“In Eastern culture, people see ghosts, people talk about ghosts… it’s just accepted. And in Western culture it’s just not.”
—JESSICA ALBA
When Michelle’s son, Dale, was still a preschooler, and was asked to talk about his family, he was pleased to do so. He would mention his dad, his mom, and then his sister, Ashwar.
What a nice family! Only one problem: Dale had no sister.
Dale often sat on the floor or outside on the grass under the special tree and offered his toys by placing them all around the trunk of the tree in a circle for her.
Looking back, Dale’s parents understood that the seeds of that “relationship” had begun even before their son was a year and a half old. In fact, when he was still on his back in his crib and mostly attracted to his feet and toes, his attention would suddenly be drawn in its entirety to a spot some distance away and he would smile and kick and coo, his arms would quake, and his legs would kick—all positive signs that he was enjoying something no one else could see or identify. It fit well into the life-long encounters Michelle had experienced with the paranormal and reminded her of how the dogs had often seemed to be playfully engaged with some unseen entity.
By a year and a half, Dale might be playing contentedly on the floor in the living room when suddenly he would sit up straight and turn his head as if in response to someone calling to him or suddenly entering the room. He would smile as if eager for whatever interchange had taken place and mouth the conversational jabbering at which he was becoming so proficient. He would crawl closer and then sit and watch as if entranced.
Once real words began to open up his relationships with others, such occasions would be met with phrases appropriate for the sudden meeting of somebody special. Once he obtained his sea legs he would toddle off in the direction to which his attention had been drawn and spend time engaged in some sort of give and take with…something?
Figure 7-1. Above the bathroom door off the living room is where Dale would look up and stay entranced by “Ashwar.”
As he grew a bit older, his parents would sometimes watch him as he stood at a window looking out on to the very large old tree that stood on the front lawn. He would point and turn his head to one side offering phrases such as “That’s where Ashwar is.” He would offer a series of nods to his side as if confirming whatever the exchange had been about. Once engaged in those ways it was nearly impossible to distract him with conversation, toys, or even the promise of treats. The family never heard or saw anything.
Figure 7-2. One of the first encounters with Ashwar was caught on home video.
Figure 7-3. Dale pointing to himself as he tries to explain to his grandmother about what he is witnessing.
Figure 7-4. Another still of Dale looking up.
Figure 7-5. Dale pointing up to where “it” is.
By the time he reached five it had become a fact of life for him; he had a sister. Her name was Ashwar. It had to be one of those more or less universal imaginary friends that often populate a child’s life, right? Wrong!
When Dale entered school he began talking about his sister, Ashwar, telling his friends and teacher all about her. His descriptions were so specific and believable that when Michelle went to a parent teacher conference, the teacher asked her about his delightful sister, Ashwar. The fact of her existence had gone unquestioned; Dale was a boy with a sister—a sister no one seemed to know about. It got to the point at which Michelle became worried the school was going to call the authorities because of the “missing” sister. It appeared to Michelle that his teachers were, in fact, suspiciously puzzled by her assertion that there was no sister. How must it have looked? Either the family was hiding away a daughter, failing to acknowledge her, or Dale had serious mental problems.
Dale continued to interact with Ashwar. She would ask him to come to her, to talk, or play. Although by school age he understood other people could not see Ashwar, he continued his relationship and showed no indication of being afraid. Nor did he waver in his apparent belief that she did in fact exist, regardless of other’s inability to see her.
Figure 7-6. The tree where Ashwar appeared to Dale. Photo used by permission of Ray Szwec.
On one occasion while the family was eating together, Dale mentioned that Ashwar was searching for her mother. It suggested a significant turn in the story. He pointed out the window and up into the tree outside the front of the house and said, “She is stuck here left to observe.” No one else could see anything and the boy just let it drop.
As the story of the relationship matured, Dale began referring to her as his friend and the sister references dropped out. Sometimes he would stare across the lawn and down the driveway into the backyard saying that was where Ashwar’s mommy was and that Ashwar continued to search for her.
The parents asked the other family members not to enter into conversations with Dale that were focused on Ashwar. They should try to change the subject. Although they cooperated, it proved to be a nearly impossible undertaking.
As Dale became more proficient with language the story moved on to another level. Ashwar lived in the big tree out front. He simplified her description to a girl in a blue dress who had been in an automobile accident and her mother had been killed. His interaction with her pretty much moved to the base of that tree, where he would jabber on and play for hours at a time with his toys, navigating the grass and roots and moving to the right or left as they would encounter a stone or fallen chuck of bark.
Michelle sometimes wondered if she should take him to a psychiatrist so he would have somebody to talk to about Ashwar and might receive some sort of treatment to alleviate the problem.
Then the story took on a serious turn. In December 2010, Michelle had to go out one evening and took Dale with her. They were having a light conversation about Christmas and his toys and he suddenly became very serious and started to confess about Ashwar. Michelle called Donna from her cell phone and was very upset. Dale began to talk to Michelle on the exact same road and in the same spot where Michelle had talked to Donna about a prior life more than 35 years ago. The words in quotes are words he has never used as far as they knew.
Dale told Michelle it was time to tell her about Ashwar. She was almost twelve years old. A “few years ago,” she and her mother were driving a “silver two door” car on a “country road” when an animal “darted” out in front of them (he made a motion with his hand). Ashwar’s mother “swerved” and hit a tree, “splitting the car in two.” The fire “department” went to the “scene of the accident” and there was “gas” all over the road. Ashwar was hurt really bad and had “blood all over her face” and her “left” arm was broken. She “immediately” went up (and he made an upward gesture with his hands) and went into a tree. She watched. They had to “cut the top of the car off.” Her mommy was “taken” to the hospital and she died about two “hours later.” She had a dress on, too.
When Dale was in the dark and worried about getting back “home,” Ashwar came to him and “took” him in her arms and told him he would be okay. She had little “tiny” wings on her sides and she carried him “home.” And then he lived here. Was this a dream? An out-of-body experience? It was very disturbing indeed.
At night, Ashwar would come to him in a “dream” and want to play with him. He yelled “stop,” not because he was afraid, but because he was sleepy. Sometimes her mommy would come too; she was wearing a dress, but she didn’t have a face.
Michelle has mentioned repeatedly to Donna that Dale yells “Stop it!” during the night. Before this, both of them knew something was bothering him, but he never articulated what. These were his first serious detailed words on this subject.
In 2005, when Paul Eno came to the house, he took an extended video of that tree. The results were astounding!
“During the replay, we saw a serpent-like creature slithering down that tree—it scared me,” Michelle said, clearly reliving that moment with some emotion. “It just really scared me—we didn’t know what it was and had certainly never seen anything like it there before. We didn’t ask Dale about it.”
There came a time when Dale mentioned Ashwar only infrequently. The following summer Michele had occasion to ask Dale about Ashwar. Whereas before he had always been delighted to relate his times with her, he refused to discuss her. He attempted to ward off additional questions by saying she didn’t come around anymore. It wasn’t that she was made up, but rather that she didn’t come around anymore. He didn’t appear to be in any way upset about it. It was as if he didn’t see her anymore, like a neighbor you find you don’t spend time with like you once did. He never gave any indication that he missed her.
In 2010, Dale took his toy vacuum up the stairs to my bedroom. He wanted to pretend he was helping. He got to the top of the stairs and called me. He was frantic. I took a second to get up off the couch and he called again and wanted me to come upstairs right away. I got halfway up and he told me that something was over my bed going around and around it. I looked to see if the ceiling fan was on but it wasn’t. I asked him what it was and he said that it was a “black thing.” Dale made circular motions with his arm to show me how it was moving. He told me that Ashwar brought Gordon to meet him!
Michelle and Donna both explain that Dale is not the type of child to make things up. He is honest to a fault. He’s very blunt and straightforward about things. He has always presented an age-appropriate imagination when playing, but he has no problem differentiating between what is real and what is made up. As has always been the case, he has friends and enjoys his time with them.
The true nature of Ashwar will forever remain a mystery, but “she” is one paranormal visitor the family will never forget.
[Dale never mentioned Gordon after that one time. I am not sure if he mentioned Ashwar after that. She just gradually faded away. It just became more and more infrequent and because we didn’t dwell on it with him, we didn’t realize the specific point in time he stopped talking about her after this. He now has no recollection of it or will not speak about it. It’s tough to tell.]
Dale looked out the window and told Paul Eno that Ashwar was in the tree outside the front door. It was pitch dark and very cold. Paul couldn’t see anything there. Paul knew, however, that these entities do not necessarily appear to the naked eye. He filmed the tree area with a Vivitar DVR 510N in IR mode and caught a type of entity coming down near or from the tree while his son Ben sat on the front porch. The following stills from the video were the results of that filming.
Paul later found Greg Harold, who, back in 1974, was having trouble with vandals at his home in Florida. He set up a Kodak Analyst super eight surveillance camera to try to catch the culprit in the act. Instead, he started catching these entities—similar to the one Paul caught outside the Fillie farmhouse. They have large heads, two short arm tentacles of some sort, and one or sometimes two tentacles in the place of legs. Greg continued to film these creatures up until 1980. He believes these creatures exist around the world and are some sort of alien creatures. The following photo stills from Greg’s many hours of video with a comparison to our photo stills of Ashwar. The similarity is intriguing. In addition, the movement matches. Could this be what Ashwar is? Not a little girl at all, but an entity of a very unusual kind?
Figures 7-7 to 7-11. These are stills from the video Paul Eno took after Dale looked out the window and told him Ashwar was in the tree at that very spot. Photo stills of video courtesy of Paul Eno.
Figures 7-12 and 7-13. Ashwar (left) and George Harold’s discovery (right). Photo used courtesy of Gregory Harold. Ashwar still from video courtesy of Paul Eno.
Greg has never felt any negativity from these entities at all during the years of filming and studying their behavior. He described them as follows:
• A head big for its “body.”
• Big eyes.
• It seems to have a mouth.
• A short body about 12 inches long.
• Two 12-inch appendages; like arms but no hands.
• A long tail but in different views it looks like two tails instead of one.
• It looks like it floats around in some way.
• It can go through solid objects or structures.
• It can change its appearance (often changing into a “ghostly” see-through image).
• It exhibits intelligence. It first had what appeared to be one “suit” design and a helmet. Then, three years later, the suit looked different and the helmet moved up while the visor moved up and you could get a look at what was in there. The suit separates from the helmet when it opens.
• You can see the head and tail and there was always a little orb that comes along with it. It looks like it’s about the size of a golf ball. Greg thinks the orb is the power source put out by these entities.
• There are no legs in the suit.
In 1979, one of these entities appeared on Greg’s window. It looked like a little rodent of sorts. It was see-through, though. It was looking into the camera for a few minutes. Then this entity started growing—getting bigger and bigger—until it covered the whole window sill. It stayed there for a few minutes and then gradually disappeared into nothing.
This could be Ashwar. Of course, that is hardly an answer. The bigger question still remains: What exactly is Ashwar?
See the Bonus Features located in Appendix III to find access to the actual Ashwar video!
Paul Eno captured a photo of a face in the lower right window of this home. There were no shades in that room.
A close-up shot of the face in the window.
This very intriguing photo appears to have captured a parallel world intersect with an alien in it? Either that, or it is a horrifying photographic error with an amazing illusion in it. With everything that goes on in the farmhouse, it might just be the paranormal caught on camera.
Donna, Bob, Michelle, and Diane all identified the faint figure in the mirror as “Minnie Gray” (the woman in the photo at right). She was Donna’s maternal great-grandmother. She took Donna’s grandmother in after she was left on a doorstep and she also took Donna’s grandfather from the Gilbert Home Orphanage in Winsted. Minnie told Donna’s mother that she would gladly give up her life if it meant Donna would be okay. Upon finding out that Donna would live, Minnie sat down in her rocker and died.
View of the farmhouse from Marc Dantonio’s drone surveying the area. The red circle indicates a hollow spot in the yard where a haunted structure is likely buried. Inset: Dantonio, Bill Hall, and Ben Eno preparing the drone for flight.
(left to right) William Hall, Shane Sirois, and Paul Eno live on Behind the Paranormal radio show discussing the investigation.
This part of the basement, in the corner where the chairs are, held an undeniable energy. Paul and Ben Eno, along with William Hall, felt it on separate visits. William felt a force field–like energy and a feeling that there were many people there.
