Ghost Hunting

There was another cleanup at the Selma Mansion on Saturday.  If you haven’t seen my video from the last cleanup, click here.  Anyway, the people who did the paranormal investigation were there helping out and I had a chance to get to talk to them.  I am not really sure if I believe in the paranormal, but I can say I have had some strange experiences that can’t be explained which could have been paranormal.  

My husband and I were visiting some friends in Lodi New York right on the coast of Lake Seneca.  They were running a vineyard and were living in an old Victorian house high on a hill overlooking the lake.  It was a little run down, but a great house and they had lots of land.  My husband and I were given a room to sleep in the rear of the house across the hall from a room that was not used.  During the night I think I awoke – it could have been a dream – and saw someone standing at the foot of the bed looking down at us.  For some reason I was not afraid and didn’t scream but went back to sleep.  The figure was that of a woman in long dress with an apron and a white bonnet type hat.  In the morning I mentioned this “dream” to our hosts.  They remarked that we must have seen the ghost who rings the bells.  They went on to explain that at the bottom of the stairs in the front was a curio cabinet with small hand held bells that our hostess collected.  Occasionally while she and her husband are in another part of the house, these bells rang.  I did not see the apparition at any other time while we were there, but I never forgot the experience.

If Selma is haunted, or has sprites in the house, they must be friendly spirits.  In the many times I have been there, aside from feeling a little creeped out when going up to the third floor, I have not experienced anything odd.  There have been no bells ringing, no loud noises, no things flying around the room that I might attribute to a ghost.  I do have an open mind to the fact that there are things in this world that one can’t explain and since we humans are always needing an answer for something, so I have never ruled out the possibility of existence of the spirit world.  I read a book a short time ago called the Journey of Souls by Michael Newton.  In it he talks about his work with many patients who talk about their past lives and their souls.   There is a section about those souls who do not go to the hereafter, but stay around because they don’t want to leave but he doesn’t go into detail.  If the spirit of Mr. Knox and family is at the mansion, I hope they are pleased with the efforts that we are going through to save the building.  I hope that it won’t keep people away because the house is a valuable piece of history that needs to be honored.