This East Dallas neighbor is investigating the paranormal

For some, the supernatural pays no heed to the calendar and makes itself known at random times to a special few. Count among them neighbor Cindy Kirkland, who has tales to tell and a deep and personal desire to investigate and understand these occurrences.

Kirkland, a semi-retired graphic designer and illustrator, has lived in Dallas over 50 years, 12 of those in East Dallas. Her younger years were spent around the world, as her family moved with her father’s military career assignments.

While living on the east coast, around preschool age, Kirkland had her first unexplainable encounter.

“I saw floating eyes in the middle of my bedroom,” she says. “In my small child’s mind, I had no way of understanding this, but I knew it wasn’t right, and it scared me.”

Her parents chalked it up to bad dreams. The family moved to Los Angeles a few years later, and Kirkland saw the same floating eyes there as well.

“Whatever phenomenon it was followed me across the country,” she says.

Kirkland spent her high-school years in France, where her father was stationed. The family lived in an old house outside Paris, and it was there where Kirkland woke one night to see an apparition of an old woman sitting in a rocking chair at the foot of her bed.

“She never spoke, nor did she ever turn to look toward me,” Kirkland says. “She just slowly rocked back and forth and wasn’t there for long. I kept my covers pulled up with one eye peeking out, watching her, and she just faintly faded away.”

Kirkland told her parents about these occurrences but says their response was “weak.” So she was surprised many years later when her father told her of his own paranormal experiences, including an incident at one of their homes in France. When Kirkland’s younger sister, preschool age at the time, repeatedly complained that her bed was moving, their father decided to put an end to the claims by sleeping alone in her room.

“The next morning, he announced at breakfast that we were going to be moving,” Kirkland says.

Confronted years later, Kirkland’s father revealed to her that the sister’s bed had levitated and rocked violently back and forth. He also confided to her other paranormal experiences of his over the years in various locations.

“I believe my dad was ‘sensitive’ to some degree, and maybe I inherited that from him,” she says.

This sensitivity might have been at play when Kirkland had a frightening experience years later at her farm between Rockwall and Terrell. She was driving alone on the property during the day.

“As I drove toward the gate, I saw through my rearview mirror what appeared to be a ‘shadow person’ running behind my car, waving as if trying to flag me down,” she says. “I was stunned because it was an 80-acre farm, and I was there alone that day. It looked to be male, tall, lanky and dark translucent black, like a silhouette.”

She turned to look over her shoulder, and there was no sight of him.

“But when I glanced back through my mirror he was still there and getting closer,” she says. “I wasn’t scared until then, and when I returned from shopping, it took me an hour to get the nerve to drive back onto the property.”

She says it’s a vision which haunts her to this day.

Her husband died suddenly six months later, leading Kirkland to wonder if the dark figure had been an omen.

“I’ve heard ‘shadow people’ portend a warning of something on the horizon,” she says.

It was after her daughter’s death, followed soon after by her husband’s death, that Kirkland became “more intensely aware of paranormal happenings.” She began collecting “ghost-hunting” equipment, among them a structured light sensor camera, which captures spirit forms as “stick figures.” She experimented with the camera late one night at her parents’ home after her father died, scanning each room, and was taken aback when the camera viewfinder revealed a figure.

It seemingly responded to Kirkland’s questions, including when she asked it to wave if it was her dad. It did indeed raise its hand and wave.

Kirkland’s experiences have brought her to a point that she is ready to learn more and investigate Dallas-area locations. But due to limited mobility resulting from an accident, she needs help. Her ideal team would consist of a few people who would approach the matter seriously and respectfully, not in a “thrill-seeking” manner.

“A willingness to help those spirits who wish to cross over is, in my opinion, the most rewarding part of this pursuit,” she says. “I certainly don’t claim to be any kind of psychic or expert — just someone who has had enough real experiences to light a fire of curiosity and willingness to find out more.”

Contact Cindy Kirkland at dallasparaguild@gmail.com.