This is my ghost story.
In the late summer of 2002, I packed up the family and headed off to Virginia Beach, Virginia for a job opportunity. We stopped by a hotel to rest and this is where our story begins.
THE STAGE:
I will give you a good description of the room and all events surrounding that evening while we slept.
The night was dry and stuffy. There was a thunderstorm that evening. We spent the night in a medium sized studio hotel room. We had two beds. Amber (my ex-wife) slept in the bed with me and Dorian (her son) slept in the other bed right next to ours. We set the heater at a comfortable setting and went to bed.
THE ENCOUNTER:
We all feel asleep nearly the same time. I was awakened by Amber suddenly, "Honey, there's something
in the bed with us." She yelled. Groggily, I informed her that she's simply dreaming and to go back to bed. A few minutes later she exclaimed that she felt something pulling the sheets off her body. I again, figured she must have gotten a dose of some crazy juice. We turned on the lights and looked around the room. Nothing. We turned back off the lights and went to bed. Suddenly, I felt a pulling at my legs. The blanket and sheets felt as if something or someone was pulling the covers off my legs.Needless to say, I freaked out! I turned over to Amber and yelled that I feel it too. She turned the lights back on and we jumped out of the bed. We lifted the blanket and searched. We found nothing. I immediately thought, "Ghost?" Amber laughed and reminded me to be skeptical. (I am The Infidel Guy after all.) Amber suggested mice, so we looked everywhere. Not even a slight crack. This was really perplexing, scary and even annoying.
I decided that this was going to be one of those mysteries that just couldn't be solved. Could it have been a ghost?
We both gathered the courage to try one more time to go to sleep. Right as Amber was about to turn the lights off I felt it again and heard a crackle under the covers and I felt a tug on my legs again! It was then that I realized what was happening. I told Amber to turn off the lights. Reluctantly, she turned off the lights. I said, "Baby, watch this." I grabbed the bedding and tossed it into the air. The entire room light up like a mini-lightning storm.
It was static electricity.
REFLECTIONS:
To some ghost believers, the ghost conclusion would have sufficed. All the evidence was there. Unexplained pulling? Must have been a ghost right? If my standard of evidence was very low.. I would have accepted that it was ghost. Perhaps a playful one. I possibly would have called in a séance to free this playful spirit.
I could have easily given up and claimed the supernatural. I wonder how many other people do the same thing when faced with NOT knowing the answer to something strange. Indeed, we see this often. Strange lights, a UFO?.. must be aliens piloting a spacecraft. No other explanation right? A woman's cancer goes into remission. Must be God right? Your socks keep disappearing, must be the sock gnome right?
Critical Investigation and supernaturalism just don't mix. All throughout history natural explanations have replaced supernatural ones. One could inductively conclude that god(s) could be replaced as well the more we learn about our Universe.
Oh, and where was Dorian during all of this? Dorian remained peacefully asleep. Oblivious. :)