This was my second visit to this Gothic Victorian town-house in Canterbury, and after a relatively quiet investigation
in February hopes were high that we would this time witness something truly paranormal. The night began strangely
enough, at least for me, as I experienced a momentary loss of concentration during my second equipment demonstration
in the kitchen. Seeing as this part of the night had always run smoothly I was shocked that midway through my talk
I began to feel unusually faint and nauseous, and for the life of me I could not string more than 2 words together at
a time. This moment was particularly unnerving as our YHA host for the night Shelley also came down with a sudden
feeling of discomfort while witnessing the psychic workshop up in the lounge, and the timing of our episodes was
an amazing coincidence to put it mildly. Had something paranormal come close to me and drained every ounce of energy
in my body, or had I simply succumb to hunger and exhaustion? Well the latter is a possibility as I hadn't eaten a
great deal that day, however I did manage to quickly recover without having to eat or drink anything, so for me this
remains a mystery, although not necessarily one of a paranormal source.
The night continued with interest as our medium for the night Stewart Keys took the groups on a walk around of the
location, describing with remarkable accuracy much of the information that other mediums had revealed on our
two previous investigations. Earlier in the night Stewart had also brought along two examples of psychic art which
he had drawn the previous night while attempting to link with the place he would be attending - as always our
mediums are given no prior knowledge of the location. One drawing showed an elderly man with a stick named Edward,
together with the date 1897. Edward was the most prominent character our 2 mediums connected with in February, while
the date of 1897 is certainly within the range of the building's history (built in 1875). The final room of the
walk around also brought some strange activity, as we entered Room 11 (formerly Room 12) with every member of the team
accounted for. Stewart had mentioned a nervousness prior to entering the room, and suggested that darker energies
from the shadows were resident here and responsible for much of the activity. At this point a few clear thuds could
be heard from the inaccessible loft space above our heads (we were on the top floor). We kept quiet and asked out
again, initially with no response, but then came the loud thuds again, almost as if someone were walking across the
ceiling above us. It was clear that something was moving around, and we could be certain that none of the
investigation team could have been responsible. The most intriguing incident however took place while Stewart
was stood within the doorway to the attic room, and one of our investigators took a mysterious photograph which
on reflection appeared to show the classic white spiral manifestation most notably photographed at The Ram Inn
in Gloucestershire. My initial impressions were that this was a genuine anomaly, however when looking at all the
images taken with this camera it appeared that each was out of focus, and anomalies appeared on a number of
shots. My professional opinion is that this can probably be described by some kind of motion setting which
had been accidentally applied to the camera or otherwise an effect of not using a flash, as the blurred nature of
the images suggested that the pictures were not instant snaps, but captured delayed movement of some description
(I'm not that technical when it comes to photography, so apologies for the limited understanding of traditional
photographic methods!)
My first vigil took a team up to the top floor again where we had previously heard the thudding sounds, and we
all made our way to Room 11. I began to ask out for a sign of any spirit presence, but this time around everything
remained perfectly quiet. I then split the team down into 3 groups, leaving a team in Room 11, 2 investigators sat
out on the stairs and myself and the final team member investigated Room 10. Unfortunately for us everything
remained still, and neither of the other teams experienced any strange activity - it had been a quiet start to the
night.
My second vigil saw us investigating the basement and kitchen area, which staff had previously reported to be the
most active, however as this had always been used as a base camp for the night nobody had investigated the area
before. We setup a glass and a table in the corner of the room and attempted some divination. There were 8 of us
in total, and 6 team members on the glass, but no movement. I decided to take the team into the day room which was
at the other end of the basement corridor, and there we sat for another 15 minutes, and again we got nothing. So in
an attempt to cover the entire area I split the team into 2 smaller groups, leaving one in the day room and
taking the other team back to the dining area to give the glass divination one last go. I placed a torch on the
chair to give some light and we began divination. This time there appeared to be very slight movements of the
glass, and the team felt a connection with a little girl they believed to be called Charlotte, and her twin brother
Samuel. When we asked for the children to move the glass, not only did we get very slight movements, but the torch
on the chair also began to dim and flicker. This continued for 5 or 10 minutes and certainly posed a few questions.
In my opinion the most likely cause of the torch flickering would have to be something electrical as I have seen
this effect many times before, while the glass movement was certainly unconvincing and compared to previous
experiences I have had there was nothing to suggest any more than unconscious or involuntary movement was to blame.
Our penultimate vigil took place on the ground floor, beginning with an automatic writing experiment using the
Planchette in the lounge. While this took place one of the team members sat out in the hallway in front of a large
mirror and attempted some scrying. The planchette brought nothing more than a single squiggle, and suggested nothing
more than a few shaky fingers amongst the team. Meanwhile our team member in the hallway described the sensation of
having his ear licked by what he could only describe as a cat - not the typical response to a scrying experiment,
but certainly something that he was convinced was a genuine experience. I split the teams up again, with groups
going to Rooms 1, 2 and 3 and two people sat at the bottom of the stairs, but each vigil was unproductive. The night
was rapidly becoming another disappointing one, especially as early indications had suggested we might experience
some activity.
My final vigil took place in the notorious Annex Room, formerly Room 9 but now Room 8, and a group of 9 of us sat
quietly in this small room asking out for some sign of spiritual activity. Again all remained quiet, and although a
brief experiment with diving rods did suggest a possible link with the children Charlotte and Sam again, there
was no conclusive evidence of any activity that could be deemed to have a paranormal origin. In one last desperate
attempt for activity I took the team back up to the top floor to investigate the Attic Room, Room 10 and Room 11,
but unfortunately the night had got the better of us and we eventually retreated back to base camp a little
disappointed, and eager to have breakfast and make our weary way home.
In all the night had brought odd bits of activity for some of the other groups, who had been somewhat more
successful that my teams. We had a number of other anomalous photographs taken in the garden, which appeared to
show various misty manifestations, although from a sceptical perspective the most obvious source would have
been the breath of the photographer, as it was bitterly cold outside. One of Stewart's vigils revealed an interesting
EVP which sounded like a faint 'Yes' in response to one of their questions. A number of other groups experienced
significant movements with the glass and planchette, however nothing remarkably unexplained seemed to take place.
Of our 3 experiments, none produced any activity (trigger objects in Room 11, Stealth Camera on the back stairway
and the NID on the bookshelf in the Lounge). The night on reflection had been a quiet one, although we eagerly
await the analysis of the photographs, video footage and EVP's before putting this investigation to bed.
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