Rate this encounter: Trane, Louisville, Kentucky, June 9, 2006

My experiences with the paranormal have been getting stronger and stronger as I continue to grow older and something in my heart tells me that my spirit was given a job. It's not just in my heart, it's also in my memory because one night on a later tour of Waverly Hills Sanatorium I was walking with the tour group when out of nowhere I find myself in a place I have labeled "the shadow realm." I looked all around me, I had never seen any of this before in my life. I saw several demonic shadow figures who looked very angry with me and then suddenly an angel appeared in the midst of them all and with a voice like that of a little girl's said to them all, "Move away." The angel looked like someone I had seen in the historical sight of Waverly Hills -- a little girl named "Mary Lee." She was frightening, but at the same time a welcoming sight from the midst of all the demonic figures. She didn't have any eyes and she looked in my direction and held out her hands which held a sword with a lion around the blade handle, and said, "Take this and use it to banish demons and spirits that come to haunt places you visit."

Then I remember allowing her to hand me the blade and the next thing I remember I was back in reality with the tour group and my friend Mark appeared as though nothing had happened until he looked on my back and asked me something that scared me to death, "Where did you get that sword?" I looked at him and said, "Good one, Mark. There's no sword on my back." he looked at me and said, "Look for yourself." I reached back and felt the handle of a sword! I was very scared at this point and thought that if there was a sword on my back, why hadn't the tour thrown me out by now? Everyone looked at us when they heard us talking and said, "You two are both crazy, there is nothing there!" I couldn't believe it. No one else saw it but us! When we finally left on the drive back to my house I turned to Mark and asked, "Mark, would you think I was crazy if I told you while we were on that tour I disappeared into something like another dimension?"

He said, "What are you talking about? You never left" I told him about all of this and he said, "Man, you are crazy, but I can't deny any of it with that sword in your trunk." And then it hit him, he forgot to ask me about the sword. I told him what I saw when I got the sword and he told me one of the legends about a girl named Mary and a lot of mean peoples' ghosts that still reside in Waverly. I just simple said, "Mark, I think I found them." He looked at me and then I just kept looking at the road and kept driving. To this day we hardly ever talk about what happened except between the two of us. We agreed to this and he said, "Fine, you can tell other people about the experience but just don't cry to me when they call you crazy!" And I said, "Fine." To this day we are still friends and vowed never to split as friends and with blood we sealed that pact!