| The Church in New Jersey, Part 3 |
Location- The Church in New Jersey
Date(s)- 11-9-02 into 11-10-02
Times- Started at 8 PM Saturday, Ended at 5 AM Sunday
Those Present- Bob, Patty, Steve, Dan, Dick, Jim and Kenny
Report of Investigation- We arrived and greeted our hosts, who had pizza waiting for us! (Always a nice start) We then went through an equipment check. Kenny then took a few minutes to explain an experiment the team was going to take part in that night. Each member was given a sheet of paper in which there was writing space for 5 areas. The team was going to split into two teams and each would investigate 4 areas predetermined by Kenny. These would be 25 minute sessions with 10 minutes in between for grabbing additional equipment and getting to thier next site. Whenever the members had a "feeling" or "impression," they were to write it down on the sheet of paper…and not discuss it with their teammates. These papers would be collected at the end of a two-hour period and not evaluated until a later date.
Team 1 was Bob, Dan and Dick. Team 2 was Patty, Steve and Jim. Kenny went solo as Team 3 for the two-hour experiment.
Session 1
Team 1- headed for the Finished Basement (the church has 2, the other is not finished). Dick wrote in his report that this basement had a "strange" feeling to it. He made reference to a "colder" and "vacant" feeling. Bob wrote that he got the impression "Am I dying" while here. This came along with a dizzying feeling.
Team 2- headed for the Balcony overlooking the main area of the church. They grabbed some chairs and sat down on the balcony. Due to the extreme amount of dust on the ground they were unable to take any pictures in this room. Steve reported detecting a sweet smell as he got a chair for Patty. Patty also smelled this, thinking it to be a perfume of some sort. Jim was too far away to smell anything. The team checked to make sure that the perfumed smell wasn't coming from any of them. Jim reported feeling as though someone was watching him from the dressing room on the right side. During the recording session, Jim reported that all the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. This lasted for about a minute. After the EVP session was over, Patty reported detecting an odor of something rotten.
Team 3- Kenny was in the rooftops above the main church ceiling, looking for evidence of the fire of 1893. This fire damaged much of the church, almost destroying the entire building. He did find several beams that were charred and still smelled of fire. This gave Kenny a good idea of what area the fire covered.
Session 2
Team 1 hit the Ms. Piggy room. No one on this team actually experienced any activity in this room, although Dick noted on his psych sheet the feeling of sadness. This isn't much by itself, but it ties in with some other details...I'll explain in the Conclussion and Impression area at the end.
Team 2 went to a Trap Door area on the main floor of the church. Kenny quietly watched over them from the Main Balcony. During the Q&A part, Kenny witnessed a gold orb hovering above the team, then float off to the right. A few minutes later, Patty asked a question about showing us a sign, it was then that the sound of something falling and hitting some boards was heard. The noise was not far from where the team was sitting. They got up to take a look when Patty and Jim both saw a figure move pass the doorway up on the Balcony, near where Kenny was sitting (about 10 feet away). They attempted to come up when Kenny stopped them, informing them that he was up there. (Team 2 was not aware of Kenny's presence before this, and he was a good 10 feet from the doorway. Kenny was seated the entire time, thus it could not have been his shadow that Team 2 witnessed). Patty, Steve and Jim sat back down and resumed their Q&A session. When they decided to end the session, Patty said, "This is your last chance". Kenny, who was still up in the Balcony, then heard what sounded like someone taking a step into the doorway located behind him. This is the same doorway in which Team 2 saw the shadow figure. Kenny did not see anyone, nor was there any temperature fluctuations. The session ended and Patty and Kenny headed back to the Safe Room, while Steve and Jim put away the chairs. When Jim looked up to watch Patty and Kenny leave, he saw a girl from the corner of his eye. From what he could see in this quick glance was that she had a white dress on which may or may not have been to the floor. Her hair was straight and brown, and was about the shoulder length. When he realized what he was looking at, the image disappeared. Jim also noted in his report, as well as his experiment sheet, that he felt unwelcome in that area.
Session 3
Team 1 went to the Trap Door area-Nothing was reported from this team in this area.
Team 2 went down to the Finished Basement. At first, it seems as though Patty was not too happy about this place, and didn't want to turn the lights out. Eventually they did and proceeded with a Q&A session. Patty reported that she felt a malicious entity down here and it wanted to hurt her. Also during the session, both Steve and Jim thought that someone was at the door leading into the basement. Since too much noise was filtering in from the street, the team decided to wrap this session up.
Team 3 (Kenny) went to the Ms. Piggy room. While sitting on the couch, I could actually hear someone on the small balcony, pacing back and forth, as if wanting to come in. I got the feeling that it was aware of the motion sensors I had set up at the doorway, and was actually hesitant about entering the room. I also felt as if I should be on guard while in there, though I'm not sure why. During the Q&A session I did, there was a definite feeling of another presence in the room with me, although this one seemed sad and perhaps a little afraid. The session ended and I got up to leave. This is when the others witnessed something through the video. We had a survallance camera set up in the room, broadcasting to a VCR and TV screen in the Safe Room. The tape needs to be reviewed before any conclusions can be made.
Session 4
Team 1 (Bob, Dan and Dick) went to the Balcony area of the Main Church. Bob had noted on his psych sheet the feeling of an old woman sitting in a chair nearby. He also had the feeling that he wanted to run from this area. The other team members felt nothing, nor did any of them observe any activity.
Team 2 (Patty, Steve and Jim) went to the Ms. Piggy Room. The team sat in the center of the room and kept the lights on (The room was under constant survallance and needed the light). Steve began the Q&A session and Patty and Jim reported hearing footsteps outside the room, on the balcony. Patty thought there was someone at the door, as well as in the room with them. Steve had asked a question "Do you want to come in?" He reports the feeling that he should not have asked that. During this session, Jim had extreme emotional experience. He felt an overwhelming flood of emotions that lasted for a few minutes, subsided, then started again.
Team 3 (Kenny) was in the Finished Basement.
This area is being converted into two addition apartments, but as of now,
there is only the framework up for them. There are several rooms that go
off containing paint and other supplies. Kenny started an Q&A session
by the far end of the room, which is the opposite corner from where the door
is. A few minutes into the recording, Kenny saw movement between him and
the doorway. The light was blocked by a large figure. No temperature readings
were noted, so Kenny asked it to come closer. At that moment, there was a
recorded temperature drop of 36 degrees (From 60 to 24) in the area between
Kenny and the doorway. Kenny felt the cold air hit him like a strong breeze,
then was gone. It was at this time he noticed that the tape recorder had
stopped working…the batteries had died (Yes, brand new ones).
Group Session
This was the last session for the experiment, so the papers were collected and put away. We then decided to hit the smaller area of the church. This section has given us the most activity. The difference this this time around was that we were including the Doll Room. This is a kind of private "get away" room for one of the owners. We split up again…T1-Dan and Steve in the Ms. Piggy room, T2-Patty, Dick and Jim on the small balcony outside the Ms. Piggy room, and T3-Bob and Kenny inside the Doll Room.
T1- Nothing unusual happened to this team.
T2- Jim reported hearing the sound of footsteps off to the right of where they were sitting. After the experiences of T3 (See below), the others came inot the Doll Room. At one point, Patty and Jim heard a male voice. Jim heard the word "Stop".
T3- Kenny had to move a life-like baby doll from a chair so he could sit down. We placed a motion sensor outside and shut the door. The doll (with those glass eyes) was place in the corner by the front door. At one point early on, Ken and Bob thought they had heard Patty scream, so they came running out. Nothing was a miss and they were greeted by puzzled looks. Bob and Kenny went back in the Doll Room.
Later on, Bob had noticed a small hole in the floor (about 4 inches wide), and was attempting to see what was below. Kenny wanted to get a look, so he stepped over Bob (it's a very small room) and stood in front of the door, which was closed. Then, it sounded as if something hit the door from the outside. No alarm went off, but it was then that Kenny had noticed that the doll had changed position. It had been placed so the head was looking straight up, now it was looking right at Bob who was on the floor. Kenny moved to the back of the room and Bob went to open the door. The door was locked. Apparently the deadbolt had latched. After trying it a few times, we found that this was the noise we had heard with the door. The dead bolt is an older kind with a knob that would pull back the bolt and a smaller knob that would lock the bolt back in the "unlocked" state. Later on, Bob and Steve checked back and found another doll, which had been on a high shelf, had come to rest on the floor. The doll's head is weighted, so it would need considerable force to change its position. We tested this later, by jumping up and down on the floor and bumping the wall, all in an attempt to cause the doll to move. The tests showed that these actions would not cause the doll to move at all.
Conclusion and Impression;
Kenny- I have, from the very beginning, believed that this place was the home of several entities. This last investigation only strengthens that belief. The results of the experiment showed that several members had the same impressions for certain areas. Interesting, since they did not share any of this information and no one had access to the papers after they were collected. I was looking at three points during this experiment:1-That the members were not feeding off of each other (I saw this…me too), 2- That the members were not unknowingly injecting prior knowledge into what they experienced (I know there was a fire here, I feel hot), and 3- Each member was not playing off natural fears and "Hollywood" areas in which one would "expect" to see a ghost or have an experience (That dark corner next to the doorway looks like something I saw in a movie, I think I see movement there).
The results of this experiment yeilded some interesting results. Although I find them of interest, they are by no means a declaration that we are all psychics, or that we will be relying heavily of these "special" abilities. It is a test of the paranormal...which is what we do. The biggest positive result came from the Ms. Piggy room, in which four of our members actually wrote the word "sad" on thier sheets, something that we have never discussed concerning this room. Another positive result was from the finished basement, in which three members noted the feeling that someone was standing at the doorway into the basement. There were a few others to note, but not "good" enough to post here.
In addition to the new activity, we have two areas that show promise…areas we previously ignored for one reason or another. We probably will never know the identity of the entities residing in this old church, but I will contiue to investigate the wealth of activity it provides us.
Account compiled by reports submitted by Kenny, Steve, Dick
PIRA