Welcome to Paranormal & Occult Investigations! [UPDATED]

Hey everyone, welcome to the forum! I'm Alexa, and I'm 18, and I've made this forum for a few reasons. First, before you jump to any conclusions concerning my age, I know that I am nowhere near expert status, but I'd just like to say that I do know quite a few things, and I've had a lot of experiences with the paranormal. That being said, one of the main reasons I created this forum is to hopefully create a network of paranormal and Occult investigators for the future. I'm from Richmond, Virginia, but I am currently living in Petersburg, two of the most haunted cities in Virginia. I'd like to create a paranormal and/or ghost investigative group here (surprisingly, there aren't many in the Richmond area), and I thought this would be a perfect way to get into contact with anyone interested, as well as to inform and teach others who are interested in these topics.

About me: When I was small, I used to sleep in my grandfather's bedroom furniture set, but I never had the opportunity to meet my grandfather who had passed away before I was born. One night when I was seven or eight, I saw a silhouette standing next to my window, appearing to either be looking at me or out of my window. It looked like he had his hands clasped in front of him or behind him, and he just stood there. Somehow, I had a feeling that it was my grandfather, and I held my hand up and said "if this is daddy's dad, squeeze my hand." The outside of my hand and the inside between my thumb and pointer finger squeezed together. I ran into my parents' room and got in between them in their bed. A minute or so after, I saw my grandpa peering at me through the bedroom door near the door frame, like he was sorry for scaring me. Over a span of a couple weeks, I would know know things about my grandfather that my father had never told me. I knew that he was a deeply religious, and he enjoyed standing or sitting next to windows, just peering out and enjoying the world.

Ever since then, my grandpa's been with me everywhere I've gone (different homes, and now in my apartment at college). My father has felt him, too, and it's gotten to where now he'll play simple tricks on me to let me know that he's here. Since that night, I've had an obsession (which I'm sure will become pretty unhealthy later on down the road) with the paranormal, and I've kept dozens of notebooks of everything I've found since I was small. Since then, I've learned that I have something called Dabrowski's Over-excitabilities, which makes me much more sensitive to certain things than most people. I've also learned that I am a claircognizant and clairsentient empath, as well as an animal empath. I'm working on trying to strengthen these gifts, but I can look at photographs (a self portrait, of people, or of an investigation scene) and I can pick up on the emotions and feelings of anyone or animals in the area.

All of that being said, I'd just like to say that mostly everything that can be found here is from my personal notebooks (with the exception of what members post) and things that I've horded over the years. This is nowhere near complete, I still have dozens of notebooks to go through. I hope that something here can benefit you in some way.

Coming soon:

• An extensive post on St. Benedict and his medal
  
• A brief post on Solomon and his Key (his Key is way to detailed for me to give an extensive lesson)
  
• More websites and resources
  
• A post on the basics of empathy and related gifts and skills
  
• Creating more forums for other religions and belief systems
  
• Polls
  
• A post on spirit and animal guides
  
• As more members join, I'd like to have a few moderators
  
• Anything that members suggest