Investigation Encounters

From experience I would say that most nights spent in haunted locations are pretty quiet, once you've done a thorough site examination and identified the usually creaks and groans the building makes. But, have you had any strange experiences that you would like to share?

Firstly i want to say i absolutley agree with you! all these shows on televison hype things up, add a spooky soundtrack and make it out to be something its not.. ive done around 20 overnight stays in some 'apparently' very haunted pubs, hotels and castles and most of the time NOTHING happens infact it can get quite frustrating when you first start out and it dosent stand up to your expectations

However i have been fortunate enough to stay in some pretty spooky locations, ive had many 'experiences' but i dont think ive experienced anything that would stand as absolute proof to anyone..

I only believe ive seen a ghost once.. and that was on my first ever investigation at a pub just down the road from me! i was down the cellar with my nightvision camera, the team were at one end talking about some room down there that was used to hold prisoners, i was drawn to the opposite end of the cellar so i turned round and crept down there alone, i was looking through the veiwfinder of my camcorder and all of a sudden i stopped dead, i cant really say why i stopped but a few seconds after standing stationary i caught a glimpse of someone stood infront of me, what i thought i saw was the top of a little boys head as high as my chin, his head was tilted up toward me but not far enough to see facial features, all i could see was a pale forehead and a mop of brown tangled hair, as i tried to focus on it it faded away and was gone..
i know there is no way to say for sure that this was a genuine apparition, but ive never seen anything like it before or since and although its not my most frightening experience, its definatley one of my most memorable

Most vigils are long and boring and few new investigators reach as many as twenty locations. I find a lot of people are drawn to the subject with the urge to see a ghost and get bored when they realise how much hard work is involved.

Sounds like a great encounter Spook . What made you stop at that position? I only ask because I have had a similar encounter with an apparition.

I was on a vigil in Muncaster Castle in 1995. I’ve mentioned its name because the case has now become quite famous after it appeared on a television programme called ‘Strange But True’. The long term scientific study of the haunting at Muncaster is headed by Dr Jason Braithwaite and I have been closely involved throughout its last 15 year or so history.

We were splitting the evening up into sessions of around 45-60 mins followed by a coffee break before each team was rotated to cover a different area of the castle. Another team member called Melanie was coming up the main staircase filling in her notes. She could see the legs of another team member ahead of her over her clipboard. She followed this person up the stairs and along the corridor towards the bedroom we were using for out breaks and session discussions. She saw the legs turn away from the coffee room and enter the Tapestry Room.

Dan and I had been covering the Tapestry Room and I was sat at the far end, well away from the bed. At the end of the session I had a feeling that we should both hang around. I think it was like a mild headache but I had a hunch it meant something. A black silhouette figure then walked straight through the partially open room door and walked toward me. It kept coming and my vision suddenly went all blue, as if I was looking through a blue filter, so I assume it walked through me as I was sat down.

Melanie then walked straight into the room asking who she had followed in. Dan saw nothing, but may have been facing the wrong direction.

There are a few good points about this encounter that should be noted. The apparition was seen by two independent witnesses who were separated immediately and had statements taken before they could discuss what they had experienced with each other. I think this makes the encounter quite evidential, given that it was recorded in controlled vigil conditions.

It would appear that we had traced an apparition over a considerable distance over two stories, without realising it. But did Melanie and I see the same apparition? The timing was exact it seems but at no time were both stood in the same room looking at the same figure. It was gone by the time she changed course and entered the room.

The apparition showed no sign of intelligence from what I could gather….come on it did walk through me. The room is not noted for being haunted by an apparition, in fact what happens in the room is far more disturbing, so I am not sure the stone tape theory fits too well either here. Anyway, it was an interesting encounter. You may wonder how I reacted to it. I remember treating the event with a mild scientific interest, others however say my face had a look of sheer terror upon it .

Jason has made some interesting discoveries whilst looking into the effect of Electromagnetic Fields at Muncaster and has had a few scientific papers published on the subject. Below is a link to an article by Maurice Townsend about the Tapestry Room bed.

http://www.assap.org/newsite/htmlfiles/MADS%20haunted%20bed.html

I cant really describe why i stopped.. i suppose i just sensed 'something'.. a presence or whatever, my hackles went up, the reason i headed to that corner anyway was because i felt like something was watching us from that end.. but i suppose you would naturally feel something like that about the dark shadowy corner over the corner where there were people and torchlight.

Well, assuming this apparition i encountered was genuine and not a vivid trick of my imagination i suppose it could be significant that i stopped there because when the 'boy' appeared he was stood toe to toe with me, thats how close he was.. so i had stopped right at his feet basicly.

Your encounter sounds really interesting, ive often wondered how i might react if i ever saw a shadow ghost, especially one of them 8 foot tall buggers you hear about!
I thought i saw one once, i was filming a seance at some pub i cant remember the name of, i was the only one out of the circle and i was concentrating on the lcd screen of my camera and i looked up at one point and thought i saw a very tall black sillouette stood dead in the centre of the circle, my heart jumped into my mouth and when i blinked it dissapeard.. i have to look at this skeptically though, not only was the pub very dark but i had been looking at my bright camera screen and my eyes were still tryng to adjust when i 'saw' the figure, it did scare the hell out of me though and i think if i saw one for real i might just do my first ever screaming run out of the venue

It seems quite clear that certain ghosts appear in certain ways, such as the shadow ghost, classic grey ghost and the the more detailed apparitions that are mistaken for the living.

It reminds me of my clairvoyant friends attempt to categorise the images they would see psychically. I wonder if apart from general visual description they have any other distinct traits? Something to thing about anyway.

I've never run from a venue yet.......but I've often thought about it

many ufo encounters fade away with the smell of ozone in the air, as if it was an electrical disturbance.

Has anyone on a ghost watch reported strange smells? I guess it would have to be unusual strong smells, not another investigators aftershave or the musty house aroma.

To link to the visual image though - the classic white light seen in near death etc is due to the closing down of the visual senses (ask my brother who has been electrocuted a number of times), but in seeing the classic hooded figure - in some cases could it be the brain filling in for something that is closing down the witnesses sight. The idea that something seen is just too strange for the brain to compute and it makes up an image that is more understandable. Quite a few people, who have close encounters with aliens replace the imagery of a big eyed alien with the haunting imagery of owls, or cats.

stephen wrote:

Has anyone on a ghost watch reported strange smells? I guess it would have to be unusual strong smells, not another investigators aftershave or the musty house aroma..

Two occasions come to mind here for me.. i once was struck by the strong smell of blood on an investigation in the restraunt area of this pub we were in, it was really strong and everyone else said they smelled 'something' but most couldnt figure out what it was, i was thinking blood and then a member of our team also said blood. it faded away soon after.

Another time we were conducting a seance sat around a table (again in a pub i think) and this really strong smell of the forest came down over us, that one was really strange because it was a smell we all instanly recognised as one you would encounter when walking in the woods and it was so strong it was almost overpowering yet there were no woods nearby and we sat in the bar area of a pub.. we asked if there were any automatic air freshners around too that could have set it off but the owner said there were none.. it didnt smell artificial anyway.

I too have encountered a distinct smell on a vigil.......yes, in a pub . The pub was undergoing renervations and an aparition had been reported along with the usual losing of hammers and cabinets falling off walls etc(maybe poor tradesmen....who knows).

The pub had 4 distinct snug like zones. In one area (not the one the aparition was sighted in) there was a sudden smell of aniseed. We all (about 5 of us) gathered in the area and breathed it in for a good 10-20 seconds, then it vanished.

This is not the type of pub where you would drink Perno and upon checking the day after we found none had been sold in over a fortnight. The smell just vanished. There was not trace of a source, no bottles, glasses, spillages etc. I am no expert but I don't think smells like that can just appear then disappear.

Weeks later whilst talking to an old regular to the pub he explained to me that the pubs long gone bowling team would rub aniseed into their bowls whilst sitting in that snug area.

Was it the bowling team, a sneaky pungent aniseed ball or a long lost glass of Perno? The jury is still out on this one

If you cast your mind back to that particular night Ian there was also a very strong perfume smell that just appeared then dissapeared just as quickly.

Lee.

Yep, your right there Lee. Strange how we got these strong smells then they just quickly vanished.

Spook, when you saw your ghost was there a story attached to that site about a ghostly boy?

Not that i remember.. it was my first ever investigation and we werent told any of the history initially for obvious reasons. All that came out about the cellar later was that it was used to house prisoners who were being transported to wherever they were going.. i cant remember the full story, but nothing about a young boy.
what did happen, which may or may not be interesting is after i saw this 'apparition' i first off didnt tell anyone, because i was new and didnt know anyone i thought they might think i was making it up so i kept it to myself and rejoined the group, after they had finsihed we all started to head upstairs to the ground floor, i was lagging behind with one of the sensitives we had on board at the time and as we were climbing the steps she stopped, turned around and said "theres a young boy following us!"
I hadnt told her what id seen though, although i did later on over coffee!

Adding that bit of context to your account makes it even more interesting and a lot more evidential. Do the Spooks continue investigating a case after a visit, chasing up witnesses and staying in contact with the venue. You never know, there may be others who have encountered the same boy.

Yes we try to stay in contact and revisit locations if the investigation goes well.. its quite rare we dont consider a place to be revisited, after all theres only so many locations around that will have us and if we only consider visiting each place once its not going to be long before we run out of venues.
The place with the 'boy' in the cellar has been re-visited at least once by us, i wasnt there on that night and as far as i know there was no experience with a young boy that time. the place is actually just down the road from me, and we have been trying to arrange to go back there in the near future anyway, i for one would love to go back, it was my first investigation and probably one of my most active!