Below is an unedited true
story of a visit to Bachelor's Grove submitted to us through email by
Ryan Monty. Thanks so much, Ryan - this is a great account that
helps verify that this is indeed a very haunted place!
Hi
Folks,
I recently took a renewed interest in the occult when talking with my
friend about some strange experiences he had while visiting Brazil. I
came across your website today and I find it very interesting. And so,
I have had one indisputable paranormal experience I'd like to share with
you and also send you the pics, which (in my opinion) are sort of
amazing.
My experience took place at Bachelor's Grove cemetery here near Chicago
where I live back in July of 01. I'm sure you know about Bachelor's
Grove, since it's in your database, so I won't explain anything about
the location.
Anyway, I had been a total skeptic all the way up until the moment of
my experience. Now I'm sure that Bachelor's Grove is a special place,
but I'm not sure what exactly the deal is, the how and why. So, here's
what happened:
A group of friends and I had decided to go up there one night to check
it out and have a good time. One of my buddies claims to be a ghost
hunter, but even though I have seen some pictures of his where they have
that kind of white mist surrounding objects and people, I figured it
just as easily could have been one of them smoking a cigarette or
something. He's the one who knew about the place and brought everyone up
there.
So, there were about 12 to 15 of us there that night. We all walked
around and explored the place for about an hour. It's a fascinating
place to explore, but nothing unusual really happened. I mean, some
that were with us were saying they were seeing strange objects and
whatnot, but I just figured they were trying to just scare us, because I
never saw anything.
So, after about an hour of this, I was quite relaxed, and decided to
wander a bit by myself. But, Bachelor's Grove is actually a very small
cemetery, so I wasn't exactly too far from my other buddies. Now, what
happened next I will try to explain as clearly as I possibly can,
although it is difficult. I was walking with the flashlight and I
suddenly had sort of like a premonition to look to my left. It was kind
of like when you, for no apparent reason, decide to look in some
direction, and there's somebody there who's been staring at you, and you
kind of catch them.
It was just like that. Except, there was no person there, my eyes fell
directly on a small headstone in the ground. (You will see this stone
just to the left of me in the picture.) So I had the notion of
curiosity to just walk on over there. (It was about 40 feet or so away
from me when I noticed this stone.)
As soon as I got to the spot you see me standing at in the picture, I
stopped and turned my flashlight off. And that's when it
happened. Nearly immediately, I began to feel a very strong tingling
entering through the top of my head. It was moving kind of fast, about
an inch a second I wanna say, and seemed to be taking the path of nerve
bundles through my body. It was moving down my neck and down through my
spine. After not too long, it felt like it was in my whole body!
Needless to say, I was extremely scared at this point. But I do believe
it was my willingness to be open that allowed it to continue. I stayed
my ground and yelled for my friends, something like, "Hey, hey, come
here - something's happening to me! Help!". It was at this point that
my friend began to try and take a picture. He later told me that his
camera had initially jammed for a good minute or so. A few of my
friends who heard me came by and stood around me. My ghost hunter
friend was saying that he was feeling it too. All of a sudden, things
got even weirder. I was looking at my one friend when it seemed that
(for lack of a better way to explain it), my visual perspective was
changing without my permission, and without me moving anywhere! As I
looked at my one friend, it was as if there were two cameras set up next
to each other about 3 or 4 feet apart, both looking at the same thing.
And someone was like toggling between the two cameras. My vision was
instantly flickering - Camera A, then Camera B - back and forth a few
times. This was too much for me, it felt like I was losing control of
myself, so I walked away from the spot. Well out of the way. Then,
slowly the feeling started to go out of me until I was back to normal -
weak in the knees for a while though I might add. It was amazing! The
feeling was so strong, it was a tingling like electricity was flowing
through my body! As this was happening to me, my friends said I looked
pale and completely in shock - which I definitely was. Nothing I have
experienced at any other point in my life could even compare to this
feeling. I have no way of explaining it at all. From reading your
site, it sounds as if I had done some inadvertent channeling. I don't
know if I can verify this, but my ghost hunter buddy told me later that
I was standing in the exact same spot that he and another guy had seen a
pentagram of stones on the ground apparently left by some occultists or
whatever.
As to the photo below, you can see that it was taken from a considerable
distance away. The main thing you will notice is that my eyes appear to
be glowing in the photo! Not just the retinas as usually happens in
redeye photos, but actually the whole eye sockets. After jamming
for about a minute, the camera was only able to take one picture of me.
The camera used was a disposable which, of course, uses actual analog
film. Which is a good thing, because my father, who works for a
printing company was able to blow up the photo in analog form, and so
there is no rasterization in the enlargement.
The photo directly above is a scan of the actual photo itself, and the
photo at the top of the page is the enlargement that my father made. The
bluish line across the original is not in the original, but a product of
the scanner I used. (Not a flatbed.) The enlargement scan looks pretty
much exactly like the paper that I have here.
This experience has changed me and my beliefs forever. I welcome
anybody who wishes to debunk or otherwise analyze my photograph. It's
the real thing. I get the feeling that whenever I tell someone this
story, they thing I'm a nutjob. Hopefully, you guys won't.
Keep up the good work.
Ryan Monty
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