Lights, Cameras, Action

The main part of the show which involved us were the interviews with Steve DiSchiavi.  Steve is a great guy but a no-nonsense type of guy.  He's good at his job and is professional but is also really a fund guy.  I get a lot of questions about what he is like.  I can honestly say the man you see on your TV every week is the man he is in real life.

Filming our interviews wasn't tough, just a little nerve-racking.  There were no scripts, no rehearsals, and the only direction we were given was  to "just talk about what happened and answer Steve's question."  We were NEVER asked to say something that didn't happen or embellish anything.

It's tough to talk about the things that happened to us while the cameras were rolling.  It made us relieve all the negative and scary things.  That's not always a good thing because those were very powerful memories to talk about.

During the initial interview with Steve on our back deck, they cut filming and Steve and I were just talking.  I remember him saying to me that being a father and not being able to protect my family had to be tough.  I started to break down because my mind immediately shifted to a memory of Emi running terrified down the hall crying, saying she saw someone.  How do I protect my family from something that doesn't fight fair and holds all the advantages?  It's heartbreaking and as I said on the show, "I'm the first, last and only line of defense."  I felt I was failing my family.  I didn't know they started filming again so what you're seeing of me during that interview is a genuinely concerned father and husband who's at the end of rope and feeling helpless.

Steve and I moved into the kitchen and I told him the things that happened there.  The knife flying off the counter and cutting my arm (still have a nice scar from that too) and the video of the drawer.  I was reluctant to use the video because of the naysayers, but they convinced to do it.  The first time Steve saw the video was during the filming as it was decided earlier in the day to use it.  The video that you see on the show is NOT the entire video and I only started filming after things were happening.  You can see the entire video and read the entire story behind it in the blog entry The Storm Intensifies. 

The next part of the interview involved us going down into the basement.  I admit that I was scared to go back down there because of everything that happened to me there.  To me, the basement was the epicenter of evil and all our problems.  No one would be able to protect me if anything were to happen and it took awhile before I could muster up the courage to go down there.   I remember Steve say, "It's pretty obvious this space bothers you."  I didn't realize until we watched the show that my fear of the basement was written all over my face.

I still get a lot of question regarding my interview with Steve as well as reading comments on social media because most people thought Steve was too hard on me.  They ask if it upset or bothered me.  The answer I tell people is, "no, not in the least little bit."  As I said earlier, there were not scripts, it was us just talking and Steve doing what he does best.  I expected him to be hard on me and, frankly,  I respect him for being the way he was.  That's his job.  It's what he did while he was a homicide detective.  Get the truth out of someone, find out the real reasons for why something happened.  I was raised by a Chief Master Sargent who was career military.  My dad was a man I respected and was a whiskey drinking, cigar smoking bad ass who didn't put up with bullshit.  So dealing with Steve was a walk in the park compared to that.

No one in the family was allowed to watch each other’s interviews.  The producers didn't want anything that would tip the other person off as to what direction their interview would go or what questions would be asked.  

Jennifer and the girls were up next.

When Rains It Pours!

After dropping the dogs off at my mother's house in town, we decided to reward all our efforts with a nice dinner out.  The rain was pounding, literally coming down in buckets.  I cannot remember the last time it rained so hard and for so long.   Weather alarms were going off left and right on our phones-Thunderstorm warning, Tornado Watch, Flash Flood Warning, etc.  It seemed like we got every type of Spring Time weather warning that night

I took all the severe weather as a sign.  Someone or something was angry that Amy was about to do her walk.   As we ate our dinner the voices started.  It was like being in a room with a bunch of angry people and I was the subject of their angry.  I closed my eyes and took deep breathes in hopes of silencing them.  However, my tried and true method that had never failed me in the past couldn't silence the voices.

As I’m doing my best to enjoy my dinner with all the extra "guest" yelling at me, the crazy lady decided she would join in on the fun.  Out of nowhere she screamed.  It was as if she was right behind me.  It scared me so much that I nearly jumped out of my chair.  For some reason, I always thought that the crazy woman couldn't leave the house.   Jennifer looked at me with concern and asked what was wrong.

"She's here.  Didn't you hear her?" I said

"Who, the screaming woman?" Jennifer asked                                                

"Yep, she has friends too and they won't stop talking."  I said as I put my head in my hands.

I told her of the other voices the yelling, thee threats they were making.   One whispered in my ear, "I have killed before, I can kill again.  I pay it no mind.  Ask that Billy Yank(?) about me, he will tell I know who to kill. Ask him about Johnny!" 

The all took turns basing Amy. "Why is that bitch coming here? You better call off that dog or you will regret it."

Their threats then turned to us.  'We own all of you.  You all belong to us. She will not be able to make us leave, we won't leave.  Call her off.'

HATE AT FIRST SIGHT

I was finally able to regain control and the voices began to fade.  I lifted my head up from my hands and as I looked past Jennifer.  There she was, it was the crazy woman standing at the entry way to the kitchen.  She was motionless even as the restaurant staff walked through her.  She stared at me with a look of contempt and angry.  The feeling was mutual.

She was wearing what looked like a white cotton night gown and her hair was a mess.  She was thin and frail; she looked as if she was had been through hell and back.  

I remember a loud crack of thunder which distracted me for a moment.  As I looked back at her, she pointed at me and then pointed in the direction of our house.  I felt as if she was demanding me to go home.  She slowly faded away.

I was sick to my stomach at what I had heard and seen.  It was surreal that the activity just attacked me all at once.  Voice I had never heard and for the first time seeing the crazy woman.  I didn't mention to Jennifer that I saw her because I didn't want her to worry about me as I was already feeling crazy enough.  It was all so exhausting, stressful, and left overwhelmed with anxiety.

The rain stopped, the skies started to clear, and the sun started to shine with what little it had left in the day.   We finished our meal and decided we would just drive by the house to see if the Dead Files crew had made it safely.  We drove by and saw the vans there.  Thankfully the house seemed fine with just a few tree branches down.   

As we drove back to my mothers, we heard on the radio that we had gotten the most rain for a day in May in over 50 years.  Seemed fitting for a night such as that.

Question From A Reader: "Just who takes any advice from Amy Allen-maybe her producer.LOL"

I don't normally answer questions that are ridiculing.  This popped up on Facebook as a reply to a post I made on a group page. At first, I brushed it off but after thinking about it some more I decided to respond. The question is probably rhetorical but I felt it warranted a response because the question, and it's answer, are the whole reason why we are telling our story.  

"Just who takes any advice from Amy Allen-maybe her producer.LOL"

Well, we do.  We had been victims of a slow deterioration for 8 long years.  As time moved forward and our situation worsened, we lost our will to fight.  Without Amy's help there's no telling what the outcome may have been.  When everyone else abandoned us, or made our situation worse, Amy and the rest of the Dead Files crew came to our aid.

Part of the reason we didn't publicly make our situation know and limited who we discussion it with, was because of questions such as this one.  We didn't want to be ridiculed, made fun of, or judged.  People who don't understand or haven't experienced paranormal are quick to dismiss others as crazy, disturbed, morally lost.  We didn't want that.

Questions and comments such as the one posted will cause those who are experiencing terrible things not to come forward.  They will not get the help they need. Their suffering will continue and they will eventually lose their will to fight.  At that point, they may be beyond help.  That's a terrible way to live.

It takes strength and courage to come forward and say, "Hey, this is happening and I don't care if you don't believe but we need help!"  It took us being on a TV show to finally get help and we don't regret that decision at all.

Those who are suffering should be encourage to come forward and get help.  More importantly those who step forward and offer help should be respected because at least they did something.   This question demonstrates this person can't do either.   He just pushes people back into their terrifying situation. And discourages them from getting help.

We are the opposite of him. We share our story in hopes of giving other's strength and courage to come forward.  Supporting them and encouraging them to get help.   

If you are experiencing something that you can't explain, seek out help.  Do not let people like this guy deter you from coming forward.  No one should suffer in silence out of fear of being ridiculed or judged.

Oh, by the way, to the comment poster,  you spelled her last name wrong.  It's Allan.  If you're going to insult someone at least spell their name correctly.

If you have a question, we encourage you to ask.  Our goal in sharing our story continues to be to help those who are suffering and just need some courage to get the help they need.  No one should suffer in silence.

We've made it easier to submit questions too!  Just Fill out the "Contact Us" Form on upper right.

If your question is for one of us in particular, please say who it's directed to.   Also, we won't publish your name unless you specifically ask us to do so.

Question From A Reader : "I love seeing pictures of your home. Do you ever see the dead in any of your photos...?"

We just posted an update to our ghost in the blog.  It's titled Time to Cowboy Up!  Check it out and please share it.  We would really appreciate the support!

We're starting to get into the nuts and bolts of our Dead Files episode and how they helped up so the blogs entries may be a little shorter but they will be more frequent.  All you have been so patient between entries, we appreciate that so much.

We still enjoy getting questions.  Your questions help us think through things and also help us through the healing process.  One thing to keep in mind is that we went through nearly 8 years of hell until we finally got a handle on things.  Healing from that takes time and all of you are a part of that healing process, for that we thank you.

Here's a question we got from Trish Calcote via social media.

"I love seeing pictures of your home. Do you ever see the dead in any of your photos, videos or hear them in your voicemail etc?"

If you follow us on social media you've probably seen a lot of pictures of our ranch, horses, and dogs.  We love our place despite all the past issues.  We take pictures in the moment; when something funny seems to be happening or just the shear beauty of what we see. Our house is filled with framed prints of most of the pictures you see on social media.  We never set out to take pictures in an attempt to capture something.  We also discourage others from taking pictures on our ranch in hopes of catching something paranormal.  To us, that's just a recipe for disaster.

   

We've never really explored the pictures beyond what the subject of it is.  I'm sure if we study some of the pictures in more detail we may find something questionable.  Especially if they were taken from 2008-2016.  Most of the time we take pictures and they're quickly uploaded to our social media accounts without really look at them. Maybe some day we'll go back and look to see if we did catch something.  

There has been times that we've gotten activity by accident.  The first being during a birthday party we had for Chloe.  Several of the pictures had orbs and something that looks really menacing in one of the pictures.  You can look at those pictures in the Party Crashers blog entry.

We caught the scream of the crazy woman on video by complete accident once.  Emi was making a video of herself making Reese's Peanut Butter cups and the crazy woman screamed as she was recording.  You can see the video in the blog entry You Scream, I Scream, But She Screams Louder!  This was an important video for us because it finally gave us the evidence we needed to convince others that something was truly happening.

We have also had issues with our cell phones at times.  I remember one time during a phone conversation, we could hear whispering.  We couldn't make out what was being said but it appeared to be a woman's voice.  At first I thought it was just interference but we hung up to try to get a better connection and she was still there.  I changed phones and the whispering continued.  The whispering was non-stop and lasted throughout each call.  We had times when our phones would ring with random calls from people.  We would answer but no one would be on the other end.  When we would call them back they would tell us they didn't call.  One other issue with a phone happened as Jennifer and I were watching TV.  Out of the blue, a woman screaming came through my phone. It was about four or five screams.  The strange thing was that my phone was on silent.

We also had an issue with a television shortly after we moved here.  You can read about that in blog entry This Was Open, and This Was Open, and This Was Open.  This activity was the first thing that made my mind start to question things.

Your question made me think about to an incident that happened when I was in my mid twenties.  I lived alone at the time and things would happen that seemed odd but I was always able to come up with some sort of logical explanation.  However there was one thing that nothing could explain away.  One evening, the phone rang.  The first thing I noticed was the amount of static on the line.  It was like an old radio.  I said hello a few times but nothing but static.  As I was about to hang up, heard a voice. "Lance?  It's uncle Jerry.  Tell your mom I'm okay." I was frozen in shock because it was his voice.  I was finally able to respond, "what, who is this?"  The voice on the other end replied. "Tell her I'm okay."  Then the called disconnected.  I quickly hit *69 to call the number back but got a recording, "the number you called is no longer in service."  A rush of fear and anxiety ran through me and I immediately called my mother.  After I told her what had happened, she said "I was just thinking about your uncle Jerry this morning for some reason and hoping he was okay."

Thanks for the question Trish!  I hope I was able to answer it for you!

If you have a question, we encourage you to ask.  Our goal in sharing our story continues to be to help those who are suffering and just need some courage to get the help they need.  No one should suffer in silence.

We've made it easier to submit questions too!  Just Fill out the "Contact Us" Form on upper right.

If your question is for one of us in particular, please say who it's directed to.   Also, we won't publish your name unless you specifically ask us to do so.

Time to Cowboy Up!

We slept so well at our friends house.  We felt safe and secure as well as relaxed.  I realized it was the first time we had felt that way in nearly 8 years.

However, we knew we had to get back to the house as filming was about to begin.  Jennifer and I decide it's time for us to pull ourselves up and get ready for Steve and Amy.  With that being said, we made our way back to the house but left Heidi and Emi with our friends.

Our house was a disaster.  We left in such a hurry that we didn't secure the dogs enough and they ran a muck.  Even so, the entire mess couldn't be blamed on them.  Things were out of place; furniture moved, cabinets open, pictures that once hung on the walls now on the floor.  The house felt extremely heavy.  The air was thick and had a feeling of death.  The smell of pipe and tobacco smoke could be smelt throughout the house.

A friend came with us to help us but also to protect us.  We wanted him their just in case I was jumped again.  We wanted someone there who could protect Jennifer and get her out of there.  Thankfully, nothing happened but while we cleaning up the mud room we could hear the crazy woman screaming and slamming doors.  Her screams sounded more hysterical than ever and the violence in which the doors were being slammed was unreal. I felt as if she knew Amy was coming.  We quickly cleaned as much as we could, gather some cloths, secured the dogs, and left for the day.

We were running out of time so the next day was zero hour for us.  We had to get the house in presentable shape as the filming was scheduled to start the following day.  This time it was an all hands on deck as we quickly picked up all the clutter, placed it in black trash bags and put it in the basement.  Jennifer was the only one allowed to go down to the basement as we didn't want to risk me getting trapped as I had been a couple of times before.  It's amazing how quickly you can get things cleaned and organized when you know a television show is on it's way.

It was hectic but that was good for us.  It kept our minds off all the other things that were going on and we were so excited about the possibility of finally getting real answers.  We were finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  We would finally be able to rid ourselves of the evil that had invaded and controlled our lives.  The day of reckoning was upon them.

We sent the girls back over to the neighbors as they had done all they could do.  Chloe had helped some but we sent her away too just in case.  The safety of our girls was our top concern.  Jennifer and I stayed to do a bit more cleaning.  We did as much as we could but exhaustion set it in and we had to stop.  It was a good stopping point to because I could hear footsteps in the house and the smell of pipe and tobacco smoke was starting to fill the air.

The next day was the day, the entire Dead Files crew would be at house at 3:00 PM.  We didn't have much time so we hurried over to the house and got busy.  Lots of coffee was defiantly needed.  We cleaned, scrubbed, vacuumed, mopped, and dusted.    Our house had really fallen into disrepair over the years.  We just lacked the drive and energy to keep it up-at least to our standards.  Whatever was here had sucked the life out of us.  Any of you watched our episode saw the end result; a nice clean house.  It was cleanest our house had been since our saga began and it took every ounce of remaining energy we had to get it that way.

We had to be out of the house before the crew arrived.  That meant the next hurdle to jump was going to be even more challenging.  Keep in mind, we are working ranch/farm which means we have animals; lots of them.  We had to move every single animal off the property.  The hardest part was moving our dogs to my mother's house in town.  This was a massive undertaking as dog breeding is one of our businesses.  So we loaded approximately 22 dogs in the truck and off we went.  Mother Nature decided to have some fun with us and it started pouring down rain right as we left.  Maya and Ashby (the Lab we had at the time) were in the truck bed get pounded by the rain.  We joked that they needed a bath anyway but it had to be unpleasant for them.

We finally made it to my mother's, unloaded the dogs, set them up in her basement and decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out.  We want to give ourselves a moment to catch our breathe and enjoy ourselves a bit. 

However, the joy of a nice dinner would come with a side of unpleasent activity.

 

Question From A Reader "Have you become more closer in your religious faith...?"

We are still working on the next blog entry in our ghost story.  We've gotten behind due to birthdays, anniversary, work, and just the basic aspects of life.  We're getting back on track so we should have it posted soon.  Thanks for your patience.

Oh, if you enjoy reading our blog would you mind sharing it?  We would really appreciate it!

We always welcome questions and do our best to answer them all.   Some we answer as blog post too.  Here's a question we got from Angie Tassistro via Twitter!

"Have you become more closer in your religious faith since finding out you all have spiritual gifts? Have you thought about asking a priest to bless your home for extra barriers since that spiritual path will always exist in front of your house?"

This is an interesting question as well as a difficult one to answer.  The reason being is because it would depend on what your religious beliefs are.  Do you believe in the conventional theory of organized religion or do you think that there is more to it than just a cookie cutter belief?

I would say that my experiences have caused me to be more open to other possibilities and less conformed to a one size fits all belief.  I now believe that there is more out there than what we were raised to believe and for us, as human beings, to believe in one way of being is egotistical and naive.

When we were really struggling during our haunting, we sought help from religion.  The first advice I got was, "you really need to re-read The Bible."  That was followed by "There's Heaven , Earth, and Hell.  Nothing more."  So, in a nutshell they didn't believe what was happening to us.

Our final attempt to get help didn't result in much help at all.  "When you die, you either go to Heaven or Hell depending on how you live your life.  You don't stay here.  The only person to have risen from the dead is Christ.  So what you are describing can not be happening."

It was very difficult to run to something for help and basically get turned away.

None of this means I have lost my faith at all.  It just means I am open to the possibility of there being more than what we've been taught to believe.   I don't feel as if I'm closer to my faith but I feel as if my faith is now enhanced by being more spiritual-a belief that there is more and I respect it all without truly knowing what it is.

We have had our home, as well as ourselves, blessed because of the spiritual path that exist in front of our house.  The catch is that it's not necessarily the path that is an issue but it's our abilities that is.  The path has probably always been here, the only thing different is our abilities.  This means we have to continue to learn about our abilities, how to control them & our environment, and how to protect ourselves.  We protect ourselves by the strength in our faith, strength in ourselves, watching out for one another, cleansing & blessing our surroundings,  and believing in more than what is normal.

The real fact is that there is no magic recipe for us.  It's trial and error along with continuing to educate ourselves and daily effort to move forward.

 If you have a question, we encourage you to ask.  Our goal in sharing our story continues to be to help those who are suffering and just need some courage to get the help they need.  No one should suffer in silence.

We've made it easier to submit questions too!  Just Fill out the "Contact Us" Form on upper right.

If your question is for one of us in particular, please say who it's directed to.   Also, we won't publish your name unless you specifically ask us to do so.