“My first encounter was in the fall of 1971-72 year.  I attended a boy’s school (St. Barnabas Boy’s School) in Fort Erie Ontario. Our class rooms where located, in what we named, Hill house.  We were a 10 min walk from the Old McAfee Cemetery.

This was my first year of boarding school and I was just shy of my 13th birthday.  My marks had been very good, so I was transferred from the gymnasium, which housed the dorms and study hall, to a private room, which was just up the stairs from where we had our daily classes.

I had suffered from terrible allergies and as a result was not sleeping well as I could not breathe very freely.  I therefore, used to sleep upright, with my pillow propped behind me.  I used to try meditation to slow down my anxiety when I had breathing problem, so I focused on a lamp post that I could see just across the driveway from my window.

All of a sudden this large brilliantly lit bubble started to pass from outside, through my window to within a foot of my bed.  Within this bubble I could see eyes and a moustache. At that point I blacked out and do not remember much more after that.

About 6 months later, I was resting in my bed, when this very uneasy feeling crept over me, that I was being watched.  I suddenly became quite alert and opened my eyes just a slit.  Out of the corner of my eye, standing right beside my bed was an apparition of a ghostly hand with a ruffled sleeve.  This gave me quite a scare, so I quickly closed my eyes and remember saying the Lord’s Prayer.

A feeling of boldness overtook me at that point and I thought to myself that if I jumped up all of a sudden I might catch this person unawares and scare them off.  I tried this, but when I opened my eyes, the apparition was gone.  I left my light on for the rest of the week.

I told my story to Rev. Pudwell (founder of the school and Headmaster at the time this witness was in attendance), the next day, and he laughed and said, “Oh, so you have seen the ghost Of William Lyon Mackenzie!”  He then told me that William had hidden in the basement of Hill house and it is believed his ghost still haunts the building.  I just thought he was having a laugh at my expense, so I did not give it a second thought.

1976:
I was in my final year at St. Barnabas and was talking to my old science master.  He had just moved in to the room next to mine.  Oddly enough, after about a week of his living in the room, he had mentioned that he was thinking about moving into the main building.  I asked him why and he said this room really gives me the creeps.  He asked me if I had ever notice anything out of the ordinary.  I told him my story, and that was that.

Sadly, he could not move out right away as he had to switch with another instructor, who was happy to stay where he was.  He too, indicated that he had some strange sightings while rooming in Hill house the year before.

One evening at about 9:00 PM, we had just finished study hall for the evening and were congregating in our Science Master room and socializing.  A group photo was taken.  We were standing in front of his closet.  A week went by and the film was developed.  Upon review of the photos we noticed, what we thought were watermarks.

The Science Master thought he could see a very faint trace of a face in the water mark.  We looked at it under a magnifying glass and I became very quiet.  I publicly insisted it was a water mark, but what I saw made my blood run cold.  It was the face that I had seen back in the fall of 1971.

1996:
A part of me had always wanted to believe that what I had witnessed was just a childish over active imagination.  After all, who ever thought of a bubble with a face in it as being real?  It was almost laughable.

In the summer of 1996, I was briefly between jobs and had extra time to read.  I happened to be reading a biography.  I do not remember, whose, but that is not important.  What is significant is this very same person had mentioned seeing a bubble, like the one I had witnessed when she was a child living in New York.  She later learned that these bubbles do exist and that they are called Orbs.”

*A note from PSICAN – St. Barnabas Boy’s School was a small school located on Thompson Road in Fort Erie, Ontario.  It opened in 1969 and maintained classes until it was closed down in 1982 due to financial difficulties.  Several fires throughout the years have destroyed some of the buildings.

Research also shows that William Lyon Mackenzie was in the Niagara region during the Rebellion of 1837 and was believed to have been rowed across the Niagara River to the United States by Samuel McAfee.

Our thanks goes out to the witness for sharing their experiences with us.It takes courage to do so, and it may just help others who are experiencing similar things to know that they are not alone.

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