Ghosts Among Us - James Van Praagh [58]
Since I was lucky enough to be in first class, I was one of the first people on the plane. I sat in my seat and made myself comfortable. Following right behind me was the very pretty blonde with the nice energy. She sat down in the seat next to me. We quickly introduced ourselves. The lovely woman was named Barbara, and she told me that she was a widow. I was happy that she did not recognize me because we spent the next couple of hours having a wonderful and enlightening conversation about life in Los Angeles, traveling, business, and family. Several times throughout our conversation, I noticed that the ghost with the black sunglasses stood right behind her. I didn’t let on that I could see him, but I was still bothered by the fact that his face was so familiar. By the time we arrived in L.A., Barbara had told me what I had wanted to know all along. “I just came from the house my husband built in Memphis. He was Roy Orbison.”
“Oh, my God!” I said. So that was who had been standing behind her! No wonder he looked so familiar. I never told Barbara the type of work I did, but I was happy to know that Roy was still around his “Pretty Woman.”
PLACE MEMORY HAUNTING
Just like people, places can hold energy. This phenomenon is known as “place memory.” It is a common type of haunting that is not well understood. It differs from the hauntings that I have previously discussed. Place memory is not only about ghosts having strong emotional connections to familiar places but about particular places holding an imprint or a recording of their history. Ghosts tend to get lost in these places and to reexperience a particular event or moment over and over again.
In my book Heaven and Earth, I wrote extensively about my “place memory” experience in Dallas. I was traveling by car and suddenly felt a shooting pain in my head. I told the driver, “Stop the car!” When I got out, I stood right in front of the book depository where President Kennedy was shot. Historic sites often have a role in this place type of memory haunting. Just as people hold on to memories, places hold memories too. It is the energy in historic sites or places where significant events occurred, like the book depository and streets of Dallas, that holds the memory of the incident that took place there. The event had an intense emotional component, and therefore the memory lingers on. Battlefields are areas of strong place memories. People who visit these sites often feel the emotions that were present during combat. I have been told that you can hear soldiers crying out or feel the presence of gunfire in the atmosphere. One can’t help but get caught up in this type of energy field and feel strange sensations.
THE ANNE FRANK HOUSE
In 1994 I took a trip to Europe, first to spend time with relatives in Wales, and then to visit the land of my ancestors in Holland. I arrived in Amsterdam on a very rainy Tuesday afternoon. I remember it well because it was very cold and I could not wait to get to my hotel and get into a warm bed. The next day was quite the opposite experience. The city was lit up like a Dutch painting. Everything and every place glistened from the golden rays of the sun: the bicycles, the distinctive canals, and the grand Dutch architecture. Amsterdam, one of the most charming cities I have ever been to in my life, is filled with place memory hauntings. I spent the day visiting the usual tourist sites, but there was one in particular that I had wanted to see for a very long time: the Anne Frank House.
I’d had a very strong identity with this house since I was a boy. I have long suspected that this identity stemmed from a memory of a past life, because I have always been fascinated by World War II. In high school I was involved in a production of the play The Diary of Anne Frank. I played the part of Mr. Dussel, the dentist who lived in hiding along with the Franks.