Center of the Arts Presents:

Paranormal After Hours Event

 

“Spirit Communications”

 

Mike Sears

Mike is the Director of Volunteer State Paranormal Research and has been investigating the paranormal for just over 8 years. Having investigated over 200 investigations to his credit, Mike has investigated some well-known haunted locations like Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky, Sloss Furnace in Birmingham, Alabama, Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee, Octagon Hall, Franklin, KY, and many other locations in Tennessee.

In 2009, Mike was nominated by the International Paranormal
Acknowledgement Awards for National Male Paranormal Investigator and Best in Spirit Photography. Mike was awarded for Best in Spirit Photography by the International Paranormal Acknowledgement Awards.

Mike has been a guest on various paranormal internet radio shows, made appearances on Television shows “America’s Most Terrifying Places” on the TRAVEL CHANNEL, CAFEMOM.COM “I’ll take that Dare!”  featuring Octagon Hall. He was also featured on “Tennessee Crossroads,” a PBS show featuring Tennesseans and Tennessee places. For the “Tennessee Crossroads” segment, Mike and the VSPR team were the first to investigate the Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill and aired Oct 2011.

Mike has also been a featured speaker at numerous events in Middle Tennessee. and his paranormal experiences  were published in several magazines : VISIONS Magazine  Issue #3 ,#5 ,#8 and also Un-X NEWS Magazine.

 

COST OF TICKETS

Lecture “Spirit Communications” is $15.00 each

 Investigation is $50.00 each (includes Lecture) {Limited to 20 tickets for Investigation} { Must be 18 years of age or older to attend the investigation}.

{There are no refunds for this event unless it is cancelled. Event will happen Rain or Shine.}

 

Tickets can be purchased at:

http://cfa.ticketleap.com/

Or at 

Center of the Arts, (google map also)

705 Lion Parkway

Columbia, TN 38402

Hotline for info at 931-548-6560

Also can RSVP on the Facebook Event Page – Facebook Event

Event is brought to you by Center of the Arts

Many thanks to Susan Manning for putting this event together.

Written By Mike Sears

I lived with an extreme haunting from August 1994 to August 2000. The haunting occurred in my mother’s home in Melbourne Florida. The house located in a nice neighborhood that was built during the early 1980’s. The land prior the housing was cattle land owned by one of the earlier ranchers that settled there in the early 1900’s.  My parents had bought the house late summer of 1984. From 1984 to 1994, there was no paranormal activity that my family or I could recall. When my father passed away from cancer in June 1994, soon after, the activity began. My mother and I continued to live there. We had no sign or incident to warn us about the extreme haunting that was about to take place.

Around the first week of August, in the early morning around 3am; I was awaken with a   feeling that I was not alone in my bedroom.  I slowly reached out towards the light on my headboard and to the 9mm pistol that was hidden nearby. Before I could reach them, I suddenly felt hands grabbing   my ankles and being pulled towards the end of the bed. I kicked and fought, trying to break free. After a several long seconds, I felt free from the grip. I crawled back up my bed quickly, reaching again for both my gun and the light fearing for my life. Escaping and not knowing that my attacker wasn’t finished. I felt someone jump on top of me, pushing my head into my pillow, attempting to smother me. I tried to scream for help, but my voice was muffled into my pillow.  I attempted to move my arms, pushing myself up, to break free from whoever was on top of me.  I was able to finally break free, reaching for the light to be turned on and grabbing my pistol… I turned fast to see who was there. Surprised, I saw no one in my room, and saw that my bedroom door was closed. Sitting up in my bed, my heart racing, my eyes searching every corner of the room, and finding no one there. I left the room, walking fast down the hall to my mother’s bedroom to make sure she was safe.
I woke her from a deep sleep and told her in rushed words what had just occurred. She awoke, listened, and felt that I was having a nightmare or a PTSD flashback from the Persian Gulf War. (Three years prior to this event, I had served in the Air Force Police in Desert Shield and Storm.) I knew what flashbacks and a nightmare felt like. I explained to her what had just happened seemed very real. My mother saw that I was frightened and in shock. She excused herself and splashed cold water on her face, so she could be more alert. When she had left the room, I heard and felt something coming towards her bedroom doorway. I expected to see my dog, Niki, coming to check on us. I looked towards the hall and saw nothing. Suddenly a force of energy struck me in the chest, pushing me backwards, hitting my back against the bedroom wall, as if I was tackled. My mom, who was just returning to the room, witnessed this as it happened. Her voice came out rushed, “Are you ok!? What just happened to you?”  I explained to her, that I was just attacked again. She asked if I were dizzy, or if I had somehow lost my balance. I blurted out, “No, I was physically pushed by something!”  (A distance about ten feet.) Soon after that, I felt the force grab me. I tried to speak and tell her that it was back, but no words could come from my mouth. She noticed that the hair on my body was standing straight in the air with goose bumps appearing all over me. Soon as I was released from this unknown force, my hair would return to normal. Then being grabbed again multiple times on and off. This would last for almost 30 minutes. My mom tried to remain calm through this and thought, maybe I was having some medical ailment happening to me. Thinking quick and keeping calm through this, she started to take my blood pressure and temperature during my attacks. Each time the blood pressure and body temperature would be a different reading. When I was being grabbed, my blood pressure was extremely high and my skin would get colder. And when I was being released, my hair would go back to normal, as would my blood pressure. She was experienced in taking blood pressure from the years of taking care of my dad during his treatment of cancer. During this time she kept calm and got a note book and started taking notes on the events happening to me. My attack happened so many times, she couldn’t keep up writing the events in her notebook. She went to grab out of her nearby purse a mini tape recorder she used for school and started recording the last 15 minutes of the events. The attacks finally came to a stop after almost 30 minutes; I was able to calm myself. During that time, we both noticed my dog “Niki” was not around when all of this happened. We called out to her to come to us. Not getting a response, we left the bedroom to go look for the dog. Both of us were surprised to find her under the dining room table huddled and terrified. My dog was a 100 pound Akita, which resembles a husky type dog, who was very protective towards us. We wondered what had scared her so much to have her hiding under the table. My mother and I stayed up that night for another hour and talked about what we had just experienced. This left us for bed with no answers to what had just happened.
The next day our family friend stopped by and we shared with her what had happened the night before. She asked about the tape recording and asked if she could listen to it. Listening to the recording she could hear the panic in my voice and then hearing a strange voice in the background. My mom rewound the tape to the voice and played it again. This time we all heard it. It sounded like a deep frightening male voice yelling, “OFF!!” This voice had spoken during the time when my mom had grabbed my arm to check my blood pressure. Possibly this voice was the spirit telling her to let me go of me.
Several days later, around 4:00 pm, my mother was talking to my grandmother on the phone and was sharing with her what had happened that night. I left to go to my bedroom, so they could talk in private. As I walked into my bedroom I felt that someone or something was following me. I first thought it was my dog ,but when I was about to turn to see if it were, all my hair started to stand up on end. Suddenly I was grabbed into a strong invisible bear hug hold, actually feeling the arms holding me tight. I tried to break free, but could not. I could hardly walk out of my room to where my mom who was still on the phone.  Slowly walking towards her, still feeling the weight of someone on me and hugging me tight. I could hardly speak, being frighten by this unknown force. She turned around hearing me moan out loud and saw that I am paralyzed by fright from what is happening to me. Being frighten as well seeing this, tells my grandmother that I’m being attacked at this very moment. With phone in hand she grabbed on to my arm felt the electrical static coming from me. The hair on her arms started to rise also , then she yelled out, “LET GO OF HIM! LET HIM GO!!!” Soon after she yells, I am released and the feeling of negativity presence is gone. I’m shaken by this, as so is she. After we calmed down we both talked on the phone to my grandmother about our experience. At that moment we all thought possibly we have a ghost or haunting in the home.
As days went by my mother and I started having more experiences within the home. We started to share this with friends and family. Some believed us and others thought we were under a lot of stress from the recent loss of my father. We both witnessed the track lighting in the living room start flashing on and off when we spoke about the attacks. Sometimes when we shared these experiences with friends, the lights would start to flash in front of them.
My dog would be frightened to enter my bedroom or sometimes not even go near that area of the house at all.
My mother and I would both continually awakened  between the hours of  2am and 4am. These time periods seemed to be significant. We would see shadow figures of a man or persons in our bedroom or outside our doorway during those times of night.
My bedroom was the most active for the paranormal activity. When I was away at work, my mom would hear voices talking in my bedroom and thought that I had left my television on. She would investigate the room to find the television turned off and the room feeling ice cold. Sometimes it was so cold you could see your breath in the air.
My Mom and I having watched documentaries and movies on the paranormal, we thought we needed to seek help since we had no knowledge how to handle this.
Decided to tell our neighbor, a minister, to tell him what was happening. We hoped he would be able to help us by blessing the house. The minister, skeptical of our story, offered to bless the house with two of his church associates. They conducted prayer for us. After they left, the house did not feel the same. It actually felt more negative. The muscles in my body became tense and ached. I went to bed that night and soon awaken by blankets moving on my bed. I sat up to see the moving blankets and then was grabbed by my shoulders and being pushed back into my headboard by some unknown force. Suddenly it let me go and the negative presence left the room.
I spoke to my Mom the next day and said, “This is getting worse and we need to know what this is and why. Maybe we can call a psychic and have them do a reading of the house. Hopefully they can help us.”
We had gone to a psychic fair, by pure chance, a few weeks after my dad’s death, and before any of this paranormal activity had started. We had gone out for a drive to just get out of the house and relax. During our drive we came to a psychic fair. My mother had never been to one and wanted to stop and check it out. At the time, I was very skeptical of psychics and the paranormal. When I entered the fair, I had asked, “Who is the best you have here?” The person in charge of the event told me there was a lady there who is used by the state and local law enforcement to find missing persons. This impressed me and made me think she could be the real deal. I decided to choose her booth for a reading and my mom selected another psychic. I told the psychic that I was very skeptical about this, that I would not be talking during my reading. Also I would like a little of my past,present, and future told to me. She had no problem with my wishes and then took my hand, beginning to tell me things about my past. She was so accurate about my life experiences, things that only I would know. She did not generalize like I had seen from psychics on television. She gave my age when specific things had happened to me in life. I spoke not a word during the reading. When she was done, I was a believer of her ability.
I suggested to my mom that we call her to see if she would do a reading of our house, since she had impressed me with her abilities. Several days later she came over in the early evening to do a reading. During this we had a friend over to give us support and to be a witness of the reading of the house.
As the psychic entered the house, she said right away that she could feel a negative presence in the home. She walked into the living room pulling out of her bag a very large white candle. She placed it on top of a silk scarf onto our coffee table. Lighting the candle, she told us she wanted pure white light around as she read the house. When the candle was lit, the candle started to crack and snap,spitting wax into the air. She had never seen this happened before. The candle finally settled down and was burning normal holding a high flame. She told us if we had any white candles to light, to please light them. My mom placed 6 tea candles on the fire place mantle and lit them as the psychic requested. The psychic then walked around the house going to each room and telling us what she was feeling.
She said she had felt the presence on 3 male individuals, who were very angry. The 3 had known my Father in the Vietnam War. She mentioned they had been haunting my father since their deaths.
She said, “My dad did not agree with these men and he decided not go with them because it didn’t feel right nor like what they represented.” She then asked, “Did my dad have violent nightmares?”  We replied,“ Yes, very often. We assumed it was his PTSD from the war.” Then she shared with us that my father had crossed over into the light. They were furious about this, since they could no longer haunt my father. That these spirits had decided to haunt me.

( Some background about my father in the Vietnam War, he spoke very little about his tour there when he was in the Army. All we knew was that he was an Advisor with MACV command, and that he mentioned to me once that he worked with a mission called the Phoenix Program. After his death, my mom and I requested history of his tour in Vietnam from our government. Years later we got very little back and most of the paper work was censored, blacked out so you couldn’t read it. He had worked in covert missions. Maybe this psychic was right about what she was feeling.)

She entered my bedroom and felt that this room they went in the most. She told us that we needed to make white paper cross’s to be placed around the room and to bring in a Bible. She requested to place it and open it onto the bed and read from the page where it opened. My skeptical self-thinking, “Ya right, sure lady.”            My mom placed the Bible in the center of the bed and opening the book in the middle. Stepping back from the bible the pages suddenly started to move and flip through pages like a fan was blowing on to it. Suddenly the bible slams shut. The psychic tells us to reopen the Bible and everything was repeated.
The psychic left my bedroom suddenly feeling frightened and said, “I need to leave. I’m sorry, but I can’t stay in this house any more. I recommend you locate a priest to bless this home. I need to go!” She then went to the living room to gather her large candle she had lit earlier. She gasped out loud to find this large candle that stood about around six inches in diameter, just completely melted to the scarf she had placed it on. She looked at our tea candles on the fire place mantle which had flames reaching from 6 to 12 inches in height. Then she swooped up her scarf and the hot melted wax into her bag, and then rushed for the front door. As she was leaving the house, the track lighting in the living room started to blink off and on. My mom and I, still in shock and somewhat frightened, asked her if she was ok and what should we do? She replied, “What we have, she could not help and we needed clergy. She expressed she would not return to the house, but would still help us from afar if we needed.” My Mom and I where left speechless in our front yard wondering what we are going to do now as she drove away in her car. Just then we hear our friend yell out, “MIKE, GET IN HERE!! IN YOUR ROOM NOW!!!” I ran into the house, to my bedroom, where she was standing at the door. She says, “Mike, look at the Bible on your bed!” The Bible was on the bed and the room was ice cold. You could see your breath in the air. The pages of the book were flipping again; the book started to move and lifted off the bed into air slamming shut. When the book closed, so did my bedroom door, slamming hard into our faces. Our friend and I stood there in shock. This Bible was not a small book; it was a large family size Bible that weighs close to 10 pounds. To see it lift in the air and close by itself, gave us quite a scare. We left the house to calm ourselves and share with my mother what we just witnessed. Our friend stayed with us for several hours till the house returned to normal. That night I slept on the couch with little sleep, I was not going to sleep in THAT bedroom this night.
As months went by, the activity continued. Some days were more active than others. I continued to be attacked in my bed and in other areas of the house. I was pushed into walls and pushed out of bed or into my headboard. We continued to see shadow figures in our rooms. We bought the tea candles by the case, using them to let us know when spirit activity was going to happen. We witnessed at times the flames reaching about 12 inches in height, not one candle, but several of these at once, just before I would be attacked or we would witness some form of paranormal activity.
My Mom once witnessed a cloud of smoke come out of the fire place and float across the room, then go into a nearby wall on the other side of the room. (There was no active fire in the fire place at this time)
One night she called me at work to come home soon as I could. She was very frightened by what she had witnessed. She said, “I just saw your dog staring at the wall and growling, then lifted off the floor being tossed into the wall. Your dog ran and hid after this.”
The extreme haunting lasted for almost a full year. The lack of sleep and stress from it was affecting us both at our places of work. My mom, a school teacher, had shared some of the experiences with her fellow teachers. By doing this she was contacted by her supervisor, who required her to have a psych evaluation. Luckily, the psychiatrist believed her story, and she kept her job.
After almost a year with several different religious leaders coming to bless our house, there seemed to be no end to this haunting.
My Mom was finally able to find someone that helped us greatly. She had a student, who was Native American Indian, and had heard his father was a medicine man. She contacted his father explaining what was happening in our home. He said he would do his best to help us. He came over with his son and they spent eight plus hours in our home doing a Native American cleansing ceremony. The ceremony involved lots of sage being burnt filling the house thick with smoke and leading us in prayer. He also told me that I needed to stand up to these spirits, letting them know I am no longer afraid of them. After he finished and left the house, the whole home felt lighter and peaceful; a feeling we hadn’t felt in a long time.
Over a year goes by and there are no more attacks on me or paranormal activity happening in the home. Life seemed to be back to normal.
Mom was invited by our neighbor to join her on a trip to Georgia for the weekend. This left me alone in the house. That Saturday at 3am in the morning I was wakened by my dog jumping onto my bed frightened to the extreme. The dog was huddled real close to me shaking with fright. I started to tingle all over and felt the presence of the spirits again in the bedroom. Just then all the doors in the house started opening and closing fast and hard. Frightened at first, and then thinking back what the medicine man had told me, “Don’t be afraid! Stand up to it!” I screamed out “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!! I’M NO LONGER SCARED OF YOU!!” The doors suddenly stopped slamming. The whole room felt lighter again.

From 1996- to 2000 the house continued to have some activity, but it wasn’t violent. We had electrical items turn on and off, some of them not even plugged into an outlet, picture frames moving on the walls, and a shadow figure appeared from time to time. The violent attacks had come to a stop.

I was married in the year of 2000 and moved out of the house. The house was sold several years later. People often asked us, “Why didn’t you move?” Our reply back, “Move where? How on a fixed income?” And plus, “We love the house and the neighborhood.”

In 2006 I decided to help others understand what they are experiencing, letting them know they are not alone. I have done over 200 paranormal investigations. None have compared to the activity my mom and I experienced at the house in Florida. I’m no longer skeptical, but a believer of the paranormal.

Photos of the Bible that lifted off the bed.

by-Mike Sears

“The Conjuring”

“The Conjuring” is based on a “true story”’ and the case files of Ed & Lorraine Warren, worldly known paranormal researchers. The movie deals with an Extreme haunting that involved the Perron family in Harrisville, Long Island.

Movie Trailer:

This trailer has interviews with the Perron Family.

My review:

I went to see this movie as a paranormal researcher and a person who had lived through an extreme haunting. I lived with an extreme haunting from 1994-2000 at my parent’s house in Melbourne Florida. Those who have lived with an extreme haunting will not forget how terrifying the experience is and it will be engraved forever in their memory. Can read about the experience clicking here— Mike Haunting Experience

The Warrens:

The movie showed the Warrens research on prior cases in the beginning of the movie, so you can learn who they are and what they have dealt with in past cases. One of the cases being of a possessed doll. I wish the movie had the doll look like the real doll the Warrens dealt with. The movie doll was a china porcelain doll made up to look creepy. The real possessed doll was a large Raggedy Ann doll. To me, Raggedy Ann being possessed is creepier (but maybe it was some legal thing to do with copy writes if they showed it). The movie even showed a residential case that they went to that wasn’t haunted. This showing the public that not all claims of activity is paranormal and can be mostly explained by natural causes. This I liked a lot and a good touch to the film.

The movie I thought could have explained the Warren’s investigating equipment better. Explaining some of it in more detail for those who didn’t understand what it was being used for and how it worked. For the investigating part, I liked how the movie had an experienced investigator helping the Warrens and a new member who started out as a skeptic when he first arrived at the Perron’s house. The biggest and most important thing I liked how the movie portrayed the Warrens in the movie. They showed that they did it for the love of the research and for helping others. They bonded with the family and made a connection with them. It wasn’t for fame or let’s have a cool experience. It was a husband and wife who knew there is an unknown force and a darker side out there that most people don’t understand. They were there to help them understand this and hopefully help them conquer their fear.

Paranormal activity:

The paranormal activity portrayed in the movie was very well done. The scene where one of the daughters was grabbed by the foot and pulled down the bed, this was very believable to me. In the movie one of the daughters would be awoken by her foot being tugged and being partially dragged out of her bed. The daughter thought her sister was doing this, which slept next to her in a nearby bed. I had personally experienced this myself. My experience relating to this, I thought someone had broken into the house late at night. I could feel someone in the room, I was laying on my stomach in my queen size bed when I awoke, I started to slowly reach for the light and my pistol I kept near me. I suddenly felt 2 hands grab my ankles and started to pull me off the bed hard and fast; my legs from the knee down were in the air over the end of the bed I felt the hands release my ankles and immediately I pushed and climbed my way back up to the top of the bed, before I could reach for the light, something jumped onto my back and pushed my head into my pillow. I tried to scream, but was muffled into my pillow. I thought I was going to die during this. I pushed my arms on my side and tried to push the person off me, doing a push up type move. Finally the weight lifted off me and I was able to get to the light, turning it on and grabbing my pistol. My room was found empty and my bedroom door closed. No one was there. Can read about the haunting here: Mike’s Haunting Expereince

Other scenes reminded me of the haunting I lived with. Their dog not wanting to enter the house, my dog wouldn’t go into my bedroom or sometimes the main living room area. The dog truly feared the spirit in the house. There was one time my mother witnessed our dog growling at nothing visible, the dog having it’s hair standing up; then suddenly witnessing the dog being lifted off the floor and thrown into the wall. In the movie there are scenes of people being lifted and thrown. I could relate to this also; many of times I was attacked, pushed, thrown and lifted by some unknown force. Unlike the Perron’s case, no one was possessed in the house I lived in; this part of the movie is extremely rare case to happen in a haunting. Thank god, the haunting we dealt with was terrifying enough.

For the skeptics who see the movie, they will say its bullshit, fake or it’s not true-just pure Hollywood make believe. It’s easy to say that, if you never personally experienced it firsthand..

I was 25 in age when the extreme haunting started; I had prior served in the Air Force police, and was currently working for the government at the time. I was a skeptical person but open minded to paranormal at the time. Prior to the haunting if you told me I would encounter and experience this, I would laugh and thought you were crazy. Now 19 years later I have seen and experienced so much, that paranormal, has become the normal for me.

For my rating for this movie I give it a 4 out 5 for realism for an extreme haunting.

To learn more about this Haunting, the oldest daughter from the Perron family, Andrea Perron who has written the family experiences in her book “House of Darkness, House of Light” is interviewed by a great friend of mine and VSPR’s- Stephen Hill on his radio show “ Alternative Frequencies” that airs on Heyzradio.com

Well worth listening to :