In relaying my stories over the years, I’ve found that many of us that have had alien-related happenings, have also had what "seems" to be hauntings too. As a kid, before I knew the full extent of all my connections to "other" things, I had many frightful encounters of the ghostly kind. To say there was an absolute starting point in my life when odd things began, is not really possible to calculate. But when the ghostly things started, you could say I can recall a most striking incident for sure: It was Christmas day in 1978, the first Christmas I would spend without my mother who had passed away earlier that year. It was also the first Christmas with my future stepmother, who had recently moved in with my new brother. My two sisters, brother and myself had all finished opening our presents and were exploring all of our new toys. Our parents decided to step out for a little while to go and visit a friend’s home, and said they would be back shortly. We were ages 13 to 6 years old, so we weren’t miffed a bit by them going since we were too concerned about all our newly acquired toys. In the midst of our playing, I looked up at the organ that my stepmom had just moved into the house. It was a beautiful contraption that I had no clue on how to operate, but I was indeed curious about how it might work. So there it was, in all it’s grandeur, as it began to play by itself! I turned to my brother, who was 13 at the time, and said to him, "Wow, that’s cool! How does it play like that all by itself?" He remarked, "It doesn’t" as he had a ghost white look on his face. He then made a move to run out of the living room where we all were sitting, and we were sure to follow, shrieking at the same time. We ran into the only room that seemed safest, one with a lock, the bathroom! We started to confirm with him, "Are you serious? That organ doesn’t play itself, like they can do in the movies?" "Noooooo! It doesn’t do that on it’s own! It’s just a regular organ!" He reaffirmed. We were absolutely terrified as we stood squished in the bathroom, still listening to the organ pound on low-key tones, like right out of a horror movie! Some time passed, maybe 30 minutes, before someone stated, "It’s too crowded in here, someone’s gotta leave." I don’t know what got me voted to be booted, but for some reason this was typical of my siblings to make me the oddball. So I was pushed out of the bathroom by the majority rule, and sat there cowering at the bathroom door, crying for them to let me back in. I soon quieted down once I realized their laughter at my situation was not going to change their minds. So I decided to do something about my circumstances. I knew that my stepmother had a key that locked the panel on the organ, a panel that had to be pulled out and then down over the keyboard and then you could lock it shut. I was so sure that if I could conjure up the courage to do that, it would end whatever was having a blast in scaring the crap out of us. When I think on it now, it sounds just like those idiots I scream at in horror movies to not go in the door where something weird is pounding or not to kick the body of a seemingly dead monster to see if it’s still alive. But at the ripe old age of 8, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose. Off I went to my parent’s bedroom, which was right next to the bathroom, and grabbed the organ keys. I slowly approached the organ, which was still playing madly, then I quickly pulled down the panel and locked it with a quick twist of the key! When I tell people this story, they ask if I could feel the presence of anything while I was reaching for the panel. To tell ya the truth my whole body was shaking so badly, I couldn’t feel anything besides the nervous vibrations flowing throughout my wretched little soul! But I got it locked, and the music stopped!

We all froze to make certain of what we were hearing and tore off to the nearby bathroom again, and once again I was shut out! I stood at the bathroom door still hearing the keys jingle, when they suddenly stopped, only to be replaced by a new noise.

I didn’t recognize this noise, and it was coming from the living room where the organ was too. I had to investigate this noise because it sounded so strange, so I walked into the living room and saw the origin of what I was hearing.

My sister had just gotten this (then) high tech, electronic-push button guitar for Christmas, and it was playing on it’s own! It was bellowing out low key tones, similar to what was being played on the organ. I screamed out to my siblings, "I see what’s making the noise!" I told them whose toy it was and then I picked up the toy so I could somehow turn it off like I was able to with the organ. I didn’t know how to work the toy, so I just figured I would take out the batteries to make it stop playing. So I flipped it over and popped open the battery compartment.

I was telling my sisters and brother what I was doing, as I was doing it, "I’m going to take out the batteries to make it stop!" I froze once I had it open, "There’s no..." My voice became a whisper, as it was paralyzed with fear.

Slowly I put down the toy, and walked like a zombie towards the bathroom door. I sat down and placed my face in my knees and cried. There were no batteries in the toy, there was nothing I could do to make the noise stop. My siblings repeatedly asked me what was happening, but I couldn’t answer.

All we could do was wait until our parents got home, and hope that this torture would end somehow. We remained as we were for what seemed like forever, listening to this toy playing madly still, until we heard the front door open and our parents ask where everyone was. I almost got trampled over as my sisters and brother bolted from the bathroom to tell what had happened to us while they were gone.

Our parents, of course, didn’t believe one ounce of what we relayed to them about the strange happenings. The toy stopped playing as soon as they arrived and nothing was out of place, aside from my locking the organ panel shut. I suppose they chalked it all up as being the imaginations of kids gone amuck in the midst of the joy that Christmas brings when ya get stuff!

Makes no sense, I know.

But we would later find out, that our parents would soon have the chance to taste the unknown. This was only the beginning of the terror that liked to toy with our minds in this particular house. But it was my first chance to see the face of something that would plague me my whole life 'til this day.

I used to think, for some odd reason that my mother’s ghost was behind all of this, since the timing was impeccable when this incident took place. But I later learned that it was none of her doing, and to my emotional relief as well. It was torture to think that someone that gave you life would do such a thing to their kids, in passing.

But no, this was something much graver. Something that has followed me and my sisters that has helped us realize the larger universe out there. What happened then is so closely associated to what it is I am doing now in dealing with the alien phenomena, it is one in the same. It’s important to note and keep in mind that:

"Sometimes, there are things that go 'bump' in the night, that just like to go 'bump' in the night. It might be personal, it might be strayed. But there are reasons and many assorted things behind the noises and happenings that terrify us so much."