We left around 7pm, headed for Louisville and hoping we left enough time for us to get lost. (which is usually inevitable) We arrived within 3 miles of Waverly at 8:45pm and stopped at KFC for a drink and a pit stop. I was worried that there would be no place to go once we got there. Matthew said “I bet when we get there it will be set up like a gift shop with stuff to buy and food and bathrooms.” I think he was half-kidding because he knew I was afraid it was going to be too Disney-ish.
We turned off of Dixie Highway onto East Pages Lane and blew right past our turn onto Paralee Lane. I didn’t know we actually had to turn into the golf course. The directions I had were not very good and the golf course entrance was not well lit. After a couple passes, we finally figured it out and made our way up the hill to Waverly. The golf course is right below Waverly, along with some very nice houses. I can see why a previous owner wanted to develop the property. Some of the houses back right up to the base of the hill! I expected it to be much more secluded than it is. It seems to sit right in the middle of a country club.
Unfortunately, we were not immediately in awe of the building in front of us. Our first words were, “Damn! Look how crowded the parking lot is!” But after I got over that, I got out of the car and took a moment to appreciate Waverly for what it is.
We followed the crowd to the newly renovated “Laundry Room” which serves as the meeting place for all the tours. Guess what?!? T-shirts for sale! Snacks! Bathrooms! A HUGE television on the wall showing the basketball game! About 40 people milling around! Welcome to Disneyland! I could not believe it. I don’t know what I expected really. And looking back now, it wasn’t that bad. I was just mildly disappointed initially. While we were waiting, we met the owner, Tina and her cute little Yorkie, Princess. Oh, the Wee will be so disappointed that she missed this! Tina was telling us that she often sleeps in the Laundry Room on an air mattress (that was still up in the corner) and has had several paranormal experiences in there. A strange place for things like that to occur, but she told us Princess was very sensitive to the activity as well.
There were a couple groups of teenage girls walking around, but even more disturbing – 2 kids around 10 years old with their parents! Who brings kids to something like this? When everyone from the 9:30 tour was seated at the tables, we watched a short film on the history of Waverly along with some scenes from the “Death Tunnel” movie and “Fox’s Scariest Places on Earth”. We found out later that parts of the Fox show were rigged. Disappointing. I used to love that show; although the screaming girls got on my nerves. I was afraid that was a bad omen for the rest of the night with the teenage girls in the crowd with us. After the video, they split us up into 2 groups. Each with about 22 people. Thank God the 10-year-old kids were in the other group. We were however stuck with the 3 teenagers. I wasn’t thrilled about the size of the group, and I couldn’t decide whether it was best to stay in the front or the back. In the beginning we stayed in the front.
Our tour guide decided to start our tour at the Tunnel and hopefully avoid the other group(s) who started in other parts of the building. The tunnel was….a tunnel. It looked exactly the same as it did on TV and in the movie. It wasn’t really scary and I didn’t get any weird feelings in there. Several people walked all the way to the bottom. We walked about halfway and then came back. There really was nothing to see there.
While we were outside waiting for everyone to come out of the tunnel, the Annoying Teenage Girls (ATGs) were talking to our guide and telling him that they did not believe in ghosts. One of them started talking about the bible and how she has her own beliefs about what happens when you die, and there is no such thing as ghosts. She does believe in demons though. Oh yeah…I can see this is going to be interesting. Why are they even here?
Our first hour or so in the building was pretty uneventful. We toured the 2nd floor patient rooms that opened out into a solarium. A few people reported that they smelled bread baking. I didn’t. But earlier, when we first entered the building, I smelled something like hamburgers cooking. Or just general “cafeteria type” smells. I thought it was from the “snack bar”, but later I found out they only have drinks and chips down there. Nothing cooking.
Now it was time to move up to the 3rd floor, where there have been reports of paranormal activity in the past. You will notice what look like “orbs” in the following picture. I have never been a big believer in “Orb” pictures. I think people need to wipe off their camera lens and stop stirring up dust. But after looking at my pictures, I have changed my mind a bit. In this picture the orbs could very well be light refractions off of dust particles. I just randomly snapped a picture when we first got on the floor. I have done a bit of research on Orbs, and the general consensus seems to be that the ones that are very transparent and pale are in fact, dust. That is most likely what these are. But one never knows.
We spent quite a bit of time on the 3rd floor, listening to our guide’s stories of paranormal activity on previous tours. You know…it always happens to a friend of a friend of a friend. Never to you. A couple of the other guides were carrying EMF detectors and as we walked down the hall, they started beeping. They were actually getting some very high readings. But we didn’t see or hear anything at that point.
As we made our way to the 4th floor, we were told that is where the majority of activity occurs. They asked us not to take pictures or turn our flashlights on once we got up there. This was the floor of The Shadow People.
A collective hallucination is a sensory hallucination induced by the power of suggestion to a group of people. It generally occurs in heightened emotional situations. The expectancy and hope of bearing witness to something paranormal, combined with long hours of staring at an object or place, makes certain persons susceptible to seeing such things.
Being on the 4th floor of this deserted hospital, in the dark, in the cold and spending the previous hour and a half listening to ghost stories, can do something to you. We broke into 2 groups – one went left and one went right. I was in the left group. We stood in one spot and looked down to where the hall turns to the right. There was enough ambient light (coming through all of the open doors and windows) to be able to see basic outlines. We were instructed to look down the hall and look for Shadow People. (I had never heard this term before) After a minute or so, I noticed that sometimes I would not be able to see the open doorways. They were being obscured by dark shadows. This was probably aided by all of the guides pointing down the hall with laser pointers and saying, “Look on the right. Look at that one. There are 3 walking right down the middle of the hall.” So I don’t know if my eyes or my brain was playing tricks on me or if there are such things as Shadow People. But I did see Something. Many Somethings to be exact. It got so bad, that I couldn’t keep looking down the hall. I had to turn away. I have never in my life experienced anything like that.
Our guide asked if anyone would like to walk down the hall with him. Most people were freaked out, so nobody volunteered. In spite of how uneasy I felt, I was still curious – so I volunteered. As we started walking down the hall, the Shadows dissipated. Was it because they were avoiding us? Or was it because there was nothing there in the first place? Once we got down there, I turned around and could see the outline of our group. We stood there for a few minutes and people from the group were saying that they were having trouble seeing us. The Shadow People were surrounding us. Matthew told me later that he saw this too. He was keeping his eyes on me, but at times it looked like I had completely disappeared.
We stood down there for about 5 minutes. When we turned around to walk back, I thought someone from the group had walked up behind us. I could not see the group. Neither could the guy standing next to me. We both jumped back. Something (something big) was standing right in front of us. In an instant it was gone and I could see the group again. Now THAT was quite an experience. Was it "real"? I don't know...but it was a thrill.
We spent a few more minutes up there looking at shadow people because the people who went to the right didn’t have any activity. So we stayed up there longer so they could check out our more active end of the hall.
Just before we left the floor, I turned around and snapped a picture of the hall where I was just standing. You will notice there are no close up, transparent orbs in this one. HOWEVER, farther down at the end of the hall, where the guide and I walked, you can clearly see a very bright orb. There was nothing reflective on the wall down there and I have not tampered with the picture in any way.
As I have said before, I have always thought that pictures of “orbs” were a bunch of BS. But this picture came from my camera, which has never produced pictures of Orbs in the past. (and I have taken many pictures) This picture was also taken in a location where I had just had a paranormal experience. I was totally shocked when I saw that picture. It’s mine, and it’s authentic.
I enlarged the picture to get a close up of this orb. And in this next picture, the orb looks almost 3 dimensional. And what of the different colours? It is outlined by white, then light green and then dark green in the very center. I don’t know. If anybody reading this has any better explanation of what that might be – please let me know. (note: Blogger does not display my pictures with the same clarity as they appear on my computer. You can't really see the different shades of green in this picture. But if you are ever near my computer, I will show you the original)
On our way out, we stopped again on the 3rd floor to see if we could pick up any more activity. One of the guys in our group who claimed to not have seen anything all night, volunteered to walk down a hallway alone. He stood down there for several minutes. We could see changes in his shape, as if someone fatter or taller was standing behind him. Our guide asked him to hold his arms out so we could better see any shadows obscuring his form. In spite of another group being right down the hall, making noise and shining their lights, we could still see shadows around this guy. He was facing us and said he saw someone raising his or her arms in the back of the group. I was in the back, and nobody was raising their arms.
Cold spots: Sometimes just before a spirit manifests, they draw energy from the surroundings. Often a spot in one area of a room will suddenly become very cold. For example the temperature throughout a room may average 75 degrees but in one corner or area, the temperature will suddenly plummet to 50 degrees or even colder. This is a sure sign of a spirit’s presence or a soon manifestation.
It was about 50 degrees outside, so it was pretty chilly. I wondered how we would be able to recognize a “cold spot” when we were already cold.
As we were watching the guy and the shadows down the hall, my face (my only exposed body part at the time) suddenly got very cold. It reminded me of skiing. There was no cold wind or draft, it was just a stinging sort of cold. The lady next to me said “What was that? It’s cold”. Someone farther up front said the same thing. At the same time there was a bit of a commotion on the left side of our group and the next thing I know, our guide is saying “That’s enough, we’re out of here.” I really don’t know exactly what happened, but we left that floor.
Remember the ATGs? That only believed in demons? On the way down the stairs I noticed our group was a bit lighter and quieter. When we got to the first floor, the guide told us that the girls had to be escorted out of the building. One of them was hysterical because she said something grabbed her leg right before we left the 3rd floor. They were on the left side of the group when it got cold. Whatever that was, it was happening to them.
We wandered around the 1st floor for awhile and looked at the set up for the “fake” haunted house they have during Halloween. There was some cool artwork on the walls, too bad Tony ruined it.
When we got back to the laundry room, the ATGs were sitting down there, watching Saturday Night Live on the big screen TV (Oy) and trying to calm themselves down. They seemed ok, but I doubt they will be doing anything like that ever again. I mean if they don’t believe in ghosts, they must have thought it was a demon. I don’t know about you, but that seems a hell of a lot more scary to me.
Look at this red-eyed demon I saw on the roof.
So that’s it. We got home at 3:30am, and I had to work at 9am. I fully expected to be disappointed, but I was not. I am already looking forward to going back. I think we will do an overnight or ½ night later this summer after all the Ghost Hunters hoopla dies down.
It's Close To Midnight And Something Evil's Lurking In The Dark
Under The Moonlight You See A Sight That Almost Stops Your Heart
You Try To Scream But Terror Takes The Sound Before You Make It
You Start To Freeze As Horror Looks You Right Between The Eyes,
You're Paralyzed………………………..
