Many walk the streets and see and feel nothing. But Richard Walker of Alexander City said he can walk the streets and the hair on his neck will stand up, letting him know spirits are nearby.
Walker said some think he is a little off kilter but he said he isn’t.
“Some think my cheese has come off my cracker,” Walker said. “Others think my elevator doesn’t go high enough.”
Walker has been retired a few years but said he has been seeing the other side since he was an infant.
“I was a colicky baby,” Walker said. “I was always crying. One time I was crying so hard my spirit left my body. I seen myself laying in bed as baby. I was up at the ceiling looking down.”
It was Walker’s first experience with the spirit world but wasn’t his last.
“The next time was 1993 as I was experiencing seasonal allergies,” Walker said. “I felt my aunt who was deceased. She kissed me on the cheek.”
Walker said he didn’t know what was going on at the time. He took classes at two different Bible colleges and courses in child psychology trying to figure it out but it was one class that helped Walker figure it out.
“I took a class in parapsychology to figure out what was going on,” Walker said. “What I’m experiencing is spirit walking.”
Some of Walker’s encounters with spirits occur as he sleeps. He said he has encountered victims of horrific incidents, especially in 2004.
“I was walking through this rubble,” Walker said. “Buildings were just collapsed everywhere. I walked by and felt something tug at my shoe. I look down and see this Chinese girl sticking her finger in my shoe like she is grabbing ahold of me. I then shoot through the stars and sit up wide awake. I watch the news the next morning and that girl was one of the survivors of the Chinese earthquake.”
Walker also said he was visited by the three Birmingham police officers who were killed by gunfire in the line of duty in 2004.
Walker worked third shift in the old Russell Corp. mill No. 6 and felt the presence of orbs and spirits.
“Hair would stand up on my neck,” Walker said.
Walker takes photographs of many of the orbs and spirits he said he has encountered.
“I don’t see them, I sense them,” Walker said. “I point my camera in the direction I feel them and then see them on the picture.”
The biggest spirit Walker encountered happened in 2006 as he sensed something just across the road from his front porch.
“I took two pictures of that spirit,” Walker said. “I went totally blind for about 30 to 40 seconds after each picture.”
Walker said he estimates the spirit to be 16 feet tall and had other spirits coming from it.
Another photograph Walker took is of spirits around his red truck.
“I was real anxious,” Walker said. “They had told me telepathically they were going to visit me.”
Walker said he saw his aunt, another man and dog plus others in the encounter.
“I recognize a couple more but I am not going to name them,” he said.
Walker said he sees orbs everywhere.
“I can see them but no one else can,” Walker said. “I have had friends be here and not see them. I’d say here are the orbs but he didn’t see them. It looks a lot like the moon. I take a lot of orb photos. They are everywhere.”
Walker’s deceased wife Dorothy was part of the spirit sightings.
“My wife had spirits around her all the time,” Walker said.
Walker said he has become more comfortable with his ability over time.
“I don’t have to go to sleep to have them in my dreams,” Walker said. “I just need to sit down and relax. Spirits are everywhere. They plainly let me know the door is open and come on in.”
Walker said he used to write in his journal about the spirits taking detailed notes.
“I don’t do that anymore,” he said. “If I did I would have a stack of paper 3-feet tall. I just kind of mark it on my calendar now. My therapist of three years said to not keep so much detail.”
Walker said he knows of a few others who see spirits but doesn’t want to reveal their names.