Alyssa's Psychic Family
In this article, we will be looking at an experience I've transcribed which was shared by an audience member for OVERNIGHT's web-series 'Haunted Homies'. OVERNIGHT is a paranormal investigation team based in America, and they upload their investigations to YouTube. During their 'Haunted Homies' series, they discuss the paranormal to an audience, and they read out experiences which the audience members have submitted to them prior to the event. Once the experience is read out, the team invites the person the experience belongs to on stage, and then the person is questioned about the experience by the OVERNIGHT team.
This particular experience was shared by Alyssa Casteel. As always, the spelling of the guest's names are provided by YouTube captions; so they may be incorrect. Alyssa's last name is definitely spelt as 'Casteel' though as it is said their name is spelt as 'Castee' with an 'L' on the end. I have tried my best to transcribe the experience and the interview word for word to keep everything discussed as authentic. Where, in the interview segment, you see (...) it means I've cut out a portion of the conversation. I'm always reluctant to do this, and so cut out as little as possible, but the OVERNIGHT team have a habit of going off topic and joking about things; so it's an unfortunate necessity. Anything I couldn't understand is marked by *inaudible*. The interview was conducted by Elton Castee, and Corey Scherer; the two lead members of the OVERNIGHT paranormal investigation team during the time of this interview. Since this interview was conducted, Corey has left the OVERNIGHT team. As with all articles, my own thoughts will be included at the end of the article.
Alyssa's Experience
"I've always been a believer since I was a child. My mum has always had psychic abilities for as long as I can remember. Whenever we'd move anywhere, we'd experience some crazy things. There was one house where my mum and brother had a really bad experience. The first week we lived there my mum felt very off and thought there was something really bad there. Her concerns came true when my brother kept showing up with very bad scratch marks around the evening time. He'd tell her that he remembered vividly of something grabbing him and trying to pull him under the bed. She then had the house saged and blessed, and from there on out there was no residual negative energy; yet, there was another house we lived in that actually turned out to previously be an execution place. Every night you'd hear silverware clinking and footsteps that would appear, even if you were home alone. There was an encounter where my mum had a dream where a man took the cable cord and wrapped it around my younger brother's neck and strangled him to death. It turns out the dream wasn't malicious, it was just the man showing my mother how his son had died"
Alyssa's Q&A
Elton: "Your brother would have scratch marks?"
Alyssa: "Yeah, like, one of my younger brothers. So, um, he would always complain, like, in the middle of the night that he would have these, uh, wierd dreams saying that he could see something, like, with red eyes under the bed and that he felt like he was being pulled under by it. So, my mum is always like, in that house, felt really off; and was like, you know, 'I don't like it here, there's something off'. Even actually mentioned it to a, a priest before trying to get the house blessed anyway; but they don't believe her obviously. So then, um, there's one night where he started, like, showing scratches so he, she thought maybe he would try and do it to himself; but she actually witnessed, and then she saw something in that room, like, the red eyes and everything, and she was just so freaked out she finally said 'no, I'm gonna find someone to bless this house', and so she finally actually got it saged and blessed and from that moment on we didn't really have any bad energy in the house, but any other time we moved somewhere she knew something was bad, she would let us know"
Elton: "So, these scratch marks were so severe that you, that your mother actually thought he was doing it to himself, he was?"
Alyssa: "Yeah, like, you would see like, 'cause my brother was always, like, he was on the spectrum so he would always, like, for attention a lot he would do, like, stupid things all the time but..."
Elton: "Okay"
Alyssa: "...mostly just, you know, throw himself on the floor and be jokey and kinda stupid but, so she thought that at first but, and then they just kept showing up, like, more and more until she was like, you know, 'there's, somethings off' "
Elton: "Anything ever happen to you or your mum?"
Alyssa: "Not specifically me, but my mum's always had, like, been open and always experiences through her childhood. She'd speak to her grandma and my parents, or my grandparents, would always, like, notice something like that and she's just kept it with her, like, as she's grown and even; she used to go to church all the time, and she said 'someone keeps telling me to tell that, like, preacher's wife that she's pregnant', but everyone knew that the preacher's wife was, like, having a lot of fertility problems and my mum's like 'no, I'm not going to do that, like, that's rude, that's awful', but she kept feeling like she needed to say something and she went up and she told the preacher's wife, like, 'you're pregnant', and the preacher's wife started, like, bawling because she just found out that she was pregnant"
Corey: "No way"
Alyssa: "Yeah, and it was like, it, my mum has so many crazy stories"
Elton: "Have you inherited any of these abilities?"
Alyssa: "I'm more of an empath, like, I don't see things; I feel things. Like, being around here it's, like, heavy; like, really heavy on your chest. That's why I don't like being in big areas and it's like feeling everyone's, like, energy. Like, that's all I got. Thankfully I'm not seeing things, you know, *inaudible*"
Corey: "So, it runs in the family?"
Alyssa: "Yeah, I think so; my brother is like that. He used to talk to, um, my grandpa on my bio dad's side. He had a wife who killed herself, and we lived with him for about six months, and my younger brother would keep saying 'I'm talking to Grandma Donna, Grandma Donna's here'; and, like, he would just sit on the stairs steps starting talking to this woman. He never saw a picture of her, never knew her, she was never talked about. So, my grandpa pulled out a photo of like, a group of them, like him, his wife, and his friends, and he's like 'who are you talking to'; and he kept pointing to her, and he's like 'that's Grandma Donna, that's who I'm talking to on the stairs at night' "
Corey: "Wow"
Elton: "That's like, a lot of similar stories with like, relatives..."
Alyssa: "Yeah"
Elton: "...shown even though you're unaware of who the relative is"
Alyssa: "I think it just goes down but, like, lessons and lessons and that's my opinion at least"
Corey: "We just had a group, uh, the other night and they showed us a picture of, uh..."
Elton: "Oh, yeah"
Corey: "...I believe it was their, it was their cousin's wedding the year before their great, I believe it was their great aunt, she passed away; and then a year later, um, his cousin was getting married..."
Alyssa: "Mhmm"
Corey: "...and, and the wedding photo of everyone kind of like at the afterparty, they're all on the dance floor; a professional photographer took the picture, there's about thirty picture in the picture..."
Elton: "There's about thirty"
Alyssa: "Thirty people"
Corey: "There's about thirty people in the picture..."
Alyssa: "I gotcha"
Corey: "...and everyone's smiling and posing and in the very back, peeking around the corner, is his aunt..."
Alyssa: "Dang"
Corey: "...and he showed us a picture of what she looked like..."
Alyssa: "Yeah"
Corey: "...it's her. It, it's, it looks exactly like her. I'm curious why, or how this, you know, kinda happens. Like, when you pass away are they just being able to choose, like, 'Imma go check on my family right now..."
Alyssa: "Right"
Corey: "...or are they constantly always around their family, you know?"
Alyssa: "Or attached to someone or something..."
Corey: "Yeah"
Alyssa: "...and, you just never know because it's wide spectrum"
Corey: "Yeah, it really is. I wanna know more about this dream though"
Alyssa: "Which one? The?"
Corey: "The, the one I believe you said your mum had about..."
Alyssa: "Yeah, so..."
Corey: "...the strangling"
Alyssa: "...um, we lived in that house for a little bit and we didn't figure out until after we moved out that it was, like, an office and then before that it was, like, an execution place I guess"
Corey: "Yeah"
Alyssa: "That's all we got. That's all the information we got, but at night, um, you would hear, like uh, footsteps outside your door, and you knew no one was home; and your, like, sibling's like right next to you. They're, like, not in two places at once, so"
Corey: "Did you guys ever ghost hunt there? Like, did you ever try to get evidence that way; like set up *inaudible*"
Alyssa: "No, I was kind of like, I think I was eight at the time, so"
Corey: "Oh, okay"
Alyssa: "I mean, if I had it; I probably would"
Corey: "Yeah"
Alyssa: "But no, and so my mum"
Elton: "Can you imagine it would be your eighth birthday 'oh it's an Ovulus, thanks' "
Alyssa: "Thanks mum"
Corey: "That would be sick. I mean, I was using the ouija board with my family when I was ten"
Alyssa: "Oh no, I can't. My mum, she's like 'if you ever touch a ouija board, I'm gonna kill you', and I was like 'okay, thanks' "
Elton: "Why? So then she can talk to you after?"
Alyssa: "No, she's like, 'cause, me and my whole family we believe, like, ouija boards are portals and we don't wanna mess with a portal"
Corey: "Yeah, for sure"
Alyssa: "And I was like I didn't, I was like if I even look at one I feel like she's gonna text me, like 'what you doing?' "
Elton: "You should try"
Alyssa: "Yeah"
Elton: "Let's get a ouija board in here and then just put it in front of"
Alyssa: "There was one out there"
Corey: "We have a ouija board"
Alyssa: "There was one out there, yeah, and um"
Elton: "What would happen right now if you facetimed your mum with your fingers just all on the planchette?"
Alyssa: "She'd kill me"
Elton: "We should do that. All right, let's do that; we take a picture, just facetime her"
Alyssa: "I mean, I'm down. Yeah, she's always been like that so I was like, I know I'm, you know, not gonna play with a ouija board. She's just taught me just don't, don't open those doors"
Corey: "Has your family ever done, like, séances or anything, you know? 'Cause it sounds like your family is gifted, like we were saying"
Alyssa: "Yeah, um, I think the only thing close to that is my mum. She had, um, went to see a medium and with that medium they were all around, like, in a circle and they were doing, like, kind of a reading. So, she found out, like, with other people with these abilities she has more energy and can do more; and she, um, they're sat around a table and she's, like, talking about these people's lives as if she remembered it and she, these people are like 'how do you know this?' "
Corey: "Your mum was?"
Alyssa: "Yeah, and she's like 'I don't know' "
Corey: "Wait, so your mum went to a medium..."
Alyssa: "Yeah, went to a medium..."
Corey: "...then she started being the medium"
Alyssa: "...and, basically through the medium; I guess"
Corey: "Wow"
Alyssa: "And she accidentally outed this guy and, and he's like, and the other medium's like 'Shannon, um, he's not out yet'; and the guy's like 'it's okay, it's okay, I don't know any of you'. My mum's like 'my bad' "
Corey: "Wow"
Alyssa: "Yeah"
(...)
End of Interview.
My Thoughts
Regarding Alyssa's experience, it discusses a couple of things I have particular interest in; the first being scratch marks, and the second being legitimate psychic ability. The brief detail regarding silverware clinking and footsteps is fairly routine activity of a haunting, so I have less interest in those details. The reason I find scratches interesting is because it's physical evidence to an interaction of some kind. It doesn't mean the interaction was with a spirit, or had a paranormal reason, but it's something that can be seen by others and felt by the individual effected; and therefore is akin to capturing something move on camera without explanation to me, if not better. However, having said this, there is always the question as discussed in the interview regarding if the individual has scratched themselves. It's remarkably easy to scratch yourself without knowing, and then only discover the scratch marks later on in the day. It's also possibly to scratch yourself during sleep, so it's interesting that these marks are said to have shown up around the evening time.
This leads into my interest around legitimate psychic ability. I do believe that psychic ability exists to some degree, and I believe that everyone is psychic; however, I believe typically people operate at a 2/10 for psychic ability unless they put lots of time and dedication towards it from a young age, and even then I think most people only reach a 7/10 unless particularly gifted. I also believe that people with genuine psychic ability will shy away from the fame and fortune which could be achieved, for instance, through the medium of TV. It seems like Alyssa's mum isn't profiting from her psychic abilities, but has attended séances. This indicates to me that she could be legitimately psychic, but that's just the impression I get when comparing to my own pre-existing beliefs.
I liked the fact that the possibility of Alyssa's brother scratching himself was discussed and that Alyssa brought up this possibility. It's good to hear that, in the moment, it seems Alyssa's mum didn't jump to a paranormal conclusion first. It's a shame that further information wasn't discussed about the red eyes or how Alyssa's mum experiences these things. For instance, I'm particularly interested about if her mum would have physically seen it in the same way as she would see a solid object, or if she saw it in the same way people imagine images in the way of a daydream. Me wondering this isn't me thinking she imagined the eyes or hallucinate them, but there is a difference between seeing something with your physical eyes and seeing something with your mind; so it's a shame the OVERNIGHT team didn't question to understand the inner workings of psychic ability a little more.
My own take on the experiences is that the brother could have been scratching himself without realising it; and due to potential stresses of the environment, along with beliefs of the family, the mum could have misinterpreted what she saw. It's said the bad energy went after the house was saged and blessed, but this could have just been a psychological factor akin to the placebo effect. This would mean as their beliefs dictated that the saging and blessing would work, their mind believed it had, and so it stopped noticing the things it otherwise would have done previously such as 'unexplainable' scratches. Also on the point of misinterpreting the red eyes; assuming she did see them with psychic ability, they may not have been malicious as demonstrated by the strangling dream. In that dream, it was firstly interpreted that a spirit was threatening the brother; but in reality, the spirit was explaining how his son died. This highlights that things like this are up for interpretation, so perhaps the eyes weren't negative either.
Alyssa's experience is a good one to have covered as it has prompts questions. One thing I think when writing up these experiences is 'what if they've made it up'. However, it's experiences like this one which remind me that even if it is made up, it's still good to document as at the very least the experiences shared can serve as good thought experiments. They're good things to dissect, question, and wonder about if the things discussed could actually be possible. A good quote I always remember is 'science fiction is the pre-cursor to science fact', and I remember attending a lecture which discussed how scientists can be inspired by the technology and concepts discussed within such fiction. It's through pondering the fictional that we can push the limits of what we think is possible, and it's from there that technology advances and new discoveries can be made. This is how I view these experiences. Not necessarily as paranormal fact, or as good evidence; but rather as a stepping stone that allows us to question, and from those questions we can then learn.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this article! It was another decent interview from the OVERNIGHT team as I didn't have to cut much out, and it all flowed fairly well. It also briefly highlighted the general public opinion and concern of ouija boards, and that's also something I find interesting. If you want to watch the full fifth episode of OVERNIGHT's Haunted Homies, you can click the link below:
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