I arrived at the location just before seven pm to a warm welcome from the lead investigator Nat. I think over the years of ghost hunting with Haunted Evenings, I have built quite a good reputation as a ghost hunter as well as made some nice friends with the staff and other guest ghost hunters.
The first vigil began shortly after the walk around. In our three groups we went off to different areas to investigate. For me, my first vigil was on the ground floor in the hallway at the bottom of the main stair case conducting an Ouija Board session. Gathering around the table we charged the glass by moving it in a circle on the table. This is a method used to help give energy to the glass for the spirit to feed off and move it. At first the movement took a while to get anything coming through but suddenly the glass crept of its own accord across the table. For sure I know that no one around the table was responsible for moving the glass, till that point the glass was so still no one was expecting it, and most people’s fingers fell off the top of the glass when it did move. Asking the spirit to spell out its name using the letters on the board gave us an unusual name, a name I had certainly never heard before. Ciomo. Surely not an English name? That we never found out. Our conversation with his spirit didn’t last long as he didn’t want to talk to us, but a new spirit came through an instantly the activity in the glass became much stronger, shooting from one side of the table to the other like an unseen hand was pulling it with force towards them. Asking for this spirits name the glass started moving between C and L constantly till we asked if that was its initials. The glass moved to yes. We decided to call him L, which he was happy to be called, till later on when we guessed his name to be Layton and the glass moved to yes. Being quite sensitive to the paranormal I was starting to feel the spirit was of a child, the energy on the table definitely felt lively and very friendly and welcoming. Every question asked came with a direct response; I had never experienced anything as responsive as that before. I was astounded and beaming from ear to ear. We asked his age and using the numbers on the bottom of the board the glass moved to number seven. He was really happy we were talking to him. I suddenly had the thought to ask if he worked here when it was a farm. Once more the glass moved to yes. As you’re probably thinking the poor boy died from a horrific accident on the farm, but you would be wrong, it was disease. He even spelt the name of his favourite animal ‘Cow’. The next piece of evidence we got from him was of huge importance to understanding the afterlife and gave proof to a theory of my own and probably many other peoples! One of the women around the table was a mother. Upon asking Layton how many children she had he moved the glass to the number two. He was right! My theory is that spirits can pass from place to place instantaneously, seeing past, present and future; can look in on people’s lives. The fact that Layton answered this correctly I personally think gives proof to this. To me, evidence like this is so important on my journey of discovery and I have definitely learnt something new, even if the concept of it is mind blowing!
Having already spoken to him for a while we wanted to know if there was any more spirits wanting to come and talk to us. What happened next we didn’t expect. We asked Layton if there was anyone else wanting to come and talk and the glass moved straight to yes. We moved the glass to goodbye at the bottom of the board to close the vigil and allow the other spirits to talk. What we didn’t expect when we asked who was there for the glass to move between C and L again. Layton was playing tricks on us. Laughter was had by all. Since Layton was being really active we decided to talk to him some more. We found out that he wasn’t alone and liked to play with the children at the hall. Around the table it turned out were no less than eight children all listening and watching us. It was very clear to me that there was a lot of energy here and a little bit of fun would prove for some amazing evidence. On request he touched all of us around the table and confirmed it with the glass moving to yes, though none of us did feel it. Perhaps it was something to do with our clothing cushioning the touch of the spirit? Or simply there wasn’t enough spiritual energy to manifest a solid touch? I wasn’t going to give up there though. I asked if he was up for some mischief and the glass shot to yes stronger than it had before. Brilliant! From the walk around earlier I remembered a ball being upstairs on the middle floor. Whilst we had been investigating down here another group were investigating on the middle floor. So I asked Layton if he would run up the steps loudly and kick the ball down the stairs, or if he couldn’t do that just move the ball slightly. What was surprising after the glass moved to yes was the fact the glass stopped dead like he left the table to go and do it; a few moments later we heard a loud creek on the steps which sounded very much like a footstep. Yes it is a very old building but not once had those stairs creaked till then, which leads me to think there is a chance it was paranormal, a footstep. We quietly waited whilst the glass stood still trying not to laugh, listening out for the screams from above hopefully. I am afraid to say no screams were heard, but when the glass began to move again Layton told us he had done it but no one had seen him do it. Once more I asked him to run up the stairs, but this time I asked if he would throw the ball at someone and make them scream which brought a lot of laughter. Again the glass moved to yes and then stopped. I waited patiently looking at the others as they fought back howling laughter. A short while later the glass moved again. He hadn’t thrown the ball but he had moved it again and apparently it was noticed this time, but no one screamed.
Whether it’s just because stairs lead to unseen parts of buildings? Like a portal between floors, or something else, but as we conducted the Ouija board at the foot of the stairs I found myself occasionally staring up the centre of the stairs spiralling above me. Could it be to do with what we discovered on the board? We had asked where all the children were standing and the glass pointed that seven of them were around the table with us, but Layton wasn’t one of them. All this time Layton had been directing the other kids where to move the glass looking down through the stair well. Probably explains why the movement on the glass was so strong. But had I been looking up because I could maybe feel a spirit watching from above? I wish now I had taken several photos up the staircase just encase I captured a vigil of something. Unfortunately time had come to an end on the first vigil, but it had given me some of the greatest evidence I will probably witness for a long time to come.
The second vigil began on the middle floor. After a brief talk on all the equipment we could use, I set off this time by myself into the creaking, twisting, warping corridors guided by the small light of my torch. I had taken and EVP recorder (Electronic Voice Phenomena) as well as two K2 metres (measures energy levels). I found a dark room away from the rest of the noisy lot and set my equipment up all around the room. Unfortunately I didn’t have as long as I would have liked in the rooms if I was to cover them all. Whilst up here though I felt very little, the atmosphere was calm. I tried several experiments and yet none brought any activity. That’s just the way it is sometimes. I moved on to another room and again no activity. I eventually came to the room which had the ball and rocking horse in. Of the entire middle floor, this was the only time I experienced anything. It didn’t take long for some activity to happen. Whilst standing beside the rocking horse the K2 metre began to flicker at some form of energy it was reading; it can’t be anything electrical affecting it though as the upper floors didn’t have any cables. Continuously in this spot it flickered and whenever I moved to another spot in the room it stopped. So something that was definitely residual in that spot. I tried a few EVPs and if I captured anything it was impossible to comprehend what was said. The one great thing that happened was that with my own eyes a great big orb shot straight across in front of the ball and disappeared into thin air. Whilst on the second vigil heading back to the equipment base there was a huge door slam somewhere which was confirmed on a computer software which generates words which spirits are able to manipulate. The computer said slammed at the same time, the trouble with this is that there was so many people scattered about all over the floor that it was impossible to say which door slammed and if anyone of us was responsible so I can’t say that it was paranormal. That was the end of the second vigil unfortunately. Problem was we only had the building till midnight. Sometime I will come back here when there is more time to investigate properly and bring some other equipment.
The third vigil took us up the shifting, rickety, groaning stairs to the attic. In the attic we set up a load of trigger objects around the room which would only be set off if something touched them. Once more we began to call out and once more there was very little activity. Towards the end of the last vigil we did however get some activity on the Vibe Pod, (measures vibrations and lights up when triggered). Continuously as if someone was tapping a finger on it it flashed. But that was it for the night. Even though a lot of it had been quiet, I certainly have walked away from this with a lot of thoughts and amazing evidence that I will remember for a very long time.
Phantom Echoes Paranormal 
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