Walking Among Spirits

Every year I perform a ritual that has helped keep things in perspective for me. This ritual is coming up soon and since it’s on my mind, I thought I would share it with all of you. It involves my practice of astral projection and a common location in my state of Colorado.

I love ghost stories. Colorado has some of the best locales for hauntings and paranormal activity. There’s the Stanley Hotel, which Stephen King based his novel The Shining off of and later filmed the movie version there. Colorado has the Brown Palace Hotel, a hotel that has never been closed for a single day since it opened and where the front desk regularly receives calls from vacant rooms. There’s also Blackhawk, an entire city that’s haunted. I have visited all of these places and more, but this location remains special to Colorado’s history.

In the heart of downtown Denver is a park called Cheesman Park. It’s open to everyone and sits close to the capitol building. You can find people there at any time of the day and it’s a rather pleasant-looking place. If you talk to a majority of the people who visit the park, however, you’ll see a pattern emerge when you ask the what they think of the area. Whether they believe in the paranormal or not, people agree that there’s something “off” about Cheesman Park.

Allow me to describe last year’s experience when I traveled to this park in a way most people haven’t.

The park officially closes at 11 pm. I decided to visit it around 9:30 pm. When I arrived, the world felt cold and distant. After practicing for decades, I have managed to not let my surroundings dictate my astral state. I felt warm and confident. As I walked among the grassy areas and looked around for grounding, I noticed something strange happening to a couple lying on the grass.

They were fine, of course. They were side-by-side, watching the stars. The couple yawned repeatedly and cuddled closer to each other. None of this involved the strange sight. They seemed perfectly normal. But underneath and all around them, I witnessed hands. Dozens of them. Desperately trying to pull the physical couple down into the ground. I watched as the couple checked the time on their phones and begin sitting up. With fury, these hands struggled harder. I was surprised to see the couple lay back down and star gaze for a little while longer.

I continued my journey and watched a larger area where people commonly play sports or hold picnics. I watched two friends practice some football throws. Judging by their age, I assumed they were in college. The ball went back and forth, the two men completely ignoring the small child playing amongst them. At least they ignored him for a while until the ball strayed from its path with both men calling out for someone to “watch out!” No one had been there when the two went to collect their ball, but I had seen what they saw. The ball landed where the young child had been playing. They were confused for a moment, but seemed to shake it off as they went back to playing like it never even happened.