At times the GHOULI team hosts paranormal investigations that are open to the public. We have designed a psychological testing system we have titled as "Cognitive Trials." We have successfully completed three of these types of investigations and we will be posting data up soon. Now that our website is getting intact we are motivated to post our recent findings. We are sharing the below story just to give you a sense as to what it's like to participate in our of our investigations. Some people have a very paranormal experience while others do not. Regardless, every participant has a memorable evening and learn hands on what paranormal investigating is about. The GHOULI team does not make you sit through a speech, we get right into it and start investigating while offering hands on advice. Sometimes the best ghost hunters are not ghost hunters at all! If you would like to submit your adventure of participating in one of our trials, please shoot us an email today. tonya@ghouli.org
-Team GHOULI
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There we stood, at the dark heart of a
block of rooms that hadn't been occupied regularly in more than half a
century, listening once more for the sound.
Shhhh! someone from the group implored.
There it was again, a muffled
but nonetheless identifiable voice emanating from behind us. It was
saying something, certainly. But what?
I had traveled once more west of
Oklahoma City to the town of El Reno. I would be participating for the
second time in a cognitive trial conducted by local paranormal
investigation team, GHOULI. This trial, which consisted of a blind
experiment requiring participants to note their impressions as they
explored a large historic structure, was the smallest of the four held
this fall. In retrospect, this may explain why the night was so
eventful.
There were only about 15
participants, so we broke up into three small groups. I led four myself
through the old opera house-turned-antique store-turned abandoned
building. In the silence and the dark, the attendees opened themselves
up to their surroundings and diligently noted their impressions as they
explored the accumulated detritus of a century of occupancy.
In time, we made our way to the
third floor, where a series of room blocks once served as a boarding
house to weary travelers on Route 66 and bootleggers fleeing the law.
We began by just exploring and
then worked on coaxing any spirits present to speak so that the various
recorders present might have the chance to pick up some phantom words.
It wasn't long before we sensed a change in the air as something
electric filled the spaces around us. Then the strange occurrences
began: footsteps, odd noises, a brush with something unseen in the dark.
A voice.
It was soft at first. Someone
called for quiet and we all went dead still. We turned off our lights to
focus our senses, straining to hear the sound once more.
There it was again! What was that? It was unmistakably the sound of a man talking, but his words seemed indistinct.
The only speck of illumination
within the dark chamber came from the tiny LED on the digital recorder.
"Can you tell us your name?" Silence. "Is this your home?" More silence.
This was to be expected. Later, when the recording is analyzed, the
investigators hope to identify the inaudible responses on the audio
file. Known as electronic voice phenomenon, this is how many ghost
hunters have learned to communicate with these unseen entities.
But what about that voice we
just heard at least twice? I checked for myself: no one else was in that
block of rooms or even on that floor. I could account for everyone's
whereabouts. The next nearest team of investigators was two floors below
and I couldn't even hear their voices until I walked down another floor
and crossed over to the other side of the building. No forced air vents
were ever installed on our floor, so sound couldn't have traveled from
them to us in that fashion. No noises penetrated from outside the thick
masonry walls. Even if they could, it was nearly midnight in a largely
unoccupied historic center of a sleepy town west of Oklahoma City.
No. Even to this skeptic, there was no mistaking that this voice was very close to us - in the room with us.
I'm keeping my exuberance in
check. Maybe the voice we heard, muffled as it was, had simply been the
distorted echo of someone further down in the building that had managed,
through means unknown, to travel upward through the heavily insulated
building to manifest mere feet from where we stood. Yet, coming so close
on the heels of my encounter at the Overholser Mansion, I can't help
but think I had again bore witness to the paranormal. I can only wait
eagerly for the EVP analyses from the various recorders present, hoping
they will hold the answers I can't yet seem to find. Strange State- Cullan Hudson
