That's the thing...My mom and sister just took it to be a harmless ghost playing a prank...a poltergeist. My dad was a stoic...no telling what he thought. I was probably 9 years old...no way I was going upstairs in the dark to figure out what it was. I just sneaked down to my room and hid under the covers, probably, until it was time to get up for Christmas morning stockings and presents...
I didn't do so well with ghostly movie scenes and such, while parents weren't phased. At the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland I don't think I opened my eyes on the ride until I was a teen...
When I was still maybe 7 or 8 we watched A Christmas Carol on TV where the ghost of Christmas Future was the grim reaper and its face turned to a skull when it sent Ebenezer to hell...I still have a stark picture in my head of a dream (I hope) where I walked from my room at the back of the house to the living room where my parents were watching TV, and when they looked up at me they had death's-head faces instead of being themselves. I got better about such things as I got older.
Even at our previous house (same town) I had "visions", like the time I climbed up to the top bunk in what used to be my brothers' room (twins) and there was a demonic figure lying in the bed. Middle of the day. Sunshine. Demon. Go figure. (I was 5, it was my room by then and I slept in the bottom bunk. It was a long time before I climbed to the top bunk again)
George Ganahl GCP, GCSME, ICCE, ICHD, etc.
Original Message:
Sent: 10-09-2024 13:24
From: Matt Lawson
Subject: The Big Bad Bots - Paranormal Story Thread! (Contest)
I...LOVE the story about the cat, so you saw the red light and no one went to investigate? It was just like "Hi, red light. We acknowledge you and are going to bed now"?
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Matt Lawson
Genesys - Employees
Online Community Manager
Original Message:
Sent: 10-04-2024 17:58
From: George Ganahl
Subject: The Big Bad Bots - Paranormal Story Thread! (Contest)
My great-grandfather bought a 200-acre ranch in Southern California back in 1916. My dad grew up there, my grandmother died there after a fall in the bathroom, who knows what happened in the years before the home came into our family.
My dad moved us there when I was 7. It was a spooky old house. Upstairs my uncles had "rooms" which were just partitioned spaces on the sleeping porch. The most fascinating was my "Uncle Sunny's" room. He died in the 1940s in a car wreck while he was in college...dead man's curve kind of thing. His room was left just as it was the day he died, even up through 2000 or so.
The basement was very creepy. Full of old junk (plus some rattlesnakes...had to be careful). One time when I was about 9 a friend and I crept down the stairs to the first landing (you had to go down in the dark to get to the pull-string for the light). We could hear a cat meowing. When we got to the light and turned it on, there was a cat skeleton sitting on the top of the foundation wall. We freaked and ran :-)
Every night I had to go to the back end of the house to my room to go to bed. Long hallway. I would talk to the ghosts to let them know it was me coming..I didn't want them to think I was a stranger and do something to me.
Through the years, various weird things happened in that house. Doors would open on their own. The radio in my room would turn on by itself. TV would turn on by itself. Weird noises in the night. My mom and sister just joked about the poltergeists that lived there...friendly ghosts.
I once put some rat poison in the attic in a few spots to try and cut down on the population. A week or so later I went to check on it...and found all the poison carefully covered by squares of newspaper that had obviously been chewed into shape. Freaky smart rats...
Not to mention the bats that lived in the attic (and sometimes came into our rooms downstairs). Millipedes, centipedes, and sometimes a tarantula would visit us inside the home.
We had a couple of old ranch hand houses on the property. One we rented out, the other was officially known as "The Haunted House".
Funniest story...my dad was named executor for his uncle Rudolph Ganahl (not kidding). So, the upstairs room above the carport became "Uncle Rudy's Room" where papers and other stuff related to the estate was kept. One Christmas we were getting home after midnight mass (which was actually at midnight in those days). As we came up the drive to the house, all of us (Mom, Dad, sister and I) saw a red light shining in the window of that room...Rudolph's room...LOL (I know it sounds like a joke, but we all saw it, and no one ever figured out what it was).
My dad had dementia in his later years, and he set the house on fire by mistake one night. He survived just fine, but the place was partially burned and smoked out, so we had to move him to assisted living and boarded the place up. Some kids broke in and set it on fire again, burning everything on the property (orange trees, eucalyptus, olives, pecans, figs...you name it...all gone).
Anyhow, a fair number of folks have written about the place, and done paranormal research. Half the stories aren't true (like the nanny setting the place on fire and killing the kids). But only half...
Some links:
Good pics on FaceBook
Hell's Gate YouTube
Another Hell's Gate vid
CSPAR vid on FaceBook
https://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/hells-gate
https://backpackerverse.com/did-the-babysitter-burn-down-the-ganahl-ranch-with-the-children-inside-on-purpose
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George Ganahl GCP, GCSME, ICCE, ICHD, etc.
Senior Principal PS Consultant
Genesys
Original Message:
Sent: 10-01-2024 11:28
From: Matt Lawson
Subject: The Big Bad Bots - Paranormal Story Thread! (Contest)
Good Evening,
Were you working in the lab late one night, when your eyes beheld an eerie sight? What was it? Give us all of the details.
The community has opened its tomb once again and calls for stories of the unexplainable, inescapable, bizarre and...true. This is Part of the Community's Big Bad Bot Bash.

Call For Submissions: Did your aunt tell you a wild story about being on a highway late at night? Was a friend alone in a hotel, but never felt...alone? Thrill us, chills us, enter your story below for the chance to win a prize from the Community's prize wall.
Our community moderators will review the submissions and pick the best story or at least some finalists. Full details below:
What to include in the story?
- Who?
- What?
- Where?
- When? And...
- Wait...WHAT?!?!?!
Bonus points for any proof you have of the event. If you want to record a video or audio file to tell your story, we will fire up the projector and build a fire! But, a nice detailed story can also go a long way.
What do the winners get? A deluxe prize from the prize wall.

How to Enter? Reply below to this thread with your story! You can submit a video, power point, text, cartoon, audio file, whatever helps you tell your story and help us learn about the innovation you have going on that leverages Genesys.
Main Rule: The story must be real and from a verifiable source! The community team may have questions and want to do an interview with the witnesses for more details.
What kind of "Story" qualifies? Anything that simply cannot be explained.
Not a fan of the unexplainable? We have trivia events all month long and a separate story challenge to learn what some of our members are experimenting with in their Genesys Laboratories.
Good luck!
Matt & Team
#Events
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Matt Lawson
Genesys - Employees
Online Community Manager
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