A Hoosier Haunting

The Elwood Opera House in north/central Indiana is by far the single most spectacularly haunted site I have ever had the pleasure to stalk. As a guest of the Wabash Paranormal Investigation and Research Group, I embarked on a night that, by the time it was over, would have me as giddy as a school boy on Christmas Morning. It was a treasure trove of paranormal activity. The type of location that an investigator dreams of.

Entering off of main street, we climbed a stair directly to the second floor, and I immediately felt not a singular presence but a whole host of preternatural entities.

The floor had been home to a Masonic Lodge from 1908 to 1999, and entering the Blue Room (pics 2 and 3), I was taken aback by the energies I felt. The Blue Room, now operating as a dining hall, had been the ritual chamber of the Masons (2). A vaulted ceiling 40 feet high loomed overhead, half-lit by blue mood lighting. To the east was a raised stage flanked by two pillars, the Boaz and Joachim pillars of Masonic lore. To the west, a double staircase that merged into one, rising to an overhead balcony (3).

The strongest presence in the room was coming from the south east corner of the room where a door awaited (1). I crossed the room and as I neared the door, it unlatched and swung inward of its own accord. It was then I knew the game was afoot.

Jason and the W.P.I.R.G. crew busied themselves setting up an impressive array of scientific equipment. Several cameras, motion detectors, evp monitors, and the like. Author Joy Harber, her daughter Shelby, and I set out investigating the building. Joy was armed with a pendulum, which she was quite proficient with, and I with a portable electo magnetic field detector.

Several hotspots were recorded. The men's room. Several locations throughout the Blue Room. Hallways pulsed with activity. Several individuals caught the phantom smell of roses... and on two occasions, orb manifestations were clearly visible to a couple of lucky investigators.

Digital cameras came away with an impressive array of photographs depicting orb and ectoplasmic manifestations (3).

For me, the high point was the back stair (4). The caretaker of the building asked me to check it out without giving me any information. I opened the door and stepped into the dank stairwell and immediately felt ill at ease. Descending the stair I became more and more agitated. I began to sweat and the hair on my arms and neck were standing on end. when I reached the halfway point on the stair it hit me, a cold chill and a relization that I was standing ontop of the spot where someone had died a very violent death.

I returned to the top of the stairs and the caretaker asked if I had sensed anything and I told him of my physical reactions. He said he believed someone had fallen to their death on those stairs. Immediately I replied, "No, they were pushed." I couldn't shake that feeling.

I returned to the spot with an EMF detector and got a reading on 6.8.

Jason and his band of paranormal investigators collected a huge amount of data that night and they are busy pouring over it even now as you read this. I look forward to hearing their report from the scientific side of things...

It was a special night, filled with much wonder and a hell of a lot of skincrawling.

I can hardly wait to make another visit.

My thanks to Jason and the whole W.P.I.R.G. crew for making me feel so welcome. They are really on top of things and I look forward to joining them on many more adventures.

About the pictures:

the picture with the numbers 1 & 2 on it is a picture of the Masonic Ritual Room as it appeared just after the turn of the century.

The other two pics were taken by my digital camera.