The Beauty of Validation...

~by Jeff P. Ulmer

A side product of my paranormal adventures I enjoy most is validation. That is, validation from reliable sources that what I sense and/or experience was, in fact, true with no prior knowledge of a site. A time comes to mind of an instance in Alabama. I was there with friends on a trip to a paranormal event. My friends and I ventured off on our own during some down time from lectures and investigations to do some spirit searching of our own.

The three of us came across a dilapidated old brick building that stood out. It was one of those times I was drawn to a place for reasons I cannot put into words. I won’t divulge the whereabouts of this building as I did not have permission to enter, and I’m pretty sure a few laws were broken by taking part in this.

My friends were reluctant to enter, but of course, I found a way in. This building was most interesting. The first room we entered seemed to be some sort of office as there were a few small rooms adjoining and an entrance into an extremely large room that was basically a large, flat concrete slab. I walked around the office to get a feel for the place. I kept getting this overwhelming sensation as I got close to the entrance to the large room.

The only word that comes to mind to describe this sensation is “electric”. I backed away several times and approached again to evaluate if the large, open room was indeed giving off this energy. I had my friend (who I believe to be a medium but she won’t admit to it) see if she felt anything. The two others I was with kept insisting they felt like something dark had taken place in this room (such as a “black mass”). I recall wondering “What is this place?” I couldn’t shake the feeling that this building had some intense historical significance long ago.

We entered the room together. It was clear there was strange activity going on. We all noticed. As I walked further into the room, I could not shake the feeling that we were not alone. I cried out, “Who is here?” About a second later, we all heard a disembodied, female voice that sounded like it mumbled something to us. I looked at my friend to make sure I was not tripping, and she quickly turned to the door, shook her head, and stated, “Uh No!”

As we were leaving, my friend turned around to me, and I could tell something was up. She asked if I had touched her butt and then realized I was not in arms reach of her. As we left (upon their insistence) I walked around one side of the building alone to see what I “felt”. Not expecting anything, suddenly, I felt a wound under my left arm in my ribs that felt like a large, deep puncture wound. The odd thing about this “wound” is that there was no pain. In the car ride home, I got a wicked cramp in my neck that was unlike any I had experienced before.

Later, back at the event, we met two awesome chicks who said they had never had any paranormal experiences, but wanted to. I told them about this building, and we offered to take them there if they were down for it. Upon returning, we invited whatever entities where there to communicate with us. Boy, did they ever! One of the girls had her hair pulled, we had footsteps all around us, a visible orb we mistook for a flashlight at the time, and got knocks and bangs upon request. Interesting was the fact we had activity happening at more than one place simultaneously. It was most excellent!

We regrouped again later, and I asked a local historian if he was familiar with this building and what it used to be. He told me it was previously a warehouse, and that he was unsure of the building's origin. I thought to myself, “A warehouse? That makes no sense why this place would be so active and why I sensed multiple entities there”.

Later on that night, the town’s historical society put on a barbeque for the group. I was approached by two local women. They asked, “Are you the one that has been going into that building over there?” I thought, “Oh God, I am about to hear it for trespassing on these people’s property!” I told them I had gone in the building. They happened to be the daughters of the former owner. I asked what the building was. They told me it was, in fact, a warehouse. They also said they were interested to know what I thought as they had experienced unexplainable occurrences there before.

I told them, honestly, that I thought there were multiple human entities in the building. I told them about my interest in the historical significance of the place, and that I just got a “feeling” it was more than just a warehouse at some point in time. They said before there father bought it they were told it was a Confederate triage for treatment of soldiers wounded in the Civil War. I thought, “That makes more sense!” Obviously, to me, some people had in fact “checked out” in that place, and here was the validation I longed for. I noticed a confused look on my friends face. She told them that she had picked up on a black male in his mid-forties that was not of the Civil War era, but more recent. The two women looked at each other with dropped jaws. They told us he was the former supervisor of the warehouse, and they had suspected he may still reside there (postmortem).

The women said this supervisor was a voodoo man that wore some strange animal skull around his neck and carried a strange “brush” of human hair that he hexed workers with if they didn’t do what he asked. Their father had promoted him to supervisor because the workers were terrified of him and obeyed him. Also, they said he was a workaholic and had some nervous condition. I knew this was the negative feeling my fellows picked up on in the building. My friend asked, “He died there?” more like a statement. The women replied, “Yes! The voodoo supervisor was guiding a truck back and was crushed to death.” Whether that was intentional or accident remains for debate. I wondered if that was where the "phantom injuries" I felt from before originated.

Needless to say, the validation from these women was astonishing to say the least. It was one of the times I felt assured that these things were not all in my head. I am very fortunate and blessed to have experienced such great history, people, and paranormal mayhem.

“The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.” ~ Paul Ricoeur