Author’s note: This is the third of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
A black shadow walked along the drive outside Lari Bollinger’s house. During full daylight, Lari has seen the thing through the windows of his home.
“A black shadow outside my home appears to be walking from the driveway across the window to the door,” he said. “This is a repeating thing seen in the daytime, by my wife, my seven-year-old granddaughter, my six-year-old grandson and myself.”
Since this scene repeats itself often, Bollinger believes it is a ghost, and not something more dangerous, like the “black mass” family members have reported seeing in their home.
“I have seen (a black mass) only twice and was terrified by it,” he said. “It rose up instantly from the floor to its full height and seemed to be a dark black and cloaked figure that emanated evil and dread.”
Bollinger’s granddaughter told him the night after he saw the first entity in his new house that the house was haunted.
“I dismissed her and her claim quite like my mother had me, not wanting her to see these things,” he said. “She is a determined little girl and told me about what she had seen. She described a black mass that rose up from the floor then disappeared, just as I had seen the night before. She saw the reaction on my face and looked at me and simply said to me, ‘you see Papa, I told you this house is haunted,’ and walked away.”
But ghosts and shadow people, he thinks, are different.
“The last time I have seen a shadow person I awoke like any other day, getting the grandkids up for school,” he said. “We all sleep in same room since we have seen the black mass.”
Bollinger was playing “tickle monster” with his grandson when he felt something was watching them.
“The hallway door was open and my wife was giving my granddaughter a bath in the hall bathroom,” he said. “When I looked up I clearly saw a male shadow that was standing still and watching Nathan Junior and me playing together. I was able to see him for a moment before he walked into the living room.”
The entity was six-feet tall, male and looked almost human.
“It was a complete human form from head to toe,” Bollinger said. “With fully formed legs and feet as well as arms and hands, torso neck and head.”
After seeing these things for decades, Bollinger thinks he knows what they are: shadow people are earthbound spirits, and the black masses are demonic. And he thinks an experience as a youth has shown him a way to protect his family.
“I was 15 and a troubled youth who went to a local counseling center in Manteca, Calif.,” he said. “I went there one day to see if anyone was there, as I was distraught and found the door was open. I spoke to a young woman who told me she had been waiting for me. We talked for about a half hour of my current troubles and woes. When I asked her who she was. She told me she was a guide sent to help me. I felt much better after talking to her.”
Bollinger later went to the senior counselor to comment the woman, and was surprised at what he found.
“The senior counselor told me no one by that description worked there, volunteered there and that the office was closed and locked,” he said. “He was very distraught thinking someone had broken into the office.”
Bollinger and his family stay together now, especially when the light fades and night sweeps over their home.
“I realize now that we are … spiritually oppressed, and possibly demonically oppressed,” he said. “This also creates a full house for us and we have decided to sleep in the same room together to help us to stay strong and not be singled out by these beings. I believe I was warned of this be my visitor at a very young age to help me to defend my family and myself. I have spoke to a person when I was a teenager who told me she was my guide. She was very helpful to me.”
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
A Haunted Man -- Part 2
Author’s note: This is the second of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
In the 1960s, Lari Bollinger’s father brought a Ouija board home to him. It wasn’t long after that the young Bollinger discovered the board was dangerous.
Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are sold as toys but are often used as tools for people to make contact with the world of the dead. And the dead don’t always play nicely with the living.
“Things escalated after that very quickly,” said Bollinger, who often saw shadow people flittering through his house. “Murmuring voices from the other room would wake me in the mornings.”
Things often happened in the morning. One morning, Bollinger woke to find someone in his bedroom – watching him.
“I was visited one morning by my brother who was as I looked up, standing at the foot of my bed,” Bollinger said. “He said he wanted to visit with me.”
His brother David stood before him, wearing black jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. The things David said were strange.
“He started to tell me things that would come to pass in my lifetime, as I got older,” Bollinger said. “He told me I would have a son and he would die before me. He told me I would have a broken back and be crippled later in life. There was more, and while I did not feel threatened, the whole thing was so surreal.”
Then he realized that this entity standing before him wasn’t David.
“This was in no way my brother, and I told him so,” Bollinger said. “He then looked somewhat startled and stated, ‘I have to go now,’ and he swept under the foot of my bed as if his feet were pulled out from underneath him.”
Bollinger remained in his bed, shaking in fear.
“I sat huddled and motionless for about 10 minutes before I gathered enough courage to go and confront my brother who was sleeping in his room down the hall and tell him how that scared me,” Bollinger said. “He was asleep when I went into his room and truly did not know what I was talking about.”
With shaking legs, Bollinger walked into the kitchen to find his parents.
“When I reached the kitchen, I saw the previous year’s school picture of my brother David, in which he was dressed in the same black jeans and black checked shirt I had just seen him in,” Bollinger said. “I told my mother this and demanded my brother be punished for scaring me, and she told me that me did not have that shirt anymore and could not have been wearing it that morning.”
Later in life, Bollinger underwent regression hypnosis to remember exactly what happened that morning.
“But I was too scared I would hear when I was to die and did not want to know how long I was going to live,” he said. “I deeply regret that now. I may have been able to save my son.”
Next week: My grandchildren are seeing these things.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
In the 1960s, Lari Bollinger’s father brought a Ouija board home to him. It wasn’t long after that the young Bollinger discovered the board was dangerous.
Ouija boards, also known as spirit boards, are sold as toys but are often used as tools for people to make contact with the world of the dead. And the dead don’t always play nicely with the living.
“Things escalated after that very quickly,” said Bollinger, who often saw shadow people flittering through his house. “Murmuring voices from the other room would wake me in the mornings.”
Things often happened in the morning. One morning, Bollinger woke to find someone in his bedroom – watching him.
“I was visited one morning by my brother who was as I looked up, standing at the foot of my bed,” Bollinger said. “He said he wanted to visit with me.”
His brother David stood before him, wearing black jeans and a black and white checkered shirt. The things David said were strange.
“He started to tell me things that would come to pass in my lifetime, as I got older,” Bollinger said. “He told me I would have a son and he would die before me. He told me I would have a broken back and be crippled later in life. There was more, and while I did not feel threatened, the whole thing was so surreal.”
Then he realized that this entity standing before him wasn’t David.
“This was in no way my brother, and I told him so,” Bollinger said. “He then looked somewhat startled and stated, ‘I have to go now,’ and he swept under the foot of my bed as if his feet were pulled out from underneath him.”
Bollinger remained in his bed, shaking in fear.
“I sat huddled and motionless for about 10 minutes before I gathered enough courage to go and confront my brother who was sleeping in his room down the hall and tell him how that scared me,” Bollinger said. “He was asleep when I went into his room and truly did not know what I was talking about.”
With shaking legs, Bollinger walked into the kitchen to find his parents.
“When I reached the kitchen, I saw the previous year’s school picture of my brother David, in which he was dressed in the same black jeans and black checked shirt I had just seen him in,” Bollinger said. “I told my mother this and demanded my brother be punished for scaring me, and she told me that me did not have that shirt anymore and could not have been wearing it that morning.”
Later in life, Bollinger underwent regression hypnosis to remember exactly what happened that morning.
“But I was too scared I would hear when I was to die and did not want to know how long I was going to live,” he said. “I deeply regret that now. I may have been able to save my son.”
Next week: My grandchildren are seeing these things.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
Monday, December 15, 2008
A Haunted Man -- Part 1
Author’s note: This is the first of a three-part story. Lari Bollinger believes he is a haunted man. Throughout Bollinger’s life he has experienced shadow people, disembodied voices and demonic visitors in the night … he may have a point.
The terror started with black, moving shapes in Lari Bollinger’s house 40 years ago – his encounters with the paranormal only got worse.
“When I was young, it was more of a peripheral vision type of thing,” Bollinger said. “I would glimpse a darting dark mass out of the corner of my eye. This happened most in the house where my haunting started.”
Bollinger’s family lived in Fremont, Calif., in the early- to mid -1960s, and although he could see these black blobs, he soon found others around him couldn’t.
“I had always been a little different with what I was able to see, but I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “When I compared these things with my brother David, he would shrug it off or tell me I was loony, so I began to keep these happenings to myself.”
Shadows, some in the form of humans, started appearing more and more in Bollinger’s direct line of sight. And he began to see what they could do.
“They would be moving quite quickly from one side of the room to another,” he said. “Walls were not obstacles to these beings and they would dart through one wall across the room and out the other wall with a considerable rate of speed.”
As Bollinger saw more of these things move through his house, he talked about them again.
“I would tell my mother about these things I saw and she would dismiss them to me,” he said. “However, the look on her face did indeed tell me there was something more to this.”
Lari’s brother and mother telling him he wasn’t seeing thee things only caused him to work harder to see the entities, but then he realized they could see him, too.
“I started to try to see these things … not hunting them or anything like that, just living in a heightened awareness,” he said. “I found I could feel when they were there. It is like knowing you are not alone.”
When Bollinger started to focus on the entities, he would see them standing in the room, looking at him.
“I believe at this point that I had been noticed while noticing them,” he said. “I believe I became ‘in tune’ with the paranormal at this time. I firmly believe that a person can choose to be receptive to it or simply turn it off as they wish.”
After a while, Bollinger decided to “turn it off” and no longer saw the entities. Then tragedy struck his family and things changed.
“Only since my son has passed have I chosen to become ‘aware’ again,” he said. “We all have this ability and only some embrace it.”
But Bollinger’s story only began when he realized the entities could see him, too. It’s never ended.
“After I had to begun to be noticed by these shadow people,” he said, “I became a haunted person.”
Next week: That’s not my brother.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
The terror started with black, moving shapes in Lari Bollinger’s house 40 years ago – his encounters with the paranormal only got worse.
“When I was young, it was more of a peripheral vision type of thing,” Bollinger said. “I would glimpse a darting dark mass out of the corner of my eye. This happened most in the house where my haunting started.”
Bollinger’s family lived in Fremont, Calif., in the early- to mid -1960s, and although he could see these black blobs, he soon found others around him couldn’t.
“I had always been a little different with what I was able to see, but I didn’t think much of it,” he said. “When I compared these things with my brother David, he would shrug it off or tell me I was loony, so I began to keep these happenings to myself.”
Shadows, some in the form of humans, started appearing more and more in Bollinger’s direct line of sight. And he began to see what they could do.
“They would be moving quite quickly from one side of the room to another,” he said. “Walls were not obstacles to these beings and they would dart through one wall across the room and out the other wall with a considerable rate of speed.”
As Bollinger saw more of these things move through his house, he talked about them again.
“I would tell my mother about these things I saw and she would dismiss them to me,” he said. “However, the look on her face did indeed tell me there was something more to this.”
Lari’s brother and mother telling him he wasn’t seeing thee things only caused him to work harder to see the entities, but then he realized they could see him, too.
“I started to try to see these things … not hunting them or anything like that, just living in a heightened awareness,” he said. “I found I could feel when they were there. It is like knowing you are not alone.”
When Bollinger started to focus on the entities, he would see them standing in the room, looking at him.
“I believe at this point that I had been noticed while noticing them,” he said. “I believe I became ‘in tune’ with the paranormal at this time. I firmly believe that a person can choose to be receptive to it or simply turn it off as they wish.”
After a while, Bollinger decided to “turn it off” and no longer saw the entities. Then tragedy struck his family and things changed.
“Only since my son has passed have I chosen to become ‘aware’ again,” he said. “We all have this ability and only some embrace it.”
But Bollinger’s story only began when he realized the entities could see him, too. It’s never ended.
“After I had to begun to be noticed by these shadow people,” he said, “I became a haunted person.”
Next week: That’s not my brother.
Copyright 2008 by Jason Offutt
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt c/o The Examiner, 410 S. Liberty, Independence, Mo. 64050, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”
Jason’s book of ghost stories, “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri’s Most Spirited Spots,” is here. Order online at: tsup.truman.edu, www.amazon.com, or visit Jason’s Web site at www.jasonoffutt.com.
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