Hello, my name is Ryan Ray I am 24 years old and live in Hayward, CA. Here are some significant events that have occurred in my life that I believe to be paranormal in nature.

In late 2003, my aunt informed me that she believed the apartment that she was living in was ‘haunted’. She knew that I had a strange fascination with the paranormal and asked if I could stay the night and “investigate” her place. She told me a few of the things she was experiencing. She said doors would lock and unlock on their own, salt and pepper shakers would slide across the dinner table, temperatures would dramatically drop randomly, she even said that her youngest daughter reported ‘playing ball’ with a little girl in the back room of the apartment.

On December 25, 2003, I spent the night at my aunt’s house. I didn’t have much in the way of gear, but I was able to bring a few things. I brought two Hi8 video cameras on tripods, a Sony digital ‘still’ camera, a Minolta 35mm camera with infrared film, and an EMF meter made by Extech Instruments.  My aunt said that most of the activity they had experienced was late at night, between 2 am and 4 am. I arrived at the apartment at around 7 pm. I took some time to tour the place, and got firsthand accounts of where the main activity was taking place. It turned out that most of the activity happened in a small hallway area that connected most of the rooms of the apartment. I set up my video cameras at both ends of the hallway and recorded most of the night.

I should tell you now that I was taking my opportunity to stay in the apartment very seriously. I made it clear to my aunt, cousins, and sister who were staying there that night, that if they were going to walk in front of the cameras they needed to say their names as they passed. I also told them that if I was walking around to take pictures that they needed to stay behind me, I did not want to have false positives turn up in my photos or videos later. I was also very careful not to take a photo with anyone in the shot.

The events of this night really had an impact on my life. I saw things that night that I had only heard about in movies. I am going to do my best to recall what went on that night. Luckily I kept a paranormal journal, what I am writing to you now is what I wrote back then.

Everyone who was in the house stayed out in the front room all night, they watched tv and movies for most of the time. I consider myself ‘sensitive’ to paranormal things, so when I ‘felt’ something I would snap a picture – usually with both cameras. We kept the lights low and I did random walkthroughs throughout the night. The later it got the stranger it got. We were all on the front couch watching tv and my sister turned around thinking someone was standing behind her. She reported seeing a young girl in a white dress standing behind us, as soon as she saw the girl she turned to walk away and disappeared. Needless to say, my sister was startled and upset. She didn’t really think anything would come of the evening.

Later that night while looking at a painting my cousin had done, my sister said she saw the right eye of the face in the painting change into a rotating swirl pattern. We saw ‘dark spots’ within shadows, the only way I can explain this is to say it looks almost like a void within a normal dark area. We saw orbs of light bouncing around in the air vents on the ceiling and floors. One of my video cameras shut off, most of the charges of my batteries were drained, my EMF meter spiked from zero and turned off, and the overall temperature dropped very low for most of the night, (even though we had the heater on we could see our breath). Overall, the night was very active.

My biggest encounter happened at 4:37 am. I was sitting on a chair looking at the hallway and a young girl appeared in front of me. This girl was wearing old fashioned clothing, what looked to me like a nice white Sunday dress and black lace up boots. She walked toward me, stopped about five feet away from me, looked me in the eye and said, “We’re leaving now.” She then turned and walked into the kitchen, I could hear her boots clicking on

the linoleum. She took a few steps towards the dead end of the kitchen and disappeared.  The moment the girl disappeared the atmosphere of the apartment seemed to change. The temperature rose, and the overall feeling of uneasiness faded. This was my first real encounter with an entity.

Shortly after visiting my aunt’s house I went back to my college campus where I was going to develop the rolls of film that I took. I had taken several semesters of photography and was fairly proficient at developing rolls and printing negatives without any trouble. Out of the four or so rolls of film, I got a few odd things, some black dots here and there that could be called “orbs” bu

t I tend to disregard “orb” photos because dust is so often an easy way to explain something like that. I was, however, happy to find what looked like a young woman walking toward me down the hallway of my aunt’s apartment. To this day I have not seen a

more compelling paranormal photograph. I have join

ed several online paranormal communities and forums only to be laughed at and shut down when I show this photo. It is just “too good to be real” people say. I have come to accept this, it isn’t great, but I know what is true.

Please do not re-post this picture without my permission. For more information about this photo and other investigations and or blogs by me you can visit my site,  http://paranormalsurvey.com