All Burned Up

8/9/2011

 We had just gotten our new spirit box in the mail from Chris Flemming and we were anxious to give it a whirl. We also wanted to check out the area of a recent wild fire so this was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. It had been a brutally hot day so we decided that we would wait until close to dusk to head out in the vain hope it might be cooler.

After surveying the damage and taking some pictures, we set off to explore a new area that Lance had a feeling about. He thought it might be the true “Dead Man’s Cut” since it was an area they had actually cut through the hillside and there were remnants of black powder cans everywhere. We arrived just as the last light of the day was fading and the moon shone brightly in the sky. The area had a different feeling altogether than anywhere else we had been. I did not have that heightened sense of energy. It felt desolate, almost too quiet. As Lance was setting up the trigger objects he had the recorder on his phone running and he got an EVP that sounds like it says, “all burned up.” We thought this was a direct reference to the black powder cans. Some of them do show signs of having been burned and some were blown to pieces and remnants of them are all over of the ground. It occurred to us later that it may have also been a reference to the sizable acreage that was consumed by the wildfire. It is one of the strongest EVPs we have gotten to date. 

We hesitated to start the spirit box because we were both somewhat nervous to go where it might take us. We did a short EVP session with the digital recorder and then mustered the courage to turn on the spirit box. We listened intently as it scanned the frequencies and waited anxiously to hear something. We turned it off for a while to allow for a train to pass just below us. I am getting quite familiar with being near a train as it flies past but the sound and the feeling is a unique experience each time. We were curious to see if the energy generated by the train would be of any benefit to them. We turned the spirit box back on and let it run for a short time and then decided to pack it up and head home. Even the Ghost Speaker was eerily silent. We later discovered that we had gotten a response on the spirit box that our untrained ears had missed in real time. It is what we believe is a direct response and we think it says, “watch your back." 

As we loaded our gear into the mule, Lance decided to give the Ghost Speaker one more go. What we did not realize at the time was that we were going to get more EVPs in this one casual encounter than we could have possibly imagined. The fact that we had more than one device recording was truly serendipitous for us. We happened to catch more of the them on Lance’s phone than on the digital recorder. Makes me wonder how many we have missed because we relied on only one recording device. We have since made a concerted effort to be sure that there are as many opportunities as possible for them to speak to us. To say that you learn as you go when it comes to this is a bold understatement! But I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to do what we are doing. Now on to the good stuff....

Almost immediately after we started the Ghost Speaker again, it said “notice”, so Lance asks “can you tell me your name?” We think the response says “back from the dead (amy or ain’t we?)” The more I listened to this EVP, the more I became convinced we had a smart ass on our hands. The next word from the Ghost Speaker is glass. After we had pondered the meaning of that for a moment, Lance again says, “can you tell me your name?” and it sounds like the response is “I guess he wants me” . It was almost as if the spirit was talking to another spirit. For a short time there is a lull in the conversation as we are snapping some photos and it is during this moment of quiet that two more EVPs are captured. One says “hey there” and the other says “what”. Perhaps they were trying to get us to again interact with them or could we have caught a conversation between two spirits? 

  The next word from the Ghost Speaker was a definitive response to what Lance had just asked. He was inquiring about the location of the cave or mine he has always believed was somewhere on the ranch.... and the next word from the ghost speaker was “mine.” We looked at each other in stunned amazement. I can even be heard gasping. It never ceases to amaze me when they give us a direct response meant to signal that they hear us loud and clear. The next word from the Ghost Speaker is “educate”. Are they offering to educate him about the location? Lance can be heard mentioning he just got a body chill. Perhaps the spirit is just letting him know that he is close and they are willing to help him along the way if only we will listen. After a while on this subject, Lance goes off in the direction of the involvement of the Spanish in this whole thing and he asks “what did the Spanish do?” We think the answer is “took the drama back”. This made me smile when I heard it. It is no secret that I hate the Spanish of that era and I am sure there was always lots of drama wherever they were. 

The next word from the Ghost Speaker says “Beth” . What we discovered when we listened to the recording is that there is an EVP right after Beth that we think says, “what happened to her?” Lance asks, “is there anything I can do for you?” The EVP that follows that question we think says “hurt her”. The next word on the Ghost Speaker is “widow”. Leading us to then believe he was speaking of his beloved. There is an EVP just after that that says “6 months trouble free”. No clue how that ties in honestly... We next caught a great EVP when I was asking him if she was his widow and made the comment that I am sure she missed him very much because I would miss my husband if he died. He apparently appreciated that because he very softly said “ you're an angel”. The next thing I said was that we would love to know what happened. The answer from the Ghost Speaker is “hospitalized”. Is he telling us that she was hospitalized at some point? As always, we asked what year this happened and we still have gotten no response to this question. We so want to know the time frame. Perhaps we can put the pieces of the puzzle together if we only knew the years that the spirits that are sharing information with us were talking about. 

 The next series of words from the Ghost Speaker left us puzzled but I did have to laugh when the Ghost Speaker seemed to convey that the spirit was calling my husband out for being “dollar driven”. Lance can be heard defending himself and saying he is indeed not dollar driven, but he admits that his questioning is as relentless as the inquisitor himself regarding the mining history. My response is typical of a wife, I just say, “Hmm”. I can also be heard asking him again and again if he is sure he is recording all of this. If anything, listening to us interact with each other proves a couple of things, he is a very patient man and I can be really bossy. Now I know what my grandmother was talking about when she used to call me that... alot.

The next EVP we captured was really something incredible in my opinion, Lance had just asked “how many of you were there?” “ How many people did you have?” The spirit responded with an affirmation that he was on the right track because he said “you are asking the perfect questions.” Just as we were winding down and telling them we had to go, Lance said his name and I said mine and before I finished speaking he announced his was “David”. It was as if he was standing there anxious to give his name but being polite and waiting his turn. Our first thoughts were, is this the same David as before? Has he chosen to follow us around? How did he know where we were? Lance immediately acknowledges the fact that this is the second time we have heard that name. This of course made us delay leaving because we had just gotten his name. The next word from the Ghost Speaker, “jade” sent Lance on what I lovingly refer to as a tangent and at one point he asks “what did they do with them?” The EVP answer is “took them back”. 

  After we had been thrown a curve ball with “wig” from the Ghost Speaker, a second name was given. Joseph had apparently decided to announce his presence as well. The next EVP we got was right after I asked if Joseph had been his child and this one almost sounds as if it could have been audible even though we did not hear anything at that time. It has a voice tone rather than a whisper as most of them have. It says “this is”. Was he affirming that this is Joseph? Since we realized we might have some of the same names popping up, Lance asked, “who is William?” There is a faint, yet very poignant EVP that follows this question, we think it says “I miss talking to him”. That one kind of got to both of us. Is David letting us know he misses his friend? You can almost hear the inflection in how he says it that he is upset by the memory. I will say that it becomes intensely personal for me when I feel they trust me enough to reveal their name. The realization that I am participating in an open communication between souls, one on this side, the other beyond the veil is an extraordinary feeling. I hope I never lose that wonder and reverence for how truly amazing that it is.

After we had listened to this recording Lance and I did have a brief conversation about how it must be frustrating for the spirits sometimes when we and others misinterpret what they are saying and then go off in a completely different direction than they intended. I am sure they would love to smack us sometimes and say, “shut up and listen!” I think there is a fine line that we all walk each time we speak to them. It is sometimes hard to leave our own emotions and even our own preconceived notions/desires out of it. Perhaps we should all just shut up and listen more.


Below is the full list of words along with the videos of the EVPs we captured.

**Ghost Speaker**

notice
glass
mine
educate
challenge
hearing (second time this word has been said recently. not really sure it means anything yet)
clover
bank
Beth
widow
hospitalized
government
Ice Land
winter
goat
creek
cold (we found it compelling that this is the third reference to something or somewhere cold)
dollar
driven
writer
Major
sparkle
David
jade
wig (maybe referring to Lance’s baseball cap?) (that is the only connection we could make with that one)
Joseph
chain
Louisiana