Up Close: Keeler Anderson

By Charity Corkey

Monday, October 27, 2008

Keeler Anderson of Leesburg claims to have seen her first ghost when she was 3. She recalls that he was black, and that he taught her about locusts and grasshoppers.

Anderson, 43, said she was "pretty fortunate to be raised by hippies" in the 1960s and 1970s. She traveled all across the United States as a kid. Today, the self-declared town mom cares for her two sons and other "wannabes" in addition to working for Graceful Care, a company offering assistance to the elderly.

Anderson is the vice president of the Virginia Scientific Research Association. In her spare time, she gives ghost tours of Leesburg.

In my interview with Anderson, she talks about what it means to be an empath, what ghosts look like and whether people should be afraid of ghosts.

Q: You describe yourself as an empath - a person who experiences others' emotions. Can you tell us about that?

Photo: Charity Corkey

Keeler Anderson, vice president of the Virginia Scientific Research Association, is Loudoun's resident ghost whisperer and gives ghost tours of Leesburg.

A: My parents were very aware at a young age that I was showing symptoms and complaining of things that other people were going through.

When my aunt got pregnant and was experiencing morning sickness, I was experiencing stomach aches. I remember being about 6, my head in the toilet, I was calling for my mom, and she comes in and says, "What are you doing?" And I said "Oh, my stomach, and I feel dizzy." And she goes, "It's not you, it's your aunt, she's pregnant." And I remember jumping up and going, "Oh, OK!" And I remember going into the kitchen, and thinking wow that was weird.

I realized as I was growing up that whenever I was feeling something I would ask the people around me. If I could figure out that someone around me was experiencing it, then it wasn't mine, and the pain or the feeling would subside.

As I started to talk to people I went oh, hold on. Maybe the reason why I can see dead people is I pick up people's emotions whether they're alive, dead or even a memory.

Q: How old were you when you first saw a ghost?

A: My first ghost was when I was 3. He was actually a black guy - and obviously from the slave times. I had lived in a predominantly white area in Washington state, and I called him odd because that's what my grandmamma always called people that were different. And I remember he taught me about grasshoppers, about the difference between male and female grasshoppers and going through remembering what I do now today, and learning what I have about science, it makes perfect sense, because if he actually was from the slave time that would have been his specialty. He would have known about the locusts and how grasshoppers affected the fields. He didn't teach me any wonders about the end of the world or give me any premonitions; it was just hanging out, doing what he did.

Ninety percent of the cases, when we interview children [if they have seen a ghost], we can always go back and find someone they were interacting with. They say, "I'm playing dolls with Anna Marie." We can go back and look up town records and find out that an Anna Marie really did live in their home at one time.

Q: Tell us about the electric-magnetic field around you.

A: I blow out a case of light bulbs every two or three months. And for some people, that's a ghost - oh, they keep blowing out the light bulbs.

I've turned this [cell] phone off four times now. It just won't turn off when it's around me. When I get excited, the Direct TV doesn't work, the remote controls don't work. And some people think it's a ghost messing with them, but it's not. It's just our field affecting electronics. My phone will catch on fire about every three or four months.

Q: Do you see ghosts on a regular basis?

A: Really, it depends on me. There are days when I am more empathic, and then there are days when I am more scatterbrained or have too much going on so I'm not paying attention to people around me.

I also think it's part of my frequency theory. I have a theory that we all range on certain frequencies of the mind and on the brain. And that if me and you are under the same frequency, we'll click really well or we may catch eyes as we drive by each other or catch each other in the bar. So if a ghost sentient and we're on the same radio station, and I'm attuned to that, I'll actually see them.

Generally, I see residuals every day, things I've just gotten accustomed to - and those are mostly left by living human beings. I have two teenagers, and they leave residuals around the house all the time, when they're moody or whatever.

Sentients - I don't see as often, but the times I see them they're usually attached to a family member. We only have seven known sentients here in Leesburg that aren't attached to actual people. Usually, if I see someone, it's you know, "Oh, you're Aunt May behind you, she said she still has the opal necklace and curls in her hair." And they'll go, "Wow, you see her?"

Q: What do ghosts look like?

A: A residual to me is just a memory, and they're always see-through, like in the movies. Sometimes, I see something play out, like someone dropping a glass right there, and I'll look and it won't be there. it'll just be a shadow, and it's because someone left a memory there.

A sentient looks just like me or you. It's those times you swear someone is standing next to you or you think someone is following you, and you catch them out of the corner of your eye and you look back at them and they're gone.

Q: Can you tell the difference between the ghost of a person who died a 100 years ago versus the ghost of a person who recently passed away?

A: Only by clothing. It's funny. The women are usually skinnier and younger than the last picture taken of them, and the men always have more hair. It's because of how you remember yourself. We believe that your consciousness is a collective idea of who you are. So sometimes, sentients don't always look like they did to the people around them when they died, because that's not how they remember themselves.

Q: Tell us about the Virginia Scientific Research Association, of which you are vice president. What do you do for the group?

A: The gentleman who started it was Joe Holbert. Joe is a left-brained scientist who wanted to find out why things were happening, so he put together a group of scientists to try to debunk the paranormal.

The more he tried to debunk it, he found out science couldn't debunk it and there was another science there to learn about. It hasn't even been really named yet. People are calling it paranormal science. I call it human science.

When Joe passed away, he had gotten a small group of people before he passed to help with those ghost tours. Gale Itschner was one of those people who came on as my director, and between me and her we've been keeping the ghost tours going.

Q: You said that Joe Holbert passed away, yet he remains the president of VSRA. Do you communicate with him?

A: When Joe died, for the first year I told everybody no I have no communication with him. It wasn't until things started getting validated for me pretty strongly that I realized we did have some communication. I wanted to make sure the messages I was getting were not made up.

Q: Should people be afraid of ghosts or spirits?

A: No. People were afraid of volcanoes before we understood. As we learn science, we get less afraid. So what is the worst thing a ghost can do to us? We're thinking we're going to get killed, murdered, cut, maimed. But that's not going to happen. I always tell people, if you've ever had a mean nasty ghost that you're really afraid of, I'd love to be there to see it.

Q: Are ghosts more active around Halloween?

A: I don't think there are any time clocks. There are religions that say it is the Day of the Dead. I think that if anything else, our superstitions make us more aware of things that are going on on certain days.

Q: Do you think Loudoun County has more ghost activity than the surrounding counties?

A: The fact that this is a place of great emotion, and a lot of battles and the history, makes it one of the most haunted.

Q: You've been living in Loudoun County for 14 years. What do you like about living here?

A: Loudoun County is kind of like Mayberry, or at least it used to be when I moved here. You have the locals who know each other and kind of a hometown-type spirit.

Tagged: entertainment, Halloween 2008, Leesburg, Up Close

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