November 19, 2010

Undisclosed Location

     RISEUP received a phone call from the curator/owner of a racing museum who made some very revealing claims regarding paranormal activity inside the building. The museum is a non-profit entity that relies on donations to meet its financial obligations and ensure its doors stay open to the public.

     While neither feels particularly threatened, what they have experienced nonetheless creates an uneasy feeling and has resulted in more questions than they have answers for. We agreed to meet at the museum to document and gather data that would either support or refute the claims of activity.

     It was agreed upon beforehand that the physical address and name of the museum would be withheld from the public.  

Temperature: 36 degrees (outdoors)

                    41 degrees (indoors)

Weather: Clear and cold

RISEUP Investigators Present:  Ken DeCosta

                                            Chris Blanchette

                                            Tom Stewart

                                            Julie DeMay

                                            Marlaina Gaborault 

Geographic and Historical Data

     The building itself dates back to 1900 and had a multitude of uses over its lifespan. It began as a factory and warehouse for a flour distributing company and eventually was sold to a private individual for storage purposes. The current owner purchased it in 2003 after it had sat empty since 1977. He received a great deal of support from the racing community as well as some fellow enthusiasts who greatly wanted the venture to succeed.

     It is located in an urban neighborhood and has started to show the signs of age. The owner and his partner - avid auto racing fans - have accumulated, acquired or had donated a vast amount of memorabilia related to the local racing scene. The building contains eight rooms in all; offices, a library, a gift shop, various display rooms and most interestingly, an entire room of vintage race cars (below).

     Upon assuming new ownership, the building underwent some extensive renovations which are ongoing, but much more sporadic today. 

Activity

      The owner and others have heard the front door (below) open and close by itself. Upon checking, the door is locked just as it was when they left it. Only three people have keys and in one case, two were inside and the other away for the night when they heard it open and someone walk in.

     In the Rhode Island Room (below), footsteps are heard and a presence felt.

     His son has been playing on the racing simulator in the library (below) and experienced an overwhelming sensation of being watched on more than one occasion. On a couple of occasions, the sensations were so overwhelming, he left the building.

     The owner states he had an aunt who was a sensitive and believes he may have those same types of abilities. He has heard his name called, by his nickname that only someone who knows him would use. No one there upon checking. This was heard outside the second floor sorting room. The voice was so clear, he responded to it by saying “I’m in here!” 

     On numerous occasions, he and others have heard shouting from the first floor while they were busy upstairs. There have also been the sounds of footsteps on the first floor heard from both the basement and the second floor.   

     There is a door on the first floor leading to the vehicle display room that quite often opens by itself, both while someone is inside the building and during times when they are gone. They will enter to see it open time and time again. The owner put a piece of cardboard between the door and the frame, so the door only could open with some force behind it. It did not solve the problem. The door still opens and he finds the piece of cardboard lying there on the floor. He feels it is not wind because he and his son shut the door and did a couple of tests, and nothing opened that door except for their own physical force. It would take a significant gust of wind for the door to open after putting the cardboard in the door jamb.

     A racing jacket hanging from ceiling on 2nd floor (below) has turned completely around and come to a stop as if being inspected.  This was witnessed by the owner personally, who steadfastly maintains that neither wind nor human manipulation is repsonsible.

Orientation

     The investigators arrived at 7 pm promptly and were introduced to the owner and his son who stayed late in anticipation of their arrival. They were treated to a walkthrough of all three floors of the museum and a rundown of all claims of paranormal activity.

     The owner was kind enough to leave an electric heater with us as the temperature had fallen sharply and the building had no heating system beyond that.

     Shortly after our initial walk-through, he told us a woman named "Beth", whom he has known for a period of years, related to him that she was sensitive to such things after he told her we were coming in to investigate. She told him she would not be coming that night as she tries very hard to block out these feelings she often has. This revelation surprised him as he wasn’t aware of any gift she might have as she had never said anything to him like this before in all the years they’ve known each other. She further described an incident where she was upstairs one night in the library and looked to see a man standing in a corner. She didn’t go into any detail about the man and appeared truly shaken by it, which precluded him from asking about it or delving into it any further. He describes her as someone he truly trusts.

     Their pet cat has been known to bolt upright on 2nd floor sofa and stare into the empty doorway to the video room. It then begins sniffing the air around it. It has walked into library and stared off at nothing and one day, completely disappeared from sight and could not be found. Later the cat was finally found cowering under a table, reacting very aggressively and refusing to move.

The Investigation

     While Chris and Tom were in the upstairs lounge, the K-II meter was lighting up a solid orange for quite some time for no known reason. At the same time Chris felt as though something was standing next to him, and touching his hair.

     As he was about to say that sensation had stopped he noticed the K-II meter stopped as well. We were also using his laptop screen keyboard as an experiment throughout the investigation. Seeing as how it is static electricity that causes the touch screen to function we tried to see if something would type a message. The only minor success we had was a ‘period’ showing up on the screen. No idea why that button of all buttons would have been touched. Certainly not anything we can say is paranormal, but it was unusual.  

     While in the room on the opposite side of the basement from the workbench area, Chris and Tom were getting strange K-II spikes (to orange) in the middle of the room. They could not trace the source. It seemed to be about knee height and possibly associated with a metal dolly in the room - strange.  While in that room theye also heard a loud bang come from a far corner. It was almost as if someone or something had bumped into something metallic. It was not one of us, but it did not repeat or display any sign of intelligence.

     Ken, Marlaina and Julie were on the second floor when Ken said he clearly saw a black mass move from the lounge area into the library. When reviewing the video, it was at this point we saw the jacket begin to spin exactly as had been described by the owner.  

     In the spirit of full disclosure, this jacket is suspended from a regular wire hanger. We're certain the hook (which cannot be seen as it protrudes out above the ceiling into the attic space) cannot be manipulated by air flow from normal cross breezes. What we do have to bear in mind however is convection, or the discrepancy of air temperatures between two rooms. We know from observation that this can stimulate dust particles to move at a higher rate of speed when they enter a specific area. We will acknowledge the client's assertion that this does not happen on any type of regular basis (and, in fact, prior to tonight has only been witnessed once) and that we were the only ones beyond him to observe this. We just cannot bring ourselves, despite the oddity of it and the presence of a dark mass seen just before it moved, to declare with a solid degree of certainty that it was the result of spirit intervention.

CONCLUSION

     Based on our findings, we believe that there is a level of activity here, but there are many claims that can be attributed to very natural causes. We did not experience any disembodied voices of the nature the owner has. There are also some external sounds from normal neighborhood traffic that may be misconstrued as something less than natural.

     The sounds of footsteps was a bit perplexing to us and somewhat unnerving, but nonetheless validates those claims to a large extent. The satin jacket that hangs in the lounge remains a mystery to us. We remain convinced that no breezes contributed to the motion and it is well-anchored to the ceiling.

     A return to the museum is being arranged and perhaps we can add to our data to reach a more solid conclusion.