It seems that if you know anyone long enough, sooner or later they’ll tell you a true, real-life eerie story that happened to them. Are you ready for one of mine?
Scary but True: The Lamp That Would Not Turn Off
My husband and I wanted nothing to do with it
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The Pretty Lamp
The lamp sits in our basement now, wrapped in a blanket. You know, in my life there’s been little that spooked me, but when I watched an LED lamp glow without batteries at 3 AM, projecting patterns across my bedroom ceiling, that changed.
They say if you know someone long enough, they’ll eventually share their own true ghost story. Well, this is mine. It started with a Christmas gift — a block-style lamp that my husband, Sam, received from his son, Chris, nearly 30 years ago. It’s the kind that projects dancing lights when illuminated. Harmless and decorative.
For years, it was just another cherished memento. Sam has kept everything Chris ever gave him. The lamp itself is quite beautiful — a clear glass block with a laser-carved deer inside, sitting on a display stand with a colored light filter. When lit, it transforms our ceiling into a dance of rainbow light. “Magical,” is what one might say.
Chris lives far away. Before Chris’s last visit, Sam pulled the lamp out of storage and placed it in the room where his son would sleep. It seemed like a display of affection, and it was; yet that’s when the strangeness began.
In the morning, the lamp was in the living room, but I didn’t think anything of it. I played with it for a minute or so, then put it back by the bedside.
The next night, Chris slept at a friend’s place, so it was an ordinary night. Then, the night after that, he was back at our place and slept in the same room. In the morning, again, the lamp was in the living room. This time it seemed odd, but these things are easily put out of mind, and that’s what happened — Sam and I, who realized it had been moved each of the two times Chris slept here, were uncomfortable about asking why and simply chose not to ask.
Chris slept at his cousin’s place for the remainder of that visit.
After he left, the light block stayed beside that bed for a week or so before I decided to move it to my room. I have a few crystal balls but don’t use lighted stands for any and wanted to see what the effect of putting one on the light-filtered block would be. It was a round ball on a square stand, but with a rubber ring to sit it on and with no intent of walking around carrying it or anything, it was all good.
I turned the lamp on, and with the leaded glass sphere on it, the light show was even prettier. The light danced delightfully on the ceiling for a while, until my eyes started to close. At that point, I tried to turn it off but could not. I took the batteries out and fell asleep shortly after.
In the middle of the night, I woke up and used the bathroom. I didn’t notice anything as I arose, but upon returning to bed, even with no batteries inside, it was on! Dimly, but still, I didn’t know what to think. It creeped me out. I’ve seen a lot of things in my time, and I was sincere when I said on my previous author page that I’ve met the Devil himself and was unfazed. But when you plan for things (I planned to meet the Devil to overcome fear), it’s not the same as random, bizarre, unexplainable stuff like this.
I put the batteries back in, and that time, it actually turned off. Then, I took a thick towel and threw it over the lamp to make sure I wouldn’t be disturbed. I was tired and especially unwilling to take chances. As it was an LED lamp, there was no threat of fire. I slept through the rest of the night.
The next day, I asked Sam if he’d ever noticed anything strange about that lamp, and he said no. I told him what happened, and he said that in the past, before I moved in, he periodically brought it out and used it. However, life within the house is different now, he said, and he doesn’t do certain things he used to do to kill time anymore. The point was that he no longer knew much about the object.
Sam looked vexed. Not only would the lamp not turn off, even without batteries, but twice his son had put it out of his room, and at that point we both knew why.
The next night I tried again — I used the lamp to observe the crystal ball for a while, then automatically removed the batteries. My intent was to understand, beyond a shadow of doubt, what would or would not happen. Most nights I get up to use the bathroom, and that night was no different. The lamp was not on when I left the room, but when I returned to bed, of course it was!
I moved it to my husband’s bedroom; he sleeps with the TV on, and I cannot, so we often sleep in different rooms. I asked him to test the lamp. A couple of nights later, he said that when he did, there was no problem. However, I sensed that he did not test it through the night, as when asked for specifics, he had nothing to say. Hence, it’s no great surprise that the light ended up back in my room.
What could I do? We had stirred something up that required addressing. We didn’t really want to put it away and perhaps face a spin-off event in the future. We didn’t want to throw it out, as it was an heirloom of sorts.
I handed it to Sam and asked him not to put it back in my room. I explained to him that to get to the bottom of it, I’d have to meditate it. And the fact that no spirit had self-identified leading up to this round of events had me concerned. Typically, with visitations, spirits announce themselves, making this unusual. I didn’t want to do the work at that point in time. Looking back, I think I can pinpoint why I was so bothered. I was probably triggered by what happened to a friend of mine shortly before that time.
I had a friend who was a paranormal investigator. She’d been doing that work for over a decade, and her mother, father, brother, and sister did the same work. They were deeply experienced in that trade. One day I spoke to her, and she seemed scattered. She said something about a bad experience with her work and that it would take her a while to get over it. A few days later, I spoke to her again, and she seemed like a totally different person.
Whatever happened to Trish during her paranormal event freaked her out so much that a short while after, she stopped doing paranormal work. So, shortly after that, the experience with the lamp required me to do the work to find out what was going on. It was the wrong time for such a thing to arise. It was silly because, off the top of my head, I can list more absolute protection methods than most people will hear of in their lifetime.
I told Sam that it was not for me to choose what to do with it; I also reminded him of what happened to my friend.
The lamp has never been seen since, and Sam says it’s well-wrapped in the basement. I must say, I won’t miss it.
This story, though true, defies logic. Upon searching, we can see that these things can happen, but typically they’re brief or fleeting. Though the lamp phenomenon could be explained away by certain non-supernatural concepts, you know — would you want it around?
Probably not.
No real names were used in this recount.
Update
This article was written nearly a year before appending this section. And I should say — a person may have some psychic awareness and meditate regularly, but given the focus it takes to perform a meditation, they aren’t likely to meditate everything that should be meditated — me included.
The above explains why when this article was originally published, it seemed okay I hadn’t done the meditation to discover what was happening. Yet recently, as I went to update it, and as the article was already written and the pressure was off in that sense, I did the meditation.
During meditation, I was shown one of my now deceased dogs (who was alive at the time this article was originally written) with a hand floating in the air in front of them, holding the lighted lamp. There was a hermit, as in The Hermit tarot card, standing nearby. This told me that while my dogs were here, their energies activated that block so that they could, through it, advise me, and it appears that may be with a mentor’s input. That’s all that came through.
I have had numerous messages from one or the other of my dogs since they passed. I haven’t yet used the block as a tool to heighten communication energies with them, but I intend to try as I remember to do so and as time permits.
This article is dedicated to all of the paranormal investigators out there who keep this world safer for everyone.
Originally published in mid 2024. © Jude Ravenhall, 2024 forward. | You are invited to follow me at medium.com/@jravenhall. | If you would like to support my work, feel free to buy me a coffee at https://Ko-fi.com/ravenhall.
