With Halloween being right around the corner, I wanted to blog about places of interest in Massachusetts you can visit if you are interested in the paranormal. Since this is a fairly new blog site, I wanted to start out covering local areas for friends and go from there.
Today, I chose to start a short series on The House of 7 Gables. The reason I chose this is because of my mother. I don’t think she would mind me sharing this story. It’s always been one that has been shared over the decades during holiday gatherings. The story never changes. My mother’s grandmother was “sensitive” as is she, She passed it to me and to my oldest son. I won’t say psychic because I don’t think it’s that. We just seem to be in tune to more activity for some reason. We are also honest people. We do not make up things for grandeur. What I share with you is the truth as I know it or as it was told to me. There may be an inconsistency, but this is 100% what I remember to be true. My mother would never fabricate such a story. If you knew her, you would agree.
Before I go any further, let me state, for the record, we believe in God and are Christian people. I was called out on this yesterday because of my belief in the afterlife and want to just make that clear. I choose to believe in the existence of the paranormal for the simple fact that I want to believe that after we die, we have the ability to watch over the ones we love and I draw comfort in feeling that my dear relatives who have passed have the ability to watch over us. I’m comforted by that. In times when I am utterly physically alone, I don’t feel alone. That’s my choice to believe that and I don’t want to in any way, force this belief on anyone else. These posts are written for you to take away what you will and believe what you will, that’s the privilege you have of being unique.
With that out of the way, let me share with you my mother’s story. I will go further into detail about the history of the 7 Gables tomorrow…
My mother had been having a recurring dream for many years. She was running from something or someone and she would get to a place where she felt safe and be running up a flight of stairs. The stairs would start closing in on her and she would awake in a panic. That was it. Her entire dream. There may have been more detail that I don’t recall, but, like I said, I don’t want to embellish the story for fear of telling you something incorrect. She never shared this dream with anyone, except maybe my father, until much later.
One night, she and her friends had decided to use a Ouiji Board, just for entertainment to pass the time. She trusted these people. I grew up with these women and trust them as well. I don’t think they would manipulate a board. Anyhow, one of the questions they asked was what my mother had been in a past life. The board stated she was a witch. They all got a good laugh out it and shook it off as being a fun night.
The dreams continued. My mother was born in Pennsylvania. We moved to Massachusetts when I was young. When I was about 13, so about 1983, her sister came to visit and they decided we should all go to Salem. My mother had never been. They began the tour and when they got to the staircase at the House of 7 Gables my mother FROZE! That had been the staircase in her dreams! She was petrified to go to the top. She learned that was the staircase the women accused of witchery would climb and hide out from their accusers in an upstairs room. It took her a lot to climb that staircase but after that day, the dreams stopped.
I never knew what to make of it. I never saw the staircase myself. I sat outside and waited for them to finish the tour. I was either being stubborn that day or the place scared me, I don’t really recall. You decide for yourself. I’m not going to say my mother was a witch in her past life because I have no proof of that. No one would. But where did this dream come from? How did she keep dreaming of this staircase that she had never seen? She had never read a book about the house, and no one ever gave her a history before she was there and she had never seen it on TV. It was simply a local attraction she went to visit.
I’ll let you take away from this what you will but I would love to hear your comments. Please be nice. As I said, this is not fabricated for entertainment. This is a true family story with just the facts.
Have you ever had a recurring dream? I have. There are 2 I have had since I was young and I cannot explain them. I’ve never had anything like them happen and I hope I never will.
Please feel free to stay for a while and visit my other posts about paranormal activity and strange occurrences. I have a second blog that is currently being updated daily that I hope you will visit if you are looking for ways to reduce stress and or increase the happiness and peace in your life. It is The Peace and Happiness Project Blog Site by Missy Bell
Thank you for visiting!
Missy Bell
Where the Ghosts Live 
Missy, that was a great blog. I too believe in the afterlife and that our ancestors have the ability to watch over us. Since I work with energy that dream of your mother’s is not that unusual. We carry in our DNA our ancestors emotions and traumas. They are genetically passed down. This is a fairly new branch of science called biogenetics. I just look at those dreams as ways to show your mom that her ancestors needed something cleared or understood. Once she saw what it was the dreams went away. The negative emotion was dissipated for her and her ancestors. I look at it as an opportunity to acknowledge what happened and then the trauma/emotions were released (for everyone as far back as it went). Just my thoughts. I hope others respond as well with their opinions. Thanks for the story!
That is fascinating. I love that. I’m not sure if this applies to this dream though. I’ve done a great deal of research on the family history and no one ever lived in Massachusetts. I’d love to hear more about this. Do you have or are you affiliated with a website on this?
Missy, the dream can also be figurative. It might be representative of your family being persecuted and pursued. Maybe they had to flee and hide. There are emotions in all of that. They can become trapped in the body (including the DNA) and get passed down through the generations. Then they manifest in behaviors, dreams, emotions, depression, etc. There are a multitude of ways for this to manifest. There is a really good book called “The DNA of Healing” by Margaret Ruby. I will be reviewing it in a blog sometime soon as it is pretty cutting edge about how we inherit our ancestors emotions. Good luck. I’m enjoyed your posts and need to catch up on the ones I missed over the weekend.
I forgot one other thought. About the actual staircase. You said your mom had never been there and recognized it instantly from her dreams. How could that happen? I have several ideas on that, but the simplest would probably be that all the emotions (past & present) in the universe are out in the universe in the form of energy (emotions=energy). We can tap into them and see them, feel them, experience them if we are aware and in tune to them. Because she is sensitive (as you stated) then somehow she felt the emotions of those who went up that staircase. That was manifested in a dream. Those emotions could easily have represented the same emotions that your ancestors wanted to have acknowledged or even felt in a different situation. Who knows what purpose it was to serve – maybe it was to give her verification that her ‘sight’ is valid, that she needs to rely and trust her intuition. Ask her what lesson she learned from it. We are given things to teach us, what is it that she needed to learn or at least acknowledge about herself? There are several other possible explanations, but probably too lengthy to put here in the comments. Keep up the great blogs. They are so much fun to read.
What a great, spooky family story! I’m glad your mom’s nightmares about the staircase stopped after she visited it.
I don’t really have recurring dreams, but I do have this weird thing where I can identify a furniture, architecture and other items from a certain time and place. Did I live there and then, or am I just sensitive to some kind of “echoes”? I guess it doesn’t really matter since it doesn’t affect my life now other than providing me with a curious little ability.
Visiting you from the Facebook UBC bloogboost! Happy Sunday!!
That is quite an ability. Perhaps you were an antique professional in a previous life or one of your ancestors was. See the comments below. Julie talks about how we may carry things like this through our DNA from our ancestors. Thank you for stopping by!
First of all, I believe that our dreams are driven by our subconscious mind. Given that’s where 98% of our brain activity occurs, I believe that the subconscious uses dreams (sometimes, not all the time) as a way to communicate with our conscious mind. And yes, we all have gifts and some people are very sensitive to the energy that still remains from people who have passed on. My friend’s daughter can see the auras of others. Me? I sometimes get images of what someone may need to help heal (for example, a friend of mine was in a car accident and she was complaining of middle back pain. While I was performing Reiki on her, I saw an image of the three pyramids in Egypt. Weird. But when I was finished I realized that one way to help relieve her back pain was by practicing pyramid pose in yoga.)
Second of all – I don’t believe you need to defend your articles. You keep writing your truth. That’s all that matters. ❤
Third of all – I can't wait to visit the mansion in Gardner with you!!
xo
Peggy
I am also very excited about the mansion visit. Do you see that the mansion (I know it was the owner but I think it’s funny that he said “the mansion”) wished me a happy birthday? I found that comical. I know, I shouldn’t have to defend myself. I get stuck sometimes when people say things and feel the need to move past it by defending myself. I appreciate that you brought that up. You have a great gift for healing and you have done a lot of work to be able to get to that point to where you can give back. You are very open to it and the needs of others. Keep that gift alive. Love you!
I agree with Peggy…there’s no need to defend your articles. What is so cool about blogging is that you can write your experiences and it’s up to the audience to decide what (if anything) resonates with them.
I personally do believe in paranormal activity as an extension of my belief and faith in God and Jesus. It’s all connected.
God Bless you for expressing your thoughts. Many are so afraid to do so!
Thank Renee. As I told Peggy, I get stuck sometimes and that it what it takes to move past it and continue on. I’m glad you brought it up as well. I used to be silent about things that bothered me but I’ve gotten better as I get older. Thank you for stopping by. I’m glad you enjoy the post.
Nothing wrong with being a witch, or being Christian while also believing in the paranormal or an afterlife… we all have different beliefs and viewpoints of the world. It would be an awfully boring place if we were all the same!
I’ve been to the House of the Seven Gables a few times, although I’ve never been on the tour so can’t speak to the staircase there. I’ve always found it to be a lonely, romantically tragic place (if that makes any sense). I read the Hawthorn novel about it as a teenager, so I was quite excited the first time I was there.
I have had recurring dreams since childhood that involve fire. My parents often told me growing up they were convinced I died in a fire in a past life (and for the record… they are both devout Christians, too). 🙂
Best wishes,
Melissa
Thank you Melissa. That was good to hear. That is a recurring dream I had when I was a child that seemed to go away. Now, it’s tornadoes and seeing a plane crash (I don’t know anyone on the plane but I am usually running to take cover from ball of fire and debris from the explosion.) They are both about survival and perhaps I have a deep rooted fear about tragedies and my subconscious is just trying to work through it in my sleep.
I have had a similar experience. My entire life I dreamed that I was going to die in a car accident at the end of my street. In fact, I always had a fear of driving and would try to stay away from the activity when I would be by the house I grew up in. After becoming very sick I began seeing a guy who does Reiki. During one of our sessions together I had the dream again, but this time I emerged from the car as a butterfly. The dream that I had been having as a child was really just a revelation of my spiritual transformation.
That is so fascinating. A revelation about your spiritual transformation. I like that. I hope it stopped the dreams stopped after that. Sometimes we need to have understanding then they go away. Thank you so much for stopping by and contributing your story. Much appreciated!
Don’t let people get you down, Missy. My partner doesn’t believe in the supernatural because he has never experienced it. Until he does, he will be a naysayer. He doesn’t put me down for my witchcraft (I no longer practice, but I still own my Book of Shadows and all the other trinkets I used) and he doesn’t mind that I’ve seen ghosts.
Yet, he doesn’t believe. It’s his right.
I believe in the afterlife. I’ve lived before, many times. I don’t talk about it much because people discount it unless they (or I) can prove it. To heck with that. I know what I know and I LOVE your stories!
Keep them coming!
Thank you too for saying that. I felt the need due to a comment I received. I have been very careful all my life not to offend people and I felt like I did. But I also was offended at the same time, feeling my beliefs were put into question. It was an uncomfortable place. I’m grateful we are all different and see things differently though. That’s what makes us who we are and keeps life interesting. I love the things I learn through other people. (You just sparked the thoughts for my next post on my http://www.PeaceAndHappinessProject.com site. Thank you…)
When I was about 19 I had a reoccurring dream for 2weeks. Every night in my dream I was driving my car and I would get divert down a series of roads. And every night I would loose control of my car and it would crash into some sort of body of water and I would find myself struggling to get out. The dream became more and more vivid and envoled, but always the same theme. The car was always completely upside down in the water and I always seem to manage to get out by following the same steps over and over again. I would roll down my window and swim out… untill the last night I had the dream. Now I always believed that old wifes tale. If you die in your slept you die in real life. However, that night I had the dream I crashed my car I had panicked and I drowned in my dream and everythg went black. The last dream had really shaken me and I remember telling my classmate how I ws exhasted from the night mares and afraid to drive. I finally stopped having the dream but less than a month later it happened in real life. I was headed down a main high way when I ws deverted to a side road bec of a tractor trailer accident, then the side road was closed and traffic deverted bec of another accident. Zshh I thought at the time. What a day for accidents. Lastly I ws deverteed down a seasonal road. It was april at the time a beautiful day, no rain or wind. As I drove down the road I suddenly hit a huge pot hole, somethg on my car broke and I lost control of the car. I tried to correct the car but it ws as if there was no stering at all. The car flew off to the side of the road and kept going to a stream. And as the car slowly flipped over the edge I remeber thinking here we go again, (as it had reminded me of my dream that I kept having) at first I paniced, Iws upside down the car ws full of water, and I ws breathing in water. Then I remembered my dream again. Ok I said to myself, how did this work again? I followed the steps, I took my seat belt off, I tried to swim out the window but it wasn’t rolled down enough. I ws stuck. Icould see the light and clouds in the sky through my watery vision. I remeber feeling like a rat in a trap.I tried to roll down the window but I accidently rolled it up! By this time I felt like I had been underwater forever. I could feel the water going in and out of my lungs. Bef that time I always had thought if your lungs were full of water you would just drowned at that point, but it seemed to not be the case. So there Iwas starting to feel my arms and legs go numb, my head becoming light, (it actaully felt quite peaceful) and then I heard a voice in my head. You can’t leave now ur family would be devastated, remember your dream! The steps to exscape. So I pulled myself together and finally swam out to safety. When I got to the hospital the doctor ws amazed. You swam out??? he said I’ve been a doctor for 25year everyone drowns in these accidents”._postive thinking there. Anyway,if it wasn’t for the dreams I wouldn’t have knw what to do, I prob would have drowned indeed.
I do believe that dreams prepare us for what is to come, whether they are literal or metaphorical. This sounds like not just a premonition but possibly assistance from the other side to help get you through something you may not have been able to do on your own. I’m so glad you made it out and that you shared this story. Thank you.