Monday, June 6, 2011

A Ghost for Christmas

       Every year at Christmastime, people receive various types of presents: the "exactly what they wanted" kind, the "I suppose it'll come in handy" kind, and the "well, it's the thought that counts" kind. Except for fourteen-year-old Jason of Savannah, Georgia, the gift his father, Al Cobb, gave him doesn't exactly fit into these categories. Why? Well, would you want a haunted bed for Christmas?
       In 1998, after three days of owning the antique bed from the 1800's, Jason began to complain about it. He told his parents that it felt as though someone had "planted elbows on his pillow and was watching him and breathing cold air down the back of his neck." The next night, Jason noticed a photograph of his deceased grandparents turned over on his nightstand, so he set it back up correctly. The next day, it was facing down once again. That same day, after having breakfast, he returned to his room to find two Beanie Babies next to a conch shell, a dinosaur made of shells, and a plaster toucan bird setting on the middle of his bed.
       This odd occurrence caught Jason's parents' attention, and his dad decided to discover if there was a ghost haunting his son by calling out, "Do we have a Casper here? Tell me your name and how old you are." Al then left a piece of paper and crayons in the room and escorted his family out. After fifteen minutes, the family returned to find, in block-y, vertical, child-like letters, written: Danny, 7.
       Al Cobb continued to communicate with the ghost through these notes, and he came to know that Danny's mom had died in the bed in 1899 so Danny wanted to stay with it. The ghost-child made it clear that he did not want anybody to sleep in it by leaving a note reading, "No one sleep in bed." The same day that the family found that note, Jason, who had now moved out of the room, decided to spread out on the bed and pretend to take a nap. When he returned to the room later to grab his sweater, a terra cotta head that had been hanging on the wall flew across the room, narrowly missing Jason before smashing against the closet door. 
       Jane Fishman, a reporter who investigated the stories about a possible haunting at the Cobb's, wrote, “No one really knows who – or what – is leaving the copious notes, moving the furniture, opening the kitchen drawers, setting the dining room table, flipping over the chairs, lighting the candles, arranging the posters to spell out a person’s name, Jill, then hanging the finished product on a bedroom wall."
       Jason also claims that there are other spirits haunting his house: Uncle Sam, a man who came to get his daughter whom he says is buried under the house; Gracie, a young girl whose sculpture is in the Bonaventure Cemetery; Jill, a young woman who left many notes like Danny's, one of which was inviting the Cobbs to a party in their living room.
       So, are you following this? Believing it? Do you believe: that the antique bed is haunted? That the entire house is haunted by multiple spirits? That Al Cobb just so happened to have the perfect occurence to write a book on? That Jason can suddenly talk with and understand spirits? Do you believe poltergeists exist?
       Well, according to parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, it was not the bed, but rather where the bed was placed. Mr. Nichols stated, "It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall – that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the bed there – that charged a psychic ability that the boy already had.”
       So, it was a good Christmas present after all, but the placement of it couldn't have been worse.

No comments:

Post a Comment