Technologist opens up about haunting experience with new book

by Saul Ravencraft

A recently published book is a great example of the thrills and challenges of pursuing the paranormal. “The Bothell Hell House: Poltergeist of Washington State,” by Keith Linder, describes his four-year experience in a house he firmly believes to be haunted. Linder is not your typical new-age type. He is also not the sort of sheltered individual that producers like to show on ghost-hunting shows. Linder is an IT project manager, so he has a background in dealing with complex problems.

He describes an ordeal that included flying objects, spontaneous fires, and other troubling experiences that plagued he and his girlfriend at the time, Tina.

A story from the local news outlet, the Bothell Reporter, quotes Linder saying “As I investigated the land, the house and whatnot, there was a family who lived there five years earlier and saw similar activity. I talked to wife and she said the house was a living hell.”

The article talks about how the TV crew from Ghost Adventures went to the house for five hours but didn’t find anything. (Sometime we’ll talk about the nature of “reality television,” an oxymoron if there ever was one.) Linder connected with British paranormal investigator, Don Philips (Facebook), who has a reputation for evidence-based investigations. In contrast to the quick probe by the TV guys, Philips spent two weeks collecting data, and it paid off. He had 427 recordings that captured possible EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) and 28 that seemed to be direct responses to questions.

I’m genuinely intrigued by this story and will be digging into it a bit. I’ve not read the book, yet, but just purchased the Kindle edition. Philips has also addressed the investigation in his own documentary, which I’ll also examine as opportunity permits.

Before I went down the rabbit hole, and thought that I had a handle on what was possible, I was comfortable that things like this were always the product of unintelligent or unobservant people. The way stories like this are often represented it’s an easy position to take. Then comes a story like this that goes against the stereotypes, that demands a little more attention. Will it convince people who don’t believe in this sort of thing? Probably not. For those of us trying to find some foundations in all of this, however, it might be very useful.

Maybe we can have a sort of virtual book club project with this one. If you read it, I’m interested in what you get out of it. I’ll likely say more about it later when I’ve had a chance to dig in.

Reference: The haunting of Hell House