Problempage : Psychic-tymes issue 16

Mysterious Indian Hauntings or other things?

Hello Judy
I was doing a Google search on "hooded ghosts" and at one point your web page on "Snowshill Manor" came up. I found the descriptions of your visits very interesting and had a matter-of-fact quality that rang very true (please forgive any implication of your veracity, but I've read so many tales on the internet that seemed much less plausible).

Since you seem so versed in this subject and seem also to have a gift in experiencing and talking to ghosts I thought I might risk asking you if you have ever run across any information concerning visitations by hooded figures.

I had a very vivid experience some twenty years ago and it has always been at the back of my mind. So much so that I occasionally will do web research (such as today) to try to find out if there could be some meaning in the event.

If you'd like a little background I'll give you a quick description of the event, location, and a bit about myself. It happened about twenty years ago while staying at a friend's house in the State of Tennessee. A fairly new house by Tennessee standards and had no previous history (so far as I can tell) of hauntings, unusual happenings, etc. There are a lot of very ancient Native American sites in that area, but I think it unlikely that what I saw would be related to those. I'm also fairly sure that there are no old monasteries, etc. in that part of the US.

I noticed this hooded apparition immediately after turning off the bedside lamp. Maybe it had been there before, but couldn't be seen in bright light. It was semi-transparent and I could see items on the wall behind it. I was completely awake (I think one of the main circumstances pointing to Sleep Paralysis is waking from REM sleep. I had not been to sleep yet that day). The apparition seem to be quietly watching me and seemed in no way threatening or scary. At the time I remember thinking (while it was still at the end of the bed) that something that looked like this SHOULD be frightening, but oddly it was not. I don't think there was any bad or harmful intention meant by it's appearance. It seemed to stay there long enough to make sure that I had seen it (this is only my impression). As I was about to speak to it, it slowly drifted backwards and disappeared into the wall. The feeling I had was that it just wanted me to see it.

I was about thirty years old at the time and I have lived in the US most of my life. I work in the Sciences and I'm not considered a "flighty" person by those who know me well. At least no one's called me that to my face :-).

I have had one or two other unusual experiences in my life, but they tended to be more commonplace. I once had an episode where doors were opening and closing unaided and various televisions would turn themselves on to blank stations when no one was home. Items would go missing and then turn up in unusual places. It all culminated with the breaking of some valuable Indian pottery (I'm a collector). I'm pretty sure I brought this one on myself by bringing home an unusual Indian artifact that I had found in the desert near where I lived at the time. I still have the artifact, but the events subsided after a few weeks. Maybe I'm perverse, but I sort of enjoyed the experience while it lasted.

I do seem to be a little sensitive to what a psychologist friend of mine calls "numinosity"... the perceived personality of a location (something which seems as though you would be very well acquainted).

If you know of any literature, etc. on the subject or have had any experiences yourself I would be very grateful if you could pass it along or send a link that might direct me there.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this,
Bill

Hi Bill,
Thank you for your very interesting email. One of the previous issues of psychic-tymes [issue 12] had a report from the Pinsen Mounds in Tennessee and it sounds to me like your experience must have been close by – or at a similar type of site. I went back to the piece and the quote I was looking for is:

“When we finally turned off the road to get to our destination I was hit by the first major ‘Spirit Alert’ of the day. The dirt road leading off the highway had a Native Indian Spirit making it very clear to me that we were not welcome as we were White Folk! Both Martin and I were aware of the problem. However the car carried on through the bad vibrations and out the other side, and we carried on with it to the archaeological site shaking the stuffed cotton wool effect from our heads.”

Your visitation seems to have been a lot more welcoming than the Amerind spirit I was aware of at Pinsen. Perhaps he [it was definitely male] lived at the time when the ‘White Folk’ were stealing the land?

During the same visit to Tennessee we interviewed Grey Cat, one of our resident Wiccan writers. I was aware of a wonderful and wise Amerind spirit that lived and guarded her land. He had no problem with ‘White Folk’. So that means to me that there are Amerind Spirits that will be kind and welcoming.

So do I think your visitor was a human dead, or a Spirit of Place? From your description I would have to say it was human. One effect that non-human spirits have upon living human physiognomy is a scratchy otherness - you know that something not human, and not safe, is near you and you want to run. Human dead can make you feel uncomfortable, nature spirits can really ‘put the wind’ up you. You did not feel that alien otherness according to your email, that feeling is always so unmistakable that you would have remembered and mentioned it.

I suspect that you have read the piece on the homepage referring to Spirits of Place, a nature spirit I came across in the Torridon area of the Highlands of Scotland? He was welcoming, but he made a point of telling me that not all mountain spirits in the area felt the same way about humans. So, my understanding of your enquiry – without actually visiting the location – was that it was a friendly human spirit who visited you.

So why was it cowled? The human aura / spirit body does not have hard edges. It is shaped rather like a wooden Russian Doll – the type that has many smaller dolls inside it. Also, it tends to have colours shot through it. If a living person sees such a shape, and has not had much training in using their sixth sense, they will see something that they will interpret as a hooded figure. The spirit is not hooded – it just looks that way. In fact, a living human is really egg-shaped – the energy envelope around the body can be quite extensive. The size of the energy field is dependant on health both physical and mental, and, of course, the nearness to death.

Of course, if it had been in a monastery or ex-monastery, then you would have expected the haunting spirit to be hooded. There are no hard and fast rules!

I think that you had a visitation from two possible sources. The first was a human soul that was tied to the land – maybe an Amerind as at Pinsen and Grey Cat’s home – and the second option was that it may have been a friend or distant relative of either yourself, or your friend, trying to make contact. Once contact had been established they felt satisfied and left you. Sometimes it is enough for a spirit to be aware that they have been seen and acknowledged.

I hope this mulling over possible analogous experiences has been useful. I am always astonished by the way beings that have passed on before us try to establish contact. In the end, I can only suggest and hope that something feels right to the enquirer. If anything more occurs to you, please do get back to me.

Best wishes
Judy F