Investigation at Haunted!

Hallowe’en.

This is the common name for Samhain, the Eve of the New Year for witches. This is the night when the veil between this world and the Otherworld is at its thinnest. This is the night to remember the ancestors – and this is the night that they draw close.

It’s not really surprising, then, that ghost hunts take place all over the country on Samhain, usually to a backdrop of people dressed as vampires, werewolves, devils and pirates* (*what’s that about?) as well as ‘witches’. Of course, none of these witches are really witches, and usually none of them know that witches exist, much less follow an ancient religion, but I digress.  

This particular Samhain, I too joined the throng of ghost hunters. Acting in my capacity as ghost-hunting medium for a group of intrepid individuals, I was hoping to connect with the spooks of Haunted, 35, Stonegate, York, UK. I am a member of PSI (Paranormal and Spectral Investigations) and have worked in York for years investigating the spooky goings-on, so I was not going to miss out on what might turn out to be a very interesting night! Along with my husband (who is a rookie medium, and a pretty good one at that) we made our way to 35, Stonegate. In my humble opinion, Stonegate is the most haunted street in York anyway, and number 35 has a ‘reputation’. It has been featured on Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns; on Calendar (regional News); and has had a TV crew run out screaming! Number 35 is certainly the most amazing house. Rickety stairs; an oak-panelled boardroom; a spooky mask room; rare stained glass; a creepy attic … there is so much there to see – and quite a lot there that you can’t see!

There were several PSI staff there apart from myself and my husband. These included no less than York’s Ghost Finder General, Rachel Lacy, founder of PSI. Rachel started the proceedings by allocating staff to the numerous members of the public that were in attendance … and off we went.

I was delighted that I got to investigate the boardroom first. Unfortunately (if you’re a medium), knowledge in advance of a location is a hindrance. I had been to the house before, but this did mean that I had fair warning the boardroom would be ‘exciting’. My group was not disappointed. First of all I gave a brief talk about equipment and demonstrated the use of gaussmeters; dowsing rods; pendulums and the like, so that everyone could have a go. After the demonstration, we went straight into a séance.

It wasn’t long before the temperature lowered and people were starting to experience things. One of the female members of the public screamed out in shock as her hair was touched. Her boyfriend was just as shocked … because he commented how she is such a sceptic!

My second group was just as interesting. In fact, for me, the atmosphere was even more electric and the mediums had a lot happen to them. My husband immediately picked up the spirit of a very, very angry man. So angry was this spirit, that my husband's spirit guide was intervening and there was a real war going on between the two of them. My husband’s description of the man matched many that had been given before. However, my husband had never been to the house, had never heard of the stories (they are not on the internet) or been told anything by me.

I had a major experience too. Several of the mediums and one of our team, Ellie, picked up a spirit suffering from a stroke.  I got the stroke! All of my left side froze, in particular my left eye, which I just couldn’t open. In the end I had to be escorted from the room, and it took quite a few minutes for my eye to go back to normal. I felt weak and completely drained. 

My last group got a little longer to explore several rooms. We started in the dining room, where I went through the usual procedure and explained how to use the equipment and got straight to some dowsing. Interestingly, most of the public picked up similar places for psychic activity. Even more interesting is the orbs that we got on camera in one of the locations that was deemed favourite by dowsing. Check out the picture (right)!  

We also had some time to spend in the attic, amongst other rooms. Here we did an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena). There are several techniques that may help you to catch ghostly voices on camera, I used my favourite, which is to ask questions and allow gaps for answers. Sadly, we didn’t get any answers, but there was a weird sound just before the recording ended. We are still not sure if it was a spirit or whether I may have touched the microphone when switching the recorder off!

There is so much more that could be reported, not only by myself but also by the other staff that made the event such a success. All-in-all, we had a great (but very long) night and a very tired morning. I believe that our guests enjoyed themselv es and that many of them had some unusual experiences that will make them think and question. This is always a good thing.

If you’ve never been ghost hunting and you like the idea of attending a ghost hunt next Samhain, make sure you visit York Ghost Festival’s website to find out more.

The link is on my links page.