August 10, 2007

The Witchcraft Connection: Metaphysical Investigations into the Paranormal

Part Nine of Belle Gunness: McClung Road and the Blood Farm Horror
By Marcus Foxglove Griffin

Patton Cemetery: The Evidence
Photographic Evidence: No conclusive evidence of paranormal activity was captured on camera or camcorder during our investigation of Patton Cemetery. An anomalous "orb" was captured on camera during our daytime investigation, but WISP has concluded that the anomaly is probably a rare form of lens flare.

Audio Evidence: Multiple EVPs were captured on audio recorders during our nighttime investigation of Patton Cemetery.

Note: WISP has developed some of the most stringent guidelines and techniques for capturing and examining EVP currently used by paranormal investigators. My article entitled "EVP 202: The WISP Method," details the process WISP uses to capture and authenticate the voices of the dead. Since the case for paranormal activity at Patton Cemetery relies heavily on audio evidence, feel free to read or reread that article before continuing here.

Patton Cemetery EVPs in Chronological Order of Their Capture
Disembodied Voice: A female voice is captured in the tier section of Patton Cemetery saying, "Turn the lights off." Comparing the audio evidence to the video evidence, we discover that the voice is also captured on camcorder and that at the time of capture all four members of the team have their flashlights trained on a single headstone.

Click here to hear the audio referenced below.

1. Investigator: "Tell us your name." Disembodied Voice: "Claire."

2. Investigator: "Oh look, the Big Dipper." Disembodied Male Voice: "Shhh! Big Dipper." Approximately fifteen seconds of time elapses between the investigator's comment about the Big Dipper and the disembodied voice's response, eliminating the possibility of the voice being an echo. This EVP does not mimic the investigator word for word.

3. Disembodied Voices: A male voice says, "Body back there." A female voice responds, "I know." The male voice sounds remarkably similar to the Big Dipper EVP. The female voice sounds desperate and otherworldly.

4. Disembodied Voice: "We have questions." At the time this voice is captured, WISP is discussing possible metaphysical techniques to be used during the investigation.

5. Investigator: "Boy, he married 'em young." The investigator is commenting on an inscription on an older gentleman's headstone listing his three teenage wives.

6. Disembodied Voices: A male voice says, "Shh!" followed by a female voice saying, "I'll never learn." WISP is, in fact, shushed quite often during the investigation of Patton Cemetery.

7. Investigator (speaking to a fellow investigator): "Hi, back there." Disembodied Voices: A male voice immediately says, "Fresh grave," followed by a female voice that mimics the investigator by repeating, "Hi, back there," four times. Interestingly, approximately five minutes after these EVPs are captured, team WISP discovers a fresh grave.

8. Disembodied Voice: A loud moan is captured, followed by an eerie female voice that says, "I scared them."

9. Disembodied Voices: After a female voice asks, "Do you need your cat?" a male voice says, "Talking, they're talking." The female voice is an A Class EVP and is the clearest and loudest voice WISP has captured to date. It is also one of the strangest EVPs WISP has captured. The voice was recorded approximately fifteen minutes after Amber and Sampsun heard the cat meowing and clearly demonstrates that the female entity was aware of us and the events of our investigation.

10. Investigator: "Is there anyone here that would like to say something to us?" Disembodied Female Voice: "They are near our headstone now."

11. Disembodied Voice: A male voice is captured inside the WISP van that says, "Strange power."

The Conclusion
At the time of our investigation, Patton Cemetery was a hotbed of paranormal activity and produced the most compelling audio evidence of ghostly entities team WISP has captured to date. The sheer number of active EVPs recorded during the investigation was overwhelming. Of all the voices captured, however, there is no evidence to suggest that any of them belonged to the ghost of Andrew Helgelien. Whether or not Andrew's spirit prowls the grounds of Patton Cemetery remains unconfirmed. WISP was fascinated by the fact that most of the audio evidence was collected in the newer sections of Patton Cemetery rather than the older sections. This is contrary to the evidence we have collected during previous cemetery investigations, where little or no evidence of paranormal activity was gathered around newer graves. The EVP captured inside the van seems to verify the presence of the ghostly hitchhiker, although the entity's point of origin cannot be confirmed. Whether or not the entity was indigenous to Patton Cemetery is unknown.

WISP's ability to collect compelling evidence of paranormal activity has increased exponentially over the last few years, and begs the question why? I theorize that as a collective team, we are a natural magnet for paranormal activity and that as our skills increase, so does our ability to attract and detect otherworldly entities. I theorize that the combination of WISP's four core members is a rare and perfect mix of energy patterns that fosters natural paranormal activity. Little did I know, however, that over the next several months I would get the chance to put my theories to the test. Several weeks after the investigation of Patton Cemetery, Sampsun, and Amber made the life changing decision to sell their home in Rockford, Illinois, and move to northern Indiana. This was good news for the team, but the move would be a massive undertaking and would separate us for a time. If any investigations were going to take place over the summer months, therefore, Becca and I would have to conduct them on our own. It didn't take long for us to become antsy. Not wanting to conduct the investigation of the former Gunness property as only half a team, I started looking into other prospective locations for Becca and me to investigate over the summer. I came up with several strong possibilities, but I had yet to do preliminary research into the backgrounds of the cases and secure permission to investigate them. We were both eager to get back into the game, so we decided to return to Patton Cemetery on our own. Would the ghosts come out to play for just the two of us?

The return to Patton Cemetery: Do you need your cat?
After calling the night officer at the LaPorte City Police Department and informing him of our intention to further our investigation, Becca and I packed our gear and headed for Patton Cemetery. We arrived without incident, but much to our dismay we discovered that the neighbors that live along the outskirts of the eastern edge of the cemetery were having a block party, complete with a live band and fireworks. Collecting untainted audio evidence was going to be impossible. Becca suggested that we go ahead and drive to the part of the cemetery that was furthest from the activity and shoot some video. She reminded me that the Jewish burial plots (the only section of Patton we hadn't previously investigated) were located in the far end of the cemetery, and would be interesting to check out. I agreed and maneuvered the van onto one of Patton's paved roads. We began a slow drive through the burial ground.

As we neared the Jewish section of the cemetery, which is located at the far end of the Garden of Memories, something unusual appeared in the van's headlights: A young woman was standing just off the edge of the road directly ahead of us and cradling a black cat in her arms. As we drove nearer, I noticed that a white cat was sitting on the ground at her feet. Interested in why a woman was standing all alone in the middle of a graveyard late at night with two cats, I pulled the van along side her and rolled down my window. "Did your kitties get out?" I asked her. The woman just stared at me blankly. Something about the look on her face sent a chill flowing over me, and feeling that my question was unwelcome, I slowly pulled away, but kept watch on the woman in the van's driver's side mirror. She didn't appear to be going anywhere.

I hadn't driven more than fifteen feet when realization dawned in me. I looked over at Becca in shock. Her eyes were as big as full moons. She had come to the same conclusion -- the woman was standing in almost the exact spot where we had recorded the EVP that asked, Do you need your cat? I slammed on the brakes and looked in the mirror. The woman and the cats were gone. I hit the gas and did a U-turn. Nothing. No woman, no cats, only an open field of graves with nowhere to hide. The woman and the cats had vanished into thin air.

Becca and I checked out the Jewish section of Patton Cemetery later that night, but other than hearing a few strange noises that could have been almost anything, we didn't experience anything unusual. I'm going to stop short of telling you that we had seen the ghosts of a woman and her two cats that night in Patton Cemetery. Just short. Rare indeed are the times that a paranormal explanation is the rational explanation, but in the case of the woman and her two cats it's the only thing that makes sense. The odds of us arriving at the Garden of Memories at the exact moment when a woman with two cats is standing in the exact spot where we had recorded an EVP asking about a cat are astronomical. The woman and her cats vanished in the middle of an open field of graves with nowhere to hide.

I can't tell you with any certainty that what we encountered that night in Patton Cemetery was flesh or phantom. I can't tell you if the woman was human or ghost. All that I can tell you is that if you go in search of the unknown, don't be surprised if you find it.

Marcus Foxglove Griffin has been a student and teacher of the occult for over twenty years and is the creator and lead investigator for Witches In Search of the Paranormal (WISP). He is High Priest for the Temple of Aradia located in northern Indiana and teacher in the temple’s school. Under the penname Lord Foxglove, he is the author of Advancing the Witches’ Craft (New Page Books, 2005) and numerous articles in the areas of Witchcraft and metaphysics. "The Witchcraft Connection" is Marcus Foxglove Griffin's monthly column on the metaphysical and paranormal.