This section, titled "All about YOU", was
born as I contemplated the things that
have happened to the guys and I in the last
few years. 

Starting Possum Valley
Entertainment, working our tales off for
free most of the time, trying to make our
way in the entertainment industry and
ultimately culminating in "On the Fringe", 
where we get to mix our passion for the
unknown with our passion for film-making. 
Its really cool.  As I meditated on
this, I thought long and hard about the
THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of hours we've
put into both the fields combined...for no pay.
The sacrifice's, the blood, sweat and tears...
and so much more, that only you can understand. 
You who give your hours to such passions
that many times others, usually ones close to
us see as fruitless persuits.

Well, when I started to think about how
blessed we at OTF have been to find ourselves
where we are now, in a position to put the
true reality of the everyday
paranormal/cryptozoological investigator
out there for the world to see...I thought
about you.  All the ones who have and will
continue to chase this passion for the
unexplainedand do it knowing there isnt
financial recompense.

All of you, just like us, who do this for
the passion, and found ways to take time
out of your family/social/work lives and
make room in your budget to buy a new
voice recorder, or buy those damn Hi-8
tapes that basically cost 4 dollars an hour.

We thought about you...because we ARE you...
and You are us.

So, this idea came to me that...well, we're
now in the position to put the reality of
these fields out there.  And theres not ONE
reason that we cant use that to help you put it
out there too.   We're all one big family,
and we need to treat it that way.
"All about YOU" is where I will post YOUR stories.
Why YOU entered these fields of research,
how YOU got started, YOUR local ghost stories
that YOU love, personal experiences
that have stuck with YOU through YOUR
life...ANYTHING that YOU want to share!
If you want to submit a story, email the
story, your name and location, and any
links to your investigation team or personal
email that you would like to have posted to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  If you want
to remain anonymous, thats fine too. just
give me your location.

Im going to start it off with a story of my own,
so as to break the ice.

Justin(OTF)- Oklahoma

Im pretty positive that my first interest
in the "Paranormal" coincided with my
first experiences...starting when I was 10. 
My Mother, Brother and I moved to Heavener
that summer, and moved into an apartment. 
We lived there for ten years, and over the
course of those years, MANY weird things
happened in that apartment. 
There was the usual:
TV turning off and on, radio doing the same,
eerie feelings.  But those things are
explainable, so I dont give them much credence. 
There were, however, other things.  The most
tangible I can offer is this:  We got a
chihuahua when I was 12 I think, so that
would be the second year we were there. 
They say animals can sense things...or see
things that we cant.  I'll buy that. 
My brother and I both were, and still are
quite the night-owls.  So playing Tiger Woods
or Madden on the PS1...then 2...and now 3(lol)
is not, and was not uncommon.  All the while we
lived in that apartment with the dog, at
almost exactly 1:30 every night while we
were playing the game in the living room,
she would wake up.
 
Then she would start looking down the long
hallway and start growling.  She would stare
at the hall, like she was waiting on someone
to come down it, and then at a point she
would "see" what she was waiting on. 
She would "watch" whatever it was intently
all the way across the living room to the
front door just like she was watching one
of us walk down the hall and out the front
door.  Always creeped the S*** outta me. 
It did my brother and several of our friends
over the years also.  That was my first
tangible experience with the thought of "others".
What they are...ghost's, demons, natural
occurances...I dont know.  But I am convinced
SOMETHING is there.  A couple of other notes.
While we lived in that house, I had recurring
LUCID dreams.  Bad.  They were always about
great evil.  It was always Satan, or one
of his peeps.  In the ten years since we left
that apartment, not ONE dream of the evil
stuff like that.  I still have lucid dreams,
but not of evil.  I also had Migraines there
about once a week, and since, they happen about
once a year.  You can chalk that up to growing
out of it, but its interesting.  I found out
later on that theres a good possibility that
it was built on a cemetery of a Choctaw
settlement that existed before the White folks
came and turned it into Heavener.  Oh, and one
final note, my Mother told me recently...like
in the last year or so, that when we lived in
Heavener, on school nights when she knew Trav
and I were in bed and asleep, she would here
footsteps walking down the hall...and it was
always right at 1:30am.  You dont know my Mama,
but I do...and I NEVER thought she would believe something like that or would admit to it.

From there, my interest grew until one night back
in 1999 somebody came by the house and said
"Wanna go ghost hunting?"

And now, here I am.

If you'd like to email me about my story:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Donna(PSI)- Oregon

Exploring the many facets, theories and
occurances withing the realm of "paranormal"
was not something I ever sought; it was
something that found me - at the age of 7.

When my beloved Grandfather died, he
visited me several times, and many times
I was not the only one present to see him.
A few months later, my best friend died
while having his tonsils removed - a reaction
to the anesthesia. I also saw him quite
frequently.  Of course, being 7 years old I was
in no way ready to embark on a field that
really had not yet been discovered as far as I
knew. I just found it comforting to know that
the people I loved were actually still here
with me!  In 1989 I moved into a home in
Coos Bay, Oregon. I knew - sensed - from
moment I walked through the front door that
we were, in a sense, guests in someone elses
home. My oldest son, who was 6 at the time,
walked into the kitchen area, which is very
long. All at once he ducked and covered his head. Unsure of what he was doing and why, we asked,
and he stated that the "little boy threw a ball"
at him. (This, of course, was not his first
such experience like this, and certainly not
his last). A number of years later, my
youngest son, in the same situation and place, experienced the same thing. This fueled my
desire to learn more. We have, since, acquired
a few more guests in our home, including
my parents, one of whom died here.
After over 20 years in the field I have learned
more from personal experiences, collected data,
and EVP recordings than I would ever have learned
from the sparse selection of quality paranormal television. My team, PSI of Oregon
(www.psioforegon.com) was formed a little over
3 years ago to continue paranormal research on
a larger scale. While we have investigated such locations, and filmed amazing video data, as
Heceta Head Lighthouse, The Rogue Theater,
numerous private residences and the ongoing
research project, The Oregon Cemetery Project,
we find the research aspect of the field just
as intriguing as the actual investigation.
We brainstorm our own theories, test and
experiment with them; we educate our community
in any way possible on the paranormal and the
dangers involved. We combine the scientific
aspects with the spiritual aspects, and it is a combination of technique and people who are all dedicated to finding answers that makes out
team as successful as it has been. It doesn't
matter if you have been in the field for 2 years
or 20 years - it is always a field in which
you never stop learning!  Despite what you may
see on TV, you do not need expensive equipment
and gadgets to gather evidenciary data.
A digital camera, a voice recorder, a handheld
video recorder and you have all the necessary equipment. A team may have a ton of thermal
imagers and never catch a thing, while the team
who truly wants to learn has only a few pieces
of used equipment captures more data. Why is
this? Maybe the "other side" knows who is serious,
and who is seeking fame. Who knows?
Unless you ask......
I am proud of our research, I am proud on our
team, I am proud and intrigued by the new theories
PSI brings to the table, and I am proud of what
we do. The paranormal is in our blood, so to speak,
and if we do not find the answers in this lifetime, perhaps we can offer the answers in the afterlife!
www.psioforegon.com
www.psifipararadio.com
www.blogtalkradio.com/psi-fi-para-radio
www.facebook.com/psioforegon
www.facebook.com/psifipararadio

Laura- Oregon

I remember being pretty young...4 or 5 maybe. My mom had just put me to bed and I looked up at the doorway and saw a man standing there.
He was in his 30's, jeans with a red & black flannel shirt. I could see him clearly. He startled me and I let out a yelp, but he never actually frightened me.
Only my mother, grandmother, brother (4 yrs older) and myself were in the house. I didn't pursue it much because my grandmother (only grandmothers could come up with this crap) told me that I had seen him because  the elastic in my underwear was too tight. I wondered, though, who he was. I think, now, he may have been a relative.
 When I got a little older, I started turning on the UHF station on my tv and turning the dial back and forth trying to hear voices in the white noise.
(wish someone had told me you could pick up telephone conversations..would have saved me a near heart attack!) From there,
I tried everything I could think of to make contact with spirits.
As I learned more, I found other people with similar interest that led to me eventually

getting to where I am now; part of a fantastic team, meeting great people who share the passion!
My only regret is that I did not try to build on what we may all have had as

children; the ability to see or sense spirits. But, at that age, how could I have known?

*Note* 
What I find interesting here is the man in the red flannel shirt and jeans.  Believe it or not this is the 4th person I've heard tell their own story
of waking up to this same apparition. 

-Justin-

Mike- Texas 

Dulcie and I went with a group of other researchers to a Cemetery...WAAAAAAAAAYY out in the country.
We had met with the man who is the Caretaker of the cemetery , being that this is his family's cemetery.
His name was Mr Dabbs and was such a nice man and brought out historical research of the location, that goes back before the Civil War.  Now this was and interest to me. 
there are several Civil War graves in this Cemetery.
 
The researchers met up after dark at the location and started researching , we took our digital camera and the Digital Voice recorder and Video Camera.
 
Nothing out of the ordinary happened at first, but then the video camera which had a full battery , kept shutting off by itself...other than that nothing to note...until we started to leave.  I walked over by myself to one of the Civil War Graves and placed the Digital Voice Recorder on the headstone and ask a few questions.  The one that got the response was "Is there anyone here that fought Yankees??"

And what a response it was.  Got it, plain as day on the digital voice recorder.  I have attached it to this email.

Our organization:
Texla Cryptozoological Research
http://www.texlaresearch.com/


*Note*
  Im working on figuring out how to put mp3 files up here to go with these stories.  Please bear me out.  Im not a webdesigner.  Also, the battery drainage and camera shut off Mike mentions is a recurring theme amongst researchers in the field, especially when the activity is high.
-Justin-

Jim- Oregon

My name's Jim Jasman, i'm an investigator with PSI.
This is how i got started investigating the paranormal.....
In October '08 i went to Portland Oregon for a job interview, having a younger brother living in Portland, my girlfriend and i stayed the night at his place....in the Fairmount Apartments.
We were there for no more than 15 minutes when strange things began to happen.
In the upper hallway, I would walk to the first corner on the North side of the building near the common bathroom area and run into what i refer to as "a wall of dizziness".  My brother and i decided to check it out.
This was a very physical manifestation that we could walk into and back out of.
We asked questions, but having no equipment of any kind, getting an answer was difficult.
We both got touched, we saw shadows moving up and down the halls...at one point, we both saw what appeared to be a mans boot (shadow) come out of the closed door across the hallway from his apartment.
We went downstairs where the atmosphere took on an angry feeling, being as this area was another entities territory.
We both had "flashes" of memories that were not our own...and from what we both agreed was post 1900s era.
After returning home to Northbend, I learned of Psi and made contact with them and scheduled an investigation, which took place on Nov. 8 2008...i will attach an EVP captured in his bedroom just after a beefeater figurine was caught on video being knocked to the ground.  The video did not get this EVP on its onboard sound...only the stand-alone digital voice recorders caught it.
Since then, I have been on numerous investigations as a member of PSI, I took some time off from the team and just recently rejoined them again and am looking forward to many more interesting investigations.

*note*
 The voice Jim caught only being recorded on just one electronic recording device of several is also a recurring anomaly.  Some researchers speculate that the voice imprints itself only on one device because it is USING the energy from that device to manifest itself.  And also, again, the mp3 thing.  Im on it.
-Justin-

Maggie- Iowa

Hello, I read your request for real stories/lore and background information on what motivated us into this field. I have been in the paranormal field researching studying and learning for about 20 years. I am 39/f my cultural background is Celtic
gypsy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_travellers My family is very superstitious and very in touch with the spirit world I was brought up being told stories of old,folklore,myths and legends of Scotland. As I got older I had a lot of things started to happen to me and witnessed things that could not be explained away. So I started basically asking as many questions to my people as possible then started to study anything paranormal including demonology,possession,folklore,alchemy,myths,legends,crypto zoology,psychic phenomenon and religions until I became my own encyclopedia on the occult. I moved to Los Angeles when I was in my early 20's and started to share things with friends like reading for them,cleansing homes,casting protection spells, To me it was just who I was and to the outside world they were completely curious and seen it as something very special. I got approached by many writers who couldn't really find anything written on the subjects they were interested in. I recently moved to Sioux city Iowa and it started all over again. People just finding me through word of mouth also more recently online many people have sent me pictures also asking thousands of questions in regards to paranormal activity I try to answer all. I believe in debunking strongly I also have drawn  a connection with certain cultures and activity they experience. I believe in research I believe in not letting psychic intuition screw up valid proof. I don't really put any weight in claims as much as personal experience and what I can find. I believe in balance between science and occult theories. I want to point out some places I find curious in Iowa I would love to investigate and brain storm with you. Homer Nebraska is like 19 miles from Sioux city and That is where I keep getting told by locals to head out to.
Where old Lottie's grave is  http://www.topix.com/forum/city/macy-ne/TKEIGGAACKRQJC8DV many people have told me if you sit a beer on the grave it will drink it. They have witnessed a shadow beast,growls basic demonic activity but her grave gets so much attention I would like to put the lore to rest or figure out what is going on. The villisca axe murder house is also intresting.http://www.villiscaiowa.com/ This is one that i am really curious about is Located in Algona, Iowa, there is a graveyard just north of the town. In this graveyard, there is a smaller one that is fenced off towards the rear. Back in the 1800s when Gypsy wagon trains would pass through the town, they would come across this graveyard. If there was a gypsy who was dying from illness, they would bury this person alive right at the spot because they were unable to stop. There was  also no hallowed ground to bury the gypsy in since they were on the move. To this day, the people of the town firmly believe that the graveyard is haunted, and if someone dares to venture beyond the small fenced in graveyard in the back, they will be cursed forever from the spirits of the gypsies http://www.paranormalknowledge.com/articles/tag/iowa this is Black Angel cemetery.

The strange black angel in Iowa City’s Oakland Cemetery has long been connected to the supernatural. It’s a part of the local lore in Iowa City and has been mentioned in books and on websites for many years. As mentioned though, it’s history has long been confused with another black angel, which is located in Council Bluffs. The following is the true history --- and mystery --- of Oakland Cemetery’s black angel.

The black angel of Oakland Cemetery is an eight and a half foot tall burial monument for the Feldevert family, erected in the cemetery in 1912. Since that time, it has been the source of many stories and legends in Iowa City --- most connected to the mysterious change in color that the angel took, turning from a golden bronze to an eerie black.
 
The statue was erected by Teresa Dolezal Feldevert, a physician who had immigrated to America from Strmilov, Bohemia, Teresa and her son, Eddie Dolezal, came to Iowa City, where she worked as a midwife. They lived in Iowa City until 1891, when Eddie died of meningitis at the age of 18. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery and Teresa had a tree stump monument erected over his grave. It can still be seen today.

One legend has it that Teresa Feldevert was a very mysterious woman and that her evil caused the angel to turn black. This strange shadowing was to serve as a constant reminder of the sins of her family – and as a warning for people to stay away from her grave. Some claimed that Teresa’s wicked ways were evident in the design of the angel. Unlike most graveyard angels, which are usually positioned with their head and wings uplifted as a symbol of aiding in the ascent to heaven, the Feldevert angel is looked down to the ground and her wings are not uplifted. And strangely, there is no death date on the monument for Teresa Feldevert http://www.prairieghosts.com/oakland.html

I hope you find these places as interesting as I do Blessed be and Blessings to you and yours.  ~Maggie~

Anyone wishing to get in touch with Maggie can do so at the following adresses:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it   

http://www.myspace.com/gypsie_moon

Growing Daily!  Keep sending your stories!