, it disappeared. Fear had slammed the door.

These visitations continued throughout my childhood. At first my screams of panic brought my mother to the room where she offered comfort to me and encouraged me to go back to sleep. Her warmth and kindness brought the light back, and yet I knew “it” lurked there still.

The frequency of visitations enabled me to understand how to bring them forth at will. If I welcomed the experience without fear and allowed it to spiral freely, I knew then, in my heart, that something very unique and special would take place — something very different. Unfortunately, it never became clearer than a blur because it happened very fast and as I grew it happened less frequently.

What was it? To see it clearly never seemed to be the important thing but I did know that it was real!

Many children have this kind of experience, perhaps only later dismissed or forgotten. Others may have had similar experiences that were, unfortunately, unexplained and undeveloped. A child that has a conversation with an imaginary friend may be having a visionary experience. We adults may tell our children that their friend is imaginary, but perhaps the child does see a spirit. It may be very real to them. Do we disregard a child’s experience because we cannot see it? This is the time of life to clarify those experiences and assist in the development of the gift of spirit connection as something very real and very special.

So, here I am once again exploring this unknown world. At last I am communicating with people whose experiences have somehow shaped their lives in a different way. For want of another way to phrase it, this is a book about hauntings.

Many people are keen to understand this phenomenal world. How about you? I believe we often refrain from admitting it publicly in fear, but deep in the depths of one’s consciousness lives a belief about spirits. We just need some form of permission or acceptance from someone. You see, fear calls too many shots. How many people are afraid to walk downstairs into a basement by themselves? Are you afraid to be left at home alone overnight? Do you leave a light on at night after retiring to bed? How do you feel when the power goes out and you are left in the darkness? Will you stay alone in a house that is reputed to have a ghost?

Fear of the unknown. What the rational mind cannot comprehend does not exist. There is a need to open ourselves to more than our sense-body awareness, to experience dimensions of awareness that are there, and already available to some. All we need to do is believe.

What keeps spirits active in this dimension? What is a ghost? This is what the experts have to say. Reverend William Rauscher in his book The Spiritual Frontier, states, “The question ‘What is a ghost?’ is rather like asking; ‘What’s an animal?’ Animals come in all shapes and sizes, as mammals, birds, fish and reptiles and range in appearance from the cuddlesome calf or bear cub to the fearsome crocodile or boa constrictor. Ghosts are similarly diverse.”

The Random House Dictionary defines a ghost as “the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons.”

A recent survey in Britain showed that over half the population believed in psychic phenomena and that 44 percent of people believed in ghosts. Of these, one in seven claimed to have seen a ghost or been haunted by one. The figures in the United States are even higher; similar studies revealed that 57 percent of the adult population believed in the phenomenon. One might conclude, to deny ghosts exist is to ignore the millions of ordinary witnesses to them.

So what happens when a person dies? Eddie Burk and Gillian Cribbs, in their book entitled Ghosthunter, addressed this question. Mr. Burk believes that in the dying moments consciousness begins to drift to a higher level of existence, and often relatives and loved ones will appear. Then the person passes out of the physical body and into the “etheric body.” The etheric body is a halfway house between the physical and spiritual bodies: when you die your consciousness moves out of the physical body and operates through the etheric body. If you remain in the etheric body for too long, your consciousness begins to cloud; this is why ghosts have no idea how long they have been trapped — in the etheric body there is no difference between a day and a hundred years. He also believed that up to one in five hundred people remain back in this etheric place after death.

Ms. Elizabeth P. Hoffman, author of In Search of Ghosts: Haunted Places in Delaware Valley, defines ghosts as the spirits of people, places, creatures, or objects. She says a place is haunted if a spirit is felt, heard, sensed, seen, or smelled. She also maintains that the temperature may drop or the atmosphere will feel cool and damp when a spirit is near.

A ghost may be present when something physical — a picture, a book, a dish moves without a natural cause such as a vibration or a slammed door.

A hundred years ago Mrs. Eleanor Sidgwick of the Society for Psychical Research analyzed more than 300 case histories and observed that a ghost is usually seen upon looking around the room, or comes in a door, or forms gradually out of a cloud. It rarely simply pops into place. It can disappear suddenly, however, if the viewer looks away or blinks. The form can also vanish slowly as if in a cloud. Frequently it will go through a door, open or closed, or it will move to another room where it cannot be found.

Many ordinary families who find out their home is haunted first experience fear. Others simply accept the fact that someone or something is sharing their humble abode. I have known some people to open their home up to the public and share their ghost story. Such was the case with an old historic estate, named “the Hermitage” in South Carolina.

I first became acquainted with the Hermitage in 1975, when I was researching historical sketches of places on the Waccamaw Neck of South Carolina, United States. Stories of ghosts that inhabit old residences in South Carolina are not unusual. The Hermitage, at the time, was a good example of a house with an appealing combination of the historic and the mysterious. After all it is a house with a benign ghost.

Dr. Allard Belin Flagg built the Hermitage on a point of land surrounded on three sides by tidal marshes in Murrells Inlet. He placed his home within a grove of live oaks, which, at the time (1849), were undoubtedly 100 years old. Some say the land was given to Flagg’s mother by her brother on the condition that the doctor build there. The land might well have been a wedding gift for he was married the following year. Clarke A. Wilcox, the owner at the time, shared this about the estate: “The property contained 937 acres. On the north, a bank thrown up by slaves separated it from Sunnyside plantation, home of J. Motte Alston. On the south, Dr. James Grant owned the land west of the present King’s Highway. One hundred acres at the eastern end of the south line was the property of the Rev. James L. Belin, who left the tract to the Methodist Church.”

For decades the Hermitage was isolated. Mr. Wilcox adds, “When I was a boy, Sunnyside and the Belin property were our closest neighbours and we had to go through the field about half a mile to reach the winding one-way road to either of these places.”

No description of the Hermitage would be complete without the legend of lovely Alice Belin Flagg, the 16-year-old sister of the doctor. Engaged to a man in the turpentine industry and aware of her brother’s disapproval, she wore her ring on a ribbon around her neck and concealed it inside her blouse when she was at home on vacation from finishing school in Charleston. Her mother, fleeing from the dreaded malaria season, was in the mountains. At home the doctor was tending his patients and operating the farm. Following her happy debut at the spring ball in Charleston, Alice was suddenly stricken with a fever that was prevalent in the area. The school authorities sent for Dr. Flagg, who was experienced in treating fevers. After equipping the family carriage with articles for Alice’s comfort, he set out with a servant over miserable roads with five rivers to ford — a four-day trip one way.

Mr. Wilcox relates this portion of the story: “Upon examining his delirious sister when they arrived home, he found the ring. In great anger he removed it and threw it into the creek. Thinking she had lost it, Alice begged everyone who came into her sickroom to find the ring — her most cherished possession. Sensing her distress, a cousin went to Georgetown and bought a ring. When he pressed it into her hand, she threw it on the floor and insisted that they find her ring.”

Alice died prior to her mother’s return from the mountains, and was buried temporarily in the yard. When her mother returned, Alice’s body was moved to the family plot at All-Saints Episcopal Church on the river opposite Pawley’s Island. Among the imposing stones raised in memory of the other Flaggs, a flat marble slab, upon which is engraved the single word, “Alice,” marks her grave. The conjecture of an older resident, “Perhaps she was so beloved that is all that was needed,” fails to dissipate an observer’s feeling of sadness. Often a vase of flowers appears on her grave. The donors are unknown. Young people often walk around the site 13 times backward, lie on the grave and, as they say, “talk to her spirit.” It is said that if a young girl sets her ring on the grave and runs round the grave nine times with her eyes closed, she will find, upon opening them, that her ring has disappeared.

Still searching for her ring, Alice visits her old room in the Hermitage. The Wilcox’s say that there is an undeniable feeling of her presence, more real than a visual appearance and far more impressive. They even left Alice’s room untouched, appearing as it did the night she passed away. At one time visitors were allowed to tour the house and spend some time in Alice’s room.

A few years ago the Hermitage property was sold and the house moved down the street. It is now a private residence.

Some people still say Alice returns on moonlit nights when the shadows of the restless moss, the eerie cry of the whippoorwill, and the distant roar of the ocean put the expectant one in the mood. At such times the beauteous Alice becomes real to even the most skeptical beholder.

The fact that ghosts haunt particular places could be in some way linked to a strong emotion or attachment to some item, such as Alice of the Hermitage, who is still looking for her engagement ring. Many spirits are so attached to personal items and familiar surroundings that they refuse to cross over to the other side. Instead, they remain in their homes.

A few years ago I resided in a grand century-old home that was still inhabited by the previous owners. They had never crossed over to the other side. Two family members had been seen on numerous occasions in the house, sitting on the front veranda and standing at the head of the stairs. I still remember the first night I spent here. I slept on the second floor of the building in the room to the right of the hall in the front part of the house.

That very night I had a dream — or was it a dream? I recall watching a procession of people carrying a casket along the second floor hall and down the central staircase. One thing that stood out in this image was a man following behind, who was dragging his leg. That was it. I awoke to brilliant rays of light beaming in my bedroom window. Was it just a dream? No.

Over morning coffee I shared this unusual dream. My friend replied, “The brother of the deceased was known to have a bad leg.”

What I had witnessed truly happened years before I was even born. Everything in my dream was as it had occurred. Somehow I had connected with the past.

A part of my childhood feels finally fulfilled to have travelled to these many diverse locations with the specific intention to feel, see, hear, smell, or otherwise experience the spirit activity to be found there. The hauntings have in no way been sensationalized and in many cases the accounts have actually been condensed. What we have here are personal reports of experiences that are often quite difficult to articulate.

I trust this book will speak to you if you have had childhood experiences that were unexplained by ordinary life, and if you believe but have had no chance to experience. One must believe the many folks who have shared their experiences with humour and candour. They have also opened their doors and their hearts to me; for that I am extremely grateful. For them, and many who will visit them, the spirit world does indeed exist in their surroundings every day.

Terry Boyle

Burk’s Falls

February 2012