The following experiences are related to our own investigations only, and represent things that we can personally verify. A "personal experience" is, of course, just that, and doesn't constitute any proof of the paranormal. But personal experiences are fun and quite real to the individual who experiences them. Therefore, we are documenting them anecdotally and placing them here.

The Disappearing Man
I make frequent visits to Druid Ridge Cemetery. That is primarily where I have conducted my "Cemetery Project: which can be found on the site. And, during the fall, I often visit to photograph the beautiful trees in full change. During one occasions where I was doing the latter, I pulled off to one side of the path/road to park the car. It was my intention to set up the tripod and photograph a particular scene. (The resulting photo, by the way, was published in Digital Photographer magazine a few months later.) But before I could make the shot, I noticed a small man walking up the road. He was very thin, wearing jean overalls and a blue faded work shirt. He was carrying a shovel and using it much like a walking stick. As he got closer to me, I noticed that his gaze was fixed straight ahead and he walk was very slow and deliberate. He was extremely pale and his hair a ruffled silver-grey color. As he finally got to where I was, enabling me to make the photo, I watched him walk by and said "hello." He did not respond, but continued on his way, although he did change the direction of his eyes and looked at me. I could see he had very black eyes. After he walked past, I started I found myself thinking more about him than for the purpose I was there - to photograph the trees. And it occurred to me that I did not actually remember seeing his feet. I wondered why he was carrying the shovel, and I thought to turn around to see if his shoes were muddy. But when I turned around, he was gone. The view from that part of the road is very open. There is nowhere he could have gone in such a short time, unless he ducked down behind a grave stone to hide from sight. I even walked up the road in the direction he was headed, and I could not see him anywhere. Now, of course, people don't just disappear like that, but it took a few minutes before it hit me that the gentleman may not have been a living person. It doesn't make sense as to why a spirit would choose to show himself in that manner - there was certainly nothing threatening about him, but neither was he friendly. After I completed the photo for which I was there, I drove around the graveyard looking for this man. He did not seem to be there. I did see another worker manicuring the lawn. I went up to him and asked who the thin man with the gray hair was, but the worker told me he had no idea who I was talking about. Everyone in his crew was Mexican, and no one was elderly, and no one fit the description. TO this day, I have always just assumed he disappeared, although I have no idea why or how.)

Hit in the Face
One night I was working very late - listening to recorded files for evp. I stopped to check my email and clicked on a link sent by one of those anonymous senders. It turned out to be a porno site, and since I am a web designer, I began to notice some of the design elements. I was still wearing my headphones, and after pausing about a minute on this site, I was slapped on the side of the head. It was a very hard slap - in fact, it broke the thick plastic of the side piece to the headphones. I could hear it break very loudly. When the slap came, my head was jerked to the right because of the force, and my glasses came off and dropped to the top of the table. I did not feel any pain nor were there any red spots or any other signs of such a physical attack. In fact, there was absolutely no pain associated with it. Still, I was left wondering what had happened. I picked up my glasses, turned off the computer, and as I was walking down the steps and through the first floor of the house, I began chastising any potential spirits for having the audacity to slap me. I told then never to do that again and that it was none of their business what website I chose to look at. But I will hardly ever forget the incident.

"Boooo"
Standing outside on the back porch, smoking, I was thinking about putting this very website on a cd for my visiting sister to take with her back to Chicago so she could listen to the many evp at her leisure and without being connected. Out of nowhere, I head a strange female voice say a very long and drawn-out "Booooo." It was one of those voices that sounds like two voices - one female and one male, in perfect sync... I turned around and looked all around me, repeating the comment as if to say "Boo? Are you kidding me?" It was slightly humorous o me, even if it did startle me a great deal, but I went right inside to find where everyone else in the house was located. The voice was very loud and unmistakably said what I heard, but since it had a playful attitude about it, I thought it might have been someone trying to be funny. I found my wife and daughter in the basement family room watching Zack and Cody on tv - my wife plaiting my daughter's hair; my daughter sitting in a chair with a wet head. There was no one who could have said what I heard except the two of them, and they were too far away to have done it.

Tapped on the Butt
I had just come to bed at 2:30am and was getting settled in, when someone tapped me on the butt three times - on top of the blankets. This seemed innocent enough, but I immediately checked to see if it was my wife. She was wrapped up in the covers on her left side facing away from me, and since I was facing her, my butt was on the opposite side of bed. Its was not possible for her to have done it since she did not move and her hands were on the complete other side of the bed. This is the sort of thing that people easily dismiss to being overly tired or half asleep - I was neither. In fact, I had only been in the bed for about 30 seconds when it happened and had not yet closed my eyes. The taps were forceful enough not to be mistaken for anything else. The bedroom door was completely closed and latched, so my daughter could not have come into the room and left without being noticed.

The Floating Leaf
Since our doorbell sometimes rings and there is no one there, I began taking it as a possible sign that a visitor wanted to speak and so I usually record a brief 5 minute evp session. On one occasion, while I was copying the files from the recorder to the computer, I went to the back door to smoke and noticed a leave hovering about 12 inches off the back porch. Being curious, I watched it hover for a couple of minutes noticing other leaves come and go through the same space. I assumed it was one of those things where the leaf was in the right place at the right time and caught in the exact wind pattern needed to make this happen. After about 5 minutes, I went directly to the leaf and moved my hand all around it in case it was caught in a spider web of some kind. I moved my hand around it several times, including over the top and bottom at a relatively fast pace. Still, the leaf hovered, moving only slightly from side to side. Other leaves were still blowing all over the place as the wind was about 8 mph that afternoon. Finally, I lightly touched the top of the leaf and tried to gently push it down. I could feel the texture and as I pushed down, it moved with my finger, but I only moved it about two inches down. At that point, I decided to take a photograph, even though I knew it would probably show nothing except a leaf on a porch. When I came back from getting the camera, the leaf was still hovering in the same place. After a total of 10 minutes, and with the wind still blowing at a regular clip, the leaf dropped straight down on the porch, as if it was very heavy, and there it stayed for another 2 minutes before it blew away with all the others. When I returned to the recording session files, there was absolutely no evp on the file. That was the first and only time to date that I ever recorded after an anonymous doorbell incident and not get at least one evp. Perhaps I got a leaf instead.

Doorbells and Smoke Detectors
Our doorbell and smoke detectors go off frequently - usually at strange times. Upon occasion, the doorbell rings when I am right there and can clearly see that no one is outside on the front porch. We have always taken these as a sign that we are being visited. This is probably because our first experience came when the upstairs smoke detector went off until I climbed the stairs and reached for it. Then it stopped. I went down stairs and it began ringing again. And once again, when I got to the top of the stairs, it stopped. This happened four times in a row until I got the digital recorder and began asking questions. One of my questions resulted in an evp voice claiming the use of the smoke detector as a means to get our attention. This kind of incident has happened a couple of times since with the smoke detector, and every time, it has stopped when I get the recorder. The doorbell notification is more frequent, but it does not happen in any consistent way. I have tried to make it go off on my own with no luck, but we have always had trouble totally buying in to the idea that a spirit is calling. That is, until the day the doorbell battery went dead. I removed the battery to see what size it required and placed it on the hall table, where it stayed for several weeks. During that time, the doorbell rang no less than 5 times - without a battery and with no one there at the door to have pushed the button.

Incapacitated Equipment
While trying to take photographs at the cemetery, I have noticed that sometimes I am unable to make the camera work with the infrared filter on. It will be working just fine and then it fails. It will continue to fail throughout that area of the cemetery. When I move a few hundred feet away, it will begin to work again - just as it is supposed to. If I go back to the previous area, it stops working once again. On several occasions I have begged the spirits to release the camera - explaining that if they do not wish to be captured on film, they can simply not show themselves. Sometimes, that logic seems to work and the camera can take the infrared photos as planned. I have also noticed that this blocking of the camera never happens unless I announce that I am taking a picture of the grave - every single time it has followed the announcing of my intentions. Sometimes, I have even asked them to show themselves for the photos. This has resulted in a non-functioning camera approximately 50 percent of the time. It is worth noting, however, that permission or no permission, I have never taken a photograph at a cemetery that has shown anything out of the ordinary. The results of my infrared photos have been a dismal failure.