Are You Brave Enough?

 

Friday the 13th of the spookiest month of the year is surely a perfect date for ghost hunt. My usual suppliers not having anything available I had to look further afield. Ghost Hunter Tours (GHT) have the tag line Are You Brave Enough? And go all out on the poetic horror in their advertising challenging their guests to “Step into the abyss of terror and confront the restless spirits that haunt the land.”

Having exclusive access to the Medway Council owned 16th century property in High Street, Rochester for 2023, the advert informed me that “the horrors that lie within Eastgate House extend beyond the imagination of even Charles Dickens”. A little research into GHT and their reviews uncovered something that I had not seen before – disgruntled guests.

Reviews are a personal thing and generally if you are happy it will be 4 or 5 stars, which formed the majority of GHT’s Google reviews. However I was surprised to find several 1 star reviews that required closer inspection. One review was that it wasn’t a tour, another that they felt the health and safety briefing was a waste of time and another who accused them of providing false information (this was due to that his supposedly paranormal activity was in fact photographs of bugs and dust). My favourite negative review was a personal swipe at an employee out of frustration that as the customer hadn’t paid in full for a ticket their spot was taken away.

Finding this barrier sufficiently debunked I did have to ask myself the question – does all the hype and spooky language mean a night full of fakery? Only one way to find out… click….book….pay.

Confirmation email received and as the night of Friday 13th rose, I found myself sheltering from the rain in the porch of Eastgate House.

Eastgate House

As the general chat of strangers waiting for the same thing subsided, the front door was opened. On stepping over the threshold and walking through the branded stationary adorning the shop we were directed upstairs where were told to sign in and remember our team number. This shouldn’t have been too difficult a task, as it was either 1 or 2 but after the short, light-hearted safety briefing there were still some who forgot (and some who claimed they knew even though they hadn’t written on the sheet). The key points made in the briefing (aside from don’t hurt yourself) was to join in and what you experience is what you experience our guides would not be faking – as what would be the point in that.

Any concerns that I may have had were gone – it was time to hunt.

The first experiment was a Séance, and as we filed downstairs and into our first room, out came the equipment. The now expected Rem-Pods, K2 Meters and cat balls were deployed with a brief introduction and over view. A Maglite torch was placed on the table in the middle of the room, and by the door a motion activated light that was originally designed to assist men with their nocturnal aim in answering a call of nature. (I am pleased someone else had a similar idea for this additional use as I also have a toilet light in my equipment bag – although maybe obtaining it second hand from a charity shop did rightly attract the piss taking from Mrs J – pun intended.)

Taking the opportunity to introduce the Chattergeist Touch into the mix, I set it up and left it to run in Dictionary Mode, with the intention of a later review to see if any of the words it produced had any correlation to my experience.

As the room went lights out, the group started to call out. Across the room from me a male guest reported that he was feeling cold on his back and arms. Although no mains lighting was on in the room, there was some light from the streetlamps outside coming through the windows, there was also small LED lights from the fire alarm system – as well as the deployed equipment.

Human vision is not the best in low light environments, and my own is not the best in any circumstances hence the requirement for glasses with extra thinned down lenses – as I do not suit the milk bottle look. The human mind – as I have previously looked at – looks to create order out of chaos and will create logical interpretations of shape, light and shadow, which is called pareidolia.

As the report of the cold feeling were being explored; drafts from the windows, cross breeze from the door; area of natural coolness, it appeared to me that a figure was stood behind the slowly freezing man. The figure was taller and a different shape from the person in front and so was unlikely to have been a shadow caused by the affected male. A quick check of the Chattergeist showed several words that blipped to the scanning screen before they could register in my brain.

A change of position of the cold man made no impact on the reports that he was feeling cold to his back and arms – but interestingly the person taking their original position did not have any reports of cooling or of any temperature change at all. Several reports of the feeling of being pushed came from those seated against the wall. With one woman presenting herself in a fully forward position stating she was unable to pull herself back upright.

Outside the Seance Room

I felt a tightening around my wrists, as if rigid bands were secured around them. Not calling it out straight away as I wanted to establish of this was muscular or mental I tried to ignore the sensation. After a few minutes I called it stating that it felt like something was wrapped around my wrists. ‘Like Handcuffs?’ Came the question, I responded ‘Yes, but thicker more like manacles’. The sensation was interesting but has many possible biological reasons before the paranormal could be confirmed. Taking a look at the Chattergeist screen, one word was present – Restraint, leading this encounter to be placed in the very interesting box.

The personal (and uncheckable or verifiable) experiences continued. The report of a child holding the hand of another guest, not wanting to let go, the tugging of another hair and the feeling of something brushing past the face and neck of several others were all presented.

We remained gathered in our circle around the room, as the green LED on the fire detector in the centre of the ceiling began to brighten and dim. Now this could be a result of a power surge or something within the electrical system so I asked out “Spirit, If you are showing what you can do with the light in the ceiling can you light up some of our equipment or copy this?” – I then tapped twice on the table in front of me. As I tapped for the second time the Maglite turned itself on.

The Maglite trick, where a torch with a screw end is set so that a short turn will illuminate the bulb, is one of the more controversial techniques deployed by paranormal investigators. Challenged by Sceptics with arguments of short circuits or heat expansion it is not absolute proof by any stretch of the imagination.

However me tapping the table could have been a cause of making the electrical connection as the light was well illuminated and bright and not the orangey-flickery glow of a barely-on torch. To a chorus of “Well done spirit” the request was made to turn it off, and as if on command the torch went out. In an effort to debunk my interaction as being a cause, I again tapped the table in the same manner and then again – the torch remained off.

The first experiment being over it was time to grab a cup of coffee before splitting up into our teams for the rest of the evenings investigation.

Remembering that I was in group 1 we explored the first floor of Eastgate House. We would be investigating 2 rooms on this floor; a larger space with a big fire place and a table set up for a banquet, and an adjoining wood panelled room with a large glass display cabinet. Setting up some cat balls and K2 Meters in the larger room and deploying a robot in the adjoining room we settled in to get accustomed to the space.  

The robot is a motion activated child’s toy with a sound emulator module. As soon as it was left alone and we started calling out it activated, rolling around the floor and produced what sounded like “I am here.”

With what ever was with us having more interest in the robot than the others gizmos we had in play it was suggested to try an Estes Session. The technique credited to paranormal investigators Connor J Randall, Michelle Tate and Karl Pfeiffer whilst working at the Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado, sees the subject blindfolded and listening to a spirit box through headphone, unable to hear the questions asked and relying on their own hearing to decipher the sounds coming through the box. The original method used a SB7 Spirt Box but tonight we were using a Spirit Box App through a phone.

I fired up the Chattergeist Touch in 8-Ball mode in the larger room as the first sitter put on the blindfold, adorned the headphones and sat down in the adjoining room. As the questions started coming the responses from the sitter and the Chattergiest were corroborating, and were simultaneous. Suddenly the first sitter reported being grabbed and pressure on her head and wanted out, replaced the questions continued until the new sitter reported the same, swap, hair pulled – out.

I found myself handing over the Chattergeist to another member of the team and sitting down in the sitter’s chair. I placed the blind fold on and as soon as the headphones were over my ears I heard “Fuck off! Fuck off! Fuck off!” repeated with urgency and venom. The spirit box scans between either AM or FM radio signals with a fixed sweep rate. The current broadcasting regulation restrict the use of bad language and it is generally accepted that there is a level of manipulation if you are told to do one in the manner that I had been.

Determined to sit the experience out for as long as possible – as I had wanted to experience this technique ever since picking up my first Richard Estep book – I settled in and took the abuse. Words came into my ears and out of my mouth – how they related to the line of questioning by the rest of my team I could not say. I did not experience the pressure in my head, my hair being pulled or any of the other negative experiences of the previous sitters - but the tapping on the headphones was really annoying. It sounded as if fingers were tapping at first on the band of the headphones – tap tap, the same pattern I had used in the séance downstairs. Then across the band – tap tap; the top of the speakers – tap tap; then over both ears at the same time – tap tap.

Feeling that other people had entered the room I thought our time had ended and on lifting the blindfold and looking around – my group were still in the larger room – weird, but could have been something to do with my own sensory deprivation rather than being surrounded by spirits.

Signalling an end to the Estes Session I learned that contact was made with several personalities  -one identified themselves as Peter who was a friend of Charles (Question – Was this Charles Dickens?; Chattergeist – Yes)

Yes

Before a well needed coffee break we conducted a table tipping experiment. Starting in the wooden panelled adjoining room we unfolded the table and placing a finger on it each we asked for some form of movement – we received nothing.

After calling out for a few minutes we cut our losses and set up in the larger room. The result was almost immediate. The sensation of the table vibrating before smoothly and cleanly sliding towards my legs causing me to step back quickly before it came to a complete stop.

Table tipping is subject to the same critique as the use of a spirit board, movement is caused by those with their fingers on the surface. However when we tried to replicate the tables movement it could not be moved without a very obvious force applied by human finger and the smooth motion could not be replicated through direct pressure on the table top as this caused the legs to wobble and the table bounce and judder across the floor.

Feeling quite excited with this result we grabbed a hot drink and prepared to ascend to the attic space for the final experiments of the night.  

Suitably caffeinated my group went upstairs to the attic space. This space was divided into 3 rooms that spanned the width of the building.

In the middle room, set up like a school room, was a cupboard big enough to put a chair and a willing volunteer. The first exiting the room rapidly saying that he wasn’t staying in there any more as he heard banging. The bangs were likely other members of the group as the furthest room had a pathway that led all the way around the cupboard.

Selecting a K2 meter, I took the seat in the cupboard and closed the door. The acoustic qualities within the confined space were interesting and they seemed to both amplify and deaden the sounds from outside in turn. Placing the meter on the floor I asked out for some of the lights to come on and light up the space – receiving no response.

Developing a bit of FOMO I left the cupboard in time for the opening of the Spirit Board. Placing my finger on the planchette we established answers leading to a young boy who, although could not spell his name, signified it began with A and when asked if it was Alfie – the planchette slid to Yes.

A cat ball placed on the floor of the furthest room began illuminating, and exiting the board I pulled out my phone to attempt some video and try out a couple of SLS apps that I had down loaded.

Discovering nothing from the SLS apps – they appeared to track the vertical lines of door and window frames, I focused my attention on the cat ball. As the sitters on the board continued to question Alfie he indicated that he liked playing with the toys when investigators come and so we asked for him to push the ball towards us.

The ball lit up and started to roll towards where I was crouched in the door way.

I volunteered to sit in the furthest room – blindfolded, because why not?

As I sat there I could hear the sitters on the board asking out and identified a possible sister for Alfie – Louisa. As they asked out I heard that the cat ball in front of me had lit up and I suddenly felt the word ‘danger’ and really nauseous. I called out what I felt and this feeling of hostility had been communicated through the board.

We had been introduced to Graham and William – the children were no longer with us.

The sloping floor?

Before we moved to the first room for the final experiments I tried to replicate the rolling of the cat ball I had videoed. I sat facing the door where I had been crouched and recording and expected that on touching the ball it would light up and roll away from me. I touched the ball, which lit up. First hypothesis confirmed. The ball then rolled gathering speed in a straight line to my left before loudly colliding with a piece of furniture. Collecting the ball and trying again resulted in the same direction of movement – to the left.

Therefore movement of cat ball – could be ghost.

Regrouping in the first room alongside a creepy wax work of Charles Dickens we started a human pendulum experiment.

The results of this that we had communication with a male called William who may or may not have done something criminal to harm a child but appeared to be controlled by another male – who did not want to divulge much information – called Graham.

I have experienced the human pendulum previously (see Chill(ingham) Down my Spine) it was interesting to watch again. However the last experiment of the night was one that I had not.

Standing in a circle we joined hands. One of the team called out if any spirit is wanting to communicate then raise the arm of someone here. An arm began to lift in the darkness – now I understand the suggestibility argument but this turned into the most painful experience in my short investigating career.

The gentle movement of arms raising across the circle from me made me concentrate on my own body and thinking of the questions that we had been asking of William and Graham I felt that I was in control of my limbs and was not feeling compelled to move my own arms, my feet were rooted to the floor although my legs were tired from the significant amount of standing that I had been doing throughout the evening.

I heard the request “Are you able to lift more arms or put someone on their knees?” I look around the circle and the raised arms are lowering, wax work Charles Dickens continues to look on and BANG!

The pain in my knees as they hit the hard wooden floor is the first thing I notice. Then the pain in the back of knees as if they have been kicked out and then the pressure on my shoulders as if I am being held there by a significant force. The room goes quiet – I am in a little bit of shock when I hear “Are you ok?”

It feels like I am on the floor for a long time but in reality it is probably a minute at most. Trying to style it out and getting to my feet I offer what I think is a reassuring smile letting my team know that I’m ok.

Maybe I was a little confrontational during the human pendulum, maybe I upset someone or something – all I know is that something put me on my knees and I’m not sure the argument of “it was suggested to put someone on their knees” would lead my body to throw itself down to make a scene.

I reestablished my position in the circle as the questioning continued. The words being spoken not really going in. I notice that my right arm is slowly raising and then stops at a 90 degree angle to my body. My hand is then being forced into a 90 degree bend downwards. I am not the most flexible person as Mrs J will attest to, and the angle my wrist was being held in was both painful and only possible with external pressure being applied – akin to a control and restraint technique.

The team members looked on commenting how unnatural the position of my arm and hand were, and as painful as it was I could not escape from the position.

I was concerned that there was something here that wanted to cause me some form of harm – or at least a show of force – and the circle was closed.

Feeling quite shaken but relieved the rain had stopped as I walked along Rochester High Street – I urged whatever resided at Eastgate House to remain there and telling them in no uncertain terms they had no permission to follow me home.