Dublin, Ohio

When it comes to the supernatural, Dublin, Ohio doesn’t seem like the most likely of places for such experiences to occur. However, when talking with Lisa Kovinchick, it’s clear that to experience the supernatural sometimes you must expect the unexpected. Lisa Kovinchick – a friend of my mother’s – grew up in a farmhouse that was built in 1904 that had previously been owned by the Ashbaugh family, some of whom appear in her spooky narrative. Having grown up around such experiences, Lisa never really realized there was anything out of the ordinary about her ghostly encounters until she started sharing them with some of her high school friends and received some rather shocked responses. The interview I conducted with Lisa mostly consists of her many stories on her personal supernatural encounters and her role in them.

As Lisa has so many amazing stories to tell about her experiences with the supernatural – both in her childhood home and later in her life – her narrative will be split into those two groups as well as each individual story.

The Ashbaugh Farm

Mrs. Ashbaugh

It was when her family first started renovating their house that they first started to encounter the ghosts in their home. The first spirit Lisa mentions is an old woman who would run from the kitchen to the bathroom and back. She never stood still and was seen by many of the individuals in the house. They believe this woman to be Mrs. Ashbaugh, one of the previous owners of the farmhouse.

The Painting of Mr. Ashbaugh

Whilst in the middle of renovating their house, Lisa’s family found a pair of old oil paintings of who they believed to be Mr. and Mrs. Ashbaugh. Though Mrs. Ashbaugh’s painting was in poor shape, Mr. Ashbaugh’s was in good enough shape to display on top of a cabinet in the home. During a game of hide and seek when she was younger, Lisa had a spooky experience with the painting. While she was hiding in the room where the painting was displayed, Lisa says she hadn’t been touching anything in the room. Even so, she heard a thump behind her, and she saw that the painting had fallen from the cabinet and landed on the floor. Face up. Lisa describes the painting as “one of those pictures that… felt like it was watching you when you would walk by it”. The family ended up storing the painting away after that as it had “a weird energy” that was unsettling and made everyone nervous.

George

Later, when Lisa was in college, she had another encounter with a male ghost who she would later name “George”. Lisa would receive a visit from a dark figure standing at the end of her bed at three in the morning every night. The figure would rush at her face if she moved, but Lisa says that while she did “feel a male presence” and like “it was trying to communicate something” to her, George never seemed threatening or like he wanted to hurt her. Lisa never told anyone about these encounters, but when her mother started sleeping in her room, she experienced the exact same thing, down to the detail. Lisa “freaked out” as she hadn’t told anyone about the figure she’d seen, but soon after they named him “George” as they didn’t know his given name.

Animal Spirits

Lisa also says that they often felt cats brush up against their legs at the top of the staircase, and while they often had barn cats in their house, most of the times they felt a cat, there weren’t any physically there.

The Closet

The closet in her room is another part of the house that gave Lisa a creepy feeling, which stands out along with the painting of Mr. Ashbaugh as none of her other encounters in the house ever gave her any threatening feelings. Lisa says that she still has nightmares about the closet, and when she would have sleepovers, nobody would ever want to sleep by the closet.

Grandma

Lisa found out about this story about ten or fifteen years ago. When she was five or six, her grandmother passed away, and one day, her mother found her sitting under the sink, and when she asked her what she was doing, Lisa replied, “I’m talking to grandma… she’s a little girl now. She was reincarnated, and- and you know, this is where she lives, this is what she’s doing now. She has another family. She still remembers her old family, but now she has this new family.” Needless to say, this is a little farfetched for a five year old to be making up.

Stories Outside of the Farm

Dreams and Premonitions

Lisa has had many dreams or nightmares where she would see something that had actually happened or would happen, as shown in the audio. In one recurring nightmare, Lisa would always see her mom sitting in a green rocking chair on her porch; her family would later receive the rocking chair after her grandmother’s passing. In another dream, Lisa also saw a very specific moment between her coworker and their daughter, that she found out had actually occurred after she told said coworker about her dream.

Psychics

Lisa has had multiple experiences with psychics that she’s visited, one of which might shed a bit of light upon why she has so many supernatural experiences. When she went to a psychic and was having her fortune told, Lisa told the psychic that everything they were telling her wasn’t about her but about her husband, to which the psychic told her that Lisa is something that they call a “psychic sponge”. The psychic told Lisa that “you grab feelings and auras and experiences from other people, and you don’t even realize you’re doing it” which really seemed to explain how many supernatural experiences she’s had in her life. For Lisa, she’s taken the idea of a “psychic sponge” and equated it more to having an “empathic personality” and being able to “feel” things; she also believes that her mom may have a similar disposition.

In another occurrence, Lisa had another experience with a psychic where the psychic told her “there is a male child spirit who is waiting for you to make up your mind, and he’s ready to be born” when the topic of starting a family was brought up. So when Lisa was pregnant, she was confident that her child would end up being a boy.

How can supernatural occurrences be linked?

Oftentimes, supernatural occurrences can be linked because of the similarities between different people’s experiences or even through one person’s multiple experiences. In the case of Lisa, both examples can be shown. When it comes to the former, both Lisa and her mother had the exact same experiences with the ghost George in the same room at the same time (three in the morning) without ever communicating about the experience or influencing the other in any way. When it comes to the latter example, Lisa herself has been linked to many different supernatural experiences, even being called a “psychic sponge”. She herself seems to attract supernatural activity and has a greater sensitivity towards the supernatural because of her empathic demeanor.

Why do people believe in the supernatural? Why not?

Based upon Lisa’s narrative, people often believe in the supernatural because of their own personal experiences or because of the stories people have told them. Lisa grew up with the supernatural so such experiences were normal for her, but for someone who hasn’t been as exposed to the supernatural, such belief may come a little harder or make them more skeptical. When asked if she believes in any other supernatural entities, Lisa’s response was that she remains open-minded to such things. She isn’t very religious, but through her experiences, she does believe that there could be a ‘veil’ of some sort that separates the human and spiritual world, that some people may stay behind because of some unfinished business, and that there’s the possibility that there could be benevolent and malicious beings out there.

How have these supernatural encounters affected people’s lives?

Supernatural encounters can change the way that people see the world. For Lisa, the supernatural has always been a part of her life, but it has still shaped the way that she sees and thinks about things. It could be Lisa’s experienced the supernatural more than others because she’s an empathic person and is more open to others’ feelings and auras. Or perhaps she has become more open to such things because she grew up around the supernatural and is therefore more willing to believe that there is more out there. While the former seems more likely, both are certainly plausible.

Did these people pursue the supernatural, or were these unexpected events?

In Lisa’s case, most of her experiences with the supernatural happened to her rather than as an effect of her searching for the supernatural. The supernatural seems to be drawn to her, so for most of her experiences, she hasn’t had to pursue them. However, Lisa remains open to the idea of searching for the supernatural in some ways but chooses to leave it alone in others. Lisa has stated that she has remained curious about the house she grew up in and that she would still like to figure out what George the ghost was trying to convey to her. She has also shown interest in professionals of the supernatural such as psychics and the Warren’s.

Even in her curiosity towards the supernatural, Lisa has never used a Ouija Board and refuses to as she doesn’t want to invite any malevolent spirits and thought it might be an “opening to a doorway that we didn’t want to open”.

 

The full interview: