So if you’re the kind of person that stays away from haunted houses or places where other weird stuff happens, you might feel certain that you wouldn’t be bothered by its resident ghosts or entities. Or if you’re a ghost or UFO hunter, once you walk out that door and leave the area, you think all is good, right? Sorry but you’d be wrong in both instances. Some paranormal investigators have been quite shocked to find that the weirdness has followed them home. In addition, the bizarre phenomenon has also been known to plague their family members or friends without them ever having set foot on the site. This type of frightening phenomena has come to be known in popular culture as the “hitchhiker effect.” I first came across the idea that ghosts or other strange phenomena could follow a person around years ago. This was from a story related to me by a friend, although the term “hitchhiker effect” was not familiar to me.
My friend, Nate, related that late one October night he and his friend, Trever, had decided to visit a cemetery to do a little ghost-hunting since it was close to halloween. It was getting cold, so after walking around for a little while and not really seeing anything interesting, they decided to leave. On the way back to the car, Trever decided to pick up a small nondescript rock lying very near a gravestone. Thinking nothing of it, he put it in his pocket. They got in the car and headed down the drive out of the cemetery. It wasn’t long before they started getting a creepy feeling…like someone or something was watching them. Not being able to shake the feeling, Nate, who was driving, looked in the rear-view mirror and saw the shadowy figure of a man in the back seat. Terrified, they sped as fast they could out of the cemetery. Luckily one of them had the foresight to realize that taking the rock from the grave was somehow connected to this apparition; and Trever quickly threw the rock out the window. Luckily the apparition disappeared and didn’t bother them again, as far as I know.
My experience with this effect happened several years ago when I visited one of Muskegon’s well-known haunted houses while doing research for my book, Haunted Muskegon. Even though I was not actively ghost-hunting, I believe just being there triggered some sort of paranormal activity that apparently followed me home. While I didn’t feel creeped out in the car, as soon as I walked into my house, it was like some sort of anomalous discharge of energy went zipping through the house. Something in a duffle bag sitting on the floor shifted without being touched, making a rustling sound; next some pencils sitting on my desk fell off and rolled across the floor and just seconds later, dishes in the dishrack rattled inexplicably. Then it all stopped as suddenly as it began.
The term “hitchhiker effect” was first documented in Hunt for the Skinwalker, by Colm Kelleher and George Knapp. In it, they reported how military personnel, scientists and others who visited the infamous Skinwalker Ranch in Utah were followed by orbs, shadowy figures or poltergeist activity after returning home. The theory that such activity or entities encountered at a specific place are not confined to that location, but can “hitch a ride” with visitors and follow them to their homes or affect their families is controversial. However there seems to be evidence for it.
Research on the concept through the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP) and the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS) has been well documented. In 2008, Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Studies (BAASS), under a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contract, began a controversial two-year study to learn the effects of UFOs. The AAWSAP program was kept secret from the public until December, 2017 when The New York Times broke the story.
Skinwalker Ranch was one of the places targeted in the AAWSAP’s investigations as it was the site of numerous instances of bizarre phenomenon over the years; including UFO sightings, cattle mutilations, poltergeist activity, orb sightings, and discarnate entities. It wasn’t long after the AAWSAP investigations began on the ranch that inexplicable anomalies began to make themselves known. The DIA dispatched five military personnel to the ranch to evaluate and corroborate previous reports of anomalous activity. Soon after their deployment there, all five of them experienced something unexplainable. To make it even stranger, something followed all five of them home. Their leader, a Naval Intelligence officer with Top Secret clearances at the time, was also subjected to anomalous occurrences after his deployment to Skinwalker Ranch, as was his family.
And they were not alone. During the program’s investigations, it was more the rule than the exception for visitors to the ranch to take “something” home with them, including Robert Bigelow, BAASS founder. Journalist George Knapp also found out firsthand what happens when you visit the ranch. After making several visits there, his wife reported seeing apparitions in their house and blue orbs outside their windows. Bigalow sold the ranch to Brandon Fugal in 2016, who brought in a team to continue investigating the anomalies. Fugal’s team corroborated a lot of what was experienced during the first investigations. Skinwalker Ranch researcher, Dr. Jim Segala felt that after five years of tracking and collecting data from experiencers, there was indeed something to the hitchhiker effect. Some reported health problems such as neurological or chronic blood disorders. People who took home souvenirs also reported illnesses as did family members. Dr. Segala also reported that they saw higher instances of paranormal events when people who interacted with the phenomena did not treat it with respect.
But the hitchhiker effect was not unique to Skinwalker Ranch. The AAWSAP research team discovered that even encounters with UFOs in areas that had no connection to the ranch could provoke a similar effect. In one instance, biotechnologist Ron Becker and his daughter were travelling along a highway near Bend Oregon in May 2005 when his daughter saw three blue objects moving across a field. Suddenly the objects flew towards their vehicle. One of the objects went in the front of the vehicle and to their astonishment, the other went directly through the car and across the dashboard. As his terrified daughter watched, the third object went through Ron’s shoulder, passing through the thoracic area before exiting back out the shoulder. Unfortunately Becker soon came down with a host of medical symptoms. His daughter, although understandably shaken by this incident, was not harmed. However, after she returned to Connecticut, the strange phenomena continued. Her three college roommates soon began seeing dark shadowy humanoid figures crouching over their beds at night and were awakened by the sound of heavy footsteps going up and down the stairs. Previous to this, they had never experienced any poltergeist activity in the home.
Psychologists and skeptics propose that the hitchhiker effect is a type of psychological contagion, trauma response or a form of shared delusion. In this theory, because experiencers are conditioned to find anomalies, they correlate optical illusions or everyday noises to something paranormal. Consciousness researchers propose that there is a connection between physical and quantum anomalies at certain spots. This phenomenon changes the consciousness of the observer, allowing it to happen at any location. Some researchers propose that there may be environmental or radioactive factors at play and temporary exposure to them results in symptoms later on. Another theory proposed is the “infectious disease model” whereby the anomalous phenomenon acts as a disease would, whereby one person is “infected,” then transmits to others, who also begin to experience strange phenomena. While the infectious model is highly speculative and merely metaphorical, it bears a strong resemblance to how infections are passed between people.
It’s possible that further research could discover what the hitchhiker effect is and how it works. To skeptics, it may seem a bit unhinged to contemplate this as a serious study; however, to those who have experienced these terrifying events firsthand; it seems a worthy subject. Unlike a physical ailment where one contracts a cold or the flu and brings it home to the family; in the majority of cases, the effects are temporary. In the case of bringing home paranormal phenomena, the effect is that a person’s perceptions of the environment is altered. They might begin to see black shadowy entities standing over their bed, orbs flying around their room or even apparitions of dead people or poltergeist activity; which may or may not ever stop.
Truth be told, even though I write about a lot of strange things, I was a bit leery of writing about this subject, because we don’t know what activates it. One of my caveats in research is that one should never obsess on one given area, especially if it’s negative. I think that’s especially true in this case. It’s possible that future research could shed some light on this phenomena, which may have its roots in the realm of quantum entanglement, not the supernatural. Until that time, though, we’ll just have to wait and see. But if I were you, the next time I went into a haunted house, I’d take a look behind me to make sure that the ghost stays put.
Sources:
Kelleher, Colm A. The Pentagon’s Secret UFO program, the hitchhiker effect, and models of contagion. Pdf. EdgeScience.org, Issue #50. June, 2022. https://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/colmkelleher-edgescience.pdf
Knapp, George. “I Team: Skinwalker Ranch and the “hitchhiker effect.” 8 News now investigators. 8 News Now Vegas, website. June 24, 2022. Updated June 24, 2022. https://www.8newsnow.com/investigators/i-team-skinwalker-ranch-and-the-hitchhiker-effect/
Thank you for watching the Muskegon Channel. Check back again for more high strangeness on Paranormal Muskegon! Until then, stay curious and stay SPOOKY!
Have a paranormal story you would like to hear, share or know someone has had a paranormal experience, unusual ability, or other inexplicable involvement with the unknown, contact me at mariehelena777@gmail.com or on facebook: www.facebook.com/paranormalmuskegon.
To read more about some of Muskegon’s haunted history; check out my book: Haunted Muskegon – Arcadia Publishing or Haunted Newaygo County also through Arcadia Publishing for more local Michigan ghost stories.
