Once inside, the organisers took us into the main area, known as the rock room. Here they showed us through some of their paranormal equipment; KIIs, a cat ball (similar to a parascope or touch pad), full spectrum cameras, spirit boxes, temperature detectors, laser grids and an ovilus. They had a new device called a stickman camera. This allegedly picks up spirit energy and projects a stick figure on a screen. I will do some reading on the credibility of this device and how this works, but it was rather interesting.
Our first investigation was in the yard area. A relatively small yard, similar to those at Pentridge Gaol. We placed some KIIs around and a laser grid, but nothing. This yard connected to a second similar sized yard which had two storage areas built on the far wall. After about ten minutes, myself and another investigator, Rod, sat in the space. Rod was in one corner with a KII and I was about half way along the back wall. We placed a KII and the cat ball in the middle of the yard, and waited. After a few minutes both devices lit up. At this time the organiser came into the space and the activity ceased. I sensed a young teenage boy, but it was very brief and only for a short moment.
We moved back to the rock room. Let me intervene here. Most investigations I have been on that are run by companies, tend to lead you around the space. Take you into an area, share brief history or encounters and then let you explore. This company did not do that. It was rather awkward waiting around while they talked and had breaks. I was very unsure of what was going on. I had not been in the space before, did not know where things were and did not want to show disrespect by walking off on my own. Eventually I asked them to take me to another space. It was at this time they said we are free to wander the Gaol and do our own investigations. I wish they had said that at first, instead of me getting frustrated for two hours thinking it was a poorly organised event. The guides did not have much to share about the history or what rooms were used for, so essentially, it was a very raw investigation not influenced by what "should" be happening, which is fine. I just wish I had known that in the first place.
So with a new mindset......
From the rock room, we moved into the Knight Room. This was a large billiard/dining area with some pictures and mirrors on the wall. There was a double wood door at the back leading to a yard and a side door leading into quarters. The room felt heavy, although the ceilings were at least five to six meters high. After about twenty minutes, the cat ball lit up near the back door. It was interacting on demand by flashing for yes and staying dark for no. The stickman camera also picked up a stickman at the exact same space as the ball. This interaction continued for a while before the energy moved to under the table. I could sense a small child of about three or four years of age. Once everyone had left, Rod and I went up and calmed the child who appeared a little unsure of all the people staring at him. This child then followed us out of the room. Rod felt the energy and a cold sensation on his hand. He felt as if a small child was holding his hand as he walked from the space. This energy then stayed with us for the majority of the night, often settling between us or just in front of our legs, but very close, just like young children do now when they are unsure or a little insecure.
From here we moved into the Warden's room. There were a few minor tingling sensations, but nothing worth noting.
After the Warden's room, we moved into the only cell which was accessible in the Gaol. To be honest, I found it difficult to imagine where the other cells would be, as we did not have access to the back part of the Gaol. I believe the cell we were in was like a holding cell or remand cell. It was larger than most cells I have seen of that era and given it was at the front of the Gaol near the administration area, lends me to believe it was not traditional long term cell. On the first investigation there was no interaction, but we did return to this cell later and had quite a lot of activity.
Next we moved onto the administration space of three inter-connecting rooms. In the last room we placed the cat ball and KII in the corner of the room. There were several hits on both devices, and the cat ball when touched by humans, would light from orange, red to blue in a sequence in one direction. The energy was playing with the device for at least five minutes. The organisers videoed the activity and took photos with their full spectrum cameras. I sensed that it was the same child who had followed us from the Knight Room. I asked the spirit to see if it could do something different with the lights, and on demand, it would only light up the red and blue lights and then only the orange and blue or it would make the lights go in a different direction and the spirit could even make only the front or back half of the lights work. No matter what I did, I could not get the ball to interact this way with me. It was amazing and very exciting. We then marked the spot on the floor and placed the ball down. We then wandered into the other rooms and asked the spirit to continue playing with the ball and see if they could roll or move it. After a few minutes, I caught a flash of light out of the corner of my eye and returned to the room. The ball had moved about one centimetre away from the marker and was on a different angle. I have no doubt in my mind that this was moved. The ball has little panels of light, shaped like a soccer ball and the ball sits on the floor on one of the flat sides, it is not actually round. So to move it, you have to exert force. At this point, we also noticed the door move as if someone had ran behind it to hide. Was this the child hiding from us?
Once outside, Rod, believed he continued to see lights and shadows through the windows back into the space where we thought the child was hiding. We walked back over to the door entrance only to be met with a very strong energy. It was heavy and dense and my legs and face were tingling all over. It almost felt like it was blocking our entry. We thanked them and explained that we meant them no harm and we were leaving now. We did not return to that space again for the evening.
We were now four hours into the investigation, so we stopped the investigation for a little bit of supper. After supper I engaged in two activities that I have never ever done, which was very exciting. The first was auto-drawing. A Texta was on a device which would draw on a whiteboard type surface. There were four of us sitting around a table with the lightest of touch on the square counter which was balancing the pen. If you pushed hard, the counter tipped towards you, so everyone needed to use the same pressure to balance the counter. I was barely touching it and was using lighter than feather touch. Rod said he was doing the same. The pen moved straight off in my direction. This happened at least three times. So we changed seats to see if it would still come to me. It did. I changed to a third seat, and it happened again. At this point we asked it to draw a circle. It did. A triangle, it did. But then it went on to draw a star over and over again. I took my fingers off the counter and it returned to the centre of the board and did not move. It was very weird. We then cleaned the board and asked if any other spirit was present to come through and draw. Rod said that he had a tingling sensation, similar to what he had felt with the young spirit. The pen then went on to draw what I believe was a smiley face. I have attached the image below. I believe this was the four year old who had been with us earlier and he was drawing a picture of his mummy. KII activity later in the evening had strong hits for the questions around this drawing. I am still skeptical of the auto-draw, but I also know how lightly I was touching the counter and how strong the movement of the pen was. I can't explain it. As it was being drawn, the order of drawing was firstly the face round and round, then the eyes, followed by the smile and lastly the hair. The same order a young child would draw. Note that the pen can't be taken off the board, so lines are connected. I think you can definitely see the face, body, eyes, mouth and hair.
From here we went over to the Warden's Room again where one of the guides was working with a black mirror. Again, something I have never done. During my experience, Rod and Ash went back to the Knight's Room where they said they heard the young child playing and when they asked the spirit where he was hiding, they heard the word "here". There was knocking and a lot of activity in the space and remembering, this was the space where we picked up the young energy earlier in the evening.
Back to the mirror, my experience was rather uneventful, but I can not say the same for Rod's. Rod and Ash returned from the Knight's Room just as I was finishing up. I had sensed the young child standing next to me watching Rod sitting staring into the mirror. Had Rod brought him back with him again? I put a KII meter next to Rod and then gave permission for the child to go over and sit with Rod. Within seconds the meter lit up and Rod had tingling sensations, as if the child was sitting on his knee. It was at this exact time, the guide took pictures using a spectrum camera of the black mirror and you can see the image of a small boy's face. They are going to email the picture to me. We also asked the boy to blow out the candle, and on command, the wick would almost extinguish. It looked exactly like you would expect if a young child tried to blow out a candle. This candle was in a glass, in a very still room. There was absolutely no outside influences that would make the candle flicker and almost extinguish. It was a very special moment.
Ash, another investigator was next in the black mirror, so we let her be and Rod and I returned to the cell. Here we noticed a video camera and voice recorder had been set up and were recording. We entered, placed a KII and cat ball at the far end of the cell and then sat on the bed. After about five minutes, we felt energy move past our legs and a few seconds later both devices had activity. I sensed a young boy of about 12 years old. He interacted quite easily with us for a few minutes. At this time, Ash and one of the guides came into the cell. All four of us felt a different, very strong energy enter the room. Our legs were tingling and the air was dense. Within moments, Rod, the guide and I had a very strong whiff of stale cigarette smoke which came from the back of the room and then less than thirty seconds later Rod and I, who were both sitting on the bed, felt the bed move back and forth two or three times, a short pause and then another two or three motions. It really felt like someone had climbed onto the bed and was settling down. We both hopped off the bed and apologised and said we would leave them for the night to sleep. It was like the child was playing in there and then an adult had come in, shooed him out, had a cigarette and went to bed. It was strong, definitive and felt by both myself and Rod.
At the end of the night, we returned to the Knight's Room to return the child and to see if there was any more activity. It was a buzz with KII meters going off in every location and the cat ball in the middle of the table. It was highly active. I was sitting on one side of the room and Ash was sitting directly opposite me on the other side of the room. After about ten minutes, I could see a very dense royal blue orb. It was not circular like usual, but more like a flat stretched out cloud, mist like shape. It was a very deep royal blue colour. I asked Ash if she was sensing anything and she said she was cold and tingly. I then asked the orb to move across the table and light up the ball and come to me. It did. I explained the movement of the orb to the group and as it moved across the table saying to the group that it was coming close to the cat ball now and sure enough, the ball lit up. As it passed the members of the group they all said they could feel it. I asked if anyone else could see the orb and one lady Amanda said yes, and described the colour exactly the same as I was seeing. The room was very energised.
The Gaol itself for the investigation is very small. Two yards, two small storage rooms, a Knight's Room, Wardens Rooms, one cell, administration room and a rock room. There was considerable activity on the night, but I was sensing it was from the same three spirits. A young three to four year old boy who we named Mikey, as each time we used that name, the KII meter would spike, his twelve year old brother and an older male. It was hard to gauge whether there were prison spirits or guards present, but I do believe the two children were intelligent spirits and able to communicate using the devices. There felt like a lot of residual energy was around, especially in the Knight's Room.
The young boy is very playful, curious and appears to be happy. I sensed he liked the company and having visitors, so I do hope that people continue to visit him. It is definitely worth a visit!
Very cool Libby. Summed the night up perfectly. FYI, the "stickman" camera, is from an Xbox gaming console. The camera scans and maps the players body and then replicates the players movements in the game. It was an attempt at interactive gaming and getting players moving and feeling more involved with the game. Ghost hunters have discovered that it is useful in tracking spirits. Seems fairly successful as we saw on the night. I, too, was a little disappointed at the lack of knowledge of the site. Maybe a short information tour before the investigation so you familiarize yourself with the location. As in the knight room, some more info on the building would've helped with some more direct questioning. Other than to try and re connect with Mikey,I don't think I would re visit.
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