This story a part of the True Ghost Stories page on Obiwan's UFO-Free Paranormal Page. Please do not copy or distribute without permission from Obiwan and/or the original author!
Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 10:18:58 -0700 (PDT)
To: guestbook@ghosts.org
address anonymous
I have always had a strange "sensitivity" to the paranormal. I have never really had physical interaction with the paranormal but have often felt as if I have the power to engage in such action if I would seek it. However my strong religious beliefs inhibit me from engaging in such activities. I believe it could be spiritually unwise. I do love to read about it though and investigate from safe distances if such exist.
Anyway....here is the one of the experiences that I have had that I am able to define. My other experiences many could attribute to a fanciful imagination or such so I am not certain if they would qualify as true paranormal experiences....
The experience I will tell about happened in a little town called Avilla, Indiana. My best friend's mom had just moved into a house in the country. We were about 13 years old and loved to explore the countryside. She had a shed that had been changed into a little house. It had 2 windows in it. One faced north and the other faced east. We had decided to spend the night in the shed.....treating it like our own little house. The only problem was the door only locked from the outside. So we had her mom lock us in for the night and we set about having fun...eating ice cream, playing games, etc....
It had gotten really late (probably after midnight) and the moon was up. I happened to glance out the east window and saw the treeline which was about 200 feet in the distance (I am guessing at this). The largest tree in the treeline was a huge elm tree that was close to the road. I noticed something moving back and forth in front of it. I said something to my friend and she saw it too. We assumed that it was her older teenage brother trying to pull a prank on us. We could tell that the figure had the height and shape of a man but couldn't distinguish much because of the dark. We started yelling taunts at the thing. It just acted like it couldn't hear us.....kept it's same pace....back and forth. It reminded me a lot of a sentinel... keeping guard. After about 20 min. of yelling at "her brother." We gave up and went back to whatever we had been doing. About an hour later, I glanced out the window again. What I saw made me nearly pee my pants. The figure was still there....it was still keeping it's same pace....except that it was half way up the tree! It was clearly in front of the tree....there was no way possible it could have been in the tree. From the distance, it looked to be levitated a good 20-30 feet off the ground. My friend saw it too....we were terrified. We managed to get the north window open and ran into the house. My friend's mom was asleep so we went into her brothers room and he hadn't even been home yet!
The next day, we went over to the tree where we had seen the figure. The brush around the tree was very very thick. We managed to work our way through the weeds and bushes to get to the base of the tree. We had no idea what we were looking for or even what we expected to find....but what we found was very creepy. When we reached the base of the tree....we realized we were standing on stone slates... After getting much of the weeds and moss away....we realized they were headstones. They were very crudely made and we could not make out any of the names and only vaguely one date....it was from the 1850's. We found 4 headstones that day by that tree. And even though it was in the 80's that summer day...it was very cold under that tree....and I had the distinct feeling of being unwelcome there. We did the best we could to cover them back up and left. We never went back and never told anyone about it until we were much older. Her mother moved from that area a couple of months later (after their house was finished being built.) I would love to go back there now that I am an adult and see if they are still there...and still undisturbed.