My Brush with the Paranormal

A stifling sense of uneasiness crept in the moment I stepped into my room. I felt claustrophobic and was finding it difficult to breathe. Was it because the room was small? I don’t think so as I have stayed in smaller rooms before. Shouldn’t I be feeling really good to be in a room with a comfortable bed after having traveled for 24 hours through three flight between Bangalore and San Diego? Perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me. Maybe a shower is what I need. I had an hour’s time before I met my colleagues at the hotel lobby as we had planned to go out for dinner.

Deciding to shower later before hitting the bed, I thought I would freshen up instead. I went to the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water, and thoroughly cleaned it using a lavish amount of facewash. I applied my face cream and changed into a set of fresh clothes. I thought I felt better. I still had time so I decided to unpack some of the things, at least the clothes I would wear for the night once am back from dinner. I bent over to my suitcase, which was lying on the floor and cast a sideward glance onto the bed.

The discomfort was back and this time I had this uncanny feeling of someone staring at me from the bed.

I gave up the idea of unpacking. Instead sat down on a chair and started fiddling with my phone. Opening the Whatsapp app, I sent a message to my sister informing her that I had reached. I also jokingly wrote to her, “I think this room is haunted. You know I feel someone’s lying on the bed staring at me. I am feeling eerie in here.” My sister responded with a laughter and asked me to change the room.

I was at San Diego for work along with a couple of colleagues. We were staying at the iconic US Grant Hotel, located in downtown San Diego, California. The 11-storied hotel was grand and spectacular with 270 guest rooms.

It is a historic hotel, even listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel was opened in 1910 and belonged to Ulysses S. Grant Jr., the son of President Ulysses S. Grant, who dedicated the hotel to his father. At that time, it was a 437 roomed luxury palace with private baths, swimming pools, sprawling dining halls, and lavish ballrooms. Actually the hotel dates back to 1870 when it was known as Horton House and was the only major hotel in San Diego. It was purchased by Fanny Chaffee Grant, the wife of Ulysses S. Grant Jr. The hotel boasts of hosting people like John F. Kennedy, Stephen Spielberg, and even Albert Einstein.

I wasn’t aware of any of the historic detail until then. It was only later after I was back that I read up to learn more about it.

When I met my colleagues in the lobby, I casually mentioned that the grand hotel is not so grand afterall and the rooms seem suffocating. They didn’t seem to agree. So I visited their rooms, which were better and lacked the eeriness of my room. I requested the reception if my room could be changed. They readily agreed and after dinner I was transported to another room. The new room felt so much better though a slight discomfort remained but that was negligible as compared to the previous room. I chose to ignore that and went to bed and slept peacefully.

I have traveled multiple times to several cities in the world, lived in hotels and guest houses all by myself. I have never felt this way in any other place.

It was only two days later when I was at a dinner table with my American colleagues that someone started talking about this hotel being haunted and others chimed in with all kinds of stories. I was flabbergasted and jumped in to narrate my own experience. I don’t know if ghosts exist as I haven’t seen one, neither do I wish to, but I thanked my instincts that led me to change the room the day I arrived.

That night I couldn’t sleep even though I was in this new room. When I told all of this to my Bangalore colleagues the next day, nobody was surprised. Apparently, they had read this in the Internet and knew about it. How are they so cool about it, I wondered! I usually never read up to know about the hotels when it’s arranged by office as they are mostly 5-star hotels, so why bother. I thanked myself once again. This time for not reading anything beforehand. Then, I would have come in with preconceived ideas and whatever I felt in that room I would have attributed to that.

That’s a colleague at the lobby

An artifact at the lobby

The story goes that the hotel was Fanny Grant’s pet project and she had put in a lot of effort and personal time in designing the hotel to make it one of the best. Within a year of opening of the hotel, she passed away. Her husband, Grant, Jr. remarried and moved into the hotel along with his new wife. Since then Fannie’s apparition, clad in an old-fashioned white dress, has been seen walking through the hallways. Other strange phenomena such as flickering lights and things being moved and misplaced within the blink of an eye keep happening.

The Internet is abound with these and several other stories associated with the hotel. Apparently, it’s the 5th floor that is haunted. All of which I thankfully discovered only after getting back to Bangalore.

I have never experienced anything paranormal and even this was just a brush. Surely doesn’t qualify as a paranormal experience. However, I cannot say for sure that such things don’t exist. There are tonnes of strange things that are beyond any explanations. And I do not hesitate to say that I am afraid of the unknown. I do believe in the existence of souls and in the concept of rebirth. And, I definitely believe that all souls are not associated with negative energy.

But afraid I am! Especially when I am alone…

Stifle

Author: neelstoria

Traveling, Gardening, Trekking, Hiking, Storytelling, Writing, Nature, Outdoors, Yoga, DIY View all posts by neelstoria