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Alton-based TGC (Team Ghost Catcher) first contacted the Guild in late 2005, after reading about our famous ‘‘Old Woman and Little Girl’’ on St. Louis area websites. They requested permission to conduct a paranormal investigation of our building. The Board granted them permission, and on December 17, 2005, TGC conducted an investigation, overseen by a team of observers from the Guild.
Although the Guild observers reported plenty of activity, TGC’s taping equipment picked up little or nothing. TGC requested permission for a second investigation, which the Board granted. This second investigation took place on July 8, 2006.
The Board selected me as one of the observers for the second investigation. Two days later, on the morning of July 10, I composed, from memory, this record of what I saw and experienced. -- Don Love
(INVESTIGATORS: Dr. Gary S. Hawkins, John Donnelly, David McCracken, Chris McCracken
OBSERVERS: Don Love, Debbie Love, Sarah Wieck, Sue Hirsch, Mike Greco)
Saturday, July 8, 2006. Debbie and I are the first to arrive, somewhere around 7:15. I go upstairs, turn on the light, look towards the set.
The corner of my eye catches something in the audience section. I nearly jump out of my skin. But it’s only a pillow that someone left sitting upright in one of the auditorium seats. I chide myself mentally. I set the pillow on its side so that it won’t fake me or anyone else out later on.
8:00. I’m sitting on the porch steps when Gary Hawkins, David McCracken, and Chris McCracken arrive. I don’t recognize Gary at first. He points to his upper lip, and then I realize the moustache is gone.
Gary introduces me to David and Chris. He asks me where I was when I glimpsed the silhouette descending the staircase. I pull out my keys and go through the motions of locking the door. Gary asks if he can set up a camera on the porch so that it can look through the door’s window. I agree.
John Donnelly arrives at 8:05. Sarah and her mom Sue arrive at 8:10.
As they're unpacking their gear, Gary tells his team members that the plan for tonight is to have two cameras upstairs and one outside. Someone asks about if there is an outlet outside. Debbie tells them about the green outlet by the porch steps. But when they plug in, they get no juice. Someone on TGC suggests the reason may be the timer that it’s plugged into. While I’m helping them look for another outlet, a passerby stops to ask if everything is all right. One of the TGC members notices a plug-in in the socket for the lamp hanging from the porch ceiling. They unscrew the bulb and plug their equipment into that.
Inside, I watch TGC unpack CCDs and mount them on tripods. They also unpack handheld devices that I don’t recognize, with red laser pointers mounted in the front of the devices. Gary pulls out a couple of L-shaped copper rods, which I guess to be dowsing rods. He shows them to his team members, tells them that he has painted the ends with glow-in-the-dark paint. The team members seem impressed.
They take the rods into the women’s dressing room. When they return, I ask about the rods. Gary explains that they are indeed dowsing rods, and that being copper, they swing in the presence of an electrical field. Unfortunately, the cameras can't see the rods in the dark. Hence, his experiment with painting the ends with glow-in-the-dark paint.
The team moves upstairs. I, Debbie, Sarah, and Sue remain downstairs in the lobby and chat while TGC sets up. Mike Greco arrives around 8:50. At 9, the team returns downstairs to let us know they are ready.
TGC asks me to turn out the vestibule light, which I do. I ask if they want the lobby lights out as well. I’m told that no, the lobby is to remain lit, in case anyone needs to come downstairs to take a break. But they do close the lobby door.
Gary and I are the last to go up. I notice that Chris has a red flashlight, and I comment to Gary about red light and dark adaptation. He grins, and hands me what looks like a pair of binoculars. I look through them, and see the landing quite clearly, albeit in greenish monotone. Gary proudly explains that I am looking through a night vision device.
At the top of the stairs, David points the handheld device at various locations in the auditorium, calling out temperature readings to Chris, who stands next to him. I think to myself, So that’s what those are, thermometers with laser pointers. The numbers range from 66 through 69. But when the laser hits the curtain of one of the windows on the south wall, David calls out ‘‘64,’’ four degrees cooler than the 68s in its immediate vicinity.
I join Mike, Debbie, Sue, and Sarah at the back of the auditorium. They are watching a tiny monitor attached to a CCD pointing towards the stage. We’re supposed to be quiet, so as not to mess up the audio recordings, but people are whispering. Every once in a while, I see a tiny bright spot cross the screen. Debbie whispers to me that there aren’t nearly as many orbs tonight as there were during the first investigation.
I quickly get bored watching the monitor. I hold up my hands to block out the light from the monitor. Its glow still shows through my fingernails, though, and I wonder if I will ever get dark-adapted.
TGC members are moving about, sometimes crossing the stage, sometimes going downstairs, sometimes coming into the auditorium section. Gary approaches us and asks if there are any orbs. Debbie tells him the same thing she told me. Gary says something to the effect that hopefully this time, the orbs will show up on the tape.
The phone rings. Debbie goes into the booth and takes the receiver off the hook. She bangs the receiver repeatedly against the shelf as she untangles the cord. Shortly after she leaves the booth, I hear an irritating ‘‘dee-dee-dee-dee-dee!’’ I wonder whether it will mess up TGC’s audio recordings.
Gary moves through the corner by the thermostat. He repeatedly shouts out, ‘‘That kid is here!’’ The other TGC members gather. He calls for David. David emerges from the backstage area. He sits on the edge of stage left and describes the entity as appearing to be about 28 years of age. I whisper to Sarah that ‘‘kid’’ must be a relative term. I also keep saying, ‘‘Dan!’’ whenever Gary asks David about the entity’s name. Finally, David says, ‘‘I think his name might be Dan, or Danny.’’ I wish to myself that I hadn’t kept calling out the name.
David informs us that the entity is surprised that anyone is aware of him, that he is there all the time and people are totally unware of him. He may have been an usher. I make a mental note to ask Evelyn if we used to have ushers.
David invites the ‘‘ladies’’ to come down and ask the entity questions. Mike and I remain seated as Debbie, Sue, and Sarah move to the thermostat area. Only when Gary asks them if they’d like to ‘‘feel a ghost’’ do I realize that he’s standing there with palm out as though holding something in place.
Mike goes into the booth, finds some folders, brings them out, and uses them to block the light from the monitor.
I finally decide that there’s no reason for the women to be the only ones invited, so I leave my seat and join the others. Gary asks me if I’d like to ‘‘feel a ghost.’’ He instructs me to mimic the way he is holding his hand, but to place my hand above his. I do, but feel nothing at all, and say so. But when I draw my hand back, I feel warmth, and I exclaim ‘‘Oh!’’
Gary and David ask if I feel something solid, as if meeting resistance or ‘‘touching a balloon that isn’t there,’’ but I say, no, I just feel warmth. Gary tells me that the experience is different for every person. David tells me that I seem to be particularly sensitive to energies.
I decide to try with my left hand instead of my right. The left hand perceives cold where my right hand had perceived warmth. Go figure.
Mike is now standing beside me, and he receives the same invitation. When Mike puts his hand in the area, I see a red glow flickering around his fingers, and palm, not touching the fingers, a fluctuating outline resembling static electricity, about a half-inch from touching him all the way around.
I say nothing about what I saw. Mike says nothing about what he felt, if anything. I wonder if he saw the red, too.
David moves his hand through the area, illustrating something he is saying. I see the same red flicker around his fingers as his hand moves in, then the flicker disappears when he draws it out. The effect is very pretty. This time I do say something. David smiles, and explains that what I saw was an aura.
Gary finally lets go of the entity. He shows me his palm, indicates a circular area somewhere between the size of a quarter and half-dollar. He tells me that for him, the feeling is like the sensation on one’s tongue when one touches it to a 9-volt battery. Eventually, this becomes unbearable, and he has to let go.
While we’re talking, something cold brushes gently against my left arm, moving to my left. I mention this. David nods, and says the entity is leaving. I notice for the first time that Chris is seated next to David, and that the other observers have returned to their seats. As we continue talking, the cold brushes up against the back of my leg. I turn to look, but nothing is there. I return to conversing with Chris and David, and again something brushes against me, and again I turn to look.
David tells me that the ‘‘playful’’ entity is on the stage. He fumbles for the name, knowing only that it starts with a ‘‘G.’’ Clearly, he means Gus, but I say nothing.
Chris says she is shivering. David starts taking readings with the handheld thermometer. The air coming out of the vent is 60, but the rest of the auditorium is a consistent 66.
Debbie is going through the south rows in the auditorium. David asks what she is doing. Debbie says she is looking for ‘‘Mrs. H,’’ but that every time she locates a cold spot, it moves away.
David points his laser at the seats. At one point, he says ‘‘Got her!’’ but then the temperature returns to normal. He continues looking for Mrs. H, but without success.
I return to my seat with the other observers. Mike’s folders have been removed, and my companions are once again looking for orbs on the monitor. Every now and then, Chris takes a flash picture with her digital camera. I block the monitor’s light as before, and watch the stage area, especially upstage left, hoping to glimpse Gus’s outline. I think I detect some flickering on the edge of a flat, but not enough that I can be sure that I really saw anything.
The area by the easternmost window on the south wall is much more interesting. A small area about a foot in diameter is noticeably brighter than the immediate vicinity, and very red. I suspect the red comes from the exit sign on the north wall.
I watch upstage left again, but now and then glance over at my red glow. I wonder why that one area of red is so bright when the surrounding red is as faint as I would expect from the exit sign being on the opposite side of the room.
Gary comes to ask us about the orbs. I stand and ask about the bright red glow. No one else has noticed it. My companions move to see what I am talking about. Sue in particular is anxious to see it. She asks Sarah if she sees it. When Sarah replies in the negative, I begin to doubt myself. Gary moves behind my shoulder, and announces that he sees it, too. Sue says ‘‘I wish I could see red.’’
Gary reaims the camera at the window. Debbie announces immediately that there are lots of orbs there. David is moving through the aisle. Gary asks him look at the seat next to the window. David overshoots the row, so we both tell David to step back one row. Again Gary asks him about the seat by the window. David replies matter-of-factly, ‘‘It’s occupied.’’
David’s shadow blocks the red light from the exit sign. The glow is still there, but much fainter, and white now instead of red.
Eventually, Gary and David move on to other things. I rise from my seat and move to the aisle, looking down the row. From this angle, the glow isn’t in the seat, but just in front of it. I move side to side, blocking and unblocking the red light from the exit sign. The glow is there, just much fainter and white when not illuminated by the red.
Gary comes over and asks what I’m seeing. I explain that I’m now convinced that the red isn't part of the glow, it comes from the exit sign. Gary replies that the entity is reflecting the red light. I am intrigued by the idea that a glow can reflect light. Gary tells me that the glow isn’t in the seat, but just in front of it, confirming what I had already noticed.
While we are talking, Chris takes yet another flash picture. During the flash, I no longer see the glow. Instead, I see a shiny ball, approximately six inches in diameter, floating stationary just a few inches above and diagonally towards the stage from the glow’s position. On its surface, I see the reflection of Chris’s flash. As soon as the flash expires, I no longer see the ball. But I do see the glow again.
Whoa, where did that come from? I think to myself.
I tell Gary what I just saw. He nods and says, ‘‘Sometimes the flash actually helps.’’
Gary moves on. I take a seat, and look slowly around the auditorium. Quite a few times, I’m startled by a dark outline in an aisle seat about three rows in front of the booth. But it’s Debbie. I make a mental note to remember that she’s there so I don’t keep spooking myself.
I do detect a faint misty glow in one of the seats adjacent to the wall that separates the auditorium from the stairwell. But it’s not definite enough that I’m certain I’m actually seeing anything.
I see what may be a glow in the seat by the south fire exit. But when I shift position, I realize it's just the lighter color of the door.
I also think I see the back of someone’s head in the aisle seat on the front row, but when I shift, I realize it’s actually a dark spot in my line of sight, on the stage rather than in the seat. I decide that it’s a shadow. But I wonder where the light source would be to cast a shadow there.
It bugs me enough that I finally get out of my seat and go to the stage. It’s not a shadow, it’s a dustpan. Close-up, it looks blue, although in the dim light, who knows what color it really is.
I return to my seat, and continue surveying the auditorium. Soon, I hear one of the thermometers beeping rapidly. TGC members scurry about the stage in the dark. Chris is center stage, holding the thermometer. Gary follows the laser pointer dot backstage. He returns and announces that Chris was picking up one of the electrical outlets.
Sarah and Sue finally leave, and then Mike gets up. I converse with him briefly, telling him about how the dustpan and the fire door faked me out. ‘‘My eyes weren’t deceiving me,’’ I tell him. ‘‘My mind was.’’
Mike leaves. The faint mist by the railing still bugs me, so I move to the aisle for a closer look. I suspect it might be after-image, but it's not present in the row in ahead or behind, and doesn't move when I shift my eyes.
Gary approaches. I tell him what I’m checking, and how I thought at first it might be after-image, but now I’m not so sure.
‘‘You meant that misty figure in the seat?’’ he asks.
‘‘Not a figure. But it is a mist.’’
‘‘I see it too.’’ he says.
By now, Debbie is at my side. She tells me that Mike replaced the phone’s receiver back on its hook.
‘‘Is anyone in the booth now?’’ Gary asks.
Debbie and I reply that no, there isn’t.
‘‘Yes there is,’’ he says. ‘‘Someone just leaned forward behind that window.’’
I look, but don't see anyone in the darkness behind the plexiglass.
TGC calls it a night. We all head downstairs.
While the team is packing up, Chris asks me if I’d like to see a picture of an orb over my head. She brings the camera over to Debbie and me, and indicates me in the background of the picture. There is a light spot diagonally in front of my head, and I think that this might be the orb; but when she zooms in, the spot resolves into one of the conical lampshades over the audience area.
Chris taps her thumb directly above the image of my head in the viewfinder. It is a clear, sharp circular image of what appears to be a large soap bubble.
I make a mental note to be sure to ask Gary for a copy of the picture and get permission to post it to the Guild website. I also look forward to studying the image in detail.
I look at the clock. It is after 11. It doesn’t feel like two hours has passed.
I try to turn on the chandelier in the vestibule, but it doesn’t come on. The Guild’s yellow ladder is nearby, so I climb up and screw the bulbs back in. I ask Gary if they had unscrewed them.
He explained that when I turned out the vestibule lights earlier, it also turned off the outlet that they were using for the outside camera. So they had unscrewed the chandelier bulbs so they could leave the vestibule switch in the on position.
Sometime before 11:30, I lock the door, and we all go home.