Posts Under Personal Category

When I stepped inside the Theatrix Costume House – the site of the old Eaton Stables where horses were prepared for the Santa Claus Parade in the 1900′s – I immediately got the sense that I was in for an interesting night.

A Santa Claus Parade float leaving the Old Eaton Stables ~1925

One of the sales staff was in the midst of regaling the other participants with stories about how employees have felt “nuzzling” while working, heard whispering voices, and even the distant clomping of horse hooves in the now-metropolitan building.

No, I wasn’t privy to an off-the-wall conversation during store hours – I had signed on to do a “ghost investigation” of the allegedly haunted building with the Paranormal Investigation Society of Toronto.     The organization runs a number of investigations at haunted sites all across North America.

Organizers explained to us newcomers – myself, my sister, and three ladies from out-of-town – that core members of this group are interested in finding answers to unexplained phenomenon, whether scientific or otherworldly.

Using various types of ghost-busting equipment you see the professionals using on TV:

• electromagnetic field readers (EMFs), which measure the electromagnetic activity in the air – ie, if it changes, your needle jumps, and that could be a sign of something else’s presence (we had K-II meters). These are the same type I used the previous weekend in Salem, MA with The Boy (but more on my Boston trip in another post :)
• four area cameras
• digital thermometers
• Ouiji board
• tarot cards
• a ghost box,which scans radio stations at a very quick frequency – the idea here is that ghosts can “talk” through it and you can pick up words and phrases
• electronic voice phenomena recorders (uh, a special digital recorder to record creepy otherworldly voices)
• a laser grid – you fire it, it makes crisscrossing lasers, and disruptions will block/move the light

Afterwards, they mainly left us to our own devices to borrow their equipment and conduct our own investigation, guiding us as needed. While the group doesn’t have any upcoming events listed at the moment, I do know they have some in the works they are planning on posting soon, including an overnight trip to an old hotel in Orangeville.

Armed with my trusty Maglight (they turned off all the lights during the investigation), Canon T2i (perfect for catching ghosts with), and a pen and notepad; my sister and I took off to begin our investigation.

At her request, we started with the Ouija board – I played for about 30 seconds before getting thoroughly creeped out and quitting.

I hate Ouija boards.

Next, we got to play with the ghost box – which honestly was probably one of the coolest points. We listened to the frequencies, and heard quite a few creepy whispers – including the name “Emily” and “Em” repeated by a raspy male voice and fluttery, quiet female voice. Turns out, the group before us also heard “Emily” a number of times.

The ghost box, and our notepad of things we heard coming through the static. Ghosts, or really creepy sounding radio announcers?

Coincidence? Rigged tool?

Either way, a shiver went down my spine when I found that out.

We played with Tarot cards – you ask a question to the ghosts out loud, draw a card, and write down which it is. The organizers planned to do a reading based on the drawn cards later. The weird thing here was that on the first page 7 people drew the same 2 cards, my sister included. I was the odd one out – I guess I just don’t have that “ghostly” connection, haha.

Kait recording her tarot card answers - please note the creepy mirror behind her.

The creepiest part of THIS one? The darkened changing room with a giant mirror. Did I mention I ALSO hate mirrors? This stems from thinking I saw shadowy figures in the mirror at my grandmother’s house when younger, and my older cousins then regaling me with stories of evil demons haunting the house.

Yeah, that would stick with a 7 year old!

Needless to say, I never saw the horror movie “Mirrors”!

Next was the best part – it was time to play with the EMF readers and digital thermometers in the costume room. We got mostly level 1′s (low), but in certain areas – like near a purple dress near the front – it did spike to a 3. Near the back corner of the shop, we were getting a flickering 2-3 by a duck hand thing; and it spiked to 4 a few times. The first time was when the subway went by underground (keep in mind this is a top floor of a building), so I’m not sure if the electrical spike from the subway had something to do with it or not – but it did keep flicking to 4 well after the roaring and shaking of the train had passed.

I took a few photos in the costumed area, but none showed anything interesting (besides the drool-worthy costumes, that is! ;) – not even the highly controversial orbs, which I thought I would get a lot of considering the amount of dust in that place!

Something interesting to note – every time our EMF would raise, the digital thermometer would drop – and drop steadily. The lowest it reached in that room was 67.9°F – though I never felt a temperature change personally. And, when the EMF frequency dropped to a 1, the thermometer would do a 180 and start to rise drastically back to “normal” (our starting temperature in that room was around 79°F I believe)

It was steadily dropping while in the back when the level spiked to 4 – we watched it drop for quite some time (it eventually hit 67.9°F), going up slightly every time the level faded to a 1. By the time it hit it’s lowest point, we decided to move on to another area. I’m fairly confident had we stayed, it would have continued to drop.

Scanning for electromagnetic fields - this was when we were getting the spikes to level 4 (out of 5)

Next, we continued our EMF/digital thermometer investigation in the back room – a large, blue, mostly empty room housing a few costumes that had seen a significant amount of activity by other groups (and in the past, as well).

Here’s where things get interesting. The EMF stayed mostly a 1, except for one major “hot spot” where it would spike to 5. It did flicker a little here, and move a bit, but we could typically find it again.

It is possible it could have been some sort of electrical interference, but we checked all our electronics (cameras, phones, lights) and nothing caused a spike. A quick visual investigation told us there were no obvious wires or poles potentially housing wires nearby.

The temperature remained steady, though I did feel a cold creeping up my legs while holding this EMF for the shot – and there were certainly no doors, windows, or drafts nearby. I had not been cold earlier in this room while we were setting up and getting instructions.

The EMF is spiked to 5 - the highest level of electromagnetic activity readable by the K-II.

I handed the K-II off to my sister, who did the same move around, lose the spot, find it again thing I had just been doing. Once she hit the sweet spot, I made her stand there with her arm in the air like an idiot for a good 5 minutes while I tried to get a good angle showing the 5 lit up lights (they were flicking) and her as well.

While this was going on, once we got a steady red she started to complain she was cold. Very cold. I felt absolutely fine and I was only standing a few feet away. Imagination? A draft? Or something otherworldly? I wasn’t positive either of us were actually feeling cold while holding the meter lit to red, but once I got home and looked through my photos I began to wonder.

Level 5 EMF, odd looking green dot to the right of Kait's hand

If you look to the right of Kait’s hand, there’s a small-ish, green-ish, round spot in the photo. The room was dark, other than the lights on the K-II and my flash, so there was no other light pollution. We had our flashlights turned off. Typically, dust spots in a photo – and after going to Burning Man, I’ve seen a LOT of them – are white. Not green.

As far as I can recall, there was no sequined dressed (and even if there were, would it not make more than one reflection?) or anything else reflective nearby. The green light was thus not angled at anything reflective, and the K-II is not angled in a way it could be creating that dot without a reflective surface in my opinion… and even if it WERE, would there not be other coloured dots as well?

Now, I am not saying this is necessarily anything spooky or evidence of a ghost – but it certainly is curious, and given the fact this photo was taken at the EXACT moment she was complaining of being cold (you can even see her lips slightly parted) it makes me wonder.

And, FWIW, I have other photos taken from a similar angle before, and after, this one – and neither has that mysterious, glowing dot:

Post investigation in this room, we conducted a “seance” in the room – basically forming a circle, and asking the spirits present to light op the K-II in response to questions. It worked – as much as one can assume, at least. To say the very least, it was certainly interesting. The K-II would mostly rest at level 1, occasionally flicking to level 2, and when we asked a question the light would sometimes flick to level 3 in a positive response. A few things to come out of this – the spirit was a man, named Dick (or Richard – which, I should mention, is a name two other groups heard come through the ghost box) and was the original owner of Theatrix (back when it was the Old Eaton Stables).

Two members of the group say they heard a distinct, ghostly whisper coming from the back corner of the room (vacant) while this was going on. Sadly, no one was recording an EVP during this so we won’t ever know what – if anything – was said.

I can’t remember much else that we asked during this part – I was quite tired and half asleep by this time as it was nearly 2 a.m. (and, uh, Oktoberfest was the night before!) but I do recall it was interesting, and a little eerie.

So – was contact really made? I remain partly skeptical, but there was definitely some sort of presence in that room. Not heavy, but it was there. And with the various things that happened - and there were  many – I have trouble believeing it was all a coincidence, or could be explained away 100% by science… and I’ll definitely be back on another investigation with this group (though in a different location) to see what happens there.

I should also note – a group went thought Theatrix two weekends before (on Oct 1) and did not have nearly as much activity as we did.

As for that elusive green dot – was it a reflection? Ghost? Dust?

I’ll let you be the judge – I’d love to hear your thoughts/opinions in the comments.