A Lifetime of the Paranormal

AOTP EP:2 Tonight, we speak with GRP Media owner and Lead Investigator, Bill Powers; who, at the age of four, was touched with an ability that sparked a life-long journey of discovery and investigation into the paranormal.

https://grimreaperparanormal.com/

If you have an account to share and would like to be a guest on the show, email me at show@accountsoftheparanormal.com and tell me what you saw!

Accounts of the Paranormal -

Creator/Producer/Host: Gino Barreto

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Accounts of the Paranormal (theme song) 

Written by: Gino Barreto / Produced by: Kobe Ofei

All music produced by: 

Kobe Ofei https://www.fiverr.com/kobeofei 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Bill powers who at the age of four was touched with an ability that sparked a lifelong journey of discovery and investigation into the paranormal. Bill, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

I am so excited to have you. You have such a uh story to tell and so much to tell here. I know your story. We were chatting last week. This all started when you were very young, around four or five. And that's kind of where I want to start with you, if you don't mind. Go back to the beginning when this all started. Just tell us what happened and what you've been experiencing.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

Okay, my first experience that I had with the paranormal, I was roughly around, I'll say about four and a half years old. And I grew up in a very small town in New York. My hometown's roughly about 5,000 people. And so it was it's pretty small by today's standards. And I can remember uh I grew up in a Victorian home. It was my grandparents lived on the first floor. I grew up on the second floor. And I remember waking up on one particular night, and I kind of sat up in bed and was like trying to get comfortable, and I laid on my right hand side and just trying to just trying to get in that position to fall back asleep. And I can remember uh I wasn't asleep, but I remember clear as day hearing a male voice call out and say, Billy. And I immediately opened my eyes and I was like, what the hell's that? And I sat up out of bed and I started walking through my house. And my house wasn't obviously huge, it was like leave my bedroom, go into the into the dining room. And the minute I hit the dining room, with whatever spirit was there that called out to me, my body reacted to it, and I never forgot that feeling that I had. So as I walked and I was kind of like looking around, seeing like if maybe it was my parent what exactly was going on. So I walked through my dining room and I made it to obviously my living room, and right around the corner from my my living room was my parents' bedroom. Walked in the bedroom, and uh I kind of like peeked around the corner, and my dad was he was asleep, he was snoring, and my mom was like asleep on her left-hand side, and it's like I didn't think anything of it at at the time, so turned around. I walked started walking back out, and the the feeling that I was getting kicked in. And it was not until I probably hit my dining room that I can remember, I guess you could say I freaked out a little bit, and was like, Well, what the hell is this? And I ran back to my my bedroom and pulled the covers up over my head, and I like tucked them all in because I'm like, well, I don't know what it is, it's the boogeyman, and I I fell asleep. I never told my parents about it whatsoever, but it was pretty much from then on I started getting regular occurrences, I started hearing spirit, I started uh feeling, and growing up was in trying to think of the word that I want to use, it was difficult in that I knew that I was different, and I I say a lot that I've that I felt special in some way and I couldn't figure out what it was, and it was not until I was probably in my teens that I realized that uh what it truly was, other than I that I could hear something that wasn't in front of me, and that's when I realized that I was clear audio and clear cognizant, but I'm also an intuitive. It was very unique growing up, especially being a child of the what 80s and early 90s, and the paranormal was known, but it wasn't known like it it is in today's age. And I was I don't want to say that I was afraid, but I did not tell anybody that I could hear spirit and that I could feel energy and that I could tell where the energy was coming from. And for about God, 12 years, I didn't say anything to any of my friends until one day I told one of my best friends about it, and he didn't believe me at first. And I uh I was like, I I can prove it, but then it's like I mean, he was I gave him examples from different classes that we did when we were in be in school, and it'd be like, well, we were in like, for example, history class. I mean, I've heard uh, can you hear me? Uh, can you see me? I need help. Why are you why are you not talking to me? And these are just some of the things that I've heard while sitting in class, and it took the longest time for me to be able to uh tune it out and to block it so I could concentrate while I was in school. And I mean, still to this day, I obviously I can still hear spirit, and the I've learned to rein it in, I've learned to control it and to focus it. And it's very interesting and very unique to be somewhere, and you hear somebody talking in your ear, and obviously nobody else sees them, but you're trying to pay attention to a conversation and you have two conversations going on at once, one in front of you and one in your ear, and obviously you can't turn your head to the side to answer the your guest who's who's uh not in a physical form.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

When you hear these voices, uh are you uh physically hearing them? Is it uh is it as if there's a person present? Is it you're hearing it with your ear, or is it kind of in your mind?

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Yes. Yeah, I took an I mean that was the god, that was probably my the earliest that I can remember was about four and a half, and there was I'm sure there was other instances after that time frame, and it's like I can remember I was roughly around seven years old. So probably about what two and a half years later, I was about seven years old. Uh one of my grandparents passed, my grandfather, and they actually lived about a mile from my current house. And I used to love going to their house and walking around. It's kind of like being like the nosy kid and like walking through like all the floors and like hanging out in my grandparents' home where like mom grew up and stuff, and but my mom would uh leave me there with my grandmother, and so that way my mom could either grocery shop, go to work, or do whatever. And I can remember after my grandfather passed, I would be at her house, and she would leave me alone for periods of time, and it could be like read a book or write or take a nap or like whatever I was doing. But I used to get up and I would like walk around the house to differ and and peek and snoop. And I can remember many times that I would like go up to the second level, and there was multiple bedrooms that were up there, and I can remember the minute that I would hit the stairs to start walking upstairs, the feeling that I would get would kick in. And it's hard to it's hard to describe as to like how it felt, other than it was like a vibration in your body, almost like a static electricity type of feeling. And I knew it was there, and I've learned over time that the stronger the feeling it is, the closer I am to whatever the energy is, whatever the spirit is. And but at the time, it was very strong, and I can remember going through different bedrooms, it would creep me out, so I would like run down like the back stairway to the back portion of the house, and I'd like come in like the back door, and my grandma wouldn't yell at me or anything, but she was she'd be like, Why are you upstairs? and I'm like, Well, I was like looking for something, and so we'd like sit back down, do something, so I'd like to go exploring like all the time, but like it didn't matter if I was in the basement or the first floor or even the second floor. I always had that feeling, and my grandfather passed away at home. So it was not until I got older in life that I realized that, and I for I really do truly believe that it was his spirit that was actually still there at the time. And I mean their their house bordered the Erie Canal, which I don't know about you, but I remember growing up from history, learning about the Erie Canal, and obviously the Irish and all the other immigrants that that dug it by hand and all the thousands of people that died, and how long it took to actually uh complete this this marvel. But their house was right on the edge of the Erie Canal, and I always wondered as I got older, obviously, with there being water in the canal still to this day, that's like water is a is a conduit. And one of the theories for the paranormal has always been that if there's running water, you're gonna have uh some sort of a paranormal event or paranormal phenomenon. I would just I would walk around and just just the feeling that I would get, and I I used I it creeped me out, but at the same time frame, like now it kind of excites me because I would love to be able to go back and to uh to feel and uh to see what is possibly still there.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

You you said your grandfather um passed when you were seven, is that correct?

unknown 10:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Tell me about your grandmother passing. I know we were communicating last week, I think we were texting back and forth, and you and I think that was a little little later on.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

It it was. I was what nine roughly 19, 20 in that age range. And I was a full-time athlete back then, and I how can I word it? I guess you could say it still to this day, I'm very regimented, I'm very uh I like sticking to schedules. I'll get up early, and it's not to say like, hey, I'll be in bed like by like nine o'clock these days, but back then I was like very strict, and I was very into the sport that I was in at the time. And I got up early one morning and I uh went out and did a training session, and my grandmother didn't really drive anymore, so she I would tell her that I would pick up the newspapers. So that particular morning, and it was about nine o'clock, nine thirty or so. So I picked up the newspapers from the convenience store down the street, and I can remember uh picking them up and getting back to my house, and I can remember uh my grandparents had an old antique Singer sewing machine that was in their back hallway, and it was an old wooden machine with a with the push pedal, so that way you could operate the sewing machine inside. And I put the newspapers down and I rapped a few times in her door and called out. It's like mama, your newspapers are here, and uh went upstairs and got food, got cleaned up, all that stuff. And I thought it was weird because I didn't hear anything going on downstairs, and I was like, maybe she's uh maybe she's asleep, maybe she um, maybe she got the newspapers, so I went I went down to go check on her, and the newspapers were still on the landing, and which was concerning because she was usually up early, or I would hear her outside, or I'd hear the radio on, or it would be some sort of a noise, TV or whatever. And I grabbed a pair of shoes and I walked around the back portion of our house, and my grandmother, or my grandparents had one room in particular that was like their TV room. And I'm fairly tall at a like 6'3, and so I could stand up and like tiptoes and I could like stick my head and I could peek in the window. And I can remember looking in the window, and my grandmother was she was slumped forward, she was kind of like slumped forward but to the left. And I didn't think anything about it at the time, and but I didn't I didn't hear I couldn't hear anything. I was like, I didn't hear her like snoring or breathing or anything like that. So I ran back inside and ran upstairs and I grabbed the butter knife. And I remember my grandfather showing me how to take and to pop the lock on the back door if I ever needed to get inside. So I popped the lock on the back door, and I walked inside and walked over to her TV room and I touched her shoulder, and obviously she was ice cold. And I remember like taking a step back, and I didn't cry, I didn't break down. I've always been really reserved and really good with my emotions and keeping everything in check. And I remember saying, like, oh mama, and I grabbed her cell phone and or excuse me, the Cordle's phone, and I obviously called the police, and they're like, Well, who is this? I told them who I was, and they're like, uh, they're like, so how'd you get in the house? And I'm like, Well, I popped the lock on the on the back door because I lived upstairs, and then I obviously I called my dad, and uh I called my mom, and then of course everybody started uh showing up, but we had obviously we had the funeral and the whole the whole procession afterwards with um obviously distributing a loved one's goods and all that, and several weeks later my dad asked me if I would be interested at painting her first floor apartment. And at the time I was a poor college kid, and I was like, Yeah, sure. And so we went one day and we bought like all the paint and everything, and I can remember one particular morning he gave me the key, and uh it was pretty much my job to take and to paint every room that was in the place, and I love painting, I have no problem with doing it, but I can remember opening up her back door, and I remember the door putting the the key in the lock, opening the door, and watching the door open, swing open, obviously to the right, and there was a wall of static electricity right inside the threshold, and I can remember feeling it when I walked inside. And there was a period of time in in my teenage years where I really wanted to be normal, I wanted to not hear and not feel the in what I now know as the intuitive side and feeling energy, and I just wanted to be like some of my friends, and so for a period of time I shut it off. And as I was saying the other day to to one of my friends, we were talking about turning, I don't want to say turning off because you can never truly turn it off, but you can turn it down, and I turned it down. And after everything with my grandmother, with her dying, something something switched. And the minute I opened up the door and I felt the the uh static electricity, and it all slowly started coming back to me. And I walked inside and I started uh I went into our dining room and that like the whole usual thing you do with painting and the drop cloths and putting the tape down, and I was I can remember explicitly one particular corner that I was kneeling down and I was putting tape down. I was getting ready to start like the lower edging. And I mean my my grandma's dining room was fairly large, so it would be it would be a good hour, hour and a half to do one wall at a time. And I learned a obviously I learned a lot about painting while doing it, but I I was working fast, and I can remember while I was kneeling down, I could feel uh a cool breeze. I could feel the static electricity start at my ankles come up my calves and then gradually work its way up my back and wrap around me. And it was the it was uncomfortable at the time because it was my probably one of the first experiences that I had after a portion of time, I'll say a good three, four years, where I just tuned it way down because I just wanted to be normal, and I was like, I'm not gonna think about it, I'm not gonna do anything with it, and I I turned it down and it got eerie. It I don't want to say it was awkward because it wasn't awkward, but to have to feel like you were being watched, to feel this presence that was wrapped around you, and it did it feel uh malevolent or evil. No, it didn't. It felt I felt loved, and I over the course while I was painting, over the next several days, I'll say a good four or five days, I can remember that I would turn the radio on, I would sing, I would do any sort of distraction tactic to try to prevent myself from thinking about it. And then one particular time, and I want to say it was in the afternoon, I just started talking, and it just dawned on me, and it was like I was like, Well, mama, is that you? And for the next several days, I just started having conversations with her, and it was like I it's like it's like I love you, I miss you, I'm I'm sorry that you died, and I'm sorry that um that I that I found you. And I I I know after the fact, years later, a lot of my relatives were all uh you did really good. We don't know if the same situation, if we would have been as calm and poised and as collected as as I was. And but while I was there over the next several days, I would feel the energy. I would feel it in different rooms, whether it was the living room or even her bedroom or uh the den. It it followed me around the house. And then one day when I actually walked in to paint, the energy was no longer there. And I realized at that point that, and I firmly believe that she crossed over and that she was hanging around to say goodbye, and she wanted to make sure that everything was okay. And if there was one thing that I could go back and do, I would tell myself to start talking to her at the first day. But I know it's unfair and I can't really uh put that sort of pressure on myself to it's like, well, hey, I should have done this. But it's like at the time, with everything that was going on, I think I did pretty well.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

What an awesome experience. I lost my maternal grandmother when I was 17. The idea that she might have showed up or could have showed up and and let me know that she was there with her presence like that, that is absolutely awesome.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

It was really cool, and I mean, even my father in my father passed in 2004, and I can remember many times after my grandmother passed, and I mean, where we would talk, and he I remember one particular story that he told me, and this was within I want to say within a week after she she died, and the week or in the week time frame that uh that I had my experience. And I I remember he told me one story where he woke up in the middle of the night, and it's an old Victorian home, so a lot of the old Victorian homes here on the East Coast, obviously they have like huge octopus furnaces, and I mean the ducks would be eight, nine, ten inches wide, and it was like spaghetti city in the basement, but the sounds echo the sounds carry. So my dad woke up one night and he swore to God several times. He's like, I know I heard your grandmother singing in the basement. And he got up and he walked down the backstairs and got to the first floor. He turned on, he opened up the door, turned on the basement light, and he started walking down the stairs. And as soon as he got down into the basement, where his head could see into the basement, all the singing stopped. He said it was it was eerie, but he knows that it was 100% it was my grandmother. And I think about it all the time because it was the first real time that I felt more than I heard, because I heard absolutely nothing when I was in my grandmother's. It was only feel only. And I think that's what made it a little bit more eerie, in that I couldn't quite figure out what exactly or who exactly was with me, I should say. And I'm sure if my grandmother spoke and be like, hey Billy, it's me, or with whatever she would have said, I love you, I'd be like, Oh, mama, it's you, but there was nothing. And I I think about it all the time. And as I got older and I realized as I evolved and I worked on improving myself to open myself up more, that it um I've learned to concentrate in some ways to try. If I don't hear something, then obviously I I'll try, I'll switch over. I'm like, all right, so what am I feeling? But I say all the time, I'm like, I wish that I heard like a voice or something. It would have been such a a unique and uh very cool experience if I was able to hear my grandmother uh speak to me from the other side.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

You mentioned during your teenage years and I guess the earlier years that you turned it off or down, so to speak. Did you have any uh type of experiences during those years I guess where where the uh the voices of the audible comes into play? Or did you have any kind of experiences during that time when it began around four or five? And then when you were like eighteen years old, anything that's Stood out that you can recall that really impacted you?

SPEAKER_03 22:03

I'm sure there was because I can remember multiple times where I would be in my childhood home and I would hear from like an investigator's side point, and it's like I guess this would be the best way that I'm gonna I'll describe it, but I would I would hear taps, I would hear what's would sound like a uh a bang or a knock, I would hear a door handle jiggle, and door handle jiggle in particular was really unique in that I was like, well, okay, and I as I got older I realized that my house was haunted, but to hear like the taps, or to hear like footsteps, or to hear the voices, is I was like, okay, is it I think back now and I'm like, well, is it was it somebody just passing through? And at one time I used to say that I described it as a friend asked, and I described it as if being in a dark room and you're like a bright light, and everybody else can the spirits can see the bright light, so obviously they're coming over to the bright light to talk to you. And I tend to use that particular example a lot when I'll have different people like ask me like different things about it, but it's like I'm sure that I had experiences, it's just that I it they were either not impactful enough for me to remember, or they're locked away in the deep portions of my memory that I just can't access them. But there was a period of there was a period of time where I I just wanted to be like some of my friends, and I concentrated solely on that, and I've I fought with it for years, and I'll look back on it now and I'm like, you know what, maybe I should have opened myself up more. And but I made up for it when I got to my 20s because I was all into it in learning how to open myself up in meditation and spiritualism and getting involved, any different avenue to try to enhance myself and to learn what makes me truly unique. And the same friend I was talking to the other day about when we were talking about turning it down, she came out and she said to me, and she already knew that I had abilities, and she because she has abilities as well, she's a clairvoyant, she can see the dead, and she's like, But to be able to turn it down and to turn it back up, and it doesn't it took me time because once I was able to turn it back up, the feeling that I will get came back right away. But the hearing took a little bit of time that as I got into my 20s, then I started hearing things again. Um, I'm still here with you. I mean, I'd be laying in I was laying in bed one night and I heard uh it and it was a little kid's voice, and it's like, I'm still here. And it was in my left ear, because I know that I was laying on my left hand side, and it was like, okay, I know that that portion has has uh, I guess you could say come back.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

That is crazy. I can't imagine how I'd react if I heard something like that. A little kid speaking like that. And what how did you respond in that in that case?

SPEAKER_03 25:19

I actually sat there with my eyes closed, and I remember thinking in my head, and it was like, well, okay, who exactly are you and where exactly did you come from? And that was the only time I heard that particular voice in in that particular pitch, knowing that it was a little boy. And it's so interesting to I'll hear some, like, for example, one voice, and sometimes I'll it'll it'll come back, it might be, for example, 10 minutes later, and I'll I'll hear something again, but it'll be the same same tone, the same pitch. And then other times I'll hear one single time, and then I won't hear that voice again. And I don't know if it's I'm not concentrating enough, or perhaps they moved on, they went somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

How deep has it ever got with the voices? Like, have you ever heard a voice, been able to respond, and have you ever been able to, I guess, find out who this spirit as a person may have been? Has it ever gone anywhere, or do you just kind of hear a statement or two and then that's it?

SPEAKER_03 26:29

I it would be words, it would be words in like dribs and drabs, for example, it might be two, three, four words, and then I won't I won't hear. I've I've learned that as I got older, especially for example, and I don't know what it is, I've never been able to truly figure it out, but whenever I guess you could say that I was in a relaxed state, and uh I mean to this, I'm a busybody to this day, I can't sit still more than 20 minutes, it's so hard for me to sit still. And uh, but I found that as when I was sick, obviously I'd be forced to relax, I'd be forced to uh try to shut my mind off. And I will I learned that when I was not feeling good, if I was laying on the couch and I didn't have so much going on in my head, and I was able to turn out, I guess you could say life, the voices amplified, that I would hear multiple words from multiple different people, and I was able to tune into them with greater accuracy, I guess would be the word that I could use. And it comes and goes when it's like that, where I can fully concentrate and I can totally hear with what they're saying, and then there's other times where I'll hear uh, for example, I'm still here, which I mean is still a few words, but it's it comes and goes. And I mean, even for paranormal investigating, I'll have periods where we'll go into a location and I'll hear just a few words, or I'll hear nothing at all, depending on the location. And I've always as I've gotten older, I've always had the opinion that if spirit doesn't want to talk to you, spirit's not going to talk to you. It all depends, it all depends on obviously for the for the person themselves. It's like, hey, do I really want to speak to them, or do am I trying to speak, for example, to another member of my team? And I I still have that uh all the time where I'll I'll hear a few things and I I don't hear anything. And it's one thing I I still try to get better with and I still try to concentrate with, and it's definitely a learning curve. And as I said the other day to someone, I was like, in some ways, I still feel raw. And her response to me was and she's she's in her mid-60s, and she said that she goes, We're always truly learning through life, and you just have to make the most of it every day in order to try to better yourself and obviously to hone the gifts that you've been given.

SPEAKER_00 29:02

That's a great statement for sure. I want to get into the the later years you just mentioned investigating. Let's talk about the investigations and what has happened uh in those years since, and how you started investigating.

SPEAKER_03 29:15

Well, I well, I guess in some ways I've always been investigating, especially when gay yet you're hearing spirit and you're not obviously you you can't see anything, but I I started really getting into it, I'll say late 20s. And what really how can I word it? I always had an interest in it. I always obviously with the feeling in in the hearing, but I would be doing other things in my life, and obviously back then it was uh concentrating on uh dating my now wife and uh going on vacations and doing in work and all in the everyday mundane things that we do in life, get up, go to work, etc. And I I started concentrating it on more around when my dad died in 2004, and it seemed to click then in in some ways because my father had a massive coronary, and it was in January of that year, and my dad, more or less, he used to work for New York State, and he came home from work that day, he took one of my dogs and grabbed her and went to like a neighborhood convenience store, picked up a cup of coffee, which was usual routine, and he went to a local cemetery, and which can coincidentally is about was about a thousand feet from my parents' house. From everything we've been able to piece together, we know that he got out of the car, zippered up his jacket, and we figure that, and from what I've learned after the fact, he was already gone even before he hit the ground with a massive coronary. So obviously, my dad passes, and of course, everything that goes on with that, and which that was tragic enough, but it was afterwards, after my father was buried, that it started to truly click in with me, and I started to uh do investigating. I would go out by myself and I cemeteries and I mean cemeteries were were probably the first location that I went to. And coincidentally, it's like I would be in certain cemeteries and I would I would feel I would hear, depending where I was around what graves. I can remember one grave in particular with the one particular cemetery that I was at, and I was standing next to a stone, and back then I was still trying to figure things out and what my style would be and how I was going to do things, and I just kind of explored. And but I was standing on one particular stone, and I can remember hearing, hey, it's like clear as day, and I turned around and looked to the left, and obviously there's nobody there, but I know that it was a male voice and it was loud, and I was like, Well, who's there? I never got a response, and I looked around the cemetery and it was on kind of a hill, and but you could tell if there were other cars that were nearby, and there was no real houses that were within, for example, we'll say several hundred feet. And at first I thought, well, maybe the voices carried and trying to debunk it in my head. And I was like, no, I'm pretty sure that came from here in the cemetery, and that's what I that's how I slowly started to get into it. I would get into it, I would I started cemeteries and local houses. Um, I grew up being in uh being a lover of history, so I would go to the library, so I started researching places around my hometown, uh, local churches, and coincidentally, I'm close to the Saratoga Battlefield, which is incredibly beautiful, and it's an amazing location, picturesque, so quiet, notoriously haunted, 100% notoriously haunted. And the battlefield's an amazing location, and I still go there occasionally, but I just that's how I started. I just went to various different locations, and then from there things just kind of slowly started to click. And I investigated solo for about 13-14 years. And after my wife and I, when we got married, over a period of time, she started getting involved into the investigating, and I took a period of time off around the birth of our daughter in concentrating with her, and after God, I want to say it's probably about two or three years, I went right back to it, and I've been pretty much doing it ever since. And the main difference between then and now is once I hit roughly around the I'll say the 14-year mark, I started thinking about I'm like, I've done so many cases over roughly about a 14-year time frame that I want to start sharing on my knowledge. So, probably about five years ago, I started like thinking about it, and I was like, what do I really want to start a group or do I want to join a group? And I started looking around at various different groups around here, but nothing truly appealed to me. So I decided that I was like, well, hey, I'm just gonna go through and create my own group. So I created my own group, and I spent about six months trying to think of a name, and then finally I thought of for what our name is Grim Reaper Paranormal, and it just kind of clicked with me one morning. And I've always had that the creative side which either clicks either late at night or early in the morning, and it clicked early one morning, and so I went with the name, and I kind of went with it in the from originally with just my wife and I, and then I brought on one of my really good friends who's a senior investigator who's also a psychic, and it was just the three of us, and then we went from three to eight, and we a couple people left. At one point we got up to 10, we went back down to five, and right now I have 12. And I just actually brought on another psychic yesterday who lives locally and who has decades of experience not only with the paranormal investigation, but especially from the psychic side, and it works out well because there's others in my group that she's excited to help teach, and because everybody is different with abilities, and nobody does things the same. But when I brought her on board, I'm like, I know that I'll there's a lot that I can learn from her that especially for concentrating in how to shut my mind down so I can concentrate and I can open up more so I can truly hear better.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

How do you guys find your cases? How or how do people get in touch with you to do these investigations? And what are any evidence, anything that stands out that you've caught so far that you'd like to talk about?

SPEAKER_03 36:01

Oh, yes. I'm well prior to my group, I I have three filing cabinets that are filled with old cases that go back what 18 years, 19 years, photos, audio, uh obviously sheets of paper that I would just use, like an old laptop and I would type notes, notes on, or use like a notebook. And I lost count. I know that I was roughly about 746 cases researched, and I still have the list. I haven't added to it in probably about a year, and I know since then we've done like another 30 plus cases, but for locations themselves, it varies. Some locations are uh recommended, other ones I'll actually get an email or even a text message or some sort of a correspondence, and each location is different. And one of the things that I did when I set up Grim Reaper itself is we're on so many different social media platforms. We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, our website, all of them are integrated. So you could be on any particular platform, and the message will come through to my phone instantaneously. And I wanted to have that seamless connection so that way I didn't miss any possible leads. Um, I've had people call me up or even send me an email say, hey, my house has activity, I'd be very interested in having you come. Uh over the last five years, we've developed a knack for what I like to call virgin properties, in that they've never been explored by another paranormal investigator, and they've never had a team in there, they've never had in pretty much anybody in there. And those are my favorite type of cases. And because it's the unknown, you don't know what is truly in there. I mean, there's a lot of locations around not only here on the east coast, but even on the on the west coast, where the Winchester mansion, that incredibly beautiful home that has uh paranormal activity to it. And a lot of people in a lot of groups know these large locations, but what about the smaller locations, the ones that are truly untapped in unknown as to what sort of paranormal phenomena exists at those locations? Like, so for example, there's one location that we developed that we call the house on Bacon Street, and this particular location is I'll say about about 160, 170-year-old home. And it came from the family that lived there came from very humble beginnings. It's kind of like a Ragsuricha story, and they became one of the most prominent families in this one particular town, and they own the home for about 110 years, and just over time, of course, the family starts to get smaller, they move away, etc. And for now, the home is uh owned by a non-for-profit. And I reached out to them about the location with what the idea that I had in mind, and the executive director was totally on board with it. And my wife and I we went through and we did a walkthrough of the place actually one fall, about uh three years ago, and we captured really interesting evidence in an EVP form, and so we we did our walkthrough, which is what we usually do for every location, and over the years I've refined it to sometimes it'll be myself, sometimes it'll be my wife and I, sometimes I'll bring one of my psychics with me so I can get another uh individual that can be like, well, hey, I'm feeling this, I'm feeling that there's a child that's sad, etc. And we've evolved over the years with how we do things, but for this particular house, for the house out in Bacon Street, I've been there nine times in the last two years, and I've seen a black mist twice. I saw a black mist the first investigation that we were there, and I can remember clear as day standing at what would be their there's like a front desk, and no more than 40 feet from me, I was looking at the director, and I turned and looked back down this hallway, which went into this the house itself, and I saw a black mist materialize uh in front of my eyes, and it went from left to right, and it didn't click in my head until it started to move, and then I I quickly ran to where it was, which in I got there, I mean a few seconds, but obviously by the time I got there, it was gone. And the only thing that I could think of was it either went up the back stairs, which is what's in the vicinity with where it was, or it went down into the basement. But for this particular location, um, for example, is for some of the EVPs that we've collected. One of the first investigations that we were there, I heard uh I was walking around with the recorder. There's it's multiple floors, there's three floors altogether. On the second floor, there's one room in particular that we call the doll room. The energy that's within this room is so strong. And it's it's strong, but it's amazing in some ways, if that kind of makes any sense. And but we were, I remember walking up there and I was walking through to go put a digital recorder in this particular room. And I put that, I put a meter on top of in this crib where they have this one doll that is very old. I mean, she's 110, 115 years old. It's a doll that's from Germany. Nobody truly knows the true history of the doll, other than it's very rare to this day, and only a few of them still exist in the world. And I I put the equipment down and we started our investigation, and we finished our investigation, and then investigations will last anywhere from between six to eight hours long, depending on the location. Sometimes it's a night investigation, sometimes it's a day investigation. But for this particular time, it was a night investigation. We we wrapped up our investigation, and in regards to the EVP, it was probably the next day that I we started listening to evidence, and I can remember having headphones on, and I was listening to for the the digital recorder that I had in this particular crib. And we employ multiple digital recorders that will spread throughout a house. I mean, once we just had we just used three and we just brought them around everywhere. To this day, I have 16 that I've purchased over the years between my two different rotating teams. And we'll use multiple recorders and let them run in various different rooms. But in reference to this one particular recorder, some of the examples that I can think of off the top of my head, like I was walking, because I can remember clear as day, and I know where exactly I was because I was in a hallway right outside the doll room. Because I can remember the sound of the floorboard sweeping, and I know the spot in my head visually that as I sit here, I can picture it. And I it was a female voice that came through, and it was almost like a singing with how she was talking, and she said, Don't stop and talk to me. You know you really want to. And then towards the end, it kind of became distorted and almost as if it was sort of like a warbly digitized type of voice, as if she worked her way in, she spoke, and she worked her way back out. But some of the other things that I've heard was a male voice that came through. And this one is truly unique because it we had obviously for paranormal, there's multiple different forms of equipment. And we had cat balls. And and I mean the toy that cats play with, and investigators will use them, and some love, some investigators love them, some absolutely don't. Don't like them. In this case, we were trying it out. We're like, let's see if we can get a spirit to light up these cat balls. Ultimately, did they light up? No, they did not because we didn't catch anything on camera. But the audio was the interesting part because we I turned them all on and I can remember placing them on the floor. But what the audio captured at some point during the night, there was a response, there was a male voice that came through, and it said, sparkly, up. Then there was a pause and it laughed and it kind of went, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And you could there was another pause, a door slammed, and there were several more words. I don't remember what the the other like two, three words, but it was the it was the weirdest one of the weirdest digital recordings that I've ever had, even more so than than the girl. But we we know since we've been there so many times, the the place is incredibly haunted. We know there's a little boy that's there that is attached to an object within the building. And we know he dates back to the mid-1900s. And just from questioning that we've asked over multiple investigations, we know he either died of the Spanish flu or tuberculosis. We have an idea which item he is attached to. And the last time we were there, we were doing a special guest investigation. They the location itself uh was doing a fundraiser, and they asked me if I wanted to be involved and would donate time to give an investigation, which I did. And during the course of this investigation, one of the devices that we were using at the time, uh, Timmy's voice came through, and we asked him what his name was uh early in an earlier investigation. It was like, and he was like, What's your name? He goes, Timmy. So I remember it's like, hey Timmy, are you there? And we were using a portal device to communicate with him. And he said, Yep. And well, I guess it depends on the device. Sometimes we'll we'll get him, other times we'll get a voice, and then we'll get another voice come through. So in this particular case, uh he said yes. And like, Timmy, is anybody there with you? And a female voice came through and said it almost as like he was being corrected or something. It was a female voice and was like, Timmy. And uh he got quiet for a little bit, and then but he did come back. But we've been able to tie him to one particular object, or at least we believe we've tied him to one particular object, and but he came through during this special investigation and he said, Um, I miss home. And I in real time, it was not caught with my ears. It was not until I listened on the digital recorder that I caught it, which is one of the reasons why we use so many, because so much information is spit out in such a short period of time, it's impossible to hear everything that comes through. And this is just one location. And for uh a few minutes ago when I referenced for the Saratoga Battlefield, Saratoga Battlefield, uh, I've heard uh phantom gunshots, phantom cannon fire, obviously the voice aspect. I've heard, hey, you can you can hear me. It's like I can see you. I've been I've done EVPs in the battlefield, and I've had British soldiers be standing next to me, and I know it was a British soldier because I know right where I was standing in a field that would be for the Battle of Bemis Heights, and I heard a British accent uh say Korea, asking my question because I was tongue-twisting it at the time when I couldn't spit the words out. And I I was I remember asking my question, and I remember saying it's like it's like you're a real smart ass for for saying that. And but of course, I from the paranormal side, and it's easy for me to say this, but I'm like, I I wish I had a friend or something that was there with me so I could have told somebody like at the time frame, but Sartoque Battlefield is notoriously haunted. I've heard, especially the horse nays. The horse nays were the most interesting part itself, but there's so much activity at the battlefield, and even for some of the EVPs that we've captured there, I have certain particular photos and certain particular videos that I would love to share, but I know I can't because of course it's a violation of the federal law. And I I have one video in particular where we were on uh there's a trail called the Wilkinson Trail, and I was walking with my cell phone, and I was just using a uh I had a camera mount and I was walking the trail, and I was you doing trigger object sessions, and I was recording while I was walking, and I remember walking up this slight knoll, and I remember it was summertime, I'll I'll say it was roughly around August. It wasn't totally hot outside, but I know it was warm because I was wearing shorts, and I can remember looking up this knoll, and there's it's a bunch of pine trees, and I can see the the sun in the distance, and it was already behind the tree, so I know it was kind of in the afternoon, and I just started walking along, walk up the knoll, but I remember feeling a cold breeze. I didn't hear anything, I had no voices in my head whatsoever. And what drew me to this one particular video clip was like two, three days later, when I was reviewing all the evidence and I had uh headphones on, I was watching this one spot, and what drew me to it was I heard the air displacement of the air going past the microphone on my phone and hearing like the whole noise. And I backed it up and I started slowly playing with the that one block of the video, and it's only maybe we'll say about a five-second time frame. And there was trees on both sides of the trail, but I could make out this distorted image that would peek out from the left side of the tree, and as I got closer to it, it came out from behind the tree and came right towards me and right past my phone. And I showed a couple close uh friends a video and several that are within the paranormal community, and it's hard because it's distorted and you can't truly make out what it is, other than that there's air displacement. And I I know it was not a bug, I know it was not anybody else that was around me, but it that particular piece it I absolutely love. But at the same time, the same trail, roughly the same spot. My when my daughter was little, because my daughter she likes doing investigations, and every now and then. And she came with us one time and we were in roughly the same spot, and we were doing a trigger object session where I had a Bluetooth speaker, and I was uh playing recorded cannon fire and recorded musket fire, and I would play it for 30 seconds, I'd pause it and be like, Do you remember these sounds? And then I would play it again, and then I would stop and I would ask a different question. And it was like, Did you uh did you fight here at the battlefield? Did you uh die here in some of these fields? And I'd be like, if so, I do apologize. I'm we're here to speak with you, we're here to communicate with you. And we heard all three of us heard a gunshot, and it was not until I looked at my wife and I'm like, Did you hear that? And she's like, Yes, and I looked at my daughter, and she shook her head, yes, and we all heard it. And I grew up around firearms, and so I know the sound of what a hunting rifle sounds like, a shotgun, nine millimeter, etc. And it was not any of those, and it uh I started going back to my my phone and playing uh one of the soundtracks that I had on my phone that I was using for a trigger object session, and it I'm convinced that it was that it was musket fire.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

What a lifetime of uh paranormal accounts you have, Bill. And I know we can keep going on and on and on. I'm running short on time here. I am gonna have to have you back for a Bill Powers part two, if that's okay with you, where we focus solely on your investigations and what you have captured in those investigations. We're gonna set that up 100%. So thank you so much for being here. I can't thank you enough for joining me, being on the show and opening yourself up and what you've experienced throughout your life. If you don't mind, if you'd like to tell the listeners where people might be able to reach you or contact you, if you want to provide your your socials, your website, uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 52:46

Uh sure. For the best location to find us, obviously would be for the internet. Our web address is Grim Reaper G-R-I-M Reaper R-E-A-P-E-R paranormal.com. We have a pretty expansive website which is on there, but if you scroll to the bottom of the screen, there's actually going to be links for Facebook, for TikTok, for Instagram, and that you can connect to all of us. And then there the name is always the same on every social media platform for Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

Fantastic. Thank you again. I truly appreciate you being here, and we will be doing a part two for sure.

SPEAKER_03 53:24

Oh, definitely. Thank you very much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

Thank you for listening. I appreciate you being here. You can catch this show wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as our website, accounts of the paranormal.com, where you can access full episodes, as well as links to all our socials and our YouTube channel, where you can listen and watch along with visual images. And if you're a fan of what you heard here, please like, share, follow, subscribe. I appreciate the support. And if you have an account to share and you'd like to be on the show, email me at show at accounts of the paranormal.com and tell me what you saw. I'll see you next time.