October Haunts: Author Aubrey Graves Channels the Spirits
By Julie Horner
Santa Cruz based paranormal investigator Aubrey Graves (yes, it’s her real name) published her first book dedicated to paranormal phenomena, Supernatural Santa Cruz, in 2011. A second edition was published in 2013 with more tales of legendary ghosts, reported hauntings, cryptid creatures, and UFO sightings in Santa Cruz County. “I love digging deep and researching to help restore missing pieces of history.” Pulling from nearly 20 years of personal study, she’s currently working on Supernatural Santa Cruz Final Edition containing 40 additional stories. This will be her first hardcover offering and will include a recent experience at Rispin Mansion in Capitola.
In July, Zak Bagans of the Ghost Adventures Discovery+ TV series contacted Aubrey. The paranormal investigation team had obtained a rare opportunity to spend time inside the shuttered and notably cursed Rispin Mansion. The sprawling 104-year old 4-story manor and former nunnery and SWAT training facility has been vacant for more than half a century and is burdened by a gloomy narrative of financial failures, unsavory events, and bitter misfortune. A sensitive empath, Aubrey saw a ghost during the expedition, an older man in Victorian attire looking at her and smiling. “There was a strong whoosh of energy that went over me. I felt something really evil.” Registering on the investigator’s equipment, Aubrey believes it was the specter of Henry Rispin himself. After the experience, Aubrey said, “I had a lot of icky stuff around me, three clingers, dark entities attached after the investigation, which I had to exorcise.” Watch Ghost Adventures Season 29, Episode 5 – Mystery of Rispin Mansion on select streaming platforms and follow on Instagram: @ghostadventures
While doing research for her book Attachment – A Santa Cruz Ghost Story, Aubrey said, “A ghost got attached to me at Evergreen Cemetery and I will not set foot there again.” True crime fans have made her book Serial Killers of Santa Cruz a bestseller. “People write to me from Europe to say how cool it is. Some people ask why do something so dark? I’m just creating things that people are interested in and want to read.” She’s still working on the sequel, Ghosts of Serial Killers. Aubrey volunteered at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum gathering fodder for her book Bigfoot – Newspaper Articles From Around the World. And she said, “I have a love/hate relationship with the Brookdale Lodge. I’ve written two books about the Lodge, but am overwhelmed by the spirits in the Brook Room; they’re confused and lost.” Hank, a former caretaker, let Aubrey and her dog visit late one night. “There’s an entity called Thumper,” she said. “Every night this being sounds like it’s walking over you, it’s huge, it’s really loud, it happens at 3:00 every night.” The sound initiates from the swimming pool room. She remembers asking the spirit what it wanted and felt it turn and rush toward her.
Along with an Electromagnetic Field (EMF) detector, a voice box where you talk to spirits through white noise, Aubrey uses a natural sense of intuition to perceive spectral energies.
“Sometimes the room gets too full, ghosts waiting to have their stories told. They don’t know what to do and they just need someone to help them do it.” santacruzghostdirectory.com
Books by Aubrey Graves
Supernatural Santa Cruz (2011); Ghosts of Santa Clara County (2012); The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland’s Haunted Kingdom (2012); Attachment – A Santa Cruz Ghost Story (2012); The California Ghost Directory (2014); The Haunted Brookdale Lodge (2014); History of the Brookdale Lodge (2017); The Santa Cruz Ghost Directory (2020); Serial Killers of Santa Cruz (2020); Ghosts of the Famous (2020); Bigfoot – Newspaper Articles From Around the World (2021)
Visit the Ghost Directory to learn more: https://www.santacruzghostdirectory.com/books-by-aubrey-graves
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