Because I’ve shared many of my paranormal adventurers with another person, I thought I’d take this opportunity to introduce her. Joni Mayhan is a fellow paranormal investigator and one of my closest friends. Like me, she has been growing more sensitive as she delves into the paranormal. Unlike me, Joni has been aware of spirit energy from an early age. Back then, she never chose to open herself up to her abilities, though. Living in a haunted house as a child, her natural impulse was to squeeze her eyes shut when she felt the ghost try to bully her at night and hope to hell it would go away and just leave her alone.

One of the things that has helped to strengthen our friendship is that Joni and I are going through this “I see/hear/feel/smell (eww!) dead people” experience together, so we are comfortable discussing things that would sound just plain crazy to others. I doubt either one of us would have made it through the last few years as well as we have if we couldn’t share our individual experiences with another person who not only understands but is going through the same thing herself. For example, while having dinner at a restaurant together:

Joni: “I just felt someone come up to table. Do you feel that?”
Sandy: “Yup. A male, right?”
Joni: “Um hmm. Mid-30s, short dark hair, pissed off look on his face?”
Sandy: “That’s what I feel, too. Did I mention that he followed me into the bathroom? What a perv.”

With anyone else, I’d just have to sit there and pretend I feel nothing, or mention it and get that “are you losing it?” look from my dinner companion. What a relief to be able to talk about the strangest stuff and not only be understood, but get validation that another person is experiencing what I am. Hey, I’m not crazy, Joni feels it, too! 

Joni’s been on the cookie sheet a bit longer than I have: more than half-baked, in other words. She started noticing her increasing sensitivity about a year before I did, so I’m somewhat behind her in what I experience as I grow more sensitive. We also have different ways of sensing spirits. Joni is “clairaudient,” meaning that she can hear tones that correspond to spirit presences. With this ability, she can differentiate one spirit from another and even identify where in the room each spirit is. The downside of this talent is that so far, Joni can’t manage to turn it off. She hears those tones whether she wants to or not. This, coupled with the fact that she and I both attract spirits to us like moths to a bright light, means that she usually has a house full of spirits. Try falling asleep to the sounds of spirits floating back and forth over your bed, and you’ll have an idea of what Joni lives with.

I’m “clairsentient,” meaning that I experience physical sensations in the presence of spirit energy. Specifically, the left side of my scalp tingles when a spirit is near. If I concentrate on it, I can then get some information about that spirit. At first I could just tell whether it was male or female (sometimes). Over time, I began to get more ideas about a spirit: age, physical description, and mood (calm, sad, angry, or just plain mean, for example). Not nearly as cool as being able to tell where a spirit is in a room, but at least I can get to sleep easier. In the last few months, I’ve been noticing some changes in the sensations I get: tingling on the back or right side of my head as well as on the left, and numbness on my face.

Don’t ask me what all that means, though. I haven’t a clue. It’s all part of the crazy process of becoming a sensitive. I need to go through it multiple times and try to keep track of what’s going on around me, so that I can begin to guess at why the sensations are different. Does a tingle on the right now mean that I can sense where a spirit is? What the hell does a numb face mean? Do I have a brain tumor, or am I really psychic? Of course I think brain tumor sometimes because at least that’s a known problem that can be diagnosed and treated. But a tingle and numbness without a physical cause? Beats me. I just hang on and try to figure it out. Not alone, though, thanks to Joni. When I feel that tingle start, I can ask my fellow sufferer what she feels and get reassurance that I am indeed feeling something real because she feels it too, even if neither of us knows how or why. Thanks, Joni!

P.S.  Joni is also a very talented writer. She’s published a fictional trilogy, “Angels of Ember,” which you can find on amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Strikes-Angels-Ember-Trilogy/dp/1482768933/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376874603&sr=1-4&keywords=joni+mayhan 

She has also completed her first nonfiction book, “The Soul Collector,” the true story of her experience with a negative spirit attachment. This is a very real danger for anyone who deals with the paranormal, and Joni’s book is truly chilling.  You can find this as an e-book or paperback on amazon.com as well.