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 you.
Speaker 2: Paranormal investigator, ghost hunter and author Ross Allison with us
Speaker 2: lectures to thousands of students and people throughout the US
Speaker 2: on the ghost hunting adventures and as Todd is such
Speaker 2: far away locases as London, Canada, Scotland. His latest book
Speaker 2: is called Haunted Historical Hotel. Ross, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2: How have you been?
Speaker 3: I've been pretty good.
Speaker 1: How you been good?
Speaker 2: All is good? You still checking into haunted things?
Speaker 3: I am?
Speaker 2: Why did you? How did you get interested in all this?
Speaker 3: Well? I always tell the story that my mother got
Speaker 3: me involved in ghost hunting because as a kid, I
Speaker 3: just grew up listening to her ghost stories and I
Speaker 3: was always fascinated with these stories, wanting to know do
Speaker 3: people really experience this phenomena? And so for me it
Speaker 3: was just like curiosity, wanting to see if there was
Speaker 3: any truth behind and all of that.
Speaker 2: Where did mom get the ghost stories?
Speaker 3: Oh, she'd find them in like local newspapers and in
Speaker 3: a lot a lot of the books and stuff like that.
Speaker 3: I remember one story she told me as a kid,
Speaker 3: was about a couple that wanted to leave for a party,
Speaker 3: and as soon as they were getting ready to leave
Speaker 3: for a party, they couldn't find their keys, and they
Speaker 3: searched and searched because they thought something that happened, some
Speaker 3: weird happened with their keys, and it come to find
Speaker 3: out the ghosts had hid them in a box in
Speaker 3: their closet, and if they had left when they were
Speaker 3: supposed to leave, that they actually would have been killed
Speaker 3: in a horrible car accident that just happened down their street.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting how impressionable we are as kids.
Speaker 2: Row So my mother did the same as yours, except
Speaker 2: she went into the UFO route, in the extraterrestrial route
Speaker 2: when I was little, and it obsessed me with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was one of those things. I was one
Speaker 3: of those kids that was constant checking out all the
Speaker 3: ghost books of the library and failing to return them.
Speaker 3: So I got in trouble for that.
Speaker 2: Now, when you decided to become a paranormal investigator, how
Speaker 2: did that all come about?
Speaker 3: Well, I was actually living in the Bay Area out
Speaker 3: of San Francisco, and I had always, again, like I said,
Speaker 3: been fascinating with the paranormal. But luckily down there I
Speaker 3: was able to pursue it. It wasn't a thing in
Speaker 3: the Northwest, or in the Seattle area, i should say.
Speaker 3: And so while I was down there, I got to
Speaker 3: work with a lot of the names down there. Lloyd
Speaker 3: Auerbach actually took a few of his lectures and classes.
Speaker 3: And when I moved back to Washington, and this is
Speaker 3: before ghost hunting became a huge thing, the ghost hunting
Speaker 3: shows did not exist. And it was two thousand and
Speaker 3: I had moved back to Washington, and I wanted to
Speaker 3: continue learning about the paranormal, but there wasn't anything out there,
Speaker 3: you know, in the state of Washington. So I actually
Speaker 3: h one night, it was around Halloween. I said, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm going to get a few of my friends together
Speaker 3: that there's a local cemetery down the street. We're going
Speaker 3: to check it out. But of course my friends they're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that sounds like a lot of fun, but we want
Speaker 3: to hit the bars first. Yeah, a bunch of drunks
Speaker 3: in the cemetery is not a good idea. No, So
Speaker 3: a friend of mine just said, why didn't you start
Speaker 3: your own group? So I did, and it really took
Speaker 3: off from there.
Speaker 2: This paranormal experience. How do you explain it?
Speaker 3: Well, a paranormal experience for me is a little bit
Speaker 3: different than a lot of people. You know, when you
Speaker 3: get into the fact. You know, people believe in ghosts already.
Speaker 3: It doesn't take much to convince them. You know, a
Speaker 3: knock on the on the wall could convince anybody that
Speaker 3: it could be a ghost. But for me, it's a
Speaker 3: lot more challenging. I want more out of it rather
Speaker 3: than just that knock. I want to see if we
Speaker 3: could have three points of data. Is there you know,
Speaker 3: some sort of reading happening at that exact moment? Is there,
Speaker 3: you know, a temperature variance? Can we get something you
Speaker 3: know with video as well? Is there you know anything
Speaker 3: else that can add to that experience to help validate
Speaker 3: something more to it than just the knock on the wall.
Speaker 3: So I tend to be a little more throle or
Speaker 3: I guess I challenged myself as a paranormal investigator to
Speaker 3: try and validate paranormal experiences.
Speaker 2: Russ, How did you come across haunted toys?
Speaker 3: Well, that was a funny thing. David Weatherly actually approached
Speaker 3: me and wanted to do some work on writing some
Speaker 3: books together, and so our first project was Haunted Toys
Speaker 3: because we both had a collection of haunted objects and
Speaker 3: toys was a great thing to actually because our main
Speaker 3: goal was to get the book out before Christmas, we
Speaker 3: thought this would be a great way to get some
Speaker 3: ghost stories stirred up around the Christmas season. And it
Speaker 3: was a huge success. People loved it, and so we
Speaker 3: kind of continued on with the series and still doing
Speaker 3: more work today.
Speaker 2: You're still working with David is a great guy.
Speaker 3: Oh, he's a wonderful guy. I love working with a guy.
Speaker 2: I love his Black Eyed Kids' stories.
Speaker 3: Oh. Yes, he's been doing a lot of cryptid stuff
Speaker 3: as well. So he's doing lots of books on all
Speaker 3: of the encrypted stuff to state by state. So then doing
Speaker 3: a lot of amazing work.
Speaker 2: Now, how does the toy get haunted?
Speaker 3: Well, there are three different beliefs. There's basically, an object
Speaker 3: can absorb the essence of its owner, especially when it
Speaker 3: comes to children. I don't know if you know a child,
Speaker 3: but a children can become very obsessed with a toy
Speaker 3: and so sometimes that energy can carry on into the toy.
Speaker 3: Then you also have just an object being you know,
Speaker 3: possessed by a spirit. So you've got situations like maybe
Speaker 3: a wedding ring where a bride is attached to that ring,
Speaker 3: and so when she dies, she continues to hold on
Speaker 3: to that. And then of course you have a situation
Speaker 3: where people believe that they could, through rituals, have some
Speaker 3: sort of energy attached to an object as well, such
Speaker 3: as like voodoo or any other spiritual beliefs.
Speaker 2: Rush is it the toy itself that creates the issue
Speaker 2: or is it the fact that somebody is possessing it.
Speaker 3: Well, again, it's like I said, with a child putting
Speaker 3: so much energy into a toy, I think sometimes these
Speaker 3: toys can become its own entity, you know, whether it's
Speaker 3: like the same phenomena as an imaginary friend, whereas somehow
Speaker 3: they can actually filter that energy into that object. And
Speaker 3: then there's like I said, there's that situation whereas something
Speaker 3: wants to be attached to it, whether it is a
Speaker 3: ghost haunting the location and it is attached to a toy.
Speaker 3: So you know, it just varies on the situation.
Speaker 2: John Zapfis has shown us that other objects can be
Speaker 2: haunted as well.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, definitely not just toys. This is the
Speaker 3: reason why we may have haunted houses. You know, you
Speaker 3: think about it as a wealthy person puts so much
Speaker 3: time and energy to build their mansion, something that you know,
Speaker 3: identifies their success in life. And sometimes you know, there's
Speaker 3: lots of stories where these wealthy people die before their
Speaker 3: mansion is completed, or they want to hold on to
Speaker 3: that mansion because this is again some sort of status
Speaker 3: as who they were, and so a lot of times
Speaker 3: they can be attached to just the house alone.
Speaker 2: Russ. If somebody were given a haunted toy, would it
Speaker 2: stay haunted or does it dissipate?
Speaker 3: I think it could depend on the situation. One of
Speaker 3: the things that we always question is why is an
Speaker 3: object haunted. We don't always have that direct communication with
Speaker 3: the other side to understand why something chooses to attach
Speaker 3: itself and how long right exactly or even how long.
Speaker 3: I've always felt that there's not always an easy, you
Speaker 3: know process for you know, ghostbusting. I think a lot
Speaker 3: of times, if you are dealing with something that's intelligent,
Speaker 3: it may be some sort of counseling session, you know,
Speaker 3: to help them to understand, you know, what's going on.
Speaker 3: There's no reason for you to be here anymore, you
Speaker 3: can move on. And I think due to our limited
Speaker 3: communication with the other side, we don't always are able to,
Speaker 3: you know, pass on that information, just as much as
Speaker 3: they can't always pass on the information to us as
Speaker 3: to why they're there.
Speaker 2: Can this toy sometimes be the haunted version of the
Speaker 2: kid that was the owner and maybe the kid died.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah. In fact, I've got a great story. One
Speaker 3: of my favorite stories to tell is called the Haunted Lamb,
Speaker 3: And this was a little stuffed lamb that this little girl,
Speaker 3: her name was cindysho is about six years old, and
Speaker 3: she's obsessed with this toy. He kept it with her
Speaker 3: at all times. She even bathed with this toy. And
Speaker 3: one day she was crossing the streets and she was
Speaker 3: struck by a taxicab and it actually during the impact,
Speaker 3: her and the lamb went separate ways, and of course,
Speaker 3: you know, she unfortunately died, and her mother went back
Speaker 3: to the scene of the crime, and she actually was
Speaker 3: trying to, you know, find this lamb because she wanted
Speaker 3: her daughter to be buried with her treasured toy, and
Speaker 3: she could not find this lamb anywhere. Well, the funeral
Speaker 3: ended up happening and the next day when she came home,
Speaker 3: she found that stuffed lamb sitting on her porch. Now,
Speaker 3: she was grateful to have this toy. Yeah, it was returned,
Speaker 3: but no one left the notes. No one ever reached
Speaker 3: out to her to you know, just to address the fact,
Speaker 3: you know, making sure she got the lamb. So she
Speaker 3: has no idea how this, you know, lamb came about
Speaker 3: back into her life. But she brought the lamb into
Speaker 3: the house and she put it on her daughter's bed.
Speaker 3: She went to bed that night. When she woke up,
Speaker 3: the lamb was actually sitting in front of the TV
Speaker 3: in the exact same spot where her daughter would always
Speaker 3: sit to watch her favorite show. And this happened almost
Speaker 3: on a daily basis. This lamb would show up in
Speaker 3: different locations. I would sit at the table, she'd find
Speaker 3: it at the table where her daughter always sat, you know,
Speaker 3: in her favorite play area. Now realizing that this was
Speaker 3: most likely her daughter communicating with her, and she was
Speaker 3: at the time was not a believer in ghost so
Speaker 3: she really didn't know what to do with this experience
Speaker 3: that she was having. So she ended up reaching out
Speaker 3: to a local ghost hunter and they decided to try
Speaker 3: EVP electronic voice phenomena, and so they sat the lamb
Speaker 3: on a table, set a recorder right next to it,
Speaker 3: and of course tried to reach out to the little girl.
Speaker 3: And one night when they were doing this EVP session,
Speaker 3: when they played back the recording, they actually heard a
Speaker 3: little girl crying. And this was the first time that
Speaker 3: her mother had actually heard her daughter. And so that
Speaker 3: night she just could not sleep. She was tossed and turned,
Speaker 3: and so she got up. She went into her daughter's
Speaker 3: room and she laid on her daughter's bed and she
Speaker 3: had the lamb sitting right next to her, and she
Speaker 3: finally was able to fall asleep, but she was awoken
Speaker 3: by a strange noise in the room and she opens
Speaker 3: her eyes and she looks over and she sees the
Speaker 3: silhouette of her daughter standing in the doorway. Now she
Speaker 3: couldn't say anything, she couldn't move, She wasn't terrified, but
Speaker 3: she was just in somewhat shock but be calm at
Speaker 3: the same time. And she just locked, you know, onto
Speaker 3: this image of her daughter, and then it just faded away.
Speaker 2: Did she think she had a dream, No, she didn't think.
Speaker 3: She had a dream. She just felt that this was
Speaker 3: her daughter and The thing is is after that experience
Speaker 3: that Lamb never moved again, and she never had that
Speaker 3: experience ever again. She never saw her daughter or heard
Speaker 3: her daughter. And she thinks that the reason why her
Speaker 3: daughter was crying on that recording is because she was
Speaker 3: saying goodbye.
Speaker 2: I was just going to say, she hadn't had a
Speaker 2: chance to say goodbye exactly, and she moved on finally,
Speaker 2: and she did. Do you think most spirits eventually move on?
Speaker 3: I think, and in time. I think there are a
Speaker 3: lot of situations. Well, you know, if you think about
Speaker 3: some of the oldest ghost stories, you know, tied to castles,
Speaker 3: there are some hauntings that still happen to this day,
Speaker 3: you know, stories that date back to you know, early
Speaker 3: you know, seventeen hundreds, eighteen hundreds, and so I think
Speaker 3: that activity can carry on. But in some cases, I
Speaker 3: think some of that activity is more residual rather than
Speaker 3: an intelligent haunting. I think in some cases, intelligent hauntings
Speaker 3: may have the opportunity to move on. Residual is just
Speaker 3: that trapped memory that just plays itself out over and
Speaker 3: over and over again. So I think, in fact, here's
Speaker 3: another great story. We were doing a case where a
Speaker 3: young man had died in an apartment. He had committed
Speaker 3: suicide the drug overdose or in a party. And since then,
Speaker 3: this young this young lady was living in the room
Speaker 3: where this had happened, and she would wake up in
Speaker 3: the middle of the night the strange noises. She would
Speaker 3: actually see him standing in the corner of her room.
Speaker 3: Her closet door would open and close by itself, and
Speaker 3: you know, she was terrified. She didn't know what to do.
Speaker 3: She had heard the story of the young man that
Speaker 3: died in the apartment, you know, previous to them moving in,
Speaker 3: and so they called on us to do an investigation.
Speaker 3: And I brought in a psychic. And the interesting thing
Speaker 3: was is I don't tell anybody that claims to be
Speaker 3: psychic any information. I don't even let them know where
Speaker 3: they're investigating exactly. I really try to focus on building credibility.
Speaker 3: And so you know, she was brought in and she
Speaker 3: immediately did pick up on this young man. But the
Speaker 3: surprising thing was is she said that it wasn't a suicide.
Speaker 3: She's telling us that, you know, he just was he
Speaker 3: was upset because the story was that him and his
Speaker 3: girlfriend had just broken up, and so he you know,
Speaker 3: that's why they felt that he had committed suicide because
Speaker 3: he was depressed over this. Well, through her interpretation, she
Speaker 3: believes that it wasn't a suicide. He was just partying
Speaker 3: a little too hard and didn't know when to stop.
Speaker 3: And as soon as she passed that information onto us
Speaker 3: and we were able to pass it on to friends
Speaker 3: and family of that young man, the activity completely stopped.
Speaker 3: And I think that's exactly what he was trying to
Speaker 3: tell people, is that it wasn't suicide. He just didn't
Speaker 3: know when to stop.
Speaker 2: Do you think ross that most hauntings are ghosts and
Speaker 2: spirits trying to pass on information and like you say,
Speaker 2: once they do it stops.
Speaker 3: I do. I do. But then I think sometimes they
Speaker 3: don't know how to let go again. If you are
Speaker 3: dealing with, you know, that intelligent factor, they don't know
Speaker 3: how to let go, or they don't want to let go.
Speaker 3: But I do think there's a lot of situations where
Speaker 3: they they just want to hang on for a little bit.
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