Below is an unedited true story
of a visit to Bachelor's Grove submitted to us through email by Ryan.
Thanks so much, Ryan - this is a great account that helps verify that this
is indeed a very haunted place!
Hi
Folks,
I recently took a renewed interest in the occult when talking with my friend
about some strange experiences he had while visiting Brazil. I came
across your website today and I find it very interesting. And so,
I have had one indisputable paranormal experience I'd like to share with
you and also send you the pics, which (in my opinion) are sort of amazing.
My experience took place at Bachelor's Grove cemetery here near Chicago
where I live back in July of 01. I'm sure you know about Bachelor's
Grove, since it's in your database, so I won't explain anything about the
location.
Anyway, I had been a total skeptic all the way up until the moment
of my experience. Now I'm sure that Bachelor's Grove is a special
place, but I'm not sure what exactly the deal is, the how and why. So, here's
what happened:
A group of friends and I had decided to go up there one night to check it
out and have a good time. One of my buddies claims to be a ghost hunter,
but even though I have seen some pictures of his where they have that kind
of white mist surrounding objects and people, I figured it just as easily
could have been one of them smoking a cigarette or something. He's the one
who knew about the place and brought everyone up there.
So, there were about 12 to 15 of us there that night. We all walked around
and explored the place for about an hour. It's a fascinating place
to explore, but nothing unusual really happened. I mean, some that
were with us were saying they were seeing strange objects and whatnot, but
I just figured they were trying to just scare us, because I never saw anything.
So, after about an hour of this, I was quite relaxed, and decided to wander
a bit by myself. But, Bachelor's Grove is actually a very small cemetery,
so I wasn't exactly too far from my other buddies. Now, what happened
next I will try to explain as clearly as I possibly can, although it is
difficult. I was walking with the flashlight and I suddenly had sort
of like a premonition to look to my left. It was kind of like when
you, for no apparent reason, decide to look in some direction, and there's
somebody there who's been staring at you, and you kind of catch them.
It was just like that. Except, there was no person there, my eyes
fell directly on a small headstone in the ground. (You will see this
stone just to the left of me in the picture.) So I had the notion
of curiosity to just walk on over there. (It was about 40 feet or
so away from me when I noticed this stone.)
As soon as I got to the spot you see me standing at in the picture, I stopped
and turned my flashlight off. And that's when it happened. Nearly
immediately, I began to feel a very strong tingling entering through the
top of my head. It was moving kind of fast, about an inch a second
I wanna say, and seemed to be taking the path of nerve bundles through my
body. It was moving down my neck and down through my spine.
After not too long, it felt like it was in my whole body! Needless
to say, I was extremely scared at this point. But I do believe it
was my willingness to be open that allowed it to continue. I stayed
my ground and yelled for my friends, something like, "Hey, hey, come here
- something's happening to me! Help!". It was at this point
that my friend began to try and take a picture. He later told me that
his camera had initially jammed for a good minute or so. A few of
my friends who heard me came by and stood around me. My ghost hunter
friend was saying that he was feeling it too. All of a sudden, things
got even weirder. I was looking at my one friend when it seemed that (for
lack of a better way to explain it), my visual perspective was changing
without my permission, and without me moving anywhere! As I looked
at my one friend, it was as if there were two cameras set up next to each
other about 3 or 4 feet apart, both looking at the same thing. And
someone was like toggling between the two cameras. My vision was instantly
flickering - Camera A, then Camera B - back and forth a few times.
This was too much for me, it felt like I was losing control of myself, so
I walked away from the spot. Well out of the way. Then, slowly
the feeling started to go out of me until I was back to normal - weak in
the knees for a while though I might add. It was amazing! The
feeling was so strong, it was a tingling like electricity was flowing through
my body! As this was happening to me, my friends said I looked pale
and completely in shock - which I definitely was. Nothing I have experienced
at any other point in my life could even compare to this feeling.
I have no way of explaining it at all. From reading your site, it
sounds as if I had done some inadvertent channeling. I don't know
if I can verify this, but my ghost hunter buddy told me later that I was
standing in the exact same spot that he and another guy had seen a pentagram
of stones on the ground apparently left by some occultists or whatever.
As to the photo below, you can see that it was taken from a considerable
distance away. The main thing you will notice is that my eyes appear
to be glowing in the photo! Not just the retinas as usually happens
in redeye photos, but actually the whole eye sockets. After jamming
for about a minute, the camera was only able to take one picture of me.
The camera used was a disposable which, of course, uses actual analog film.
Which is a good thing, because my father, who works for a printing company
was able to blow up the photo in analog form, and so there is no rasterization
in the enlargement.
The photo directly above is a scan of the actual photo itself, and the photo
at the top of the page is the enlargement that my father made. The bluish
line across the original is not in the original, but a product of the scanner
I used. (Not a flatbed.) The enlargement scan looks pretty much
exactly like the paper that I have here.
This experience has changed me and my beliefs forever. I welcome
anybody who wishes to debunk or otherwise analyze my photograph. It's
the real thing. I get the feeling that whenever I tell someone this
story, they thing I'm a nutjob. Hopefully, you guys won't.
Keep up the good work.
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