At Chardon High School, Mr. Leikala and his paranormal adventures are well-known to many students. Chardon’s psychology teacher, Josh Leikala enjoys telling his ghost stories and has many spooky tales to share.

“Me and a group of my friends went with Lake County Paranormal Society to a haunted hospital and asylum about fifteen years ago. It was my first actual ghost hunt and we were locked in and allowed to explore and investigate the entire place on our own for the night. It was amazing and life changing for me.” said Leikala regarding his spookiest paranormal experience.

According to many paranormal experts, having paranormal experiences can be dangerous when dealing with “evil spirits” or the paranormal in a more direct manner. Leikala’s physical interaction with the paranormal was, thankfully, harmless, but it was nonetheless a thrilling event for him.

“Yes, at the hospital that I mentioned, I was physically touched by a ghost.  I never would have believed it – I honestly thought that it was spider webs – but when I told people what happened, they showed me that there were no webs and explained what a “touch” feels like.  It was super cool,” said Leikala when asked if a paranormal experience has ever affected him physically. 

Although many people doubt the existence of ghosts and spirits, Leikala has never questioned it saying, “believe what you want to, but I experienced it and I know what happened,”.

Leikala shared a specific experience he had where he did multiple “flashlight sessions.” 

“Where you loosen the connection of a flashlight and ask questions. The idea is that the spirit creates the electrical connection as opposed to the battery and the spring being connected,” Leikala said, explaining the idea of a session. 

Leikala claimed when the spirit was asked to turn the flashlight on or off for a question it did as they asked. 

“We also smelled things in the air that should not have been there and followed an electromagnetic field walking across a room…totally cool experience,” said Leikala. 

Lastly, Leikala shared a final story of his experience ghost hunting in the Matchworks building in Mentor, Ohio.

“Finally, A couple years ago me and my daughter ghost hunted with the same group and both experienced being nauseous and feeling a “heavy and unsettled feeling” in the exact same spot of the Matchworks building in Mentor,” 

The school knows Mr. Leikala for his fascinating and incredible stories, and he is quite passionate about them. If you want to hear more eerie tales, drop by his classroom one day—he would be happy to share them!