Night Stalks The Mansion: A True Story Of One Family's Ghostly Adventure (22 page)

Harold Cameron knew he was different from an early age.
His ability to see beyond the physical had been passed down
through several generations in the Cameron family. Most of his
immediate family, including his mother, had at least one
encounter with the supernatural, but it soon became apparent
to Harold and his mother that his ability far exceeded that of
others in the family.

Growing up in the early 1900s did not provide a great environment for discussing or exploring these abilities. It was kept
a family secret, and even Harold didn't discuss his more frequent visions with anyone but his wife, Dorothy, until after living at the mansion. It was clear to Harold that living in the
mansion and discovering its secrets had pushed the door to his abilities wide open, and from then on, Harold felt that he was
supposed to use his gift to help people and serve as a medium
to those who wished it. Harold later became a pastor of a Religious Science church in Paradise, California.

Harold Cameron was the first of a family of eight children.
Two of his brothers served in World War II and retired as
colonels. Wallace Cameron was the seventh sibling and was a P47 Thunderbolt pilot in the Army Air Corps. He flew seventyseven missions over Europe during World War II, including
one on D-Day, and received numerous medals and commendations. Soon after Wallace started his career, Harold started writing to Wallace about his experiences. Wallace was a skeptic for
many years and became increasingly worried about Harold's
sanity. But after witnessing many events firsthand, Wallace
began to accept Harold's experiences as genuine phenomena,
and he agreed to become Harold's official record keeper for
recording and preserving these experiences for our family history. Within five years, Wallace had accumulated more than
three pounds of correspondence describing each event immediately after the occurrence.

Some of these original letters survive today and are in my
possession. Many of them were combined into a manuscript
for a second book titled Between Two Worlds, cowritten by
Kevin Giles. Sadly, Harold died before seeing his second book
published.

Harold Cameron was a great man and a wonderful father,
and he had a genuine gift of seeing beyond what most people
can comprehend. I am his grandnephew and the driving force
behind getting this incredible book back in print. Unfortunately, I never knew my great-uncle Harold when I was young,
because my grandfather, a Southern Baptist minister, forbade
it. He thought that Harold would have a bad influence on his
grandchildren, so he never invited him to visit us.

Since then, I have begun a career, raised a family, broadened
my beliefs, and learned a great deal about my great-uncle and
his amazing family. I have met cousins and other relatives I never knew existed, and I feel that Uncle Harold would be
proud to know that his legacy and passion live on.

Three years ago, I was looking for a project that would be
more challenging than what I was doing at the time. I glanced
up at my bookshelf and saw the original hardback book written
by my great-uncle and his coauthor, Constance Westbie. I had
thumbed through the book often over the years, but this time I
picked it up and didn't put it down until I had read it cover to
cover. At that moment, something sparked inside me: I decided
that I wanted to make a movie script based on the book.

Determined to succeed, I gathered a small group of colleagues together to discuss the idea, and everyone loved it. It
took nearly three years of hard work and a lot of encouragement and support from family and friends to get the script to a
point that was satisfactory to me. I was then ready to take the
next step. Producers and studio executives in Los Angeles are
now looking at the script, and with luck, it will be picked up as
a feature film soon.

The official feature film website is www.nstm.net. Here you
can find out more about the book, script, and history behind
the haunted mansion on Plum Tree Lane. Contact me for
more information on the film's status and to let me know what
you think about the book or to share your own experiences.

-Dan Diehl

2005