That Time I Stayed in a Haunted Hotel

I suspect that at least some of the haunting is due to McVeigh's bombing attack. A lot of people died with no time to prepare for death and the judgement that follows.

I think the USS Arizona in Pearl Habour is another case. A lot of young servicemen died without any time to prepare for possible death, and I suspect the "ghosts" in some cases may be in Purgatory.


An Australian tourist took this photo some years ago on the Arizona. She didn't realise what was there until she had it developed and was looking at it later.

There could potentially be a source of infrasound (19Hz and below) in the hotel. You can't hear it but it affects the body in numerous negative ways, causing feelings of dread and hallucinations.

Well, I can empathize with him, in light of my own experience.

I've told this story before, but I've really only had one seriously uncanny experience in my life, and it's certainly one of those things that can't be explained by normal means.

After my Dad passed away in 1988, weird stuff started happening at my parent's house. My mother would find windows open...doors unlocked...beds turned down...radio dials messed with. I found a few windows and doors open or unlocked, too, but just put it down to Mom's absent-mindedness.

My sister swears she woke up in the middle of the night to hear the TV playing old "Barney Miller" reruns when there was nobody in the house but her; she pulled the covers up over her head and stayed in bed until she went back to sleep, and when she woke up later in the night, the TV was off. (My sister, however, has always been a bit strange; I love her dearly, but I wonder about her reporting accuracy.)

However.....I was up there one night and had just retired for the night (probably about 1 AM, maybe 2), and I heard some footsteps come through the breezeway, across the living room floor, and then I heard the chain pulled on a fluorescent bar light over the couch against the south wall. The light shone down the hallway and into my bedroom.

This was kind of weird, because there was a light switch on the north wall, just inside the door. Why would anybody walk all the way across a dark room to turn on a light when all they had to do was reach around and turn on a switch, and thus have light to see by to walk through the room? Secondly, nobody ever really used that light but me; I used to lay on the couch underneath it and read.

Thinking it must have been my mother, I called out---and got no answer. I called again---no answer. I got up and walked out into the living room, and there was the light, blazing away, but not a soul in sight. I thought to myself, "Oooooh-kay," and I went through the breezeway, across the dining room, and down the other hallway to Mom's room.

She was in bed, fast asleep. The dog was lying next to the bed, and woke up long enough to give me one of those canine looks that says "What do you want?"

So: Mom didn't turn on the light. I didn't turn on the light. I'm fairly certain that the dog didn't turn on the light. But I had heard the chain released and go clink as it hit the glass tube, and the light flickered and went beep-beep-beep-beeeeeeeeep like they do when they're first turned on and starting to warm up. The light was on. So who turned it on?

I then proceeded to check every room in the house. Nothing. All the doors were closed and locked; all the windows were closed and locked. All the closets were clear. All the showers were clear. Nobody under any of the beds. Nobody behind the furnace. Nobody was hiding anywhere in that house. And yet I had heard those footsteps come across the floor, and I had seen that light come on.

I went back to the living room and stood there, looking at the light. I wasn't scared, but I was puzzled---it just didn't make any sense. Finally, after I didn't come up with any answers, I shut the light off and went back to bed. I had no explanation for it then, and I have no explanation for it now. It was just one of those weird, uncanny things. The house has since been sold to a friend of the family, who moved in, and they report no unusual activity at all. (shrug) Go figure.

One of the things my old pastor said was that when people die, sometimes "Clocks stop".

We had a clock in the lounge when I was young. I think it was a wedding gift to my mother from her parents. It was one of those that used to chime the number of hours, which meant at midnight it chimed twelve times, and every hour in the early morning hours. It didn't bother me as I'm hard of hearing, and my room was some distance away, but I don't know if my parents were fond of it.

Anyway when her parents died within three days of each other, I think it stopped. They didn't bother to get it repaired.

But I'm not absolutely sure this is all correct, as it was a long time ago and they didn't say much.

Anyway there used to be one of those watch and key cutting stands in the local shopping centre, right outside an Aldi Store. I knew the owner was a watch maker by trade.

So one day I stopped in there after work. He was shutting up and was just about to leave. I told him I was curious about what the pastor said and asked him if he'd had any experience with "Clocks stopping" when people died.

He replied "Often ... many times". He said people would come to him with clocks that had stopped right on the minute when someone in the house had died. He said usually they just needed a service to go again, but it happened far too often to be coincidence. It had happened a lot. I believe sometimes every clock in the house would stop.

He said it was one of the secrets of the watch and clock repair trade.

"Clocks stop".