No Last Rites

you look at all the businesses and buildings. you really have
no idea that one of these businesses is having a serious problem.
a layer of dark energy draped over this building. we want
answers. for years, we have built our credibility. you’ve seen
us go to a lot of places where there was urgency. you’ve seen
us go to a lot of places where there was panic. we would help
them the best we could. the heavy residue of its long, violent
history. a dark force that is affecting all the employees. we are
here to help the owner and staff. we are taking our first steps
inside the building. thank you. likewise, thank you. i personally
was attacked a number of times. physically? emotionally? both.
i put my arms like this and felt ice cold air brush across my arm
here. i want you to tell me what happened to you on these stairs.
as soon as i turned around, i asked, are you following me? i felt
somebody try to shove me. the second attack was upstairs. i was
going through the boxes. behind me, i heard somebody breathing.
the breathing was like this. a box flew off. i said, stop it, i’ve had
enough. an intense energy that is impossible to ignore. i saw a
woman in the mirror. i went home and got my holy water. i came
back and brushed the holy water onto the mirror. do you know why
these spirits might be angry? they say people slept on the second
floor. it was so dark you would bump into bodies. you wouldn’t
know if they were dead or drunk. so many you could barely see
the floor. employees have quit because of the ghosts. the building
collapsed, the top floor fell all the way down into the basement,
three or four people died. i’m told there is footage that was cap-
tured by some of these cameras. see the glass crack? oh my god
dude. i’ve seen a lot of footage but that was insane, it was as if
someone was inside the case breaking out. truly astonishing to
witness. we go downstairs to see if there is a chance of making
contact. did you break the glass? can you do it again while we’re
watching right now? let’s see if there’s intelligence here. the
camera is rolling. can you move something on command? that just
moved. we just heard that. that just happened. there was nobody
by it at all. what did you ask? we asked: can you move something
on command? we’ve come to a place where the biggest form of
activity is one of the most compelling forms of proof. when a
skeptic says give me proof, i want to show them an apparition.
they were inundated with activity. did you hear that? is that a
clock? i thought you had to wind that to make it work. i think
this is going to be an awesome investigation. look how much
stuff has already happened. i’m at the end of the aisle. i got the
shotgun mic out. i see a black mass. i don’t know if it’s a figure.
it is definitely moving through the slits—you can definitely see it
move, you can see it moving from point a to point b. every single
camera we have, point them down the hallways. i would love to
see an apparition walking in full form, i would love to capture it.
this is a very, very powerful investigation: a grid of camera feeds,
two feeds by two feeds; another grid, three feeds by three feeds;
the final grid, six feeds by six feeds. you feel something bad
happened here and they are upset about that. there it is again.
i want to watch these cameras. i keep a close eye on the cameras.
lidar and infrared mapping. paths of light and color. hear that?
whoa. we don’t look familiar, do we? that’s because we don’t
work here. we’re here to communicate with you. now it’s gone
and it won’t come back. figures in every color. you can feel how
cold it is right here. it’s freezing cold. i have a lighted dousing rod
balanced on one of the tripods. who are you? what are you? after
analysis, we think this spirit is telling us: i’m dead. something is
pulling me down to the main floor. i will walk around the aisles
and see if i can capture anything: i switch to night vision. there
are spirits here with the power to throw things. just heard a noise—
i wanted to be down here alone with you. a woman’s voice comes
through the spirit portal. she said, bishop. if they died so suddenly,
they received no last rites. move something. if you manifest here
this light will go off. what’s your name? do you want to talk to me
or not? you’re so damn quiet. why are you here? what are you trying
to tell people? why aren’t you saying anything? tell me where to
go. i hear a voice. what do you look like? what color are you
wearing? a woman’s voice tells me it’s wearing the color green.
a strange, mist-like anomaly floats past, it goes down our legs,
appearing for a third and final time, appearing to shift its shape.
downstairs, a spirit says, not so good. what is standing in front of me?
the spirit says, person. i start detecting static energy around me.
i get another hit. i’m receiving intelligent communications. you
can feel the heat being pulled around me. a static energy charge
in the air. exploding with light. who’s in here with us? i’m
looking down all the aisles. i don’t see anything.

The Stone Tape Theory

That sounded like a possession.
I do not have a good feeling in here at all.
A portal of evil.
We’re in the town of Benecia, California.
The hotel saw the darkest days of the gold rush.
There are claims of murders and suicides.
Psychic reverberations that continue to echo throughout this structure.
Once I crossed the threshold: instant anger.
Sick to my stomach to the point where I thought I was going to throw up.
What did the spirits here do that was so bad you wanted to quit?
They followed me home.
My whole demeanor would change.
I prayed with her that night and then she’d have a nightmare about it.
I knew she had something attached to her.
I was talking in my sleep.
I don’t normally talk in my sleep.
Her eyes turned black and red.
What did her voice sound like?
She has no memory of this happening at all.
She encountered the spirit on the third floor.
I can feel her sadness every time I’m in here.
I can feel it really bad today.
I was fine when I walked in here but now I feel angry.
Can I have a piece of equipment?
Just something please?
Something in this room is making me uncontrollably angry.
Hold that.
Don’t fidget with it.
There’s no electricity in a bed.
Are you making the device do that?
We listened to audio playback.
Dude, that was amazing.
Oh my god.
That was awesome.
We capture no further evidence and move into the hallway.
My body feels warm, like I’m heating up.
I move to the room where the voice was heard.
Can you do things on command to make this easier?
It has become very clear that this location is a seething hive of activity.
What I just heard was a classic example of demonic attachment.
This is an original.
It will take us to the years of the California gold rush.
She experienced echoes of the lawless gold rush era while cleaning the hotel.
When I was working alone, I felt people walking behind me.
I heard many people, like a party.
A lot of people.
Women and men.
Yes.
The restaurant was closed.
It was an empty room.
The Stone Tape Theory.
An emotional imprint from an event of the past is driven into a natural object.
Energy.
Who is making that noise up there?
We are ready to begin our investigation.
We are setting up a laser tripwire for spirits.
I heard something walk up behind me.
Listen.
Quiet.
Is somebody in that back room?
Can you make that banging noise again?
Thank you.
Make that bang again.
Do it louder this time.
It’s intelligent.
Is it in the room?
It sounds like it’s up here.
I now begin an EVP session to see if this could be a spirit trying to get our attention.
This could be a spirit trying to speak.
Rolling.
Did you hear how loud that was?
It was on command.
Who is making that noise up there?
Watch the laser very closely.
The most haunted room in the hotel.
The bang stopped.
Are you the lady that they say committed suicide here?
A device to detect static energy.
Do you like me in this room?
You do like me in this room?
He is tracking a presence.
I walked straight in.
I saw the shadow move.
The light anomaly manifests out of the mirror.
It grows in size and becomes a mist.
We head to the most haunted room.
I receive no voices until I lay in the bed.
How many spirits are here with us?
One.
Two.
Three.
I hear a female spirit.
What is your name, spirit?
This name will be heard once again, later in our investigation.
I begin to completely black out.
At this point, I don’t remember anything.
You’re not responding.
You’ve been out for two minutes.
We’ve been calling your name.

The Witch House

we’re about to step back into 1692. 19 accused of witchcraft,
executed by hanging. tonight, we’ll see what we stir up. a stain
on this land forever. the bubble contains its own energy. a lot
of energy has been trapped here. [this man knows what he’s
talking about.] strange energy permeates this town. the lone
physician examined her symptoms. everybody was looking
for it. mix the girl’s urine with flour. feed it to a dog. yes. watch
the dog act strangely. in 1692, satan: they believed he was
everywhere. these were called coffin cells—when the tide came
in, water and sewage rose up to their knees. Torture. 20 accused
witches. they said witches came to them in their dreams. you were
in league with satan. it’s a big deal. if you confess, you will be
spared. so why didn’t they confess? they felt their souls would
be damned. [die in this life, be set for the next.] we have weddings
up here. bride and groom show us photos with spirits right next
to them. we heard stories and laughed at them. at the top of the
stairs, there they were. three boxes come flying down the stairs.
i wouldn’t say it’s haunted, but there’s something else there.
it’s haunted. the oldest structure in salem. once house to judge
jonathan corwin. 10 or 14 members of his family died in this
house that we’re standing in right now. she has four children.
she passes. strange shapes in their photographs. [your audio
just died right now.] because that happened, i’m going to do a
quick evp session. did you just grab my hand and use all my
energy? sounds like a little female. did you hear that one? i did.
never heard one of those before. are you a witch? are you a witch?
excuse me, are you witches? it was a hard process to allow us to
film and investigate here. it was, a little bit. we had to go in front
of the town council to get permission to do this. a first for us. we
won. we are the first allowed to investigate the historic witch house.
hundreds if not thousands of witches come here. you’ll talk to
witches, they’ll tell you: we don’t have a jerusalem, we have a
salem. did you ride on this? she says she’s not a witch, but she’s
got witches on her umbrella, witches on her shirt. he’s still teething
a little bit. take the urine, bake it, feed it to a dog. we need a
break from our search, so we watch a reenactment of the witch
trials. she goes to meet someone. a tall man, a stranger to the
village dressed all in black. if we allow these children to continue,
we should all be devils and witches quickly. i am not a witch. a
stay of execution. we have got to find a witch inside there. may i?
you certainly may. are you a witch? i certainly am a witch. are
there any potions we can bring with us? are there any little kids
around? i cannot ignore what my body is sensing right now. my
favorite book as a kid. good luck, i hope you find something. which
area of the house should we start? it is an absolute honor and privilege
to be the first paranormal team to investigate this house. he was
the man who led 19 people to their deaths. we are going to do a
ritual to see if we can reach him or any of his victims. if a spirit
comes close to this antenna, it breaks an electromagnetic field. [if
there’s anybody in the corwin family…] point 4. point 7. temperature
drops. is there somebody here with us? use this black device to speak
to us. there is something around me here. not only are we feeling this,
but this detector is documenting what we are feeling, physically and
emotionally. am i feeling the fear and hopelessness of one of the kids
who died here? what are you trying to tell me? are you trying to make
me feel your pain? that alarm means a spirit just broke the electro-
magnetic field. look at that. we will present this evidence shortly when
we play back the audio. point 9. point 8. now it’s a zero. whatever
was here, i felt it and it’s gone. our mission is to communicate
with the spirits of the wrongfully executed. right now, we are investigating
the witch house. we immediately identify an unexplained voice.
this voice has the accent of the region. it has a boston accent. don’t go
in there in a boston accent. a warlock accompanied by a female witch,
a real one. we are going to do a ritual here in the witch house. the last
time we conducted a pagan ritual, it definitely helped us gather
evidence. the meter started going crazy as soon as the warlock and witch
entered the house. [i didn’t want it to interfere with the ritual, so i
turned it off.] open the way. open the gate. with three drops of my blood.
each of you here tonight is going to die someday. an endless supply of
white noise for spirits to speak through. what is your name and were
you hanged? he’s with the beverly high school paranormal investigation
club—and he will determine what is occurring here. if you look in
the mirror, you can see a mist form. i clearly see a fourth person with us
there in the mirror. i just saw four of us standing there. i think we just
figured out why people run away from here in the middle of the night.

Z.H. Gill edits Burial Magazine.