Beforehand

Lexi — When I first heard about the paranormal investigation happening at Baker on Saturday night, I knew I had to go. After watching paranormal shows since I was young, I couldn’t believe I finally had the chance to take part in a real ghost investigation. I am a definite believer in the paranormal and supernatural and I always have been (living in a haunted house during your childhood will make you a believer). That being said, I didn’t think anything was actually going to happen on our investigation. Boy, was I wrong.

Jamie — Last Saturday night, Baker University was host to a unique investigation that I was fortunate enough to be a part of. Earthbound Voices Paranormal (EVP) and C.R.E.E.P.Z Ghost Commandos came searching for ghosts around the Baker campus and invited students and staff to join them. The following details my experiences while looking for the paranormal.

My fascination with the paranormal began December of 2010 when I got a rerun of Discovery Channel’s “Ghost Lab.” Albeit the show was low production, but I was enthralled. Since then I have been an avid viewer of paranormal shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Ghost Adventures.”  The chance to go on an investigation like I see on the shows and maybe even have a few of my own experiences was a dream come true, so to say the least, I was pumped for the investigation around campus.

Parmenter Hall

Lexi — We started on the second floor of Parmenter, which was where our “base camp” was located. That’s where everyone met and the two investigative teams gave a brief introduction. We were then split into two groups, half went with Earthbound Voices Paranormal or EVP, and half with C.R.E.E.P.Z. Ghost Commando. I was part of the C.R.E.E.P.Z. team whose leaders were Alec and Adam Tillery.

The EVP team went to the Old Castle Museum first, while we went to the top of Parmenter, where the art studio is located. I had only been in this room once before when I was working on homework with some friends. The team chose this room because people have said that weird things happen here, for example, things will fall over or drop to the floor with no explanation.

Alec immediately started filming that area and I snapped a couple photos. After sweeping the area around the easel, but finding nothing, we decided to check and make sure that we hadn’t knocked it down somehow. We tried jumping and walking by it, but the only way it would move is if someone were to push it. This baffled us since none of us were even near the easel when it happened, we were all sitting down.

Excited and spooked, we decided to try out the Spirit Box, which uses radio channels to allow spirits to communicate with us, to see if anything would come through. We didn’t get much, just a few words here and there, but it was mainly static.

During this time, though, I felt like someone was watching me from the other side of the room. I kept turning around to look behind me and eventually became so uncomfortable that I moved up a row so that I could watch the back of the room. The atmosphere felt heavy and slightly menacing. We stayed in the studio for about an hour, but nothing more really happened except the persistent feeling of someone watching from the back of the room.

I hadn’t thought anything would happen, yet already an easel fell over with no explanation. With this great beginning, I couldn’t wait to see what would happen at Old Castle because that place seemed really creepy.

Jamie — The investigation started at 6 p.m. in the Darby Hope Theater in Parmenter Hall. There we met the other students, staff and the professionals who would be walking us around. My initial reaction was excitement. Here was all the equipment the TV shows use, and I can see it in action. However, my excitement quickly died down as EVP and C.R.E.E.P.Z started an hour-long presentation going over their organizations, the equipment and their credibility in the field. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s fascinating stuff. However, it’s the same information I received the week prior when interviewing the crews for the Baker Orange. All that stood between me and my dream of doing a paranormal investigation was a lecture. It’s a good thing college has taught me to sit through lectures.

The hour-long talk finally ended, and we were ready to get down to business. The group split into two, with half of the people going with Jim and Tami Beth from EVP to the Old Castle Museum. The other half, my group, went with Adam and Alec Tillery, brothers who are two of the three members of C.R.E.E.P.Z. We headed to the loft of Parmenter which acts as an art classroom. That room is creepy. I had heard some stories of things flying off tables from some art students, but I didn’t think I would ever get to experience anything like that.

I was wrong. Not five minutes into us entering the room something happened. We were all surrounding these tables near the middle of the class facing towards the wall listening to Alec talk about what to expect. I was sitting down, as was everyone else when I heard something against the tile floor. I dismissed it and a few seconds later an easel came crashing down. Now, I do know that skeptics exist, and my first thought was “did that just happen?” But, after we scanned the area, I suggested we attempt to debunk it. I jumped right in front of the easel, repeatedly, and it failed to move at all. Alec pushed it a few times and that didn’t bring it crashing down. So, my thought is, if a person couldn’t move it then wind wouldn’t be able to move it. I must assume it was paranormal activity. And, just for the record, there were no windows open, the doors into the room was closed and the easel is not near an air vent.

Some other creepy stuff happened in that room as well. For a majority of our time in the loft, I was holding an Ovilus device. It’s something that spirits can talk through by manipulating their energy to say words. I had accidentally run into a table because it was dark, and I couldn’t see. I moved it a bit and not two seconds after I ran into that table the device says a word. Shove. I was spooked. It was such a connection and that was crazy to me.

Old Castle Museum

Lexi — I had never been in the museum building before, but it looked pretty creepy from the outside. We started on the first floor by asking questions and using the Spirit Box again.

We asked questions about who used to live in the building and got a voice come over the Spirit Box whenever we mentioned “President Dennis.” We also put the K2 Meter on his desk and it would flux from yellow to orange, meaning there was electromagnetic energy near.

It didn’t start to get crazy, though, until we went up to the second floor. As soon as you walked in the door the energy of the room felt different from downstairs. It was much heavier.

We went to the other side of the room and sat down in a circle. Alec got out the REM pod and set it in the middle of the group. This device would light up and make a beeping sound whenever something got close to the antennae. He set it far enough away from us that we wouldn’t set it off by accidentally moving.

Alec began by asking if there was anyone here with us, after which a green light lit up and the device beeped. I was pretty spooked because I didn’t think this thing would actually work, yet no one had moved so it definitely wasn’t us making it go off.

The group then took turns asking things, like if the spirit was male or female (no answer since we later found out that there were multiple spirits present), if they went to the school or to the church here (yes). We kept asking questions and the light would go off and beep in response.

As we were sitting there, they started asking questions about being lonely and a strong wave of sadness suddenly washed over me, making me tear up. I couldn’t even hold the tears back; the sadness was that strong. Alec asked if I was okay and I said yes. I told them that a really strong sense of sadness had just overwhelmed me when they asked about the spirit being lonely.

This took me by surprise since I had been feeling fine just a few seconds beforehand. They continued asking questions and Adam brought out the voice recorder to try an EVP session.

The questioning turned to the fires that have happened on campus, specifically with the fraternities, and one member of the group asked if the spirits had lost someone in the fire and if they missed them. The device went crazy and the green light lit up and started beeping continuously.

This part is fuzzy to me, though, because as soon as the green light went off I was consumed by sadness again and I burst out crying. I couldn’t even control it. It was such complete and utter sorrow, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Think of the saddest thing to ever happen in your life, multiply it by 10 and that’s what it felt like. I couldn’t stop crying for almost 15 minutes. Later, I would try and reason this out, but I wasn’t the only one who had felt the sadness in those moments.

After a bit, the sadness started to ebb away and I could at least contain my tears. At this point, I realized I wasn’t scared anymore. I could feel that these spirits didn’t mean us any harm, that they were just sad and alone. I felt sorry for them more than anything. We left soon after and once I stepped outside the building, I felt much better.

We went to Pullium next, but it was relatively quiet after our experiences in the Old Castle Museum. We also went back to the art studio in the top of Parmenter and heard a few unexplainable noises, but nothing major happened again. This investigation was definitely one of the coolest and creepiest experiences I’ve ever had. Oh, and Baker is definitely haunted so that’s fun.

Jamie — The loft was not the only place we investigated. After we wrapped up in the loft, my group headed over to the Old Castle Museum and that is where things got very real. We used the SB-7 sprit box, which is another device that spirits can talk through and the intelligent responses from spirits we were getting were staggering. We believe we may have contacted one of the past presidents of the university. However, this was just on the first floor. The second floor was incredible.

We all sat in a circle with a REM pod in the middle. A REM pod is a device that detects electromagnetic energy, the thing spirits are believed to be made from. The way it works is by emitting a sound and lighting up when electromagnetic energy is by it. When we began asking questions the device, which had been silent in the building up to that point, began to go crazy. The spirit, from what I could gather, was very sad and experienced trauma during its life. It was intense. My hand felt ice cold during the whole event and the temperature in the room changed two degrees in a matter of minutes, corresponding with any activity happening.

Besides, Old Castle and Parmenter, we all looked at Pulliam Hall, the home of the mass media department. It’s also where I have class all the time. So, now I’m a little scared to go in there. But, I’m not going to drop out because of some ghost, no, I’m probably going to drop out because of the amount of debt I’m in. That’s what’s going to take me down.

Anyway, Pulliam had some cool responses with the REM Pod and a device called the Paranormal Periscope, which acts in a similar fashion as the REM Pod. I believe that the spirits residing in Pulliam are mainly residual and not intelligent given the responses we received. Now, does this make me less freaked out? No. I will steadfastly refuse to enter that building alone now. I would only enter it alone if I was on another paranormal investigation and I was chosen as the sacrificial lamb.

Overall, the experience has made me a believer that Baker University is in the presence of dead people. And I don’t mean the hangover everyone seems to have on Sunday. I look forward to my next adventure in the paranormal and hope EVP and C.R.E.E.P.Z come back soon because I am certainly ready for more.