Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And welcome back to Coast to Coast George Nori with
Speaker 2: Amelia Cutter will take calls with Amelia next hour here
Speaker 2: on Coast to Coast. One of her books is called
Speaker 2: This House, The True Story of a Girl and a Ghost.
Speaker 2: The girl was a fifteen year old named Nora tell
Speaker 2: us about her Amelia.
Speaker 3: So, fifteen year old Nora is actually eleven year old me.
Speaker 3: So I made some interesting and I know, yes, I
Speaker 3: made some interesting editorial choices when I was writing this book,
Speaker 3: which again was in two thousand and nine, twenty ten,
Speaker 3: before I was involved in like the true paranormal world
Speaker 3: of writing and the paranormal community. This was meant to
Speaker 3: be just a book for young adults, like a middle
Speaker 3: grade type of ya, you know, a novella type of read,
Speaker 3: And so I sort of turned it into a narrative
Speaker 3: about somebody slightly older than me because I thought I
Speaker 3: thought that was a good idea at the time, but
Speaker 3: in fact it is. It's parallel to my own story
Speaker 3: and my real journal notes from when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: when I was eleven and twelve are featured.
Speaker 4: In the book, and it is.
Speaker 3: It does chronicle the true story, but I sort of
Speaker 3: I changed the names, which is funny because it's really
Speaker 3: just me so but I had the joy of exploring
Speaker 3: this house. It's to put you kind of in my place.
Speaker 3: When I was a kid, I was a goofy kind
Speaker 3: of I don't know, a nerdy.
Speaker 4: I was a special kid. Again.
Speaker 3: I loved ghosts and hauntings. I latched onto that as
Speaker 3: an interest. I fancied myself a junior ghost hunter. My
Speaker 3: parents said it was okay for me to go inside
Speaker 3: the house, and so I did and really fell in
Speaker 3: love with the just the story of the house, what
Speaker 3: happened here, who lived here, what were their lives?
Speaker 4: Like? Who or the ghosts?
Speaker 2: You alone?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would, you know, I know right, I wouldn't
Speaker 3: probably wouldn't do it now, But I did when I
Speaker 3: was that age, and sometimes my parents would come with me.
Speaker 4: And then I did like a I.
Speaker 3: Did a presentation on ghosts for like my sixth grade
Speaker 3: English class, and so then one of my friends from
Speaker 3: my class came and we did a little we did
Speaker 3: a little walk through in the house during the day
Speaker 3: and you know, half the half the first floor floor
Speaker 3: was missing in one room, so we just didn't go
Speaker 3: in there, and nobody nobody ever got a leg through
Speaker 3: the floorboards or anything. We were always fairly safe.
Speaker 2: When you were in the house. Did anything bizarre happen?
Speaker 3: A lot of things, A lot of little things happened,
Speaker 3: so a lot of Oh my gosh, it really takes
Speaker 3: me back. The biggest, the biggest thing, the biggest thing
Speaker 3: that I can talk about, was when I actually had
Speaker 3: the experience of seeing the ghost of like a young boy.
Speaker 4: Or a young man.
Speaker 3: And this was the first and only time in my life.
Speaker 3: I've had a lot of really fascinating experiences, but this
Speaker 3: was the first and only time I would say that
Speaker 3: I was aware that I witnessed like a full body apparition.
Speaker 3: I had been exploring the house for some time. This
Speaker 3: was actually the same day that my friend from class,
Speaker 3: my sixth grade class, Graham, his name was Graham. He
Speaker 3: was there with me and my mom was there. This
Speaker 3: was during this day one o'clock in the afternoon, broad
Speaker 3: daylight kind of thing, and I had been saying how
Speaker 3: much I wanted to just see the ghosts again. All
Speaker 3: the ghosts were sort of nebulously referred to as Walter,
Speaker 3: but this Walter spirit was supposed to haunt the house,
Speaker 3: and I kept thinking, I just wish I could meet Walter.
Speaker 4: You know, I was a kid, so.
Speaker 3: Somehow I willed that into existence. And as we were
Speaker 3: leaving the house that day, I had like a very
Speaker 3: sentimental feeling in my life hard about it. I really
Speaker 3: loved this house, and I loved the idea of whoever
Speaker 3: these people were in their lifetime.
Speaker 4: And as we.
Speaker 3: Were pulling away, so the road is very close to
Speaker 3: where the house was, it was only about eight It's
Speaker 3: only located about eight feet from the actual from the
Speaker 3: road itself, And so as we were kind of pulling
Speaker 3: away looking up at the house, I looked up into
Speaker 3: the attic windows and then the back cover that would
Speaker 3: be the left side attic window, that is that's featured
Speaker 3: on the cover of the book, and I saw a
Speaker 3: boy or young youngish man, probably not much older than me,
Speaker 3: teenager type of thing.
Speaker 4: I saw him leaning.
Speaker 3: Out of one of the attic windows with both of
Speaker 3: his hands on the window. So I like, I can't
Speaker 3: remember what happened three days ago, but I can remember
Speaker 3: exactly what this experience was like. And he was completely white,
Speaker 3: So I only saw him from the waist up.
Speaker 4: He was completely white.
Speaker 3: He had no face. There was just a white face
Speaker 3: where his face would be.
Speaker 4: But it wasn't I.
Speaker 2: Mean, eyes, nose, mouths.
Speaker 3: Correct, So it wasn't like a like a scary like
Speaker 3: a vacuum or anything. It was just blank, almost like
Speaker 3: those sort of if you've ever seen one of those,
Speaker 3: like country style, like Amish dolls, they just have like
Speaker 3: a white face instead of any like facial features. But
Speaker 3: I could see he had curly hair. I could see
Speaker 3: he was wearing like a shirt with gathered cuffs, long
Speaker 3: sleeve and suspenders, and each detail in his clothing had
Speaker 3: it had shadows, and it had texture, but it was
Speaker 3: all these sort of shades of white and like beige.
Speaker 3: And as I was looking up at him, even though
Speaker 3: I couldn't see his face, I had this little swirling
Speaker 3: static electricity feeling in my stomach as if I was
Speaker 3: connecting directly to him. And I could tell that he
Speaker 3: was surprised that I could see him, and that Graham
Speaker 3: saw him too. And as the car went very slowly by,
Speaker 3: his head turned very mechanically and watched watched our car.
Speaker 4: Kind of pull away movie. Yes, and it just very
Speaker 4: I mean.
Speaker 3: It was wild, of course, yeah, almost mechanical, like a
Speaker 3: doll's head almost. And my mom, of course, she's obviously driving,
Speaker 3: so she didn't see what happened, but she could see
Speaker 3: that we're reacting to something and we're gasping.
Speaker 4: And I asked Graham immediately, I said, what did you
Speaker 4: What did you see?
Speaker 3: And he told me exactly what I saw.
Speaker 4: My mom, you know, stopped the car. We're going, you know, point.
Speaker 3: Point five miles an hour anyway, but she stopped the
Speaker 3: car and she's like, should I back up?
Speaker 4: Do you want me to back up?
Speaker 3: And I remember thinking to myself in my like, you know,
Speaker 3: young wisdom, I was like, don't back up, because if
Speaker 3: he's gone, I will second guess whether or not that
Speaker 3: actually happened, right, And if he's still there, I think
Speaker 3: then the experience might be then I might be scared.
Speaker 4: But as it was, I was just.
Speaker 3: Completely I was elated, I was fascinated. I felt honored
Speaker 3: in this way to have had this experience.
Speaker 4: It filled me with a.
Speaker 3: Lot of excitement about the world. So I respect and
Speaker 3: emphasize with people who kind of come from a place
Speaker 3: of having had really scary paranormal experiences for me, this
Speaker 3: was very formative in a positive way.
Speaker 2: Amilia. Do you think it was the house or the
Speaker 2: land that was haunted?
Speaker 3: I feel like it could have been a little bit
Speaker 3: of both. So that area, that land was really well preserved.
Speaker 3: Not a lot had changed about.
Speaker 4: The sort of the land, structure and.
Speaker 3: Layout of that area around my Lady's Manner.
Speaker 4: There were some newer.
Speaker 3: Houses that were built on the property within several miles,
Speaker 3: but they had mostly kept it kind of hacked, and
Speaker 3: so you know houses houses. This house had probably been
Speaker 3: there at the time or shortly after My Lady's Manner
Speaker 3: was built. And so I do believe that whoever this
Speaker 3: person was, that he had been an occupant of the house,
Speaker 3: or that he had worked on the property at some point.
Speaker 3: The way that his clothes kind of reminded me of
Speaker 3: it gave me like a vibe of like somebody who
Speaker 3: would have been like a worker or a stable boy.
Speaker 4: Type of thing. And that would be my best guest.
Speaker 2: By the way, were you named after Amelia your heart?
Speaker 1: I was so.
Speaker 3: I named after the Joni Mitchell song Amelia about Amelia
Speaker 3: Earhart's with the.
Speaker 2: Two first I knew it. How many people do you
Speaker 2: think you've interviewed paranormal.
Speaker 4: Wise, gosh, lots.
Speaker 3: A lot, a lot. And then I meet people at
Speaker 3: all the events and thinks that I go to. So
Speaker 3: people always want are eager to share their stories.
Speaker 4: So I've heard.
Speaker 3: So many different stories from people and have collected a
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of information, a lot of emotions
Speaker 3: over the years.
Speaker 2: Probably like me, my role is not to destroy their story,
Speaker 2: but to get it in, to let people listen and
Speaker 2: let people make up their own minds about what the
Speaker 2: person has said. Did you find that to be the
Speaker 2: case when you interviewed all these people, You're not out
Speaker 2: to really chastise them or praise them. You're there for
Speaker 2: the information.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So I'm there for the story. I'm there to
Speaker 3: understand their emotional connections.
Speaker 4: To their experience. And I do think that.
Speaker 3: We need to offer spaces for people to tell their
Speaker 3: stories judgment free, regardless of whether we believe them, whether
Speaker 3: we believe that it was even you know, paranormal or
Speaker 3: something else that could have been going on. It's for me,
Speaker 3: it's like it's not even for me to say and
Speaker 3: to just sort of be somebody that listens and validates
Speaker 3: people's experiences because these experiences are real, whether we want
Speaker 3: to judge them as true or not, They're still there's
Speaker 3: still real experiences, if that makes sense. They've happened, and
Speaker 3: how people perceive them might be one thing. But I
Speaker 3: find you know, skeptics are one thing to deal with
Speaker 3: in believing people's stories, but I think some of the
Speaker 3: harshest critics are other people who are ghosts and paranormal
Speaker 3: minded folks are often you know, the biggest poopoers of
Speaker 3: other people's like stories and experiences, and I've over the years,
Speaker 3: I've observed that a lot, and I've really grown to
Speaker 3: want to get away from that type of mentality of
Speaker 3: just be constant, just be relentlessly bumping.
Speaker 2: Have your views on the paranormal changed over the years.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, so.
Speaker 3: I have kind of gone through the gambit of feelings
Speaker 3: around ghosts. When I joined the paranormal community here in
Speaker 3: Chicago around the twenty tens, right when ghost hunting TV
Speaker 3: shows were super popular, there was a very like formulaic
Speaker 3: approach to how we're going to look at ghosts and
Speaker 3: be really you know, I kind of fed into that
Speaker 3: for a little bit, and now I'm a little embarrassed
Speaker 3: that I did not that there's anything wrong with some
Speaker 3: of those methods when it comes to ghost hunting. But
Speaker 3: I've decided instead of being there doesn't.
Speaker 4: Serve me to be more close minded.
Speaker 3: Why am I attracted to this interest with paranormal experiences
Speaker 3: of my own if I'm going to come into it
Speaker 3: and be a curudgeon, right, So I had really expanded
Speaker 3: my horizons, I would say, And then in the last
Speaker 3: couple of years, I've really tried to broaden into the
Speaker 3: bigger picture, which I think is trending. A lot of
Speaker 3: people are starting to do that now, more broadly, looking
Speaker 3: just a more holistically at paranormal at the world of
Speaker 3: paranormal experiences. I know, it's like a joke. People will
Speaker 3: used to ufo people and big foot people and ghost
Speaker 3: people used to all be different people, and they were
Speaker 3: all always getting on each other's nerves. And now everybody's
Speaker 3: kind of coming together to talk.
Speaker 2: We're going to take your calls next hour with Amelia Cutter.
Speaker 2: Will take your questions or stories that you might have,
Speaker 2: so jump aboard and share them with us. What do
Speaker 2: you think a ghost is, Amelia?
Speaker 3: Oh, that's a really good question. I don't I don't know,
Speaker 3: and I've spent obviously a lot of time thinking about it.
Speaker 4: I do believe it.
Speaker 3: Is something physical, and I think it sort of touches
Speaker 3: a lot of different areas. It's a little bit of science,
Speaker 3: it's a little bit of spirituality.
Speaker 4: I do think it is something.
Speaker 3: I do think a ghost is something physical, whether it
Speaker 3: is the spirit of a person who has passed on
Speaker 3: or somebody that has you know, never lived, or if
Speaker 3: it's an echo that is held in stone and wood
Speaker 3: and rock and the earth. I'm open to all of
Speaker 3: those possibilities.
Speaker 2: It is truly remarkable. What is your website?
Speaker 3: My website is Ameliacotter dot com.
Speaker 2: We've got that linked up at costacostam dot com. How
Speaker 2: many books you've been working on? And what's next right now?
Speaker 3: I've got another poetry collection on deck, so deviating a
Speaker 3: little bit from the paranormal stuff, I'm working on a
Speaker 3: second edition for the Ghosts of the Old Barboo Inn book,
Speaker 3: and I'm doing a lot of different research papers and
Speaker 3: articles right now on true paranormal encounters, including trying to
Speaker 3: chronicle some more of my own and kind of and
Speaker 3: get those out there. At the same time that I'm
Speaker 3: looking into some other cool things as well.
Speaker 2: Maryland, How haunted is that state?
Speaker 3: Quite very extremely cool states, fantastic state, full of wonderful
Speaker 3: history and a wonderful landscape sort of packed into the
Speaker 3: teeny tiny area, and you you know, you'll trip over
Speaker 3: the haunted places no matter what direction you go in.
Speaker 2: Truly remarkable. Meally, we're going to take calls with you
Speaker 2: that could precipitate any kind of story for you. You might
Speaker 2: be able to write a new book based on these
Speaker 2: calls that come in the U Walter story that you
Speaker 2: told us with the ghost that was whisking her way around,
Speaker 2: did that ever have a conclusion?
Speaker 4: No, I suppose so.
Speaker 3: Within the confines of the restaurant itself, people had seen
Speaker 3: this woman again and again in this sort of victorian dress,
Speaker 3: and there were some others typical haunting experiences, people afraid
Speaker 3: to go down into the wine cellar, having their clothing
Speaker 3: tugged and their shoulder tapped on, so it felt like,
Speaker 3: you know, whatever was in there was a little bit
Speaker 3: playful and like to kind of spook people, but predominantly
Speaker 3: a friendly haunting. And my dad used to, you know,
Speaker 3: tell me those stories when he would get home from
Speaker 3: work late at night.
Speaker 2: Where does the evil come in with some of these ghosts.
Speaker 3: I just it's hard for me to wrap my mind.
Speaker 3: I know that people dedicate a lot of study to
Speaker 3: you know, dark entities, and I've certainly encountered things that
Speaker 3: didn't feel friendly. I feel like whatever the spirit world is,
Speaker 3: it consists of different types of entities the way that
Speaker 3: our world exists, you know, we see things in the
Speaker 3: sort of biblical good versus evil, you know, black and
Speaker 3: white type of thinking. But I don't feel like there
Speaker 3: would be any reasons for this spirit world to kind
Speaker 3: of be good or bad according to like our like
Speaker 3: moral understanding. In other cultures, you know, entities generally tend
Speaker 3: to be more like, have more human characteristics, where they're
Speaker 3: neither neither good nor evil. And so it's difficult for
Speaker 3: me to sort of put that into to categorize that,
Speaker 3: especially given that the nature of a lot of evil
Speaker 3: hauntings has to do with things that you'd think that
Speaker 3: sort of you know, demons would have a lot more
Speaker 3: power than just banging around.
Speaker 4: In the middle of the night and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: But that is not, of course to dismiss like the
Speaker 3: incredible stories that people have of possessions and and I
Speaker 3: ask myself the.
Speaker 2: Same question, have you ever witnessed an exorcism?
Speaker 3: I have never witnessed an exorcism, but I have witnessed
Speaker 3: people being taken over by some type of energy and
Speaker 3: it was definitely, uh, nothing to nothing to trifle with.
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