This was an investigation I had been eager about for a very long time. It was quite an important one as well as this was to be my team’s first private investigation. I wasn’t anxious about that fact as I was confident we would work well together as a team. With that said, let’s start with the day’s activity.
The day started with a group reiki session with our friend Maria. As she knew we were coming, she had cleansed the building completely before our session. She did this as a bit of an experiment to see what paranormal activity would occur with us being there. Sure enough, it did not disappoint. Josh went first since it was his first reiki treatment. The moment he lay down on the bed, Maria began to read his chakras and aura for imbalances and tears. Then the energy in the room changed, spiralling around the perimeter of the room with Josh at its centre. The more the energy built, the more we began to see orbs coming towards us from the entrance. The orbs were of all sizes—big, small, round, or even oblong. Then the sounds started! From upstairs, the floorboards creaked like someone was walking across them, and in the room, knocks could be heard coming from the shelving and walls. I could sense someone walking around the room watching what was going on, whilst another small spirit, no more than chest height, stood at the back of the room by the door to the stairs. As I sat in the far corner watching Maria work on Josh, I was suddenly distracted by some movement behind a panel screen to the right of the room. I turned to look only to see prominently a dark shadow figure, floor to ceiling in height, moving rapidly back and forth against the wall for a few seconds before it disappeared. You would think I would be frightened by such a sight, but truth be told, I was excited I had seen it. This wasn’t the end of the shadow figures either as a couple of minutes later, I saw a shadow shoot right past me on the left-hand wall, followed by a huge, blinding, flashing ball of light right next to me.
All this time she had been working on Josh, the air temperature had plummeted around our knees. The cold air is spirit energy and it was being amplified by Maria, Josh, me, and Nic. You could feel it spinning with the energy vortex around the room. The orbs are connected to this cold air. What the orbs were that we were seeing was the manifestation of the energy. When the energy builds so strongly, it becomes static and occasionally it sparks which is when you see the orbs. However, orbs can also be a spirit. So how do you tell the difference? From my knowledge and experience, if you see a room full of orbs shooting in all directions, then it is building energy, but say if you saw a single orb moving intelligently like it has a destination then that is most likely a spirit.
Back to the reiki and Maria was suddenly met with a male spirit mocking her as she worked on Josh. This spirit was laughing at her in disbelief and was saying I am not going anywhere and I will do what I like. However, Maria had a card up her sleeve he didn’t expect. She cast a strong protection symbol created from the elemental forces of the universe which was much stronger than the spirit. She gave the spirit no other option than to leave. The moment the spirit was gone, the energy in the room settled a little bringing light back into the room. Me and Nic were both amazed and impressed by Maria’s focus with how much was going on.
As she started to close down Josh’s session, his face shone with a purple aura. When Josh got from the bed slowly, he seemed a little unbalanced after the treatment. Now it was my turn. I got myself comfortable on the bed and relaxed. As Maria went to place the chakra crystals on me, they leapt from her hands into place. Every time she has worked on me, she comments on how big my third eye is and my strong energy saying bring it on! Not long after the reiki had begun, I was starting to see flashes of purple. Then I saw something I did not expect. The best description I can give is a caveman’s face—very ape-like with a jaw and mouth set far forward, a scraggly, short, thinning beard, connected to long, unkempt, black, balding sideburns, and lots of messy, black hair on the top of its head. Its eyes were set far back and its nose quite flat and flared. Its skin was almost a caramel colour. It seemed to have no meaning to me, but that’s not something I believe in: we are shown something for a reason. Perhaps it will become clear over the coming weeks. After this, I didn’t see anything else, or if I did, I didn’t remember it.
Something or shall I say someone distracted me. I was shoved very hard in my left thigh so much so that when I spoke to Maria, Josh, and Nic after my reiki treatment they told me my legs had jumped up quite far. I had undoubtedly felt a shove, but I had no idea my legs had shot up. Clearly, under the reiki, it plays with your conscious state allowing your body to act freely without thought.
I hadn’t been aware of anything that Nic and Josh were experiencing whilst I was being worked on. Later on, they shared their experience with me. On Maria’s table and shelf were candles. Out of all of them, only one flickered and it had danced wildly. The temperature in the room had also continued to plummet as the energy kept increasing. But what amazed me the most out of all they told me, was that they had heard what sounded like the crackle of flames in the back corner of the room, followed by Nic having a feeling of people crawling on the floor trying to keep below smoke. I wonder to this day whether this was the stone tape recorder effect. Had there been a property on this sight before that had burnt down? Perhaps Nic was tuning into it. For those of you who don’t know what the stone tape recorder effect is, it is an energy print from someone’s life that soaks into the fabric of reality that’s in our everyday life. When the atmosphere is just right, a little of the energy bleeds out the fabric and plays out like a film. It’s not something we can interact with. It’s nothing more than an image of the person or object.
My treatment came to an end. I got up from the bed feeling very light in my legs. I felt free and alive with energy. Maria always does a great job. Now it was Nic’s turn. Although she didn’t mention it at the time, as she got on the bed she had a feeling of deep unease and impending doom come over her. When Maria started working on her, she calmed down until she felt a hand touch her ear and pull her earing. She said it felt wet. Nic knew it wasn’t Maria as she tried to move away yet the pressure on her ear remained. Me and Josh can also confirm that Maria never touched her. As she lay there, she felt like the entire room was shouting. The music that Maria plays whilst doing reiki she could no longer hear. My question is what was Nic channelling? She was having visions of swords and shields crashing into each other in a great battle. She then told me that often her dreams are of battle. Could it be a connection with a former life? It is now my task to look up the history of Ibstock to see if there was a battle fought here hundreds of years ago.
With the reiki at an end, it was time to get ready for the night’s investigation.
Investigation
We set out as planned to Bradgate Park. Thankfully it looked as if the weather would hold out for the investigation. In fact, it turned out to be one of the most pleasant nights this year. Before I speak of our ghost hunt, let me introduce you to a brief history of Bradgate Park. Perhaps then you will understand why it is such a paranormal hot spot.
There is recorded evidence as far back as 15,000 years ago of human activity in the park. In recent excavations, the archaeologists found remains of nomadic hunting groups which lived in the last ice age 14,000 years ago and even older. Likely, the first settlers were in the time of the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Settlements and tools were excavated in many sites dotted around the park from that time. Over the years since then, the land would have seen Saxon and Roman activity. In more recent history, we have what the park is most famous for, the nine-day queen Lady Jane Grey. The Grey family came into possession of the estate in 1445 and started to build the manor in 1499. They were nobles in the Tudor dynasty, marrying into the royal family. Lady Jane Grey’s father was Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and her mother was Lady Frances Brandon. She had two sisters, Mary and Katherine. They were related to King Henry VIII on their mother’s side. On the 9th of July 1553, Jane was proclaimed queen after the death of her cousin Edward VI. Her reign is famous for having only lasted nine days, having been overthrown by Mary I. She was arrested for high treason and executed at the Tower of London in 1554 on the 12th of February. It has been said by many that each year around New Year’s Eve, her spirit rides from the ruins in a horse-drawn coach, which then drives all the way to the church at Newtown Linford before it disappears.
We began the investigation by walking along the path from Newtown Linford. Just off the path, we found a quiet spot where we could spend five minutes grounding ourselves to keep us spiritually protected and open our third eyes. Opening up the third eye allows you to sense and see more. Once we were grounded, I got my K2 metre and dowsing rods out, having had great success with them when I investigated Bradgate Park with Haunted Heritage a few years ago. Although the K2 remained silent all night, the rods proved to be very active. Stopping at intervals along the path to check, we asked the rods to point to paranormal hot spots. Every time we asked this, the rods pointed towards the ruins. With every question we asked the rods, Nic backed up the answers using her divination crystal. Both the rods and crystal slowly led us to the ruins. The rods crossed over each other in several spots along the path, and at each point, we called out to the spirits to make their presence known.
Not until we got to the ruins did we come into contact with a spirit, giving more credibility to the dowsing rods and crystal leading us to this point. The first thing we saw as we walked the perimeter was a small ball of light coming from the tower. However, it wasn’t till we reached the door on the outer walls of the orangery that we felt a substantial change in energy. The results Nic was getting from her crystal were brilliant, so I decided to try her with the dowsing rods. It was the first time she had used dowsing rods, but given she does a lot of pendulum work which is just another form of dowsing, I was curious to see how well they would respond to her touch. The rods did not disappoint as almost immediately we had a male spirit responding to questions on the rods. We asked him if he would follow us to the Old John Tower and speak with us through the Ouija board. He responded with a strong yes.
Although he was still communicating with us through the dowsing rods, we moved on quite quickly with still lots of ground to cover. If he would speak with us through the board, I was keen to get to The Old John Tower as soon as possible. As good as dowsing rods are, you are limited to yes and no questions. We stopped closer to the visitor centre and used the rods to see if he was still with us. The rods crossed over each other, which meant yes. We continued again, stopping close to the memorial woods to see if there was any spirit activity there. The energy felt flat, with no response to any questions, we moved on. We only stopped twice on route to the tower when I thought I heard a deep breath to my right, and Nic thought she made out a shuffle of footsteps behind us. However, with being out in the open in the dark, truly we couldn’t say if this was paranormal or not with there being so many natural causes it could have been. Most plausibly, it was the deer.
At the tower, we set up quickly, forming a perimeter with our equipment, setting the Ouija board on the dial. As I called out to the spirits to come and speak with us through the board, the planchette astonishingly instantly moved with such strength to yes. Then we asked if it was the spirit we had made contact with by the ruins. We got a strong yes. Although it can’t be proved, I do wonder if the odd breath sounds and shuffling sounds we heard as we made our way to this point were him walking with us. I then asked if he could use the letters on the board to tell us his first name. The planchette moved to the letter A and then moved sporadically through different letters with no clarity. I then asked if he could spell, as I knew it was quite common for people to not be able to spell. He confirmed he couldn’t spell. We then asked if he could tell us his age. He moved the planchette to seventeen. He then told us he worked for Lady Jane Grey but wasn’t connected to the house. I asked if he was a stable boy, he said no. But then Nic thought of a brilliant question. She asked if he was a coachman as these would usually be a company employed by the family whenever they needed them. He confirmed he was a coachman. He then told us he still prepares her coach for her to travel when she is seen around Christmas time headed to Newtown Linford. We asked if there was any unknown history of the park he wanted to tell us. He said yes. However, without being able to spell, this seemed like it would be without result. So I asked if there were any spirits he could bring through who could spell to tell us what he wanted to. He said no. A question I always ask is if the spirit needs any help. When I asked, he responded with yes. I then asked if he wanted help crossing over. He said yes. This could have been the reason why he followed and was so keen to talk to us. I am not new to passing spirits over, having done it several times before. I asked him to imagine a bright white light floating before him, to make it as solid and blazing as possible. Then I asked him to imagine it as an open door with the pure-white light on the other side. Then as I asked him to walk towards it and pass through it, all activity on the Ouija board stopped immediately. We asked a few more questions to check if he was still there. The planchette didn’t move once. Also, the energy felt flat around us; before, it had felt dense. So we successfully passed him over. We closed down the board and packed up. The entire time we spoke to him, Nic had had a pain in her thigh, but the moment we passed him over, the pain went straight away. It seemed that this pain was connected to him. Perhaps Nic had felt some of what he was feeling at the time of his death.
We headed back towards the house ruins. We only stopped once as something moving in the far distance caught Nic’s attention. In a far-off tree line on a hilltop, Nic thought she had seen a jet-black shadow figure move between the trees silhouetted against the inky purple sky. We stood for a while watching to see if anything else moved, shining our torches on full beam in that direction. I was looking for any natural causes like deer. I also took lots of photos. We didn’t see anything. Since there was no more movement, we pressed on, only stopping when we got to the front of the manor ruins. We set up the Ouija board on the floor to attempt to contact Lady Jane Grey. Instead, we had a male come through. Immediately, we could feel hostility towards us; he felt very stern and protective. We asked him a few questions. Either he couldn’t spell, or he was refusing to spell to any of our questions. But then I asked him how many spirits were with us, and he moved the planchette to the number five. I leapt at the chance to discover who these other spirits were, asking the question I wanted to know the most: was Lady Jane Grey here? He told us she was. I asked him if he would step aside so we could speak with her. He said no. However, I never give up readily and used my powers of persuasion. It took a while, but eventually, he gave in and let her come through on the board. For some unknown reason, she was only willing to speak to me. The feeling I got was this man was one of her nobles protecting her, and she said to him it’s okay, I want to speak with him. The first thing I asked was am I speaking with Lady Jane Grey. The planchette moved to yes. To test it was definitely her, I asked her how long she was queen. The planchette moved to nine. I felt confident now it genuinely was Lady Jane Grey. Her energy and the movement on the planchette felt quite frantic like she had a lot to say and knew she didn’t have long to say it. She told us the initials A.J.R followed by the date 1537. On further research, the date 1537 matches the year she was born. So we believe that’s the reason she told us that date. Then she gave us the initials K.Q followed by the date 1563. We didn’t find anything on the initials A.J.R or K.Q or the date 1563. Looking at the time, unfortunately, I had to start to close down the Ouija board and investigation. We only had about ten minutes left before we had to go. As I was thanking Lady Jane Grey for how amazing it had been speaking to her, the planchette moved again and spelt “wait” very strongly. Then she gave us the initials B.J and told us her lover had accidentally said something incriminating against her that led to her arrest at the Tower of London. She told us she didn’t blame him for what he did and still very much loved him. After this, her energy calmed. She seemed glad to have had the opportunity to speak with us. But we really had to go now, so I thanked her for speaking with us and told her we had to leave now. We closed down the Ouija board, packed up, and left.
I went into this investigation with the hope of speaking with Lady Jane Grey, testing my abilities as a paranormal researcher to be able to call out specific spirits. I can certainly say I succeeded. What an investigation though. Speaking to Lady Jane Grey was extraordinary, and I shall not forget this unique moment as I deepen my research into the paranormal with my team Phantom Echoes Paranormal Research Team. Before the investigation, Nic had asked a number of questions using her pendulum about what to expect on the investigation, keeping the answers from me and Josh until after the investigation. There was one in particular that blew my mind. She had asked if all of us would speak to Lady Jane Grey. The pendulum had said no. Then she asked the same question again but asked it for each of us individually. For her and Josh, the answer was no, but for me, the answer was yes. When she agreed to speak to us on the board she said she would only speak to me. To have that level of accuracy from the pendulum before the investigation had even begun was just the cherry on the cake. It also proves that spirits can time travel; when you use a pendulum, you speak with spirits asking them to move the crystal. We had felt going into this investigation it took a lot of work to get any activity, but now looking back, I feel that it was actually a very active Investigation. I certainly would love to come back as I feel there is more Lady Jane Grey could tell us. Perhaps then we could find some more answers to the initials and dates she told us that we weren’t able to find answers to. We took a number of photos during this investigation. There are a few interesting lights and shapes in some of mine, but one really stands out. That is a photo I took of the inside of the grounds. I believe I caught a full apparition on camera. On a final note, I would just like to add a sentence on behalf of all the staff at Bradgate Park to thank them for allowing us to conduct this research and bring to light some mind-blowing research and activity.
Phantom Echoes Paranormal 
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