The Ghosts of Harrison House

Witness: Lynn Varney
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date of Encounter: July 2000

Purchasing Harrison House a year ago was a dream come true for me. 10 years of planning finally became reality. I jumped right in, getting to know my house and the business. During the first two weeks my life was a whirlwind of new experiences. I got used to the new routine and then began to really experience the house and pay attention to its energy.

While cleaning one of the rooms, I found a plastic soldier in a hanging light fixture. I couldn't figure out why it was in the light so I threw it away… big mistake! I soon thought that the stress of the move was making me delirious… but pens, paper clips, binder clips, and papers were really missing and then turning up later in unexpected places. I also noticed that one of the beds consistently had a butt print on the bedspread. I would smooth out the comforter only to later find another butt print on the edge. No one was in the house but me, so who was sitting on my bed?! This continued at random for several weeks until I finally got used to it and realized that the house had a "spirit."

A couple, who had visited the year before, booked the "special" room that used to harbor the toy soldier. At breakfast, they inquired as to what had happened to the soldier. When I told them I threw it away, they reacted in astonishment. Explaining that the soldier was left by someone years ago and was a guardian of the room and should have remained. They added their own guardian but it did not have the same effect as the soldier. Over the summer, a family stayed with me — mom and dad in one room and two teen boys in the now unguarded room. One of the boys asked me if the room was haunted. I explained that I had a female spirit who watched over the rooms and played harmless tricks. To my surprise, the young man told me that I also had a young boy and a silent man staying in the room because they appeared to him the night before.

Early this fall, an internationally known metaphysics clairvoyant was staying at the house. She told me in the morning that 1 of my spirits was jumping on her bed and she yelled at her to go away so she could sleep. Well… this set off a series of disruptive energies in the house. My daughter and I could actually feel the presence of other beings in the house. She was staying in an upstairs room for the summer and on two occasions had to come down to our apartment to sleep. She said that the atmosphere in her room was full of spirits and there were people walking up and down the hallway outside her room and on the floor above. It was too creepy for her to sleep. A week later, a heavy picture fell off the wall, hit the floor and fell over… there was no damage to the frame or glass.

Last week a guest, who is proficient in past life regression therapy, was finally able to give me more information on the spirits residing in the house. Without knowing anything about the history of our spiritual events she spent some time "talking" to them. There is a young boy aged about 13 who plays with a set of lead toy soldiers in the room where I, regrettably, removed a toy soldier. He had been a resident of the home in the early 1900s and died in an accident. He is watched over by a woman and an unrelated man. The woman pops into the room to check on the boy and the man travels from home to home in the area. The man is clumsy and possibly suffers from a mental illness and when he gets agitated he runs into things and knocks objects off walls and tables. A second man is here and he lived in the house when it was a boarding house. He suffered from a lung disease and spent the last years of his life here. When our guest asked him why he had not passed on, his response was, "You can't smoke in Heaven!" He likes to hang out with guests when they are outside smoking and he enjoys the lively conversations. The fourth spirit is a woman who was possibly the matron of the home or a housekeeper. She watches over the entire house and makes sure that I take care of the house correctly. She is fond of me and very happy that I have taken ownership of the house but she also makes small adjustments to arrangements of knickknacks and furniture. She has a strong presence because we have seen her energy field in many of the rooms.

Finally, the house is a safe-house and a portal for many spirits passing through. We continually have new visitors who stop by on their way to other locations. The house is safe, quiet and restful and all of our guests enjoy a good night's sleep.