True Ghost Stories

Carol and I had been married a short time and were traveling in a 33 foot Foretravel motorhome. We decided to stop and see our friends in Brenda, Arizona. We were parked there a few days when Carol woke me up in the middle of the night and accused me of pulling the covers off her. Most married couples have a tug-of-war about the covers so I just ignored it, although I felt that I was not responsible for her covers being removed. This happened on and off for the next couple of weeks.

The motorhome had large picture windows in the front and I liked to sit in the front seat and watch the night sky at three at four o'clock in the morning. One morning before daylight I got the surprise of my life. (Although I had worked with ghosts most my life I had never seen one that looked like Casper with the white sheet). All of a sudden, there in front of the window was Casper and few moments later I heard a yell from Carol. I went back to see what was wrong and sure enough there she was with no covers on telling me that she didn't think this was funny anymore. I told her what I had just seen and suggested she go back to sleep and I would take care of it.

Many years ago I when I started working with ghosts I used to use a candle, and the Bible passage of the 23^rd Psalm. After many years of working with spirits I found a quicker way. I bubble them up and bring in their guidance and send them off to the light. It's a little more involved than that so it's not advisable for an amateur to communicate with a spirit or ghost in this way. You could get in a lot of trouble with a little bit of knowledge.

After that, Brenda, Arizona was peaceful and Carol could keep her covers on all night.

Georgia - Fall of 1969 or early 1970
by Doc Howard

One of my earliest memories of "bumping" into ghosts happened about 30 years ago. It was shortly after my brush with death and the resulting near death experience that I noticed I was a lot more aware of their presence.

My then wife, Barbara and I were visiting a psychic friend of ours name Georgia H. in upstate New York. Georgia had a wonderful old farmhouse built in the early 1900's. We had gotten to be quite good friends as I had been to her house on numerous occasions attending the different programs she presented. Georgia is a gifted psychic and teacher, someone I really enjoyed talking to. We had just stopped by for a quick visit and were chatting at her dining room table when the ghost appeared.

Where I was sitting I could see the front door ahead of me and slightly to my right. Behind me and to the right were nothing but the walls that connected the kitchen to the dining room. You can imagine my surprise when I suddenly saw this tall skinny old man WITHOUT his head carrying a lunch box come through the wall behind me! He had come through the dining room wall and into the kitchen, oblivious to us sitting there.

Noticing the expression on my face, Georgia asked me what I had seen. I had seen many ghosts before but it was unusual to see one so clear in the daytime and I guess it showed on my face. In those days, I wasn't too quick to tell people some of the things I saw. I was raised at a time when you were committed for telling people you saw ghosts or talked to them and were labeled crazy or insane.

"OK, I saw a tall skinny old man WITHOUT his head carrying a lunch box, come into the room through the wall and go into the kitchen." I know you are probably going to have a problem with that, but you asked" I was surprised when she looked at me and calmly said "Oh yes, he comes home about this time every day." She then commenced to tell me about the many times during the programs she held that different things occurred. Some of the girls would get pinched at the table, or hear voices and laughter coming from upstairs. Evidently, it was a pretty active house. She also told me she had seen him (the ghost) come home in this fashion for many years. Not many people had been able to "see" him, and she appreciated the confirmation I gave her.

I don't encourage people having contact with spirits. I have found that if a person is having contact of some kind, and that includes seeing, hearing or feeling ghosts, the spirit is asking for help. I try to ascertain whether they (the ghost) wants to stay or go to the light. If they are not bothering anyone and want to stay, I leave them alone. If they are lost or confused I help them into the light or back to their origins.

There have been numerous times through the years when I have been called in to work with healing on an individual to find they have an association with a ghost. When you allow yourself (on purpose or not) to have contact with ghosts, you can and do recreate the very symptoms the ghost had when they were alive. When I have cleared up the spirit, the symptoms usually clear up also.

Ghosts in Gettysburg - Fall 1996
by Carol Howard

It had been a long journey this time out. We live and travel in our Foretravel motorhome, and we had not stopped for any length of time for about 3 months or so. The visit to Doc in-laws in New York had been wonderful, but we were ready to hide somewhere peaceful and re-energize. We had decided to take Interstate Hwy. 81 South to Interstate Hwy 40 West on our way to Colorado to do just that.

To back up a little, for the previous weeks the subject of Gettysburg and the ghosts trapped there had come up numerous times. There had been television programs, a magazine article, and "out of the blue" references on this subject.

This would not have made an impact on most people, however, Doc and I believed that Spirit (God) was telling us to go to Gettysburg, but Doc wasn't having any part of it. One thing about Doc I would like to make clear, he sure is stubborn sometimes. He had decided that he had "free will" and he will was NOT to go to Gettysburg, end of subject. Well that was not the end of this subject.

As I mentioned, we were taking Hwy. 81 South and had just gone through Harrisburg, PA, when the sign for Gettysburg appeared. I mentioned this was our last chance to go, left to Gettysburg, right to bypass. "I don't want to deal with any spooks (his pet name for spirits) right now, and I replied "OK".

We took the bypass and continued South for about 65 miles, when another sign said "Gettysburg 10 miles". All I said was "Doc"....."OK I guess I really don't have a choice here, if Spirit wants us to go, we'll go" he replied. Doc sometimes refers to these promtings by spirit as nagging and he was feeling very nagged by now. I told him we can just go look around, that they had a great museum there and then we could leave. NOT!!

We parked our motorhome in the parking lot of the museum and had a quick lunch. The grounds are very beautiful and there were quite a few people enjoying a nice fall day. As soon as we left the motorhome, the spirits of the place made themselves known. Doc mentioned that it sure didn't take them long to know he was there. For some reason I don't understand, ghosts know when someone who is sensitive is around, and they had found Doc.

We walked into the museum and took a look around. What a sad and tragic history this place had. So many wasted lives. Brother against brother, and the crudest of medical equipment. The energy of the place is very heavy and oppressive. Doc picked up quite a few ghosts while in the museum.

By this time his opinion of being there had changed. Here was a place that definitely needed his service. We discussed the fact that there had been many psychics who had come here and "toyed" with the spirits, and it's a real shame that more of these psychics had not helped them to the light.

Sometimes I have to remind Doc that most people do not know how to do what he does, or have the abilities he has. Just because someone is psychic does not mean they have the techniques or the abilities. We know many gifted people that are scared to death by ghosts, as I used to be.

After the tour of the museum, we walked the grounds. There is a tower that over looks the area where people can go to get a birds eye view of the countryside. This was awesome, and really gave us a deeper perspective of just what occurred in a very small area.

We ended our tour of the place at the Lincoln memorial site, a set of three statues in the middle of the cemetery. Doc determined that this would be the ideal place to create a portal for the release of the thousands of earthbound spirits that were there. Most of these spirits had died so suddenly and violently that they were still in shock and did not know they were dead. Remember, the time is different on the other side as is the reality.

Doc choose the statue of Lincoln giving the Gettysburg address to open the door. We proceeded do go through a series of steps to achieve this and sat back away from the area on the grass. The next ten minutes are ones I will never forget.

The rush of emotions that came upon us was indescribable. We watched as a beam of light came down from the heavens and radiated out over the land. I could actually see it, and feel it. As soon as this happened there were thousands of tiny lights entering the doorway and these lights were the spirits of Gettysburg. I was awed by the number and intensity of it all. There were tears in my eyes, and it was one of the few times I have really felt connected to the source.

When I finally got my voice and senses back to speak, I asked Doc if we had gotten them all. He told me no, that there were still quite a few who were afraid of the light and did not understand. He explained that he would leave the portal open and that these spirits could leave on their own when the time was right.

We left shortly after this and continued our drive South. Our lives were touched very deeply by our visit to Gettysburg, an experience I know I will always remember.

Lynn the Miner - Spring of 1997
by Doc Howard

Lynn lived in the same vicinity of the Brenda valley as our friends Larry and Dotti. Brenda is about 90 miles West of Phoenix off Hwy. 10 in the Arizona desert. It is a great place to be in the late fall and early spring, and we usually like to find ourselves there, this year was no different. It was life as usual with Lynn who lived in this valley all year round. It takes a special kind of person to stay in the Arizona desert during the summer, and Lynn certainly had what it took. Most of the time you could find Lynn working her mine, something she dearly loved to do.

When we arrived for our visit, it wasn't long before we had an opportunity to talk with Lynn. She had been having some health problems with her lungs, but that had not deterred her from smoking or working at her mine. There were many of her friends that suggested that she take it easy for a while, and get some rest, to no avail..

It was hard to tell Lynn was sick, she always had a great tan and was an extremely strong individual, except when she coughed. "Lynn, I don't usually say this to people but I see you dissolving", I said. I continued to tell her what I was seeing. "If you do not take it easy right now, you may die. I know you may think I am really off base here, but I actually see you dissolving".

Lynn had known me long enough to know that my "seeing" is very accurate and although she did not brush me off, she didn't take it very seriously. Lynn really thought she was indestructible. I had done my part, and it was her responsibility to run her own life.

Three days later at about 12:30 a.m. in the morning, I awoke to a great pressure in my chest. I was gasping and choking and it truly felt like my world was coming to an end. I jumped up out of bed and went out of the motorhome, gulping for air.

Carol had also sat up and was complaining of a pressure on her chest and a feeling of foreboding. This lasted about 10 minutes as the symptoms dissipated slowly.

We were able to get back to sleep about 30 minutes later. We had not gotten an indication of where this had come from or what it was about. We knew something was wrong and were sure we would soon find out.

Morning came and we had just gotten out of bed in time to see Dave, a friend of Lynn's, running through the yard in a panic. He was yelling something incoherent about Lynn and was on his way to use the phone. I knew then that it was Lynn that I had felt during the night, and something was very wrong. I ran to get Dotti, who is a nurse, and we raced over to Lynn's property. It was to late, Lynn was already dead, and it appeared that she had been dead for quite a few hours.

Carol and I then knew for sure that it had been Lynn who had visited us the night before, in a panic, and dying of a heart attack. If she had only made us aware that it was her, we might have been able to help. She had spent the previous night stuck out at her mine, without food or water or blankets, totally unprepared due to vehicle problems. It had been a cold damp evening and this had greatly aggravated her condition. It appeared that during a coughing fit, trying to take her-Nitro Glycerin she had a heart attack.

Lynn has three children who live in New Hampshire, and two of the girls arrived the next day to take care of the details. Were they shocked when they took a look around the property! Lynn never threw out anything, actually she collected everything she could get her hands on. When you live in the desert, you never know when you are going to need something, and so it was with Lynn. The stuff she had accumulated only created a bigger problem, for she had left none of her paperwork in the obvious places, and the girls were overwhelmed to say the least.

Now, Lynn was a very active ghost, as active as she was in life. Many times I had to ask her to back off, since she was still carrying the symptoms of her dying and I was picking up on them. I finally had to contain her, a technique I use to keep spirits separated but still around. Lynn was NOT happy she was dead, and she was mostly concerned about who was going to get her mine.

Her two daughters soon came to me and asked for my help in finding the necessary paperwork to clear up the loose ends. I spoke to Lynn for them and she told me where to find the paperwork in question. She had hid it in the oddest places that would never had been found, and they were grateful for my help. After a week or so or of Lynn constantly nagging me about her mine, and totally intruding in my space, I sent her to the light. I had asked her to go a number of times but she was only concerned about her mine.

The valley is different without Lynn there, but we all remember her with fondness. Lynn's mine is happily owned by someone else and the cycle of life goes on.

Resolution - 1993 Carol
by Carol Howard

Many times we find ourselves wishing, IF ONLY I HAD..........

Such was the case with my cousin Jim. My Uncle Jim, his Father, had died a couple years earlier and he had not had a chance to finish up. Not only had he not finished up, Jim and my Uncle had exchanged words that were not very loving and he could not let this go. It got to be so bad that he was creating sickness in his body to punish himself. This was destroying his relationship with his wife Yolanda, and the rest of the family. Jim is a successful Architect, and lives in a custom home in San Marino, California. It appeared he had everything, but he was miserable.

Doc and I had gone over to visit a couple times and we had done some healing work. On the third visit while sitting in the living room, the subject turned to ghosts. Yolanda told us that the neighborhood had a ghost that smelled like flowers. She said she knew when the ghost was near, because of the fragrance of roses.

We were invited to stay for dinner and decided to eat out on the patio. Jim and Yolanda's girls had joined us and the conversation was light and easy.

"They will not stop nagging me", Doc whispered. "What are you talking about," I asked? He then told me that my Uncle was there and wanted to speak to Jim. "Now, I asked?"

We had just finished dinner, so he asked that he speak to Jim alone. Yolanda, the girls, and I cleared the table and retreated into the house. Doc told me later what happened.

The ghost of the neighborhood had spoke to him during dinner and told him that Uncle Jim, who was in the light, wanted to speak to my cousin, his son. The communication went through this spirit to Doc who repeated it to Jim.

The first thing he said was "You're a good boy Jimi". This is what my Uncle said to Jim his whole life. It was Uncle Jim's way of praising his son. Jim knew right away that the communication was real. He went on to relay some personal information and some reassurances concerning my Aunt who was still alive at the time. He did say she would be "coming home soon", which did occur 4 months later.

Doc had not known of this information beforehand that my Uncle had expressed, and Jim knew this. He had wanted to finish up with his Father, and now he had the chance.

It was a long evening at their house; they didn't want us to leave. When we did get out of there it was after 12:00 a.m. During the night, Uncle Jim came to Doc and told him some things to tell to Jim, which Doc passed on. This information helped Jim with his healing and he has started to live again.

The Ghosts of the Green Door Gambling House
in Deadwood South Dakota
by Doc Howard

On one of my many trips to Deadwood, South Dakota I was asked by the owner of the Green Door gambling house if I would be interested in working with the ghosts in his building, as it is my job and privilege to work with ghosts and help them into the light, I agreed. A friend of mine who we will call, Bill, for now, did not believe in ghosts and asked if he and his girlfriend could sit in on a session. I said," okay".

The second floor of the Green door gambling house was a house of prostitution so I felt that's where the ghost would be. Of course, in deadwood they're just everywhere. As I recall we arrived about midnight. It was a quiet night with not much gambling going on so we went right up to the second floor and got comfortable. It wasn't very long before our first ghost showed up. He was about 50 years old and a portly gentleman totally naked. He had probably been running around like that for about a hundred years or more. (There is no time on that side so it's not that he was suffering). It's kind of like that movie, Groundhog Day, were you just keep doing the same thing over and over. He wasn't concerned with the fact that he was dead, he was upset because he couldn't find his clothing. I brought in his guidance and sent him off to the light.

The next ghost who showed up was a redheaded woman who was very angry. I could not get her to talk reasonably to me. She just ranted and raved until I brought in her guidance and sent her off to the light. I never found out what her problem was. I suspect she was angry because she was killed, but I have no way of knowing now.

The next ghost was that of a young girl who'd been murdered and mutilated and her body left in a closet. She called herself, Jane Doe, the whore with the tag on her toe. She kept reciting that over and over! I finally calmed her down and began to speak to her. She was not concerned with the fact that she was dead, but it bothered her because she thought that no one would buy her in that condition. She had to show us everything that the murderer had done to her. I had her look at herself before she was damaged and hold that image in her mind's eye. She really liked that so I brought in her guidance and sent her off to the light.

The next ghost was the insane killer who had murdered and mutilated the young girl. With all of his insanity welling up in him, he stood face-to-face with Bill for about 20 minutes while I worked to free his soul. The police always say that a murderer always returns to the scene of the crime. What most of the public doesn't understand is that it's not always when the criminal is alive. It's very much like the movie, Groundhog Day, where the criminal keeps coming back and committing the same crime over and over, until someone sets them free.

As the three of us were leaving the Green Door that night a voice from nowhere said," Goodnight Doc". Bill asked if I had heard that, and I calmly asked," Heard what"? He said either the stuffed bird over the bar is talking or a ghost just said, "Goodnight Doc". Yes, I heard it too so there was still more work to do here! Later, Bill said, " I would have run if I could've moved", One more believer in the world!

I was still married to my first wife Barbara, when my father-in-law Henry died of a heart attack at the age of 70. I really loved Henry, he was a kind and caring person who loved to fish and hunt, and I would really miss him.

I was on my way to his funeral at the Church, and I just knew it would be filled with a lot people who would cry and moan that they loved Henry, and these people would be lying. I'm just telling it like it was. The only thing that most of Henry's family wanted was his money and he knew it. But I will start this story from the beginning.

Henry and his wife, Ann (Barbara's Mother) owned a couple of small farms in Upstate New York. Theirs was not a happy marriage, and Henry and Ann had nothing in common except their children, who by this time had all grown and left the house. Some of their children ran one of the farms, and Henry basically ran the other by himself, since Ann wanted nothing to do with him. This really became obvious when he got sick and needed her to help him, and she refused. He required some assistance with his bandages and Ann told him she refuses to touch his body so he could go get someone else to do it, and he did. Henry knew a nurse who he asked to help him while he recovered. She told him that he could move into her house and she would take care of him. Henry never returned home. The Nurse and her children became Henry's best friends and the kind of family Henry never knew. They all went fishing and hunting together and truly loved one another.

Henry continued to run his farm and sent money home to his wife, but he moved his things out of the house. He had started another life and I was real happy for Henry.

Here it was, 20 years later and Henry had died of a heart attack. We pulled up to the Church and there were almost 50 people inside. I sat towards the back and hoped I would not have to be there long. The service started, and sure enough, most of the people in the room were wailing and crying about how Henry was this, and Henry was that, and how much they loved him, and would miss him, and on and on.

I want to say that when someone dies it is nice to remember the good things about that person and reflect how they touched your life. That is different than what I was hearing from these hypocrites. I just wanted to be out of there.

Then I heard something strange. I couldn't locate it at first, but I was sure I was hearing laughter in that room. I kept looking around and then I spotted him. Henry's ghost was up towards the top of the ceiling laughing and howling like I had never seen. He obviously thought the "show" he was seeing was incredibly funny. Well, you know what happens when someone is laughing like that, I started to laugh too. Then the laughter tuned into roaring and I was out of control. All of a sudden I realized that everyone around me was staring at me with a shocked look on their face. I didn't know what to do, so I put my hand over my eyes and faked crying. This was OK for them and they resumed their own wailing.

This funeral turned out to be a great way to say good-by to Henry. He knew that I saw him and we had a great last laugh together.

Too Many Accidents - Winter 1997
by Carol Howard

We were enjoying our winter hiatus in Arizona, as we have for the past 6 years, guests of our friends Jackie and Mel M. They have a great piece of property that boarders Route 60 in Brenda. It is very quiet here in the summer, but comes alive during the fall and spring when the "Snowbirds" come to town. The people are mostly retirees who come to get away from the cold up north. The trailer and motor home parks are scattered up and down Hwy. 60 with a few thousand people enjoying the great Arizona winters.

We had been visiting for a month or so when the accidents started happening. I found myself tripping and falling for no apparent reason. Jackie and I both fell and twisted our ankle, as if we were tripped.

Jackie's brother Chuck, who was also visiting for the Christmas break, and Doc decided to work on the taillights of our car. We have a station wagon that we tow behind the motor home and the lights had quit on us. Both guys were squatting down on the ground behind the car, with the hatch open, when it can slamming down. Chuck got hit on the shoulder, but not to bad. Doc, however, got hit hard. He went down holding his head with a concussion and severe pain. We couldn't believe what had just happened. That evening when other friends from that area, Larry and Dotti came by, we told them what had happened. Larry then told us he had the same thing happen to him just yesterday!

A couple days later Doc and I were reviewing these "accidents" when I mentioned to him that we may be getting some uninvited assistance from a ghost in the area. Doc said that he hadn't thought of that and would take a look later in evening to "see" what he could find.

The next morning I asked him what he had discovered about the possibility of a ghost in the area and he told me I wouldn't believe what he found. He said he had decided to do a simple screening of the valley (a quick way to catch a ghost) but had changed his mind as soon as he discovered that there were over a couple hundred ghosts! "What," I said, "you have got to be kidding!" "No, I'm not," Doc replied. "Were they Spaniards, Indians, Miners, or what?" "That is just it, most of the ghosts were old folks attached to the other old folks that are visiting here," Doc said in an amazed tone "I've never seen so many attached to so few." Doc said they were glad to go to the light.

It is very common when we are doing healing on someone for them to have an attachment.

This name is what we call ghosts when they attach themselves to a person instead of a place. These ghosts are often a grandmother, father, old friend or a family member of some kind. Many times it is someone that just decided to "tag" along. These attachments can and do effect a person's life and are not in the best interest of the living to keep around, even grandmother. When Doc and I work with healing on someone, these attachments are discovered and released.

The "accidents" discontinued after that, but Doc's head continued to hurt for a couple of months. We usually are aware if there are ghosts in our immediate area, but somehow this time we were not quick enough to catch this bunch. A reminder to us to keep aware of our surroundings and "watch our step".

Woman in the Attic - Lead, SD 1996
by Carol Howard

We had returned to Deadwood, South Dakota because Doc wanted to show me some of the places he worked with the ghosts and the people he had met there. Doc had spent considerable time in Deadwood before I met him, and performed a lot of healing and spirit work. Doc is also a member of Deadwood's "Quick-Draw Bounty Hunter's Club" and we thought it would be fun to go for a visit.

We will be placing stories about the "Ghost's of Deadwood" on the site, however, we have chosen not to release them quite yet as we may wait to the release them in our upcoming book. I will tell you a story about a ghost, and the healing work that we did when we went for a visit to one of these friends that Doc had met on one of his earlier visits.

Our friends Robert and Terri live in Lead, South Dakota which is located in the mountains of this beautiful State, close to Deadwood. This is mostly a Mining Industry area, and it's history is long and interesting. This is the location where Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, and many other of the notorious outlaws that we have heard about, lived and died

Robert was a participant in one of the groups that Doc had taken to experience the ghosts in Deadwood, and they had stayed in touch ever since. Doc introduced me to Robert and Terri and their two children when we went to see them. Robert and Terri are very friendly people in their mid-40's and I liked them right away.

I don't think we were there very long when the topic turned to something we all had in common, Ghosts. Doc said, "You have one in your house, don't you? Doc can usually feel their presence right away, and so can I. The hair on my arms and neck starts to stand up and I get this rippling chill whenever a ghost is near me.. "Yes, I believe we do, and I think she lives in the attic," was Robert's reply. Doc then went on to describe a very old woman who did indeed live in the attic. She would sit in a rocking chair and rock all the time. Robert and the family all said they heard the sound of creaking on the floor from the rocker moving, and the shuffling of a cane and feet when she walked. Doc continued describing the woman and how she had numerous illnesses and was in considerable pain from arthritis. He described to Robert and Terri all the ailments the women in the attic was suffering from, both physical and mental. Doc then asked, "Do any of you have symptoms of unexplained origin that you have been experiencing? Robert replied, "Yes, I have knee pain that came on recently," Then Terri said, "And I have horrible shoulder and joint aches," Also remarking, "The kids have also been complaining about physical problems too." They both continued to list other symptom the family was experiencing including disorientation and forgetfulness.

Doc sat there shaking his head, and then told them that the pain and disorientation was not theirs, it belonged to the woman in the attic. Terri exclaimed, "Are you serious? To which Doc replied, "Yes, I am, and I will take care of this for you."

He told them that many times when there is a spirit in the house, one or more of the individuals in the house will start to experience the symptoms of the dead person. We have seen this many times and without exception, people do not realize that the symptoms are not their own. Even the thoughts and opinions of the ghost can become one with the living.

Doc sent the woman off to the light and she was happy to go, because she did not even realize that she was dead. He then performed healing work on the family and the results were immediate. They were very glad for the difference this made in their environment and their health.

We stayed for a couple more days and then were on our way again. We haven't been back to Deadwood since that time, but we sure enjoyed that visit.