Bartonville Asylum (aka Peoria State Hospital), the location. Around 10 or so degrees, the temperature. Ghost hunting, the mission. Wandering around in the dark, the truth.
After going to the incorrect meeting place, though we were not given the meeting place location to be honest, and getting pulled over by "the man" for basically not knowing where we could park the flipping car, we eventually made our way to the Bowen building. Once inside we went to the "warm room" where one could currently see one's breath. There we were given some direction as to how the night would progress. We would hit a couple of floors then come back to warm up. Hit the basement, warm up. Hit the attic, warm up. Wander around on our own and tah-dah.
The information we got before we even arrived was not to particular. Vague enough actually, that we didn't bring any flashlights. I expected them to be provided so we wouldn't trip or fall into an open elevator shaft. But, they were up for sale when we got there. I decided I'd like to avoid death so I shelled out the $3 for a flashlight with batteries. That's my mittened hand in the left hand side of the picture holding my ghosty flashlight so Randi and Jinn can try and figure out what button to push to turn on their cameras and the voice recorder. (On a side note, Randi is wearing the scarf that is my scarf's twin.)
During the discussion over the rules, we were told about "protection." Now, I've seen enough of these shows to know that usually someone says a prayer and asks that everyone in the group be protected from negative spirits, etc. Groovy. A relatively big deal was made of this. Did we do this before going inside. Erm...no. I covered my own ass but muttering a quick run though of the Lord's Prayer as we entered.
Jinn made it through the first couple of floors. Randi got about half way through the basement before she'd had enough pain in her freezing toes. I got through the whole building, but left when we could go out on our own because my investigative partners where in a running car staying warm. We can return in the spring for free. Since we (all 15 or so of us) were kind enough to not ask for refunds and tried to enjoy ourselves, the people running the thing are giving everyone the option of coming back when it will be nicer. I'll be there.
Here are some highlights from the evening:
I think several members of the group were going to see something if it was there or not. There were several times when people were exclaiming that they were seeing Shadow People and orbs and all I saw was either 90% darkness or just flat out pitch black.
There was a tall, bald dude that I was ready to whack with something. He was the Shecky Green (sp?) of the group. He was also the "I need to comment on almost everything" person of the group. Apparently he's a local DJ. Should have known.
A woman who runs a locally centered paranormal website got into a heated discussion about orbs that were in some pictures she took. She thought they were legitimate orbs, but the lead investigator didn't think so; he thought they were dust. She was so horked off she stayed in the warm room while the rest of us went up to the attic.
On the whole, I didn't feel any sort of heaviness or discomfort as we made our way through the building. I wasn't nervous or scared. I kept my eyes open and did my best with my ears (I had them partially covered because of the cold), but I never did hear any of the moaning, voices or footsteps that other people claimed to have heard.
Only a couple of things stood out that I can't quite explain. We were told before we went down there that the basement was a place of major activity and apparently there is a negative spirit who likes to hang out there. At one point, we were told to go dark, which basically meant no flashlights were to be on. It was so dark down there I couldn't see anything but black around me. Someone could have had their hand right in front of me and I wouldn't have known it.
We were all along the walls of a hallway during this time. One of the guides said someone was pulling on his jacket and trying to un-velcro his pockets of the jacket. You could hear that little sort of ripping sound, but who knows what was actually happening. While standing there, a teenager near me said it felt like someone was standing behind her. She was in a doorway that lead to one of the rooms that went off the hall. Randi was next to her and in front of me. Not too long after the girl said she felt someone near by my face and front portion of my upper body went really, really, really cold. Now, it was cold down there. Enough so that I had my ears covered, my hood from my sweatshirt was pulled up over my head, my mittens were on and I was wearing long johns under my jeans. Still, I could feel a definite change in temperature. It struck me as odd, but I didn't think too much about it. I don't remember there being any sort of breeze. Later, when we were driving home and recounting different bits I was talking about only the front of me getting crazy cold for about 30 sec. to a minute. Randi then says her backside went really crazy cold around the same time for about the same amount of time. In the ghost hunting shows, the claim is that one way you know a ghost is around is you come across a cold spot you can't explain. Could the thing that was behind the girl have moved between me and Randi? Or was it just winter and a bit of a breeze brought some more of the outside air in to where we were? Beats me.
The second thing that happened involved staring down a pitch black hallway. I was so unsure if anyone was standing in front of me I was actually leaning to one side to peer around a possible person. At what was presumably the end of the hall, you could see a bluish white light that seemed to fade in and out. Now, baldy behind me got very excited at one point. He made it sound like he was seeing light shooting off of the other light. Me, not so much. I saw the light. It did seem to fade in and out and it also seemed to move from one side of the hall to the other. When we clicked on the flashlights, three of us chicks went to the end of the hall to see if there was a light source down there. One of the rooms did have some windows to let in the light, but I'm not sure we would have been able to see that small square of light being generated by the window down the hall where we were. Still, I can't say that the light wasn't created by the window either. Just a little weird. Weird enough that I'd like to go back. I took some pictures but didn't catch anything other than us trying to figure out our electronics. Maybe next time.
Spamalot review coming soon. Nighty night.
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