by Athena Quinn of HPI
Getting terribly lost in San Francisco is a nightmare. I don’t know the city- and as a tourist I feel it’s my right to bother people and ask for directions. Just so you know I have even gotten lost in Golden Gate Park. I just want to make it perfectly clear that I don’t know anything meaningful about Golden Gate Park or San Francisco. Among the thirty or so people that came to the Stow Lake investigation I was unknown. I am going through great pains to tell you that there is no way that I could have gotten unconsciously swayed by prior knowledge as to the many paranormal reports of the park. We broke off into four groups and by luck the leader of my group was Tommy Netzband, he is the founder of the San Francisco Ghost Society and guide of the Haunted Haight walking tour.
Tommy Netzband had mentioned there is a “Woman of the Lake” ghost story, standard fare that made the ghost-story more unbelievable to me. Tommy himself cackled, “What make-out spot near a lake doesn’t have a ghost story to it?” With an open heart, skeptical mind and grain of salt I casted myself as the central intuitive of the group, preparing myself to disappoint them all with no dramatic or unusual reports at all, and off we rambled on to the trail surrounding the park.
When there are entities that I need to interface with, I have almost a channeling style. I allow that spirit to directly show me in mental pictures what is important to them and to speak and act through me, however, I don’t subscribe to receding your own control or dominance within your body, and so the interaction is quite intense and also controlled. As the night wore on this fact became very important to our groups investigation.
Hot spot 1
Right away I began to absorb emotion and information, so someone really needed to communicate. What was apparent was her sadness and connection to the water. We filed ahead- Tommy, me, Shonna and Marcus. At a point of high sensation Shonna walked close to me and reported dizziness. Then EMF showed nothing unusual. A little further down the path as Shonna and I talked about what had just happened, Tommy took another EMF reading. Starting at a normal range then plummeting to a flat 0, and wildly jumping to 4.
Hot spot 2
It was time for EVP recording, feeling very drawn to the lake I turned my back on the group and walked closer. We all asked questions and left 10 seconds between each one. Tommy asked what the entities name was. I came up with an M or Melissa. He told me that he had come up with Mary. We continued to walk and had some more fluctuations with the EMF, and picked up more electronic anomalies.
Hot Spot 3
We were close to the trail that led up the side of strawberry hill. And over the first/second step of the trail I saw one pinprick of red light that showed itself then disappeared. I reported this after making sure that nothing normal could have accounted for the light. The light seemed to prompt me to walk up the steps. However, I got a specific negative intention from the entity and knew that the entity could harm me through infestation of its negativity, after informing my group of all I told them they should go and investigate without me if they could do this safely with him.
After they decided to go up I felt guilty for remaining below and joined them on the steps. At this point I saw another pin point of red light over the landing and told them that this was a prompt for them to ascend there as well. They went up and I walked down the steps, feeling dizzy and sensing the spirit would have like me to fall down the steps.
Another group arrived and we caught up on each other's experiences. I then told the leader of that group how the spirit was very negative and wished to harm me and whoever else he could, and again felt my guilt for letting them go up there while I stayed away. At this point I told the other groups leader that I thought I could go up there without getting hurt. And I found Tommy's group working with their equipment. I immediately felt a center of energy not far from where they were. I told Tommy that though it might seem more likely that in life there was violence leading left up the steps, yet I felt certain the violent act had happened by a large conifer on a steep and tangled slope to the right. He told me that it was interesting I said that because just before I had gotten up there he told the group that very thing.
Hot spot 4
Beyond the pier overlooking the lake I spotted an amorphous mist that was roughly oblong and nine feet high. At a different time, close to the boats, I saw a basket ball shaped light that was blue and white. As I tried to explain to Tommy where the location of the light was, we used his laser pen. It continually "bounced" off the area in which I had seen the light. The laser malfunctioned dramatically when I attempted to use it. At times only flickering or not activating at all.
My Assessment of the Stow Lake area:
This area has convinced me it has active and latent haunting. The evidence was three pronged, intuitive/personal accounts, unusual electronic readings/malfunctions and cross corroboration of investigators revealing a pattern of certain repeatable aspects of activity within it. However, the majority of these hauntings are in hypo-stasis, not seeking, or able to contact. Only a few beings there are interested in contact. There are two beings (feminine and male) that reside at strawberry hill.
I believe that specific area where the violence took place is an energy earth-gate of moderate concentration. It is hosted by a specific earth energy/entity. The violence there has caused a disturbance of the energy. To The haunted activity is a request for the living to minimize or change the negative being then to doctor the energy and help resanctify this area. This would do a tremendous favor in restoring the equilibrium of the area. And restore the important natural earth energy "gate".
There were two or three beings at the lake itself that were in active haunting. The one with whom I had communicated the most with was of woman "M". The other being(s) was in a para-active state, not seeking contact and interaction. M herself, was not very interested in moving-on or progressing. She is preoccupied with reliving the sadness of her life and wanting the living to also understand what she has been through. Ritually, leaving her flowers and messages of spiritual progression would be indicated. Carefully introducing her to the fact that her baby is in "heaven" and no longer in the lake may help, but for the ceremonial participants sake this should be done with care and reverence for her.
Finally, there is tremendous energy there, and much of it is the living visitors own emotionality which is feeding or coalescing the native energy and the beings themselves. Because of the energy problems on strawberry hill there is certain morbidity to the park, but with expert ceremony to normalize it, the natural earth energy and earth entity will contain and care for the overlaying hauntings themselves.