I'm sleepwalking again. 

At 1:13a this morning I found myself about to wake the girls to head out the door for Take Your Kids to Work day with their father, who was blissfully unaware of my wandering feet. I couldn't figure out why Bryan wouldn't get the heck out of bed AND WHERE IS THE COFFEE and I like salamanders. After the salamander thought flit through my head, I realized something was up and went back to bed. I found myself wandering the house again a few hours later looking for the freaking salamanders.

I was a big sleepwalker as a kid. I'd awake in the yard with my ancient cat looking at me like I was off my nut but standing guard until I picked my way back over the bushes and through the sliding glass door to the kitchen. Now Vyo has taken up the reigns and goes on midnight walkabouts. Remember the scene in Paranormal Activity when Katie stands over the sleeping Micah for hours? Vyolette does that to me. I only peed a little when I woke up to THAT.

Were you a sleepwalker or a sleeping beauty?

Can a Ghost Follow You Home?

I love to answer questions about the paranormal at my blog Ask a Ghost Hunter. For years, I've been helping families deal with things that may not be a late-night burrito after all and get a handle on what could be happening in their houses. A few things to keep in mind, however:

• 99% of "hauntings" can be explained by boring reasons: leaky pipes, chatty neighbors whose voices float in via windows and venting pipes, critters, and scary trees that should have been chopped down long ago.
  
• Don't assume that because you think it's a ghost, everyone else needs to think it's a ghost as well. Keep an open mind but not so open that your brain falls out. Be a skeptic first, then look for floating heads.

The questions I get at AGH are mostly thought-provoking and sometimes heartbreaking and I try to keep moving the conversation forward to make a scary situation into an adventure.

The question below is one I get the most traffic on. Since answering this online, I've had more activity in my new house involving shadow people and a small girl running through the living room that wasn't my six-year-old.

Have a question for me? Email me at stacey.i.graham[at]gmail.com and we'll see what's going bump in your house.  ;)

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Hi I have a few questions to ask. If you can answer with best knowledge you can.

1. If I was on a ghost hunt in lets say an old house and I come across a spirit. Can it follow me home?

2. Has anyone that you know come across this?

3. Can A spirit be attach to a person? Not to a love one but someone that it doesn't know?


Thank You
Andrew V.


Hi Andrew,

Thanks for writing! Let's get busy:

1. If I was on a ghost hunt in lets say an old house and I come across a spirit. Can it follow me home?

I have heard of some ghosts following investigators home and I have had a few myself. I wouldn't call it common but sometimes spirits are curious as to whom is chasing them around so diligently. As for my ghost, I would see a figure on my stairs while I work at my desk, just watching...watching. Another time I returned home late from an investigation and just as I was falling asleep I heard a voice yell in my face, "HELLO!" At least they were friendly.

2. Has anyone that you know come across this?

I have found that the more sensitive the investigator, the more likely I'll hear about activity after they return from a hunt. They may simply be more aware of their surroundings, however.

3. Can A spirit be attach to a person? Not to a love one but someone that it doesn't know?

I believe that a spirit is able to do quite a bit of what it sets its mind to. Be it following someone interesting home or staying put in a familiar place, it has the ability to attach itself to anything that it feels like. This may certainly change over the years as the living die or houses razed for newer construction but I've heard of families haunted for generations.

Thank you, Andrew,

Stacey

da Vinci riding the space shuttle and other things I did on a rainy Sunday

A friend flew in to DC last weekend and I got the chance to do something I very rarely do: go to an art museum. I'll explain. Five kids and a husband whose very existence depends on free parking on the National Mall leaves my nerves a bit frayed every time we go downtown so when I had the chance to spend time with my beloved paintings and sculptures at the National Gallery of Art with someone who didn't get us thrown out (it's happened more than once) because of sticky fingers pointing a little too closely at the Monets, I was all for it.