Added April 21, 2003

Midwestern Georgia Ghost Hunt

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Elak Swindell, midwestern Georgia, March 2003, phaota@email.com, and Simeon Sierocki - eops@earthlink.net - E.O.P.S. - Explorers of Paranormal Sites

For those of you that read this and live in the state of Georgia, there are three locations you should definitely check out. Back on March 22 and 23, my partner and I (who have started a ghost hunting group called E.O.P.S. - Explorers of Paranormal Sites) decided to investigate three places of strong spiritual activity for our second official ghost hunt. The first two were around Columbus, Georgia and the third was in Hawkinsville -- around 20 miles southeast of Warner Robbins.

Crybaby Bridge
Our first stop was Crybaby Bridge. It is the last of three car-length bridges going over some streams along the dirt section of Whitesville Road outside Columbus, GA. Historically, it was supposedly the area where three kids were drowned, either accidentally or by their mother. Unfortunately, it is hard to find a time when there isn't parked teens drinking and chatting around the place -- trying to get the crap scared out of them in some way or another. This was one of the those times. Luckily, the three boys that stayed with us for around an hour and half were up to conversing about the legend while we stood on the bridge. While videotaping, spectral orbs were plentiful, crossing my camera's visual path regularly. One or two visibly paused in front of me, danced about in a sort of observation movement, then moved on. I also recorded Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) using my Stereo Electret Microphone 33-1065 by Realistic. It is hard to find now, but perfect for getting stereo sounds with its dual heads. I got ten clear EVPs at the location -- nearly all of them from a very bad tempered woman who clearly did not want us (or anyone) to be there. Almost every EVP I have cleaned up -- I have them on my computer and I can hear this woman saying things like "Get!", "Get going!" and "Get out of here!". She will violently scratch at your microphone too, and I have several excellent examples of this phenomena. Makes you wonder why this spirit is so bent on getting people to leave? It's not like we were doing anything to damage the location or cause her unrest. Though she sounds quite nasty in the EVPs, she never physically manipulated anyone -- just made many vocal threats. Even so, it's still an excellent location to visit for paranormal activity. Just don't go on Friday or Saturday nights. That's when the teenagers hang out. So the place is definitely haunted. But no where close to our next stop.

Click on image to hear the EVP (requires sound) - 76 KB.

As E.O.P.S. member Simeon Sierocki was standing on the bridge with the boys while they talked about ghosts, a mysterious inhale/exhale breath sound is heard. This is followed by one of the boy’s saying, “Get off... the wood right there.” After this, a loud tap on the microphone is heard as a young male’s voice says in an inhale kind of way, “That’s Hildred.” The boy with us says something and then two light taps are heard on the microphone.

Waverly Hall Cemetery
Waverly Hall Cemetery is located in the middle of a small historical town outside Columbus, GA. We got to the location around 11:30 PM and stayed until 4:00 AM. This place is a paranormal hot spot! EVPs are constant, cool winds from surrounding spirits and many cold spots follow you nearly everywhere, and orb activity is amazingly strong. I got 43 fantastic EVPs out of the place from three full audio tapes, which had many more, but they were not clear enough to save. Like Crybaby Bridge, many of the spirits in the cemetery are very rude in that they do not want company -- period. They state this audibly with "Get out!", "Get out of here!", "Get lost!", and many other similar commands. But these people do not make up the majority there. Most of my collected EVPs are of interesting things said to something my partner and I asked or remarked about while walking around the place. Video wise, I got many amazing orbs flying by, coming up to check me out and just going about their business. All are human in height, meaning they are around the heart location in the body.

Click on picture for larger view.

Photo taken by Elak Swindell in the older portion of the Waverly Hall Cemetery in Waverly Hall, Georgia on March 22, 2003 at 12:45 A.M. Camera: Kodak Advantix Preview with 400 speed film.

The two snake-like floating color lines belong to the same spirit. I've seen these forms in other ghost photos and they usually outline a portion of the body. In this case, it could be the back of a woman's head with floating hair coming off it -- that's a guess, though. Either way, the two forms are movement images. The top is first with the bottom second. Odd that the color darkens in the process. It's great to get two energy lines in one photo, but three is even better. The grainy image quality is not normal to the camera or film. This odd occurrence only showed up when spiritual activity was happening in front of the camera. Nearly all the other photos taken were crystal clear.

Click on picture for larger view.

Photo taken by Elak Swindell in the old, back section of Waverly Hall Cemetery on March 23, 2003 at 12:43 A.M. Camera: Kodak Advantix Preview with 400 speed film.

This odd little greenish-blue energy form was something unusual to get on a photo. Out of two rolls of film taken in the location, only four pictures had anything on them. The shape almost looks like a facial profile in a way. I find it highly odd to have only gotten four good ghost photos in the cemetery considering my Sony Nightshot camera filmed tons of orb activity and EVPs were also being recorded constantly.

Click on picture for larger view.

Photo taken by Elak Swindell in the old, back section of Waverly Hall Cemetery on March 23, 2003 at 12:43 A.M. Camera: Kodak Advantix Preview with 400 speed film.

An interesting energy form, looks kind of like an arm (from shoulder joint to hand) with the elbow bend in the appropriate place. The odd green ecto mist and weird V-shaped orange energy form next to it and excellent additions as well. Sorry for the grainy quality, but it wasn't my camera's fault. This only occurred when ghostly activity was happening in front of the device.

There was a bit of pine tree pollen in the air, only seen by the Nightshot IR on my camcorder, but all of the orbs stand out clearly to the pollen. No ectoplasmic mists were seen though -- which was a bummer. On an important note, my partner and I used the EVP recordings in trying to locate a spirit's grave. How, you might ask? By real-time questioning of the ghost and then replaying the tape recording to hear the response. This worked really well, though we still didn't manage to find the grave due to a misunderstanding concerning the spirit's actual name. The ghost, named Kile (nickname) Peterson or O'Toole (not exactly sure on that), kept telling us to "go back" or "look down" or other directions many times while walking around, but we didn't hear these recordings until later while leaving. How did we get his name, you might ask? Through a spirit board (similar to a Ouija board, but quite different in shape, size, color and harmonic balance so as to only call in good spirits) session.

Kile was very talkative and gave us a lot of information. At one point he even tried to use my vocal cords to speak out loud. I did not give him permission to do that though and my body's powerful energy field immediately rejected his presence before he could cause me any harm. Though I knew he wasn't being mean, just trying to communicate through me, his manipulation of my vocal cords caused them to feel very weird -- it caused me to cough violently to clear the problem. I could breath fine though, especially after I paused and took full control again. Kile said he was sorry after the event through the board and I told him not to do that again to anyone without permission. The moving of hands is one thing, but not vocal cords. I didn't even know I had the ability to channel like that though, which is very cool. With practice and kind spirits, it might be quite helpful and interesting.

As noted before, there are many negative minded spirits in Waverly Hall. Not in the sense of being physically violent, just jerks in attitude. During our time there, I didn't feel any bad sensations, just lots of people not wanting conversation. They would rather sulk in their own dimensional realities until the doorway to freedom opened in their minds. Don't get me wrong though, there are plenty of pleasant spirits in the cemetery as well, as I have already said. But the commands to leave by many make for some great EVPs. Except, after awhile of hearing so many state the same thing in different ways, you just want to tell them off for being so rude. You come in friendship and they throw it in your face. Not very nice on their part. Oh well -- can't please all the spirits. At least there were others of with more engaging personalities.

Click on image to hear the EVP (requires sound) - 77 KB.

Elak Swindell asks, “Can you be more specific on the last word you said?” Then a clear female voice replies, “June Patty” with a quieter male voice immediately after “Patty” saying, “Ya’ll get.” This EVP was recorded by Simeon Sierocki during a spirit board session in the cemetery. It isn’t as crystal clear as all the other EVPs due to his microphone acting up.

R.J. Taylor Memorial Hospital
Saturday night (March 23, 2003), my partner Simeon and I revisited the Old R.J. Taylor Memorial Hospital in Hawkinsville, Georgia. It is around 23 miles from Warner Robbins, GA. The structure dates back to 1938 with various additions to it up to the 1960s. The main building is three stories high. Spirit wise, the greatly vandalized hospital is another hot spot for orbs and EVPs, as well as board communications with still present patients in the limbo world. I got some absolutely amazing orb activity up on the third floor of the first building that just blew me away while watching it on the camera. One orb in particular, came down the hallway, went right, then left, stopped in front of me at head height, then turned and went back down the hallway again. And I mean a very bright orb in IR at that! This was just one of the many orbs moving through the corridor at the time. I also got more down in the rear wing of the first floor when we first entered the building. This amount of orb traffic was not around when we did our first investigation of the place in November of 2002.

EVP wise, we got three tapes worth of material (two being my own) with tons of great voices. On our last trip, I recorded seven highly clear EVPs which I have in .wav format. This time, I got 12 to add to the initial seven. One scared the crap out of me when I first heard it in the car going home. We entered a room on the second floor to look at the recent water damage caused by the large amount of rain that had occurred the previous week. On the tape, right as I went into the room, this man literally yells, "GET OUT!! Dipstick!" I'm not just saying, "Get out!", I mean an ear deafening yell that raises the hair on your body when you hear it. This man was definitely someone that did not want company of any caliber. The funniest EVP occurred in a room on the rear wing's first floor. While standing in the dark talking quietly and recording, I mentioned to my partner about ghost lights in houses. That people occasionally see lights moving around within haunted dwellings and attribute it to spirits. What if those lights were just ghost hunters searching the buildings for paranormal activity? This made us laugh, and it also made a woman's ghost in the room giggle audibly on the tape as well. She still had a sense of humor after all these years. I find that wonderful.

One of my goals was to see if I could record some normal hospital ambience while checking the place out. Sure enough, I did. Back on our November trip, I got a clear intercom call that said, "Barry, interior eleven. Raveers called." Then a quiet female voice says, "I knew it." Simeon's wife, Gabby, got this EVP in the main lobby of the second floor that exits out onto the street. In the recent March trip, I recorded another intercom call while walking along the rear wing's first floor after we had just entered the building. In it, you hear the intercom click on, then a woman says, "David to the emergency" and another intercom click. Very cool. Still another was taken in the newer west wing as Simeon and I crossed through a room. A woman asks, "What packet?" Another nurse replies, "Dupont", then you hear a stapler "cachunk" sound. These are just a few of the great EVPs taken in the place.

Anyway, that's all for the adventures of E.O.P.S. in midwestern Georgia. Hope you enjoyed reading about them and will send more when we get a chance to check out more locations. Good ghost hunting to you.

Click on image to hear the EVP (requires sound) - 123 KB.

Elak Swindell says, “It got really cold right there, didn’t it?” Strangely, a man’s voice is then heard saying, “Been a good (click, click) boy,” followed by a short whistle. Gabby Sierocki got this voice after we started walking along the Rear Wing’s third floor hallway next to the nursery room. The two clicks' sound like the doctor is stapling some paper together concerning a baby “boy” patient. The clarity of the EVP is amazing. (From first visit in November 2002)

Click on image to hear the EVP (requires sound) - 125 KB.

Man voice over an intercom calls out, “Barry, Interior Eleven!...Raveers called!” Then a very faint female voice says, “I knew it.” This amazing EVP was recorded while Gabby Sierocki walked around in the hospital’s front lobby area on the second floor. Simeon and Elak were hoping to get some daily ambience sounds of the hospital in action when it was still running, and by this EVP, they most certainly did! The “Raveers” word took a long time to figure out. Eventually it finally became clear. (From first visit in November 2002)