Guaranteed 24-Hour Response

We guarantee a 24-Hour-Response to your communications. We understand that if you have a question or a concern about something potentially paranormal that you have experienced. you don't want to wait. For this reason, we check our email account and messenger multiples times per day. 

Remember to include your phone number in your email or message if you'd like us to call you back rather than responding by email or messenger. We are interested in hearing what you are experiencing, and it is our Mission to assist you in the best way possible.

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Haunting of Hill House - Sleep Paralysis

This is my second post here about the Haunting of Hill House. But, the Netflix Original Series is being viewed by an enormous amount of people, and since it involves the paranormal, it will to some small degree the mainstream cultures's view regarding supernatural topics.

One such topic is Sleep Paralysis, or as some refer to it, the Night Hag phenomenon. Again, I don't want to spoil this for anyone. I will speak very generally, but if you absolutely don't want any potential spoilers about the Haunting of Hill House, stop reading now.

The character Nell experiences Sleep Paralysis in the show, from childhood up through adulthood. As an adult, she actually pursues medical treatment or counseling for the condition. It being a horror movie, the counseling seems to work for a bit, but in the end, the supernatural nature of her affliction overcomes in the most horrible ways.

If you have never experienced Sleep Paralysis, it can be enormously terrifying to experience. If it is accompanied by the visual of someone or something holding you down, the terror increases exponentially.

The scientific explanation of Sleep Paralysis, in very simple terms, involves a natural process in sleep where the mind in deep sleep cuts off the connection between the mind and body (paralyzing the body) to prevent you from moving around violently as you dream. An abnormal sleep cycle or an interruption of the sleep cycle at a very specific time can cause the mind to wake before the mind has been reconnected with the body (releasing the paralysis). And this results in a person who is awake by paralyzed for a time.

Probably the oddest thing about Sleep Paralysis is the visual component of the experience. Often the paralyzed person sees and feels someone holding them down. Sometimes they see a hag-like woman on top of them, holding them down. Other times, people see a dark figure, someone they know, or even something as odd as an alien. Science explains this as the mind, only recently woken, creating a plausible explanation for the paralysis. Nothing more than a visual hallucination.

This scientific explanation can be comforting for some. For others, the intensity of the experience and the utter reality of their experience leaves the scientific explanation a little empty.

I personally have experienced the phenomenon several times. Everytime, it was enormously frustrating and scary. There is a sense that if you could just move your hand, or turn your head, or scream out that you will be free. But, try as you might, you can't move or call out. Eventually you do...and the whole experience ends. But, it can be quite unsettling.

I was impressed with how the Haunting of Hill House handled the phenomenon. Especially how they explained it scientifically, and had Nell seek out and receive counseling.

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Haunting of Hill House - Through Time

It is hard to go to work or talk to friends without someone suggesting the Netflix Original show "The Haunting of HIll House." It has great character development, interesting twists, amazing visuals, and some pretty intense tension. And it has some good scares.

***SPOILERS BELOW***

If you haven't watched the show, you should probably stop reading. Go watch the show and come back! I'm going to speak in general terms, but some of what I write below could spoil parts of the show if you are particularly clever.  :-)

Okay, one of the more mind-bending aspects of the story, is the suggestion that time does not matter. As living beings, we experience time in a linear fashion. But what if linear time is an illusion, and in fact means very little? What if a spirit that survives the death of the physical body drifts from moment to moment, jumping through time, and experiencing moments with little regard for linear time? What if someone dead was actually haunting an earlier (living) version of himself or herself?

There is another "haunt" in the story that has a very odd appearance. It is suggested that this odd appearance has its origins in how the spirit viewed himself when he was alive. This is sort of an interesting take on Psi theory, where we see spirits with our mind rather than our physical eyes. In which case, "seeing" a spirit is actually a communication from the spirit to the mind of the living of how they look. The interesting part here, is that in the show, a spirit looks a certain way, to be the opposite of some insecurity or flaw he felt while he was alive. Like an over-compensation, influencing how the spirit communicates what he looks like to the living.

In the dialogue of the show, there are a lot of interesting thoughts on the nature of ghosts, and what they can represent. It really is a rather intelligent script.

Anyhow, "The Haunting of Hill House" is first and foremost entertainment. But, like all good entertainment, it provides us with some interesting things to think about.

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Gearing Up Again

Back in 2005 when we started Ghost Vigil Investigations, we did what everyone does when they start something new. We looked at existing paranormal groups, did a lot of reading both in books and on-line, and then did our best to emulate groups that we respected and that appeared to have a lot of integrity.

Over time, we learned from practical experience, and this shaped our approach to both helping people experiencing unexplained events in their home and investigating historically "haunted" locations. Over several years the group evolved and became something unique to our own point of view and experiences.

We haven't actively investigated in a number of years, but things are gearing up again. What's nice, is that we come to this refreshed venture already knowing exactly what we want to do and who we are as an investigative group. We will always be learning, adjusting, and evolving as a group. But this time we start with a foundation in actual investigations, rather than having to emulate others.

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Everyone Has a Story

Everyone has a story. Well, almost everyone. One of the consequences of involving yourself in the study and investigation of unexplained experiences, is that people tend to trust you with their stories. Often, the story they share with you is something they have told very few other people. Often it is a story that makes them feel embarrassed or afraid that people will think they are crazy. But, they feel a little safer sharing it with someone who is publicly involved in paranormal investigations.

What is striking about this for me personally, is how universal this is. People you would never think had a story...do indeed have a story. People from all walks of life. I've even had people come up to me and say they don't believe in ghosts, but then they immediately follow that with an experience of their own that is truly strange and unexplained. A story that directly contradicts their insistence that they don't believe in ghosts.

If you have questions about the paranormal, or a situation you need help with, contact us by email at ghostvigil@gmail.com. If you'd like to be called, include your phone number in the email. As always, the details of your communications with us will be completely confidential.

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Heretical Approach

This will sound a bit heretical, but paranormal investigations at possibly haunted sites tend to cast themselves as "scientific," when in fact they have very little to do with science. These investigations are sometimes even at odds with science. My saying this is not a condemnation of "ghost-hunting" or "ghost-hunters." It is just an observation.

There is no existing science that supports the existence of ghosts as beings or energy, or manifestations of energy. And I realize this is why it is called "paranormal" science. Other-than-normal. Unexplained. I get this. But, there is no evidence that the spirit of a human can survive the separation from the physical body, and exist as a being of "energy." I have put the word "energy" in quotes, because we don't know what ghosts are. Or what they consist of. And yet, most paranormal investigation equipment focuses on measuring electromagnetic fields or temperature variations.

Ghosts do not have a physical form. No vocal chords with which to speak or moan. No body or physical form to reflect light, so they can be captured on film or digital imagery. No body parts with which to move objects or touch people.

If ghosts do consist of energy, then they consist of an energy that we do not understand, have no real way of measuring or detecting, and nearly every piece of equipment used by paranormal investigators is useless...worthless. Most ghost-hunters are well-meaning, and feel they are being honest and scientific in their methods...but very few of them are actually scientists, or even understand the scientific method. Most look for confirmation of their beliefs, rather than exacting evidence. The craze over "photographic orbs" (caused by dust close to the lens being lit up by a flash or IR light) being "spirit energy" is an example of what happens when people do not understand research, or bother to do any actual research.

Most ghost-hunters read a few, or perhaps piles of, ghost-hunting books. Most of what they learn, they learn from these subculture specific books or what they read on the internet. The subculture of paranormal investigations is incestuous, with ghost-hunters educating new ghost-hunters in their subculture's conventions, thus propagating the mistakes of the past.

Again, I'm not condemning ghost-hunters or ghost-hunting. I think most involved in the field are well-meaning, and truly believe they are looking for answers and scientific evidence. But, there needs to be a departure from the subculture's conventions. There will always be ghost-hunters, and I'm not calling for the death of the subculture. I'm just saying, it is about time that someone (not me...just someone), come at this from a clever new way, that gets away from the odd and off-target methods of current ghost-hunters.

(All this being said, I've been guilty of most of the things I discuss in the paragraphs above. I'm not better, nor smarter, than others. Everything other ghost-hunters have done, I've done myself. More than anything, I'm describing why I stopped actively investigating the paranormal a few years ago. There were no real answers to be found using the current methods popular in the current ghost-hunting community.)

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations

Supernatural Television Show

I was watching the television show "Supernatural" the other day, and I saw the episode with the "Ghostfacers" ghost-hunting group for the first time. Honestly, it was brilliant. I mean, it was a raging exaggeration...but it hit on all the right notes.

When Ghost Vigil Investigations was very active and very public a few years ago, we met a lot of other ghost-hunting groups. Sorry, "paranormal investigation groups."

Anyhow...whoever wrote that episode did their research...or personally knew some ghost hunters. Because it was perfect.  :-)

Mark Stinson
Ghost Vigil Investigations