My House is Haunted, What Do I Do Now?

In the course of running a paranormal team, you get a lot of questions from clients that have never had a paranormal encounter before. Most of the time, it leaves people really confused, scared and just generally freaked out. All these are normal reactions to the average person.  Especially, that most people can live their whole life without so such as a trace of a ghost. Which, leads most of my clients questioning their own sanity. Luckily for them, there are other people out there who also have witnessed this type spiritual phenomenon. And for those people living in Connecticut, they can call TSPI. From personal experience, I can tell you, that every member of the team has gotten into the paranormal business because of their own personal experiences with the unexplained. In an earlier blog, I talked about some of my own personal experiences growing up in a house that had a ghost named "George". So, I can personally relate to every one of my clients.

So, most people after contacting me want to know what to do next. In this article, I intend on giving some healthy advice on what to do if you think you are living with a ghost.

First, it is super important that you don't completely freak out. I know what you may be thinking. I just saw a ghost, "What do you mean don't run away screaming?".  The reason I say this is, one, I don't want you to get injured falling down a flight of stairs or tripping on something in your house and breaking your neck. Next thing you know it, you become a ghost too. But, in all seriousness, you could get injured... It is completely normal to be scared, but I want you to try and be a good witness. It's important to get a good description of the event. You want to note, what the ghost looked like, what were you doing when it happened, who was there, and most importantly. What emotion did it evoke when you witnessed the event.  Outside the emotion of sheer terror. Did it evoke a sense of darkness, dread, light feelings, curiousness? These are some of the different types of sensations that clients have said they have felt during a paranormal encounter. If you can, try and tap into this. This becomes important to relay to a trusted paranormal investigator. Many times, it is that first encounter that gives us a clue to why this activity is occurring. 

Next thing to do is keep a healthy dose of skepticism. A common thing occurs when dealing with a possible haunting. You start to assume everything is a spirit. You start listening more keenly to everything in your home. You start to hear those everyday noises because you haven't been paying a whole lot of attention. You may start to think,  it's got to be the ghost right? Well, maybe it could be. But, my advice is to start keeping a journal of the activity. Make sure you note the dates, times, what happened and any witnesses. At this stage, you are acting like your own investigator.

You may even start to see a pattern. For example, you notice an unexplained bang, right around midnight. That may just be your neighbor coming home from the late shift, closing their car door. That strange noise from the basement that you hear hourly, could just be your furnace turning on. Again, keeping a journal is not designed for you to disprove everything you witness. It is to document what going on. So, when the paranormal team arrives, they have a record of recent events that can have an important bearing on the investigation.  

An another important piece of advice is to try and not discuss what is going on inside your home. For example, my family made the mistake of talking frequently about the ghost. My mother even named him George. The reason is a simple one. You are validating its presence and it could lead to more activity. Most spirits are benign and most of the time it won't matter. The problem comes when its possible negative entity. It will feed on your fear and other emotions and possibly makes things worse. Even human spirits that do not want to crossover, can make things difficult for you. So, by abstaining from talking about the spirit, this can curtail things until a paranormal investigator can show up. As paranormal investigators, we come at the investigation with a practical approach, trying to explain things through natural means. If we do determine there is something present, our next step is to figure out what kind of spirit is there. This will then lead to a possible resolution. 

In closing,  I have given you some advice on what to do when you think you have a ghost. Taking these steps and doing some homework is as important as calling in a paranormal team. We at TSPI want to empower all our clients to take back their lives and be educated on what to do. This article is not meant to an end all, but some healthy advice. So, if you have any questions, do not hesitate to call or email us. I wish you all the best and Happy Hauntings!!



Written by 
Shamus Denniston
Founder & Director of TSPI

Tel: 920.940.TSPI

Email: tspiparanormal@gmail.com

TSPI Debuts a NEW Web Series 

After years of discussion and planning, my team the Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations has created our own web series that revolves around some of our cases. It's really satisfying to see a project you put your heart and countless hours of work into blossom, into reality. It's titled "TSPI Presents: Into the Black" and our first episode is located in Windham, Connecticut in the United States. The place is over 200-years old mansion and our client was gracious enough to let us film our experience so we can present it to you.

Gray/Perkins House Windham, Connecticut

As always our first priority is to assist our clients. Our clientele come to us asking for our help and are looking for some sort of understanding about what is going on. So we make that our main focus. We are also in the business of research and data collection, which over time helps us perform better in the field. Lastly, our job is to educate. In order to do that efficiently and reach a plethora of people, we have had to take many different roads to get there. This includes radio shows, publications, blogging, paranormal events...and online videos of course. After all, a video is the best medium for distance learning and this led us to  the birth of "Into the Black".

This is not just another paranormal show!

After a slew of bad programs plagued with unbelievable or questionable evidence it was a tough decision to even go through with making the show (not all of them of course). We were also discouraged due to our encounters with the many major production companies we have crossed paths with in the past. Still, we felt that somehow this was the avenue to travel. Then came the realization that if we produce "Into the Black" ourselves we have total control of all of the content and that is when knew that we had a good idea.

TSPI Presents: Into the Black is such a fantastic tool to educate the masses. The program gives us the chance to share our methods of investigating and teach a history lesson at the same time, which is all tied up into a nice TSPI bow. The second episode is due to come out within the next few months and the show can be found on our website at tspiparanormal.com and on YouTube.    

Written by Stephanie Sutera

Associate Director & Lead Investigator 

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

A Family Ghost Story
It is always nice to visit family that you haven't seen in a while. On a recent trip to my father's side of the family in Massachusetts, we were reminiscing about the old times. Before long, someone mentioned ghosts and how I am the family "Ghost Hunter." In the past, I have written about it, but I always say that I have one foot in the old country and one in the new.  And an Irish family is not without it's an own ghost story or two. I thought I might share one or two of them...





My cousin Elaine asked if I heard about the woman who has been seen walking down the hallway of the house. I asked, "What house?, she said "This house!"(meaning my Aunt Sheila's longtime home). All these years and I didn't realize my Aunt's house was haunted... Elaine spoke about the time they saw a woman walking down the hallway in the middle of the night, which would frighten anyone. They referred to her as Mrs. Marsden, who my aunt's home was built on their farmland. The old Marsden Farmhouse still stands today a few houses down. At first, they were terrified, as they witnessed the spirit of  Mrs. Marsden walk into my cousin's Shirley's room. My cousin used to suffer from seizures from time to time. This particular occasion, the appearance of Marsden was a precursor to the seizure.

It seemed that the spirit knew that it was about to occur.  As time went on, they became of used to Mrs. Marsden appearing and came to know her as someone that was watching over my cousin and not there to harm. My Aunt said that many a guest has stayed in the home to be woken up by strange noises and the sight of a person glowing in the brilliant golden light. On several occasions, Aunt Sheila witnessed this woman, but no one was ever scared again by Mrs. Marsden's presence. Showing that people can live symbiotically with a spirit.

Picture of an alleged spirit at crash site

Then there was the time my Uncle Joe and Aunt Eileen had a rural vacation home in northern Massachusetts, somewhere near New Hampshire state line. One night, the family were all staying the night at the home when they were abruptly woken up by the sound of a terrible car crash in front of the house. It woke everyone up in the house. They looked outside, but they didn't see the car crash on the road. A short time later there was a knock on the door, and Aunt Eileen answered the door and found this poor man bleeding from the head. The man gave his name, which no one remembers but for the sake of the story, his name was John. John explained he got into an accident down the road. Aunt Eileen helped John as best as she could. The whole family then came to the kitchen to find Aunt Eileen assisting this man in with the head injury, wrapping him in gauze. The man then used the telephone to phone someone to pick him up. After he was done,  the man departed, stating that he was going to go to the hospital. Then everyone when back to bed. In the morning, Aunt Eileen being concerned, called the local hospital to ask about the condition of John. The man never made it to the hospital, in fact, the accident never happened. The hospital person stated that John had died in the car crash years ago on the road by Uncle Joe's house. They went outside to see if they could find the scene of the crash. And they found nothing. To this day, they remember the time John

came to spend some time with them. This is a classic example of how people suffer from a traumatic event and suddenly pass away.  Getting stuck between worlds, and not even knowing they are in fact dead.




On paranormal investigations, it is essential to show the utmost respect and reverence for the dead. If the dead are confused and do not know they are gone, maybe telling them they are, perhaps counter-productive and make the situation worse. I shared these two particular stories to show, that you may never know where a ghost may pop up. Secondly, I think some of us can recall a strange time in our lives, where we met someone and wondered. Who was that person?

Written by Shamus Denniston

Director & Lead Investigator of  TSPI

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations

Waking up with a Demon

It happened during the summer break after my freshman year of college. I woke up and I could not move. NOT AT ALL. I tried to scream for help but I could not even open my mouth. My eyelids wouldn’t open. My heart pounded and my mind raced as I tried to come up with an explanation for what was happening to me. Had I experienced a stroke? Was this a rare form of Meningitis? My affliction seemed to last about 30 minutes (in actuality it was probably only 5). Eventually I was able to slightly move one of my pinky fingers; the movement slowly transferring from one finger to the next, eventually resulting in me regaining control over my whole hand. From there movement spread up my arms and down my legs until I had   completely escaped my body’s self-imposed prison.

I scoured my psych 101 book for an explanation of what I had experienced, eventually resulting in my discovery of a condition called sleep paralysis. Why had I never heard of this? Why did no one ever warn me of this? It was a horrific experience during which I felt terrified and not in control of my own body. It occurred few more times that summer, and since, (thankfully) never again.

Sleep paralysis occurs during a part of the normal sleep cycle known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement). Most people are familiar with REM as being the stage in which the most dreaming occurs. To prevent us from acting out dreams, our brains release a neurotransmitter which essentially induces a state paralysis. In the normal sleep-wake cycle, the effects of this neurotransmitter wear off before we become consciously awake. Sleep paralysis occurs when our minds become “awake” before our bodies. Accompanying this is frequently the feeling that something (OR SOMEONE) is pressing down on our chests and vivid, often frightening, hallucinations. Fortunately, I neither experienced the former or the latter of these. Sometimes people also experience an eerie sense that there is a presence in the room with them. Sleep paralysis most likely to occur during periods of stress, sleep deprivation, individuals with irregular sleep patterns, and in individuals with mood disorders (particularly bipolar disorder).

Understandably the experience of sleep paralysis is often attributed to the paranormal. History is wrought with stories of demons attempting to suffocate their victims by sitting on their chests. These experiences have been happening to people for as long as we know and its existence is visible in folklore across all cultures, often depicted as an Incubus, Succubus, or the Old Hag (aka “Night Hag”).

The feelings of being watched, of being physically oppressed, or of hearing and seeing strange things can be consistent with both the paranormal phenomenon and sleep abnormalities. Part of the job of a thorough and competent Paranormal Investigator is to consider all evidence and all possible explanations for what an individual is experiencing. About half of us will experience at least one episode of sleep paralysis during our lifetime…its unknown how many of us will experience the paranormal.

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator In Training with the

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)

A Newbie’s First “Ghost Hunt”

After a full day of work and then a trip to the dentist to get some cavities filled, you might think that staying up until 2 am to sit in a dark auditorium would be the last thing on my to-do list. Wrong! As an Investigator-in-Training, last Friday was my very first paranormal research expedition and I was so excited! First, a tour of the investigation site which was a local theater said to be occupied by at least 2 spirits. Second, the team determined where the equipment would be set up. At this point, I primarily watched as the team members assembled everything. I was surprised by how much of it there is! Shamus, Stephanie, and Marilyn were very patient with me and my questions.

The experience of sitting by myself in the back of a large, vacant, dark auditorium was unprecedented. While I had originally worried about becoming sleepy (or worse, bored) this did not happen at all as the mental energy it takes to actively listen to the environment keeps you very much alert and interested. As my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, the keen awareness of every little creak as the building settles around us is energizing. Then the first voice recording session began. The EVP sessions are strange at first; honestly it initially felt a little silly asking questions into a dark, empty room. The expectation of a response is palpable as I strained to hear something, anything in reply. The team was great about teaching me what to listen for and that sometimes the answers are detectable only afterwards when reviewing the recordings.

I jumped. More than once. I am not too proud to admit it. The basement of the theater was particularly creepy and I do not yet have the calm composure of the team members, which I can only assume comes along with being the experienced professionals that they are. Shamus and the others were great about it and did not make me feel badly. I expect that with time I will become less “jumpy”. After several hours of investigation, the evening concludes with the careful taking down of all the equipment, and at this point I am pretty tired out but very grateful to have had such a positive first experience. 

Being an over-zealous newbie, the first thing I did when I woke up the next morning was to listen to the EVP recordings. To hear an unaccounted for human-voice on the recording was exhilarating; my first piece of real evidence, clear and unmistakable. I can’t wait to share it with everyone. 

Written by Laura Palmese

Investigator In Training with the

Thames Society of Paranormal Investigations (TSPI)