Waverly Hills Sanitorium May 2010 Part 4

The classes back at the hotel were great! I always enjoy them and some, even if I have seen them beofre, like Dave's basic ghost hunting 101 type of class, I still laugh so hard as he is a very witty man! I hope to showcase a few different people and groups that I have met and shining a light on some of the more interesting aspects of them that I have learned from various events.

As I had the second night of ghost hunting, I got to hear from the first group of some of their experiences and hearing of it all, I always seem to want to kick myself for not having chosen that particular night or, to have the money to go twice!

The only bad thing about these events however, is the number of people who attend.  Again, what I had learned from the first time out at the Stanley Hotel, is that a lot of recordings for EVPs you have to toss out because you just can't be sure of the contamination from other outside influences or inside with the other people. You do get split up into smaller groups of say 20-25 people from the 100 or so that start off with for the night and then sometimes your 20 will get halved again from there, sometimes not. It can be frustrating but the main thing you are doing during these trips is getting to observe how the other people ghost hunt and what their favorite equipment is, how they use it and how they prefer to go about a paranormal investigation. You can learn a great deal that way if you keep it in mind and take it back for your own investigations.

The first group reported rocks being thrown at them and various other things, EVPs here or there, shadow people. You were moved from floor to floor every 60 minutes and got to work with a different set of people each time. For me, I started on the 2nd floor and went up then down in the building. Zak and Aaron were there on the 2nd floor  and it was the first time that I was able to ghost hunt with them. Aaron went out to the balcony with another person as Zak and the rest of us walked down the hallway. He had everyone hold tight and stay back as he went further down the hall alone and away from us. I didn't hang back with the others, but instead, followed him with a bit of a distance away. While walking down the hall, I saw a white figure or shadow flit across the hall from left to right just in front of Zak and I. It was very wild!

Zak asked questions and it seemed we picked up on a woman. He was able to get an EVP as he quickly played it back many times for everyone to hear. He was having a hard time hearing it himself at first but after several tries, he was able to catch it. I did not pick up anything on my recorder but I picked up as I have picked up a new headset recently, I'll be going back to listen again to be sure.

Waverly Hills Sanitorium May 2010 Part 3

Getting my badge, I overheard a lady talk about having purchased TWO event tickets? WOW?! Really? Why?
Well, so she could go ghost hunting BOTH nights! WOW! Now that is a great idea! Expensive, but great!


During most of these paranormal events, there are auctions for charity. Sometimes, the money goes to the Shriners, Animal Shelter or to a local charity and sometimes even a portion to the site itself to help them with renovations or to make the place more safe for us paranormal investigators! :) Items that are auctioned off are clothing from the Ghost Adventure guys, sometimes allowing you to take it right off their bodies which this drives many women crazy!! LOL
Also, there are private ghost hunts auctioned off with the celebrities. A private ghost hunt will normally take place just after the general ghost hunt is over with, normally at 2 am and then the private hunts will run for 2 more hours afterwards. Of course many women it seems who show up for these events are more so fans of the show or the guys and they are all googly-eyed over Zak, Nick, and Aaron. Can't blame them as they are a nice looking set of men!
The auction was held in a building just outside the main Waverly building. You can see it here off to the left in this pic:

Beyond this red roofed area, you can see the building just beyond to the left and that is where the gift shop sells souvenirs and some great t-shirts like this one I picked up:

I've been getting these in the largest sizes I can when I attend the events and that allows for shrinkage! ;) And I use them to work out in.

Waverly Hills Sanitorium May 2010, Part 2 The Automatic Faucet

I arrived a bit later for registration and the line was really super long! The main bathroom would quickly have lines outside it and so I had found a more private one off the pool side that was just for one person. So while all went to the large one, I would duck back down the hallway towards the pool and go there.
Now something interesting about that particular bathroom and why I am mentioning it here. A funny story happened!

This bathroom had one of those automated faucets that was sensitive to light and motion. I had already noticed that and of course, didn't think twice more about it. Who would, right? Well there I am, standing in line and waiting to register for the event and get my badge, talking to people in front of me and behind me. Aaron Goodwin from Ghost Adventures came up to the lady in front of me and struck up a conversation as I kinda hung in there too. He was very pleasant, jovial and down to earth, very friendly! He made us laugh and then went on down the line to greet other people. now there was a lady behind me from CA who was really super excited about this event! It was her first one and she could hardly wait! She had not purchased the full event ghost hunt ticket however, just the meet and greet portion and that would include the lectures, so it was more of a half ticket. She needed to go to the bathroom so I told her about my private find and sent her off, holding her spot in line for her.

When she came back, she was bursting! She told me, "Hey Dude! It's happening already!!" I was like what is? She goes on to tell me that the bathroom is haunted! She said when she walked in, the faucet turned on all by itself! I was like really? Wow! I then got to thinking, not wanting to burst her bubble, but I asked her, is it an automatic faucet? She was like no, she didn't think so! But wow! she goes on to say, how exciting that things are happening already and we haven't even started! I was like, yea, wow! But something nagged at me that something was wrong about this.

So later on, we get thru the line and I choose the 2nd night to ghost hunt as I get told that it's the better night with more chance of things happening and so were to meet back there for the meet and greet in a couple hours.
And why the 2nd night over the 1st? Some do believe that the 2nd night is better because on the first one, all those people have stirred things up already for you. Plus, there are usually less people than on the 1st night.

Well this whole faucet thing really kinda bothered me. Something told me...that no...so I went and checked it out.

Sure enough, the faucet would come on whenever I opened the door and the light or your shadow hit it just right. It was an automatic faucet. There was a play of shadows whenever you opened the door and stepped in so it was quite obvious as to what was going on. I later saw the lady and let her know about it and she thought it was really cool that I debunked that.

But that goes to show you that when you go to an event, be careful not to get too hyped up or excited so much that you see ghosts everywhere or you believe every odd thing is paranormal. It happens to us all because it is what you are wanting to see and expecting but most things can be easily debunked. It would have been really neat to have had it be something paranormal! But, when you go to these events, you really need to be grounded and wearing your skeptic hat more so and check things out fully.