I have recently been working toward my certification as a Paranormal Investigator and have been studying how to analyze suspected paranormal photographs. The study got me to remembering and thinking about probably the most incredible paranormal photo I have ever seen.

When I was around the age of 12-13…some 30 odd years ago…my interest in the paranormal was just beginning in earnest. Anything that was unusual began to interest and even fascinate me. The Bermuda Triangle, UFO’s, hauntings, anything along that line. My father had told me many “Ghost Stories” that had been passed down in his family and held as absolute fact, but he himself was somewhat of a skeptic of such things. Since I had developed such as strong interest in the subjects he tried to help me in my pursuit though.

A photo from a friend of his that he saw one day was to challenge his skepticism and leave an impression in my mind that would last to this day.

I remember my father coming home from work that day and telling me that he had something for me to see. He seemed very excited and perplexed at the same time. One of his longtime friends had taken a photo a few days prior and trusted in my father to look at it and tell him what he thought. As I remember my fathers friend was somewhat of a skeptic himself, but was very perplexed, to say the least, by the photo he had taken. My father asked his friend if he could bring the photo home to show it to me since I had a great interest in things like that. My father’s friend didn’t want to but reluctantly agreed. You must remember that this was 30 odd years ago and many of that time felt that to believe in the paranormal meant you were “crazy”. Even though the friend had taken the picture and seen it with his own eyes he didn’t want to be labeled “crazy” I imagine.

My father handed me the photo without telling me anything about it and asked me to tell him what I saw. My mother also looked at the photo with me. I remember we got a slightly uneasy feeling about the photo from the first we saw it for some reason. As I looked at the photo I could very clearly see 4 ghostly forms beside of a fence. Gaseous in some places and almost solid in others. One was a very tall and large standing form that judging by the fence post behind appeared to be 7 foot tall or taller, with a look, posture and hand position of an authority figure of some type. The three others were much smaller and were sitting on the ground in front of this figure. I remember that one of the smaller ones was sitting with outstretched legs crossed at the ankles. The faces of 2 of the sitting figures could not be seen as they were turned toward the standing figure, but the standing figures face and one of the sitting ones face( which appeared to be looking at the camera) could be made out fairly well. We all agreed that what it looked like to us was a scene of a teacher, preacher, or storyteller of some type talking to a group of 3 “children”. Past the point of the basic photo a chilling detail came to light. It seemed to my mother and I that the tall figure had horns of some type on its head and as I looked closer I noticed that one of the smaller forms did as well. When we told my father this he said that he and his friend had came to the same conclusion, but that he didn’t want to tell us and wanted to see if we came to the same conclusion. We had.

My father then truly shocked us both when he told us that the photo had been a photo of his friend’s new boat that he had recently bought. His friend had aimed the camera at his boat (which was sitting on a trailer next to the fence) and taken 2 self-developing photos. One of the photos showed the boat and the other had shown what we were looking at. The boat had disappeared completely to be replaced by the 4 figures.

The photo was taken back to the friend the next day and I haven’t seen it since. I have often wished that I would have gotten a copy of the photo, but since computers and scanners were most definitely not household items 30 years ago, I unfortunately didn’t get a copy. The friend wanted to forget that anything had taken place so my father did not ask him for a copy or press the matter any further.

I have seen 100’s or maybe even 1000’s of photos suspected of being paranormal in the time since that day, but of the ones I feel are real and not faked I have not seen any to top this one as to its graphicness and unusual content

When you add the facts together that my father had known this man for many years as honest and not someone who would try a hoax. The fact that self developing photos are hard…if not impossible…to alter. The fact that he didn’t even want people to know about the photo. And that he didn’t have access to computer photo altering programs like we have today. I feel it was completely real and chillingly genuine. What was depicted in the photo is completely up to theory but it is definitely one of if not the best examples of paranormal photography I will ever see.

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copyright 2008 Donald Ryles

To read more about Dr. Ryles and his life and to read about : Hidden Secrets of Many, But One… a very true and most unusual book of spirits, ghosts, haunting, and 9-11 being encoded 4 years before it happened, go to : www.drryles.com

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