I have reason to believe that there is some evil spirit, similar to the Alton Piasa Bird, living deep in the woods near one of my friend's house. It's a little more than a mile walk in a densely wooded area.

So far, my friends and I have been to this certain area of the woods where it 'lives' only twice, not including the time when we initially found the area in the woods.

Then we started having dreams simultaneously about a shadowy bird figure. Our ideas of what it looked like were somewhat different, but were generally all the same.

So anyway, the first time we ritually went into the woods was late in October with a group of about 8 or so, and we really didn't see or hear anything paranormal the whole trip, except for one of my friends feeling a hand grab their shoulder when they were not near anyone else. But the second time we went was TOTALLY different.

It was only three of us this time, on January 25, 2002. Once we crossed over the creek to get to the island in the woods, the temperature dramatically dropped and felt like we were standing in a freezer. The temperature grew colder and colder the closer we got to the haunted area. Then we started seeing faint and dim lights at about ground level hover back and forth and then suddenly go out. They were almost like flashlights. In total we saw about three lights on the ground, and one was up in the trees.

Then we also saw something shadowy jump from tree to tree out of the corner of our eyes (this can be explained as an animal or something, but it didn't feel like an animal, plus it made the hair on the back of our necks stand up). We were ready to turn back numerous times (basically after every time we heard something out the ordinary, or when we would see the lights), but we stuck it out and got to the area.

I wanted to light a fire in the area to show that we were not afraid, but my friends promptly made me stop it as they said I would make the spirit mad. Above us a bunch of birds got spooked and flew away from the area as we were leaving. So we left the area and got off the island in the woods as quick as we could. Once we crossed over the creek again, the temperature rose back up and we were no longer cold. We got out of the woods and told our stories to the rest of our friends, but they didn't really believe us.

What can we do to get some evidence to show everyone else "if" we ever decide to go back to the haunted area? Also what do you think of the strange phenomenon that occurred? Is it common in ghost or spirit related encounters? Should we not provoke the spirit?

My friend has also had a dream that the spirit in the woods is responsible for one of our old friends death in a freak accident.

sincerely,
Zach