“About three weeks ago I went to the Bay for my first cousin’s wedding. I was super excited to reunite with all my siblings and extended family in Carmel, which is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in California and by far my favorite. My parents checked us in to the Blue Sky Lodge on a Friday afternoon. Immediately after walking in to our room, I looked at my sister and said ‘This place is so sketchy.’ I looked around at the layer of dust covering the creepy paintings and outdated furniture. I also screeched as the wooden floors let out a creek with every step I took. My sister and I ran to our parents’ room next door and complained about how strange this place was. Mom told us to stop complaining and to get ready for dinner.”
“After a beautiful rehearsal dinner overlooking the ocean, my family returned to our weird lodge and got ready for bed. I noticed that there was a light in the closet that did not have a switch to turn it off. Instead, a single string hung from the ceiling, which I gently tugged at to make the room dark. I got in to bed next to my sister and we put a movie on. Then, we were interrupted by the closet light flickering on and off continuously for the next two minutes straight. My sister and I were both a little tipsy from the evening’s festivities, leading this occurrence to freak us out big time. We put the covers over our heads and watched our movie in total darkness since we were both too scared to get up and examine the situation.”
“Then, in the middle of the night, I woke up to a loud screeching noise followed by the closet light flickering on and off AGAIN. This time, the light was flickering faster and faster and it went on for five minutes straight. I woke up my sister, but both of us were too tired and scared to grab our parents. The next morning, we ran in to my mom’s room and told her that this place was SCARY. We then decided to look up our hotel online, only to discover that it is one of the most haunted places in all of California! There have been reports of paranormal experiences and various guests described feelings of uneasiness in reviews online. One website claimed, ‘Inexplicable fears, stress, and vivid nightmares make for a very restless evening.’ The feelings of unease that I felt at the Blue Sky Lodge led me to believe that there were haunted spirits in the Carmel atmosphere. I am not really sure why this happened and I don’t have an explanation, but I am certain that there was some type of paranormal activity going on.”
My Interpretation of the story:
In listening to this story, there are many possible reasons for the specific paranormal activity that happened in the tellers room. It is noted in the beginning of the story that the hotel is not the nicest of places, which does not make it hard to believe that there are mechanical errors in lighting and other appliances. The sounds of screeching can also be explained through the wretchedness of the hotel. What I found interesting was what followed the actual ghost story, and that is the research on the hotel. A trait that makes a ghost story more likely to be accurate and believable is consistency. This hotel and are in Carmel has a history of strange experiences that have been reported but multiple guests, that support the claims made by the story teller. It is noted that the teller has not specific ties with the hotel or the area, meaning that the experience must be related to the hotel or its location rather than the people effected. Because activity has been reported by many of different people, it is evident that the situation is revolved around the hotel specifically and can be attributed to the other strange occurrences that have happened there.