Solo Ghost Hunting—Long Before it Became a Genre.

On May 6, 2013 shortly after 8 p.m. I stood before a hatch that would take me down into the bowels of the USS North Carolina—a World War II battleship said to be haunted.

I was alone.

That descent would become my first solo ghost hunt, and the beginning of an experience that changed my life.

At the time, I was convinced that if ghosts and hauntings did exist, I might be able to document something that could be labled as evidence. So I approached the process in the only way I felt was honestly acceptable.

My method was simple. I used only digital audio recorders, still and video cameras, infrared lights and a small flashlight. That was all. It still is.

I walked these places alone, sometimes an old Civil War fort, sometimes an abandoned hospital, an old jail or a private residence. I asked questions. I spoke about myself sometimes. And when the unseen did not answer verbally, I asked if they could touch me in some way.

To my surprise, I sometimes discovered what appeared to be voices on my audio and video recordings—voices I did not hear at the time they were captured. Even more unexpected, some of these voices seemed to be interacting with me, or at least be aware of my presence.

I could only presume that I had, at the very least, recorded a conversation, or part of one—that originated from an unseen realm that was inhabited by sentient beings. (Some of the most compelling examples can be heard on this website's Listening page).

Ten years later, on May 23, 2023 I found myself seated on a wingback chair, in complete darkness, alone, beside the bay windows of the old "haunted" Stone Mansion in Winchester, Indiana.

For a long time, I simply gazed out those windows into a quiet neighborhood. I looked up at a star-filled night sky and was completely in the moment—free of expectations, assumptions or mindless noise.

I simply was.

It wasn't until months later that I realized I had even had that experience. 

I have witnessed amazing, unforgettable events in haunted locations— experiences that could truly be defined as paranormal. I have documented unexplained voices (EVP—Electronic Voice Phenomena) and encountered phenomena I cannot explain. 

But the experience I return to the most—the one that changed me more than any other—was that quiet, unasuming, uneventful hour.  Sitting alone in a chair, in the middle of the night, inside a haunted mansion.  

Nothing paranormal happened at the old haunted Stone Mansion in Winchester, Indiana. 

And yet, that moment has come to define who I am now, and the unexpected trajectory my life has taken since.