I attended
the H.P.I. Northern CA Paranormal Conference
2007 at the Brookdale Lodge in Brookdale CA.
this past weekend, (supposedly one of the
most haunted sites in California). I had never
attended any such thing in the past, though
I do believe in Ghosts and Spirits. I always
had my reasons for not attending any such
event in the past; firstly, I always thought
that only insane people would do such a thing
and secondly with some of my past experiences
with the spirits, I didn’t want to be
put into a situation where the dead were being
invited to the party. But being optimistic,
I was actually excited about attending. I
avoided any research on the Hotel, as I didn’t
want anything to taint my paranormal adventure.
Well, my first reason to
avoid a Paranormal Conference I now know to
be false. Everyone I met was very nice, and
I learned quit a few things about myself I
did not know. All my life I have suffered
from sudden anxiety and at times overcome
with strange emotions that I could not explain.
I have unintentionally run into some spirits
who literally showed me exactly how they were
feeling. I have also had times when I have
known that things have happened to people
before I was told (not a fun feeling). So,
I found myself with a group that I could share
my stories and experiences with and not get
the “look”…you know the
one…the blank stare of “oh my
god she’s loosing it”. I never
new exactly what it was that I had, until
someone gave me a new word in my vocabulary,
empath. It was explained to me that it was
a psychic gift…I was thinking, I don’t
remember unwrapping this gift while sitting
under the Christmas Tree…what kind of
gift is “empathic”. Ok, at least
I was happy to know I wasn’t the only
one who had this “gift”, and some
have it worse than me. Then I was told that
with all the psychic energy that was at the
Hotel for the Conference, I might be a bit
more sensitive than usual…Greeeaaat!
So, ok, I think I can embrace this as a gift,
maybe even work with it. I figured, we are
in a haunted hotel, with psychics ready to
draw out the energy…let’s see
what I can do with this. So, I opened myself
up....the rest of the evening was a bit emotional.
Have you heard this one
before?….an empath walks into a bar…Ok,
I went into the bar at the hotel to close
out my tab…yes, a huge tab of $6.00.
I was standing there waiting. Someone came
over and was standing a bar stool away from,
he was not a happy camper…as a matter
of fact, he was very upset, bordering on angry...the
feeling gave me goose flesh. Now, the angry
feeling was not the freakiest part, the fact
that no one was actually there completely
blew my mind. So, I looked at the bartender,
and asked her for another drink before closing
out my tab. I grabbed my drink and left the
man, still there and still upset…about
what who knows, and I wasn’t going to
stay there to find out.
Many of the speakers at
the conference all spoke of there experiences,
many of them being from Paranormal Investigative
groups. One of the speakers was Nancy Bradley,
a well known psychic. I found myself listening
intently to every word she had to say. After
she was done speaking I had a chance to talk
to her briefly, unlike most people, I wasn’t
really trying to find out anything about myself,
I wanted to know more about her and her experience.
Also, talking to here was another woman. She
was asking Nancy about her career and where
she thought it might go…then the conversation
turned to past lives. Ok, this I had to get
in on. I briefly asked her what she saw for
me in regards to my past life. She absolutely
floored me with two words… “Civil
War”. I did not ask anymore, because
frankly that was enough for me in regards
to the “freak out factor” Keep
in mind, Nancy Bradley knows nothing about
me. Now, why would the words “Civil
War” make my jaw drop. Well, ever since
I was a kid, I have been fascinated with the
American Civil War. Every report I ever did,
that would allow me, had something to do with
the Civil War….My President report was
on Lincoln, my report on a famous woman was
Clara Barton…I did a report on the influences
the Civil War had on modern medical practices.
When I was 20, I joined a Civil War Reenactment
Group…I knew no one in the group, I
just saw them at a Park and joined on the
spot. I think the creepiest thing for me was
when I went to Virginia to tour the Civil
War Battlefields...we came to this one spot
known as the Horseshoe…the problem was
that it was not the first time I had been
there…I started to have an anxiety attack
and had to leave.
Next on the list of activities
for the Paranormal Conference was a séance
led by Nancy Bradley (www.NancyBradley.org)
in the old log cabin. The cabin is supposedly
filled with spiritual energy. So, they placed
about 65-70 of us into this cabin, forming
a circle around the room, leaving the center
of the floor open. The stone fireplace was
going with large flames. I stood near the
fireplace…a spot where Nancy said the
energy was the strongest. People were blinding
me with their cameras, all hoping to catch
some spiritual phenomenon. The lights were
turned off…but the flashes continued
to light the room, and blind me. The séance
started, but the flash bulbs became too much
for me. I found a log that was turned upright
and I decided to sit there. I put my hand
over my eyes to shield me from the flashing.
Eventually the flashing calmed down. Nancy
would point out were she felt energy and would
describe what she saw. My friend, Shannon
McCabe (President of H.P.I. Paranormal) was
on the floor a few feet away from me. She
started feeling anxious like she was having
an asthma attack. Nancy came over to check
the energy and felt, that where Shannon was
sitting, a man had been hurt very badly in
this spot. Roger, a Brookdale Lodge employee,
confirmed that he had fallen through the floor
in this very spot! He had hurt his leg badly
and is now cruising around the Lodge in a
scooter. At this point I was sitting on the
log…half listening to Nancy…I
had my eyes slightly closed…and I was
saying under my breath… “If there
is anyone here that needs help, I am here
for you”. I said this over and over
under my breath…then it hit suddenly
and quickly. I was overwhelmed with a feeling
of anxiety and fright…I began to shake
and cry…my heart was pounding so fast,
I thought it was going to fly out of my chest.
My body became weak. I was trying to get someone’s
attention. Finally, I felt my friends, Shannon
and Carol Gillis of H.P.I. lifting me up and
comforting me. My legs were so weak I could
hardly walk. As they took me away from the
fire place, the anxiety and fear began to
lessen and my strength began to return. They
took me outside into the rainy night air.
After a few moments, against the advice of
my friends, I returned to the cabin…not
because I wanted to, but because I had to.
At this point, no one wanted to leave my side,
and I was happy to have them there.
Once the séance
was over, I saw my friend Shannon talking
to another woman…the woman was asking
about the person who had the anxiety attack.
Shannon told the lady that it was me. The
lady turned out to be another psychic (Anne
from H.P.I. Paranormal). She told me she was
feeling energy next to the wood pile, almost
exactly where I had been sitting. She asked
if I was OK with standing there…she
assured me that she could keep me grounded.
So, I stood with my back to the wood pile,
Anne took my hands and told me to breathe
in through my nose and out my mouth and clear
my mind. No sooner did I do that I was hit
with that feeling again….anxious, scared,
confused…I began to cry uncontrollably.
Anne talked to me to calm me down…but
it wasn’t me that needed to be calmed.
She pulled me a few inches away from the wood
pile. She asked me to picture whoever it was
in my mind. Then, I saw her…a young
girl…blond shoulder length hair with
a small bow on the right side. She was wearing
a white dress that went just below here knees…the
dress had a light blue sash around the waste…she
had stockings and shoes that buckled. She
was confused, she didn’t know what was
happening and she wanted her mother. Anne
asked me some questions, but at this point
I was concentrating on the girl…she
kept crying for her mother…I remember
her saying that “everything used to
be so big, now it all looks small”…then
I remember Anne asking for a song or something
along those lines…all I got from the
girl was “into the night”. I don’t
think the girl liked Anne interrupting. I
began crying hysterically again…that
is when Anne pulled me away and had me count
to ten…then the girl was gone. I can
still hear her in my head, and it makes me
even more curious about this little person
that was so sad and wanted her mother so badly.
(Was this the ghost of Sarah that Maria was
channeling?! Maria knew nothing of Sarah,
but explained her just like anyone that had
seen Sarah running through the Brookdale Lodge!-
H.P.I.)
After the séance
we all waited around for the hotel to close
down so that we could break up into smaller
groups and explore. A band was playing in
the Fireside room. I went in to check it out.
The music was a bit strange, but the people
“dancing” to it were ever stranger.
I was looking around the room, when I felt
someone staring at us all. It took me a moment
to figure out where it was coming from…I
looked up into the balcony that ran along
the conference room…again, I couldn’t
see him, but I knew he was there. I got the
feeling it was the same man from the bar…but
now he was looking down on us all. Soon the
hotel was closed and the investigation was
on. During the investigation, I only felt
something twice…in the Mermaid room,
we were not alone…and then in the Conference
room. The man in the Conference room was the
same man that I had felt in the bar earlier,
then he watched over us in the Fireside room.
This time he was annoyed…like he was
getting tired of us being around. There was
a smaller area, a hallway of sorts, in Conference
Room that had a bar in it. The opening to
this room was covered by a sheet…several
people in our group “rushed” into
that room at once. A couple of them came out
feeling “anxious”…one even
coughing. I took a deep breath and went in
going to the farthest corner of the room.
Everyone was talking at once…the room
was narrow and dark. I could feel the man’s
anxiety…he was feeling “crowded”.
Everyone started coming to my end of the room…including
the man. As he got closer, my anxiety grew.
I didn’t tell anyone at the time (because
enough weird stuff had already happened to
me)…but the man went right past me…exiting
the room via the back wall, all he wanted
was to be alone.
Well, finally the night
was over and it was time to go back to the
hotel room…I was exhausted. Shannon,
Carol and I went back to our honeymoon cabin.
We put together a make-shift bed for me on
the floor of the room next to the fireplace
and the jacuzzi. I got into the bed, the best
bed ever! I took a few deep breaths…closed
off my mind…and covered my head with
the blanket. I had had enough of the spirit
world for one night.
Brookdale
Lodge
Set under stately giant
redwoods, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, you
will find the world famous Brookdale Lodge.
Original
Brookdale Lodge
The original lodge
was built in 1890 by Judge J.H. Logan at the
site of the Grover lumber mill. In the early
1920's, Dr. F. K. Camp built the beautiful
dining room with the natural brook running
through it. A feature in Ripley's Believe
It or Not served to make the Brookdale Lodge
world famous. Throughout the years, the Brookdale
Lodge has hosted a number of notable guests:
movie stars, music celebrities and a U.S.
President.
It
was in the '40's and '50's that the
lodge entered its most intriguing period,
becoming a home for gangsters and other
shady characters. Secret passageways
and hidden rooms were installed throughout
the lodge and rumors of buried bodies
under the floor began to circulate.
Also during this time, six year old
Sarah Logan, the niece of the lodge
owner, drowned in the dining room creek.
It's her ghost that is most often seen
at the Brookdale. But Sarah wasn't the
only watery death at the lodge. In 1972,
a 13 year old girl drowned in the kidney
shaped pool above the mermaid room forcing
its closure.
The Manifestations
Over the years there have been many
sightings of little Sarah Logan. She
is often seen in a white and blue Sunday
dress walking through the lobby or near
the fireplace between the lounge and
Brookroom. She has also been seen playing
on the balcony of the Brookroom, an
area off limits to visitors and guests,
and sitting beside the fire in the Fireside
Room.
Some have even been approached by the
crying Sarah asking if they could help
her find her mother. As they turn to
look for the little girl's mother, Sarah
vanishes. The sightings aren't limited
to visitors. The owners of Brookdale
Lodge have also seen Sarah running about
the lodges' lobby. From their description,
Sarah was, "very clear, like a
whole person" and wore a 1940's
style formal dress. She ran silently
across the lobby for about five seconds
before disappearing through the office
window. The owners must have been quite
"spooked" because soon after
the they hired several priests and psychics
to try and rid the lodge of its spirits.
The
niece isn't the only paranormal activity
visitors to the lodge have experienced.
In the Mermaid Room visitors have
experienced hearing voices, the clinking
of glasses, and soft music when the
room was empty. The jukebox located
here has been known to turn itself
on and off when nobody is near it.
When the Brookroom is empty you can
sometimes hear glasses and plates
clinking and people talking as if
dozens of ghostly diners are having
a meal. A ghostly woman, has been
seen walking over the brook as if
supported by a bridge removed long
ago. Psychics speculate that she is
the mother of Sarah Logan returned
to find her daughter. The smell of
gardenias often permeates the room
at night although there are no gardenias
in the Brookroom or the lodge. Could
this be the perfume of Sarah's mother?
Big band music has been heard playing
faintly in the Fireside Room and in
the Pool Room. People have also reported
cold spots, presences, and even being
touched by unseen forces in the Pool
Room.
Late
at night doors slam and footsteps
are often heard in empty rooms. They
are particularly loud from the second
floor conference room. Many have reported
strange smells and having a sense
that the room is full of people when
it is empty. Psychics have identified
one of the conference room spirits
as a man by the name of George. He
is a lumberjack and has also been
encountered behind the lodge at a
place where in the lodge's early years
they chopped wood for its many fireplaces.
In
the 1970's a wing of motel rooms was
built over the spot where once stood
the lodge's camping cabins. Room 46
of the motel wing is reported to be
very haunted. A woman who worked at
the lodge in exchange for lodging
has reported that at night objects
and shapes would fly across the room.
Ghostly ballroom dancers would swirl
around leering at her as they floated
by. Ghosts would materialize around
her bed, their faces sometimes vague
and sometimes very very clear. One
of the ghosts was a little boy, perhaps
12 or 13 years old, another was a
man with his eye hanging loose on
his cheek, and still another was a
man with a knife wound across his
face. Not all of her experiences in
room 46 were visual. She also reports
that once she felt somebody sit on
the edge of her bed and stroke her
arm.
The
current owners have been told by psychics
that, in all, there are 49 spirits
in residence at the Brookdale. Enough
to make it more than worth a visit.
In addition to it's paranormal interest,
the Brookdale Lodge is centrally located
to all the attractions and activities
of the Santa Cruz mountains and a
nice place to stay. If you are just
driving through I recommend you stop
for their very nice Sunday champagne
brunch in the Brookroom. (9:30 - 2
PM)
http://www.hauntedbay.com/features/BrookdaleLodge.shtml
For
More Information
Brookdale Lodge
11570 Highway 9
P.O. Box 903
Brookdale, California 95007
831-338-6433
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For
information regarding H.P.I. Paranormal and
future conferences, check out their web site
at: www.HPIparanormal.net
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