My First Ghost Encounter

Having done ghost tours for many years and associating with the ghost community for many more; I'm often asked about my encounters with ghosts. Do I really believe in ghosts? Duh. Have I ever seen a ghost? Yes. Where's the most haunted place I've ever been? Gettysburg if the stories are true but I didn't experience anything ghostly so my answer is usually Decatur, Illinois' Lincoln Square Theatre.

My first encounter with a ghost was at place I'm not allowed to reveal as a haunted spot. It was 1999 and, until that point I'd never put much faith in the existance of ghosts. I didn't have a computer so I spent a lot of time in this building at night using the office computer.

Prior to the experience, when in the building, I'd heard what sounded like footsteps on the floor above me. This was fairly common but written off to the sounds of an old building (and this was built in 1832). The night in question was a hot August night and I was in the office writing a story about Abraham Lincoln that was going to be read aloud before a 5th grade history class.

Having spent time in radio, I'm now in the habit of reading aloud anything I write to see how it flows. When I finished this essay I began to read. I'd forgotten a man's name so I'd left a blank in the text to fill in later and when I got to that spot I said something like, "The guy who's name escapes me" and, from right over my right shoulder came the name, "Matt Marsh"! I thought a buddy of mine had come in and I didn't realize it.

It was a lound, clear voice and, yes, the name was right, but there was no sign of my friend. Odd. Now, I should point out, that had I remembered the name I would have called this gentleman "Matthew" as all the history books do but, the people who potentially haunt this building would have known him and likely would have been familiar enought to refer to him by the less formal "Matt". That's my theory anyway.

I walked from the office to seek out my friend who I figured had just passed the door and gone into the other room. He wasn't there and, furthermore, I could see my keys still hanging in the door where I'd left them after I'd locked it. Suddenly the temperature dropped drastically. Now, remember, hot August night...and there's no air conditioning in this building so it was torturously hot and this room got so cold I expected to see my breath.

Still, I wasn't thinking ghost until I heard the footsteps coming toward me across the, obvously, empty room! Then I freaked out. I had no way out either. I didn't want to cross the room where this unseen entity was prowling! The keys that would unlock the back door where mocking me from across the room and I certainly wasn't going up the back stairs and through the pitch black upper rooms to get around to the front stairs!

I'd heard ten or tweleve steps and then they'd stopped. I started to think I was in the clear and then the motion activated security lights kicked on in the outer room! I did what any good ghost hunter would do...I paniced and raced for the door. I turned the keys and rushed outside into a the sticky night and the difference between the cold inside and the hot outside almost knocked me over.

My apartment was across the street and so I ran home and sat on the porch and watched as the motion lights kicked off and on for fifteen or twenty minutes. Finally they stopped and I decided to call it a night. When I reached for my keys to go inside I found my pocket empty...I'd left the keys hanging in the door across the street. That, of course, meant I'd have to go back! I weighed the option of sleeping in my lawn chair but, eventually, I screwed up my courage and went to retrieve my keys.

As I cautiously opened the door I told whoever was there why I'd come back and begged they give me a few minutes to get my keys and turn off the lights I'd left on. They did and I was grateful.

In subsequent years I've made peace with these guys (I believe there's two of them) and, in fact, have learned the identity of one because several pyschics over the years have identified the same man by name and two have independently pointed out his picture without any knowledge of who he was. He's OK, the other remains unidentified and, I'm told, doesn't want me there. Nice.

It is my hope that eventually I'll be able to tell the whole story of these encounters and the haunted history of this building. Until then that's it, my first encounter with a ghost. It remains one of my favorites.