Why I Became A Paranormal Investigator by Kimberly Phillips

Why I Became A Paranormal Investigator
By CV Paranormal Kimberly Phillips

When I was younger, ghosts and everything paranormal both intrigued and terrified me. I would read all the ghost story books, watch the television shows, staying up to all hours researching on the internet, and then be terrified to turn off the lights and go to bed. It's funny, because to this day, as much as I love the adrenaline rush of being scared and love the night time, I still sometimes get scared of the dark.

You may ask why I would be so into something that scared me. One reason is because it's just the type of person I am. I love mysteries and trying to find answers. I am so intrigued by the "why" of things. I have to admit that I am into conspiracy theories and believe in many other things than ghosts. Like aliens and even bigfoot. I truly believe there are things in this world we just don't know about or don't understand. And that's why I like to find answers. As a child I originally wanted to be an FBI profiler when I grew up. Life didn't take me down that road, but the need to find answers, weather true or not, hasn't left me.

Another reason I was drawn to researching the paranormal was because through most of my life I had supernatural experiences off and on. My first memory of being scared of something I couldn't see was when I was five years old. It's a hazy memory, but I can still clearly see the shadows on my wall and window. My own bedroom scared me. Looking back, there may have been a logical explanation for it, but I'll never know. And I guess that is where it all started.

From then on little things would happen to me and to my family. It seemed that no matter where we lived we would have something strange happen. Not always scary, and not always provably paranormal, but things would happen that would just make you question what was going on.

From there I have to tell you a story about a clown. Now for some reason, lots of adults have this irrational fear of clowns and can't really explain why. I like to defend my fear by telling this story. When I was seven years old I got a Ronald McDonald clown doll. Now, I never thought he was scary at first. That was until he started moving. He hung on my wall by a string, and whenever I was alone his legs would move and so would his head. He absolutely terrified me. Then one day I had a friend over and as we were playing in my room she saw him move too! She didn't stick around long after that. I don’t remember what happened to that doll, but I do remember not having him for long.

And so it went on. No matter where we lived something would happen. Needless to say, I was the world's biggest scaredy cat as a child. Now keep in mind, during this time "ghost hunting" wasn't the big thing. I had never heard of a paranormal investigator. I had no idea there were people out there who did that. I'd read books about people's experiences and heard of a few people who were out there that helped, but in my part of the world, it wasn't talked about.

And then, about ten years ago we moved into a home that was the worst place we ever lived. It's too long of a story to put every detail in, but this is the house that really intensified my belief that something else is out there. This house had all the classic signs of a haunting. Doors that would open on their own, lights turning on and off, electronics turning on, shadow people, strange noises and I even heard a growl come from my closet one night. We only lived there one year. Sometimes we thought we must be crazy. But after we moved we learned that the woman who lived there before us worked in a morgue, and we even had confirmation from a few families that lived there after us that things happened to them too.

Not too long after this the paranormal shows began taking off on television. I was immediately hooked. I knew I wanted to do this. But here is where I became conflicted.

Though my family doesn't attend church every Sunday I was raised with Christian values. And I have heard my entire life that the paranormal is not something I am supposed to play with. I was raised to believe that when we die we leave this Earth and our spirit does not return. That whatever is here, is not good and most likely a demon playing tricks on you. And the biggest one was to never ever consult a psychic or believe anything they say.

So even though I still watched the shows and read the books and learned as much as I could about anything paranormal, supernatural, or occult, I never did anything with that knowledge. Oh, I wanted to. I wanted to go out there and go into creepy old houses and dare to walk through a cemetery at night. But I didn't. I kept my obsession to myself. Never even told friends about my passion. Plus, I figured people would think I was nuts.

So I went through the years being conflicted about what I believed was out there, and never really talking to anyone about. Always wishing I could go out with these teams living the adventure and finding answers. I didn't have any friends who were into what I was into. My family believed in the paranormal, but wanted no part of it. And I wasn't daring enough to go do anything on my own. So I figured this would just be one of those things on a wish list that would I would never get to do.

Then a couple of years ago I met a friend who believed she had a ghost in her house. We found we were both intrigued by the paranormal world and we ended up paying to go along with a paranormal team to investigate Preston Castle in Ione California. I couldn't believe how amazing it was to investigate. I was blown away and knew I couldn't not do this.

Of course, it's not like you can pick up the phone and call a team and say "hey, I want to ghost hunt with you." And it certainly isn't easy to find a supposedly haunted place and ask someone to let you in just because you want to. I had no equipment and not much extra money to buy any. I knew people wouldn't just let me into places to investigate. I mean, who was I? I wasn't a professional and I had no past experience or references.

So I was back to square one. Watching television shows and reading books. Then over the course of the next year I met another friend who I later found out was also into the paranormal. So we took a chance and researched the internet and discovered meet up sites. We found a few paranormal groups in the area who invited people to come to their meet ups and talk about all things supernatural. We took the chance and went to one and even got to investigate with them.

We had fun, yet we found it to be a little disappointing. There were too many people there, too much noise, and the team wasn't actually looking for new team members, so we wouldn't really get to go on they type of investigations we wanted.

Before I go on I have to explain that although I love shows like "Ghost Hunters" and "Ghost Adventures" I am drawn more to the show "Paranormal State". Ryan is someone I look up to. He is what I want to be. I want to have a team that studies the paranormal always learning new theories and investigation techniques. I want a team that is looking to find answers. And above all, I want to help other people. Sure it's fun to investigate tourist locations and cemeteries at night, but what I truly want out of all of this is to help others. To be the person they can call who will listen and not judge them. I want to be involved in every aspect of an investigation, from research through the investigation, to helping a family get through their experience.

So after I came home from that last investigation I called my friend and said, "Why can't we do this on our own? Have our own team?"

And that day Central Valley Paranormal Searchers was born. It's been a fun and crazy road so far.

I love investigating. I'm not doing this to convince non-believers that ghosts exist. I truly feel that if someone doesn't want to believe, no amount of evidence will change their mind. And that's ok with me. You can think I'm insane. Some of my family still believes I'm crazy for doing this. You can believe that I have staged the evidence I've captured. But I was there, and I know what happened, even if I can't actually explain it. So I guess what I'm trying to say, is other than helping people, I'm doing this for myself. For my own answers.

I still have those times where I doubt if I should be doing this. I haven't lost any of my religious beliefs. If anything, I feel my faith is the strongest it's ever been. There are still some values I hold onto. I do believe there are demons out there that will lie and trick me, and I don't go looking for demonic cases, but I believe there is something out there and it isn't all evil. I still don't hold much faith in psychics. I hold nothing personal against someone who believes they are psychic. I don't believe they are evil people just because of it. But I do question everything they say and sometimes wonder, if the spirits are truly talking them, why do they have to ask so many questions to clarify? Why are they sometimes wrong? So although I may use some of what they say during in investigation, I still have that doubt and will probably never loose that. Because let's face it, a psychic saying they feel or hear something is definitely not proof of anything, and I personally want tangible proof.

I don't know what it is that's out there. I can't deny there is something there. I've experienced it, photographed it and recorded it. Is it really our loved ones who have passed trying to communicate with us? Why would they come back here when they could be in Heaven? Is there another dimension out there and sometimes the veil thins and we are able to get a glimpse of the other side? Is it possible to just come back and visit your loved ones? Why do spirits stay in certain places or why stick around at all?

I'm looking for answers to all of these questions. I may never find them, but I'll also never stop trying.

By:
Kimberly Phillips
Co-Founder, Central Valley Paranormal Searchers
www.cvparanormalsearchers.web.officelive.com

Distributed by:
Paul Dale Roberts, HPI General Manager
www.hpiparanormal.net