Spirits can manipulate our electronics to communicate their desires and opinions. I’ve had multiple unexpected episodes that usually present themselves as an instantaneous loss of battery charge.
Of course, we must consider why a battery would die (other than from paranormal activity) such as from extreme cold, it’s old or expired, or it’s been drained due to usage.
Here are several strange occurrences that have happened to me over the years and the messages I believe the energies were trying to convey.
“Pay attention to me”
While at the Cal Neva Resort in Crystal Bay at Lake Tahoe, Nevada with KTVN, I recognized that sudden power drains could portend paranormal activity. We were in the hotel’s Frank Sinatra bungalow—Frank had once owned this hotel/casino—when the television camera battery died. As I handed a fresh one to the news photographer, the television remote levitated a few inches above the dresser then it dropped with a clang. The entire team, except for the camera man and me, witnessed its movement and gasped in unison.
“I don’t like it”
In 2013, I returned to the Goldfield Hotel with my family to take photos for “A Reluctant Spirit.” Knowing the spirits there enjoy music (see my post The Appreciated Gift), I brought a recording of Clair de lune, which Debussy released shortly before the hotel opened in the early years of the 20th century. The boom box played three to four seconds of the song then stopped. My father couldn’t get it to work, even after inserting new batteries. We assumed the CD player was broken. However, once outside the building, it played beautifully. I guess Debussy wasn’t the music the spirits preferred to hear.
“Leave me alone”
During KTVN Channel 2’s investigation of the Goldfield Hotel in 2007 (if you read “A Reluctant Spirit,” you’ll remember this story), our team attempted to leave a video camera on in room 109, known as Elizabeth’s Room.
Room 109 in the Goldfield Hotel, Goldfield Nevada.
That afternoon the videographer successfully filmed the interior of her room when the caretaker, Virginia Ridgway, accompanied us. But later— after Virginia went home—a member of our team set up his video camera and twice its fresh batteries suddenly failed. While it was fairly cold when he put the second set of new batteries in it, the camera worked fine outside of Elizabeth’s room. However, when he reentered her space, it again wouldn’t function.
A month later, the KTVN team gathered for our final 2007 paranormal investigation at downtown Reno’s Levy Mansion (now the home of Sundance Books). This classic, colonnaded, three-story building is known for ghostly activity. The news team brought the satellite truck to transmit the live shot. The first night, just as the news anchor was preparing to go on the air, lightning struck the transmitter on nearby Slide Mountain, disabling its ability to receive the truck’s signal. The news crew decided to postpone the investigation to the following evening, so the footage could be incorporated into the newscast.
The next day back at the mansion, the news crew was assured the mountain transmitter was functioning. However, it never materialized when for some unexplained reason, the news station couldn’t receive the news van’s signal. Curiously later that evening at a different location, the same equipment performed fine.
Have you had similar experiences with the paranormal and equipment failure? If so, please share your stories with us.