Investigation Zero--Katie's impressions
Ok, IZ has been and gone, and I can only say... awesome!!!
We were there for two full nights. I can only give you my impressions because I didn't make it into every nook and cranny of the place but I got some interesting stuff, especially on the second night.
This is a first for me, but if you had to press me for an opinion on whether it is haunted or not, I would have to say yes, it's got something going weird going on there. Now I'm not saying that there are spooks in white sheets floating around, but there is an energy or presence there that can make itself known.
There were some hindrances that can raise questions though. One was the fact that the owner and his people kept going in and out of the buildings uncontrolled while the investigation was going on. They also had the tendency, when present, to interfere with audio and video recording for EVPs. For instance, if an investigator was using a question and answer method for obtaining EVPs, sometimes the owner would pipe up with answers to the investigators questions on the recording, obscuring any possible EVPS. There were also problems with outside people being allowed access without our knowledge and with activities such as running ATVs around the property while we were recording. Now this might not be so much the owner's fault as ours for not explaining it to him better, so we can't place any real blame there. And after all, it's his property--even TAPS couldn't get that Louisiana restaurant to give them complete use of the floor they were investigating on one show and the owners put a PARTY ON in one of the rooms right next to where they were recording! Talk about a waste of time!
Also, there was another investigation group assisting us on the first night and unfortunately we had not had the opportunity to meet and get to know each other ahead of time. Methods of investigation, attitudes, even style of dress were not in synch and contributed to what could be termed as a conflict of sorts. As this is the second time we've worked with another group and had problems, this will be the last time we bring in outside groups to help. We have wonderful independent, experienced and knowledgable mentors who help us out and we will continue to utilize these people but for now, we will not be working with other investigation GROUPS again.
That being said, any further problems would be our own as it was a huge investigation and we were a relatively small group of about 12 people. However, I have to say that despite our inexperience and lack of organization, we did all right.
Friday night was our time for getting to know our way around so I didn't get much in the way of EVPS (which now have become a focus for me as I can get them literally ANYWHERE and there's no explaining them away as dust motes or pollen!). The two investigative groups combined and formed three teams of investigators. Each team consisted of at least two members from each group. We were assigned buildings to start and rotated every 3 hours or so, communicating by walkie talkies. Our group started in what would become the focus of activity on the second night, but on the first night, only hinted at what was to come.
We worked the building floor by floor. Being a fat girl, I decided to take my little folding chair with me, find a spot and do audio recordings on each floor. This actually led to a little unintended humor as I was sitting there asking questions when a police officer walked in and asked "what's going on?" Thinking it was another investigator, I started to say something about "burning" (referring to the EVPS I had gotten in May) and turned to him. Startled at seeing it was a police officer, I just said in a wondering voice "Oohh, you're not one of us...?". Actually it was fine as the owner had told us the police would be stopping in. We got in touch with the owner via walkie talkie and the officer was satisfied that we belonged there. Ouch! LOL!
We had two investigators in our group who are also psychics and they both became rather focused on the building's top floor, which was a harbinger of Saturday night. Something was up there and they literally seemed to chase it from room to room up there (Michael, correct me and elaborate if I'm wrong). I didn't go up there when this was going on as two of us were "guarding" the stairwells to keep this thing from coming downstairs and away from them. I'm still not clear on just what I was guarding against, as nothing seemed to come downstairs.
Later in the evening our group made it onto the roof of another building and suddenly "things got hot", almost literally! It was very late and dark up there by this time and two of us began taking photos over the side of the building. Incredibly, red mists of enormous proportions were turning up in the shots of BOTH photographers. Unfortunately by then my camera's card had "died" AGAIN in this building (the first time in May) and I got zilch! But I've seen these photos in the making and again in the camera's viewscreens--no explanation can be made for these. At first I thought maybe somehow a bonfire about 100 feet away was the culprit, but how could it make these huge red mists?
Saturday night, when we were working on our own without help from the other group, was more fruitful. We split up into groups of our own choosing and got to go where ever we hadn't gotten to on Friday night. This time I got to go to a nearby cemetery, where I saw what could have been a "shadow being" in the dark. It was weird because I was looking over into an empty field next to the cemetery and saw the darkness literally "swirl around" for about a second. Yow. I also saw what almost looked like the illuminated "back" of an individual walking downhill a few feet away from us. This also was just for an instant. Later on, descending from the cemetery, I got the distinct impression that my husband was walking just behind me on my right. But then I glanced ahead and saw that he was actually about 10 feet in FRONT of me. Ok, all of this could be attributed to being overtired and my eyes not working well, but spooky just the same.
Later on, we went into another building and had what was called an "evp circle" where we sat quietly recording and asking questions of the spirits. This particular building, for reasons unknown to me as yet, is full of rappings on the wall and we got rapped responses to some of our questions. We are going to go back and check that building more closely to make sure it isn't a natural phenemona. However we did leave a camcorder there unattended for about 40 minutes. We didn't get anything visually on that tape except a bug or two flying around but the noises in that building are amazing. Low rumblings, like someone shaking sheets of metal, rappings, doors opening and closing--it was incredible! Yet we have to make sure that the living wasn't involved with these things so we'll be going back to do some re-investigating.
This was also about the time things began getting interesting back in the first building we investigated the night before. We got a call on the walkie talkie from another investigator over there who told us that the motion detectors our group had set up there were going crazy. One of them was going off on one floor while the investigators were on another floor. The people would run to see what was going on and when they got to the floor with the beeping motion detector, the OTHER motion detector on the floor where they had come from would go off. Possibly it was bats flying through the building but it was enough to bring focus back there. We went over there to see what was going on. It was going a bit crazy over there so we went over to help out.
Apparently on the top floor of this building, one room had a couple of what I would call large briefcases sitting on the floor. These were old, dusty, crappy looking things that had obviously been there for a long time. One of them was closed and the other was too delapidated to close completely, so the lid was partially open. One of the investigators had apparently opened the latter one completely to see what would happen and left. When he returned, it was partially closed again. Gravity? Possibly but it seems like the hinge was too decrepit to move that easily. Another possibility for re-investigation, but this room was the focus of what was to come.
We went back to retrieve our camcorder, took a break and then, with the two groups together, we decided to hold an "evp circle" in this room. We returned and all gathered around the partially open briefcase. My husband ran the camcorder and we all had our digy cams and recording devices. Once more however, I concentrated on EVPS. One of us began asking questions of the spirits there.
Now also in the group was one of the investigators who had been "chasing" a ghost on that floor the night before. Suddenly he became very cold and after a few moments I believe he said for us to take photos. My camera was put away but another investigator got photos of an incredible aura of energy surrounding him--I saw these photos in the camera's view screen so I know they are not manipulated. And I saw them being taken so I know they aren't photos of her fingers--besides, I know what finger photos look like and there is no way that these photos are that way. However, on the flip side of things, I saw nothing via my eyes and did not feel any cold, but I was sitting about ten feet away from him. It could have been very localized.
Since I don't own the photos, I can't publish them here but I will look into getting them put on our ECWPI website.
I did get some EVPS during this weekend. I can't publish them here yet due to some legalities with the owner, but I can tell you what I think a few of them say. Remember, I got some EVPS in May that said "Burning (town name)" and "Burn the Earth" (reversed--it says the town name again!). The small town in question, where these buildings are located, has a history of fatal fires.
Remember, all the EVPS I have gotten so far are whispers. Here are a few of what I think they may be saying:
"Joshua" (the ghost's name?)
"Hi Mike." (The investigator who was surrounded by the aura is named Mike).
"Oh no no."
One that was unintelligible but reversed, sounds like "infiltrate".
Another one that's unintelligible but reversed, sounds like "all right."
Another one that's unintelligible but reversed and _heavily_ filtered, sounds like "we need help."
"Doctorproof." (Very clear, perhaps inferring that the speaker was at one time terminally ill and beyond the help of doctors?)
"Burning" (not sure about my interpretation of this one)
Reversing EVPS is not in general use at this point, though some investigators certainly use it, so I just present the reversals here as food for thought. All interpretations of these EVPS are mine only and may not in fact be anything at all. Just breezes and noises that somehow formulate into words, don't ask me how.
Also, I should mention the use of walkie talkies. They are useful tool for investigators on a large site, but I believe a powerful enough invisible presence can make use of them as well. We got some strange noises over them, including what sounded like a scream and also one nasty growl that sounded like the owner's name. Now it is entirely possible that living beings screamed and someone really did say the owner's name in a nasty way, but not all investigators who had walkie talkies heard these things, so they seemed localized. Again, just food for thought.
Anyway that's just my impressions. I'm sure if other investigators post here, they may have different interpretations of events. All was not just serious ghosthunting however--we have some pretty funny recordings of the investigators themselves but I'll leave that for them to post about.
We were there for two full nights. I can only give you my impressions because I didn't make it into every nook and cranny of the place but I got some interesting stuff, especially on the second night.
This is a first for me, but if you had to press me for an opinion on whether it is haunted or not, I would have to say yes, it's got something going weird going on there. Now I'm not saying that there are spooks in white sheets floating around, but there is an energy or presence there that can make itself known.
There were some hindrances that can raise questions though. One was the fact that the owner and his people kept going in and out of the buildings uncontrolled while the investigation was going on. They also had the tendency, when present, to interfere with audio and video recording for EVPs. For instance, if an investigator was using a question and answer method for obtaining EVPs, sometimes the owner would pipe up with answers to the investigators questions on the recording, obscuring any possible EVPS. There were also problems with outside people being allowed access without our knowledge and with activities such as running ATVs around the property while we were recording. Now this might not be so much the owner's fault as ours for not explaining it to him better, so we can't place any real blame there. And after all, it's his property--even TAPS couldn't get that Louisiana restaurant to give them complete use of the floor they were investigating on one show and the owners put a PARTY ON in one of the rooms right next to where they were recording! Talk about a waste of time!
Also, there was another investigation group assisting us on the first night and unfortunately we had not had the opportunity to meet and get to know each other ahead of time. Methods of investigation, attitudes, even style of dress were not in synch and contributed to what could be termed as a conflict of sorts. As this is the second time we've worked with another group and had problems, this will be the last time we bring in outside groups to help. We have wonderful independent, experienced and knowledgable mentors who help us out and we will continue to utilize these people but for now, we will not be working with other investigation GROUPS again.
That being said, any further problems would be our own as it was a huge investigation and we were a relatively small group of about 12 people. However, I have to say that despite our inexperience and lack of organization, we did all right.
Friday night was our time for getting to know our way around so I didn't get much in the way of EVPS (which now have become a focus for me as I can get them literally ANYWHERE and there's no explaining them away as dust motes or pollen!). The two investigative groups combined and formed three teams of investigators. Each team consisted of at least two members from each group. We were assigned buildings to start and rotated every 3 hours or so, communicating by walkie talkies. Our group started in what would become the focus of activity on the second night, but on the first night, only hinted at what was to come.
We worked the building floor by floor. Being a fat girl, I decided to take my little folding chair with me, find a spot and do audio recordings on each floor. This actually led to a little unintended humor as I was sitting there asking questions when a police officer walked in and asked "what's going on?" Thinking it was another investigator, I started to say something about "burning" (referring to the EVPS I had gotten in May) and turned to him. Startled at seeing it was a police officer, I just said in a wondering voice "Oohh, you're not one of us...?". Actually it was fine as the owner had told us the police would be stopping in. We got in touch with the owner via walkie talkie and the officer was satisfied that we belonged there. Ouch! LOL!
We had two investigators in our group who are also psychics and they both became rather focused on the building's top floor, which was a harbinger of Saturday night. Something was up there and they literally seemed to chase it from room to room up there (Michael, correct me and elaborate if I'm wrong). I didn't go up there when this was going on as two of us were "guarding" the stairwells to keep this thing from coming downstairs and away from them. I'm still not clear on just what I was guarding against, as nothing seemed to come downstairs.
Later in the evening our group made it onto the roof of another building and suddenly "things got hot", almost literally! It was very late and dark up there by this time and two of us began taking photos over the side of the building. Incredibly, red mists of enormous proportions were turning up in the shots of BOTH photographers. Unfortunately by then my camera's card had "died" AGAIN in this building (the first time in May) and I got zilch! But I've seen these photos in the making and again in the camera's viewscreens--no explanation can be made for these. At first I thought maybe somehow a bonfire about 100 feet away was the culprit, but how could it make these huge red mists?
Saturday night, when we were working on our own without help from the other group, was more fruitful. We split up into groups of our own choosing and got to go where ever we hadn't gotten to on Friday night. This time I got to go to a nearby cemetery, where I saw what could have been a "shadow being" in the dark. It was weird because I was looking over into an empty field next to the cemetery and saw the darkness literally "swirl around" for about a second. Yow. I also saw what almost looked like the illuminated "back" of an individual walking downhill a few feet away from us. This also was just for an instant. Later on, descending from the cemetery, I got the distinct impression that my husband was walking just behind me on my right. But then I glanced ahead and saw that he was actually about 10 feet in FRONT of me. Ok, all of this could be attributed to being overtired and my eyes not working well, but spooky just the same.
Later on, we went into another building and had what was called an "evp circle" where we sat quietly recording and asking questions of the spirits. This particular building, for reasons unknown to me as yet, is full of rappings on the wall and we got rapped responses to some of our questions. We are going to go back and check that building more closely to make sure it isn't a natural phenemona. However we did leave a camcorder there unattended for about 40 minutes. We didn't get anything visually on that tape except a bug or two flying around but the noises in that building are amazing. Low rumblings, like someone shaking sheets of metal, rappings, doors opening and closing--it was incredible! Yet we have to make sure that the living wasn't involved with these things so we'll be going back to do some re-investigating.
This was also about the time things began getting interesting back in the first building we investigated the night before. We got a call on the walkie talkie from another investigator over there who told us that the motion detectors our group had set up there were going crazy. One of them was going off on one floor while the investigators were on another floor. The people would run to see what was going on and when they got to the floor with the beeping motion detector, the OTHER motion detector on the floor where they had come from would go off. Possibly it was bats flying through the building but it was enough to bring focus back there. We went over there to see what was going on. It was going a bit crazy over there so we went over to help out.
Apparently on the top floor of this building, one room had a couple of what I would call large briefcases sitting on the floor. These were old, dusty, crappy looking things that had obviously been there for a long time. One of them was closed and the other was too delapidated to close completely, so the lid was partially open. One of the investigators had apparently opened the latter one completely to see what would happen and left. When he returned, it was partially closed again. Gravity? Possibly but it seems like the hinge was too decrepit to move that easily. Another possibility for re-investigation, but this room was the focus of what was to come.
We went back to retrieve our camcorder, took a break and then, with the two groups together, we decided to hold an "evp circle" in this room. We returned and all gathered around the partially open briefcase. My husband ran the camcorder and we all had our digy cams and recording devices. Once more however, I concentrated on EVPS. One of us began asking questions of the spirits there.
Now also in the group was one of the investigators who had been "chasing" a ghost on that floor the night before. Suddenly he became very cold and after a few moments I believe he said for us to take photos. My camera was put away but another investigator got photos of an incredible aura of energy surrounding him--I saw these photos in the camera's view screen so I know they are not manipulated. And I saw them being taken so I know they aren't photos of her fingers--besides, I know what finger photos look like and there is no way that these photos are that way. However, on the flip side of things, I saw nothing via my eyes and did not feel any cold, but I was sitting about ten feet away from him. It could have been very localized.
Since I don't own the photos, I can't publish them here but I will look into getting them put on our ECWPI website.
I did get some EVPS during this weekend. I can't publish them here yet due to some legalities with the owner, but I can tell you what I think a few of them say. Remember, I got some EVPS in May that said "Burning (town name)" and "Burn the Earth" (reversed--it says the town name again!). The small town in question, where these buildings are located, has a history of fatal fires.
Remember, all the EVPS I have gotten so far are whispers. Here are a few of what I think they may be saying:
"Joshua" (the ghost's name?)
"Hi Mike." (The investigator who was surrounded by the aura is named Mike).
"Oh no no."
One that was unintelligible but reversed, sounds like "infiltrate".
Another one that's unintelligible but reversed, sounds like "all right."
Another one that's unintelligible but reversed and _heavily_ filtered, sounds like "we need help."
"Doctorproof." (Very clear, perhaps inferring that the speaker was at one time terminally ill and beyond the help of doctors?)
"Burning" (not sure about my interpretation of this one)
Reversing EVPS is not in general use at this point, though some investigators certainly use it, so I just present the reversals here as food for thought. All interpretations of these EVPS are mine only and may not in fact be anything at all. Just breezes and noises that somehow formulate into words, don't ask me how.
Also, I should mention the use of walkie talkies. They are useful tool for investigators on a large site, but I believe a powerful enough invisible presence can make use of them as well. We got some strange noises over them, including what sounded like a scream and also one nasty growl that sounded like the owner's name. Now it is entirely possible that living beings screamed and someone really did say the owner's name in a nasty way, but not all investigators who had walkie talkies heard these things, so they seemed localized. Again, just food for thought.
Anyway that's just my impressions. I'm sure if other investigators post here, they may have different interpretations of events. All was not just serious ghosthunting however--we have some pretty funny recordings of the investigators themselves but I'll leave that for them to post about.
posted by Midwest Preternatural Research at 10:32 AM
3 comments
