BACK SEAT GHOSTBUSTING – THE PRE-INVESTIGATION -PART 1

Ghost Busting: Alas, it’s never like the films…

The other week I was fortunate enough to be invited to a paranormal investigation, purely as an observer, but it was a treat nonetheless – these events generally are.  I have changed the names of people and places to respect their privacy (and so they can’t hunt me down and lob rotten vegetables at me) but, at the end of the day, it is the experience itself that matters, isn’t it?  And for this particular experience, if I was to play some theme music to it, the Benny Hill theme would suit it down to the ground.

My good friend, Sally, is the curator of a rather nice museum and she had been approached by a paranormal group, let’s call them… Almost Haunted, and was asked if they could investigate.  Sally agreed that they could.  A few weeks before the actual investigation, Almost Haunted‘s medium, (ummm, let’s call her Flossie) and one of her technical chaps had popped along for a pre-investigation investigation.  During this pre-investigation, Flossie and her colleague had a brief wander around the museum while it was still daylight and the medium declared she was in touch with the spirit of a young boy of about six years old called Robert.  She said Robert particularly liked the area of the museum that was full of 1970s artefacts but he was annoyed that Sally had recently moved a clock that had been sitting on top of a television there.  Why that particular item being moved would bother a child considering that the contents of the museum are changed and swapped around on a regular basis, I don’t know.  However, Sally was a little surprised by this piece of information because she had indeed moved the clock.  When she was alone, Sally had a closer inspection of the area around the clock to see if there were any tell-tale dust marks that might have indicated to Flossie that the clock had been moved, but she couldn’t see anything.  A lucky guess, perhaps?  Who knows?

Where’s Casper when you need him?  At least he was chatty…

Another spirit that Flossie picked up on at the museum was  a Victorian looking woman called Emily who was apparently stuck on what Flossie referred to as a ‘loop’, meaning she was carrying out the same task again and again.  Flossie said that the woman was ‘extremely busy’ and didn’t have time to stop and talk because she had people to feed.  Furthermore, there was also a rather unpleasant spirit  called George who was dressed as a farrier.  George was not keen on the little boy, Robert, perhaps because Robert sounded like a bit of a brat.

As well as running the museum, Sally also has the use of an old house nearby where she keeps excess artefacts.  She refers to the house as ‘the store’.  I’ve been to the store myself a few times, and although it does have a bit of a musty smell to it, no carpets and an air of long disuse, there’s nothing particularly horrible about it, but I suppose the sheer fact that a house is unlived in is sometimes enough to give it an uncomfortable atmosphere and Sally particularly hates having to go in there alone.  She told me that she was once downstairs working away in what was once the living room when she heard distinct footsteps coming from the room above her.  She was completely alone at the time.   Yup, feel those hairs rising on the back of your neck, ladies and gentlemen…

During the brief tour around the store in August, Flossie said that she didn’t like Room 1, which is just on the left as you walk in (the old living room).  In Room 2, just behind Room 1, which is currently full of old uniforms and tunics, the medium said she sensed a man called Ted who was dressed in what she thought was some kind of railway uniform.  Upstairs, she found a little girl who liked to play with Robert at times – Robert had apparently followed Flossie and Sally over from the museum to the store, and the little girl liked to watch Sally and her colleagues working sometimes – not creepy at all…

Ghostly Footsteps: Who was stalking Sally at ‘the store’?

Moving  upstairs to Room 5, Flossie discovered the spirit of a chap called Edward who was also on a ‘loop’, sitting at a desk, busy slaving over some accounts.  Now, is it just me, or does there seem to be an incredible abundance of ghosts running amok in the museum and store?  It seems to be packed to the rafters with all things dead and who are too busy to stop and chat.

Flossie’s technical assistant took some photos while they were there but unfortunately they failed to show anything of interest, and the EVP recordings (electronic voice phenomena) were sadly blank too.  Again, I find myself wondering that if there were that many ghosts/spirits/whatever you want to call them, all floating around the place, surely one of them might be a little bit interested in making an appearance on film or voice recorder? But no, not so much as a peep from mischievous little Robert or the ever busy Emily.  It would appear that, mediums aside, no matter how many spooks are allegedly crammed into your abode, getting them to appear or stop for a chat is a mission impossible.  You’d have thought the dead would relish the chance to scare the pants off the living.  I know I would, but then I’m a bit evil like that.

During an EVP session the voice recorder turned off after about 30 minutes and Flossie declared that the batteries had been mysteriously ‘drained’, although Sally suspected the batteries may have just died of natural causes because she had overheard Flossie asking one of her technical chaps earlier if they had remembered their voice recorder – possibly because Flossie’s batteries weren’t very fresh to begin with and she was worried they might die during the preliminary investigation.  Which they did.

Why doesn’t it work? Try new batteries…

At this point my imagination was beginning to run riot over what the actual investigation in October was going to be like…

But I’ll have to tell you all about the official investigation in the second part of this post.

Nicola

©Nicola Kirk and http://www.nicolakirk.wordpress.com 2010