Strange Beginnings

Sometimes it's odd how you simply fall into an experience in life, how all of the forces of nature will work to bring you to a certain point in existence when you look back down the path you've traveled, scratch your head and ask, "Damn. How did I get here?"

There are also those times in life when the forces of nature work against you, and no matter how hard you work to make something happen, you can't even take one step toward that goal. It isn't meant to be.

As a young woman with determination that borders on stubbornness, that is exactly what happened to me. I wanted something so bad that I could taste it. I spent almost 20 years pursuing it. Twenty years of my life wasted. I figured that good things come to those who wait. Right? Well, not always. Sometimes what seems good isn't, and it doesn't matter how long you wait, you ain't gonna get it. In retrospect, I'm grateful that I didn't get it because I wasn't seeing things clearly, wasn't thinking clearly.

The pursuit of the paranormal, though: that's one of those things that was meant to be. My father's interest in the paranormal, my travels down the back roads of Virginia on my father's motorcycle, and my desire to join an investigation team after years in an oppressive relationship, all were stepping stones along the path. 

Now here I am, an investigator with the greatest paranormal team in Virginia. I travel to some of the creepiest places in the U.S., eager to meander through the dark, damp basements of those in need, eager to venture down shadow-filled paths through haunted woods, eager to find the truth about life and death. Because let's be real, here. That's all it is: a quest for truth. 

In the 7 years that I've been a paranormal investigator, I've lived more than I ever lived in those 20 years I wasted wishing, wanting and praying for something that would never come to fruition.

People are always surprised when they ask me, "What is the scariest thing you've ever seen?"

My answer is always, "The living." (Although the numbered streets after midnight in the city of Richmond run a close second.) Hands down, living people are about as scary as it gets. Sure, I was scared of ghosts when I was a kid, but after a year or two of living in a very haunted house in my 30s, I quickly became desensitized to the whole scary ghost thing. And demons? Well, I'm a Christian, and the Bible teaches that if you are a saved Christian, you have authority over demons. They have to do what I tell them to, so why should I be scared of them? 

No, the living are the scariest. That's not to say that everyone we encounter is scary, though. I've met so many people from all walks of life. I've met hundreds of people that I never would've known existed if it weren't for Virginia Paranormal Investigations. Wonderful people, horrible people, really funny people, people that leave you scratching your head, people that leave you speechless, drunk people and drug abusers--so many different kinds of people out there who experience the paranormal and who subsequently seek our help.

Each week, two or three more people will contact us to ask about things they are experiencing and to get us to investigate a home or a business. We try to always do a video about the investigations and post them on our YouTube channel. For those of you who somehow manage to find this blog before finding our YouTube channel, you can find it at YouYube.com/VirginiaParanormal. Still, there are other people like myself who appreciate reading a good story rather than watching it. This blog is for those folks. 

The purpose of the blog is to bring you along on some of the more noteworthy investigations we have had, to give you some insight into what it's like to be a paranormal investigator, and to show you a bit about who we are. 

So buckle in. Get the grub ready. The boring this-is-me posts are coming to an end and the rest is pure madness. (That last picture in this post is a hint to what lies ahead.)