Investigation of the Woodcarvers Building 10/21

The Eastern Woodland Carvers Club Investigation
Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Time for my reflections on the Nightstalker/WPIRG investigation of the Eastern Woodland Carvers Club on October 21st. You can read the reactions of some of the other investigators at the following links:

JOY ANGELINA CHRIS

It was a dark night, moonless and overcast, with a chill wind blowing out of the south east. The evening started on a few high notes. We had some "ride alongs" making their first venture into the realm of paranormal investigation, Mark and Trish Sullivan, from Elwood, and Fireman Doug (who brought along a thermo-imaging camera for us to play with). We did our best to make them comfortable and explained the basics to them. I then had the pleasure of presenting WPIRG co-founder Jason with an exclusive, one-of-a-kind, special edition of SHADOWS OVER SOMERSET(his prize for winning Insidious Reflections' Shadows Over Cairnwood contest). I gave Joy a belated birthday present and she in turn gifted me her latest collection of dark poetry. I was thrilled. We wrapped up our prelimany discussions and "official" business and then took our leave of the ground floor... ascending to the upper levels where the paranormal activity occurs.

I gave our guests a quick tour of the second and third floors of the Carvers Club.

The second story had housed a doctor's office and surgery, a lawyers office, offices for the Ku Klux Klan, and apartments in the past. This floor now served as overnight guest rooms, storage, and the clubhouse for the Crafty Ladies, a sewing circle made up of local residents.

The third floor was the former IOOF Lodge serving Converse... now used as rough storage (with future plans of turning it into a woodshop), this level has a macabre feel to it, with the large hall and towering windows, long streams of wallpaper hanging like flayed flesh from the ceiling, and the ancient chandeliers looming overhead.

I'll tap dance around what others have blogged about... they have more than adequetely covered their experiences, therefore I'll concentrate on my own experiences...

I felt a presence in the third floor cloak room right from the get go, as they say. It was noticably colder in that room and the air was thick and hard to breathe. I could feel it swarm around me, for lack of a better term.

On the second floor, in the back carving room, I had a similar feeling of dis-ease. Something moving in the shadows. I have been captivated by the piano in that room ever since my sister-in-law and I heard it play sans musician some weeks previous... the feeling I got was that there was a playful spirit about... a playful haunt, michiveous and somewhat mean-spirited.

Later in the evening we split up to meditate in different locations. You've read the others experiences... here is mine:

Sitting in the former physician's waiting room, while unbeknownst to me Joy was being choked by an unseen assailant, I was attempting to astral project. I immediately met with resistence... something was trying to keep me grounded. I felt the layers of the physical realm slowly slipping away, I was in a vortex of psychedelic imagery, then suddenly I was thrust into an alien landscape, a dreamlike realm littered with the ruins of some fallen empire. Off-lit, I sensed a dark presense, malevolent and hungered, somewhere within the ruined cityscape... I was snapped back into my body, somewhat shaken. I went downstairs and out the doors to smoke a cigarette in the misty rain. I recovered slowly.

The rest of the night I was more observer that participant... though I did experience the flirting images of shadowy forms in the corners of my eyes.

All in all, it was one of the more surreal investigations I've undertaken... something, just under the surface, festering... I'm still not confident that I can put a label on the experience.

I'm just thankful that we will have the opportunity for a return visit.

The IOOF and I have unfinished business.