My personal Experience at The Bell Witch Cave

[Tama P]

Of course the Bell Witch Cave, the Bell Witch Farm, & the entire legend is good ole Tennessee history at its most mysterious.We visited the cave on a hot Summer day this year. We took the cabin tour, & it was sweltering inside the cabin. I enjoyed the props & the replica of the old log cabin, but I wasn't as impressed with the cabin tour, maybe because of the southern heat & humidity. Regardless, we had a great time & the cave tour was worth the visit for our family. I must admit, when we entered the cave, I did hear voices from deep within. I thought there must have been another cave tour inside. I didn't realize they only run one tour at a time. The cavern is small, & the passage way in is also the passage way out. I allowed the group to get ahead of me, as I usually do when taking such tours, so that I am free to take many pix & video. I don't always hear the narratives form the tour guides, but I know my reason for being there anyway. Very early into the tour the guide had us all look up at the cave ceiling, part of the cave has a 2nd story. It is said that there have been sightings of a woman's face there before. My teen daughter was distanced in front of me. I heard her say,"Holy crap!" (I know those 2 words shouldn't mix, but anyway,) I thought she got her feet wet, or stepped off of a rock, as this is a very wet cave with slippery rocks lining the pathway inside. I didn't know until after the tour that in fact she thought she saw an old woman's face in this opening of the ceiling. Could have been the power of suggestion. That aside, she saw it. As we traveled into the cave & approached the old burial site of a young Indian child, I busied myself snapping pictures, doing my own thing. I want to sense something... of course I do, I want to sense the presence of a spirit every day of my life, I may as well admit that to you, I am very open to this sort of thing. At the same time, I am challenging the stories I had heard about the place. Though I am a solid believer, I know from experience that "most" ghost stories are merely stories. Back to the tour; as I listened to the tour guide, I wondered if in fact there were spirits in this cave or anywhere on the Bell Farm, could they be spirits of the Indians who were buried above the cave? Could the bell witch herself have been such a spirit? There are many beliefs surrounding her... it made sense to me that some of the alleged paranormal activity experienced by visitors to the cave may have been the phenomena of Indian spirits. My thoughts only. I wasn't sensing anything at this point of the tour. Still, I enjoyed the cave; it is a raw & wonderful cavern. Remember the voices I heard at the beginning? We were the only group in there, and when we got to the back room, I realized there was more going on around me than I had sensed. I asked the tour guide if it is possible that I could have heard voices from the folks renting canoes & traveling down stream behind the cave. She is one of the owners who takes tours through the cave all the time, she said No... in fact, she had been fooled by such voices one time, while giving a tour she & her group had been in the very back room when she heard voices. Thinking that someone had entered the cave without permission, she made her way to the front room. There was no one there, no one on the pathway out, she even radioed back to the other workers at the store & cabin; no one had entered the cave. She believed me that I had heard voices.I distinctly heard it, as did my daughter, which I did not realize this until I spoke up about it. Also, at the back room of the cave, I started smelling a sulphuric odor. Now, mind you, I allowed the group to start back towards the entrance as I fell close to the back, maybe someone passed gas, but I am telling you, this odor was most pungent when I came upon a deep crevice, and it seemed to come from this crevice in the cave. Maybe these smells are commonplace in caverns; I assure you I do not know. But now I was becoming more alert, I had heard the voices; I now had a scent to challenge my senses. My husband smelled it, too. I gave him the camera & asked him to stay behind & snap some pix; I wanted to be more isolated anyway. The group was well ahead of me, he & my nephew stayed behind. I started to follow the way out. I was trying to tune into whatever could possibly be happening, if anything was. This is my style. I have been able to sense abnormalities in my surroundings, a lot of the time. I wanted to allow whatever could be in my presence the opportunity to make contact if it desired to. Many will laugh at this that is fine. Others will warn me that I am opening myself up to bad things. I understand. But in this blog post I won't go into why I feel I am alright doing this. As I got closer to the group tour, now at its conclusion, the guide was explaining a story about a little boy who had climbed to the 2nd story and had been frightened by a face, and either he fell, or got stuck, I can't recall because at that precise moment, as I was thinking there was not any spiritual presence & I was ready to declare this visit nothing more than a family outing, I looked over at the area near the Indian girl's burial site. I saw a faint shape, a few feet off the ground, a brownish color that was swirling and hovering. I stared at it before I even opened my mouth to call attention to it. I remember thinking it must be dust the group had stirred up. And then I realized this cave is very wet. It is mostly rock formation, not dirt. But still, it could be... except it was thickening in appearance, becoming more distinct & swirling in one spot. I felt then that something was manifesting. I knew better than to avert my eyes. The group was giving attention to the guide, as was my daughter. My young son was near me, though, I saw his presence out of my peripheral vision, so I reached out to him, quietly called his name, & touched his shoulder. I asked him to look towards the Indian's grave; I asked him if he saw anything. He came close to me & he said, "Yes. It's a little girl." I was excited. I didn't see a little girl, though I saw the formation of a small shape that was trying to become something more distinct, "I see a dust cloud." I told him. He said he saw it, too, "but it's a young girl." I then turned toward my approaching husband with the camera, reaching for it, telling him I saw something but when I turned my eyes back to the shape I saw it quickly dissipate. I knew then what it was. It could not have lingered that long only to disappear that suddenly in front of me. The picture I got of that spot moments after I saw the misty shape revealed a singular orb... nothing too exciting. But none the less, I know what I saw. Many report having heard voices, having seen misty shapes within/around this cave; You may add me to the list. The tour guide spoke of having witnessed something similar to "heat rising off a hot road" traveling the corridors of the cave. I have a video slide show with mist, "face" formations on the rocks & a mysterious light anomaly in one of the corridors. I hope to link it here. I have documented this & more on my website www.paranormalspectrum.com.