Mayday Hills Asylum, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia

Last weekend I thought I would try something different. WSPR, a 'professional' paranormal team from Sydney were doing a weekend at the Beechworth Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum. The weekend was advertised and included two events organised by Asylum Ghost Tours, a ghost tour and a paranormal investigation, with the WSPR team running a paranormal workshop, each night.  Having been to the Asylum a number of times over the past ten years, I was rather looking forward to experiencing the Asylum through a different lens, with possibly new equipment or even learning how others do an extended in-depth investigation.

Learning how to use equipment properly, from paranormal seasoned investigators, was what attracted me to book for the weekend. I have learnt most of my equipment skills through self exploration or from tips I've acquired from guides on tours; so to actually have the opportunity to workshop and develop my skills and knowledge with those who have been doing this for a while, was very appealing. A workshop by definition is "a period of discussion or practical work on a particular subject in which a group of people share their knowledge or experience or a usually a brief intensive educational program for a relatively small group of people that focuses especially on techniques and skills in a particular field". To me, the main key words here are practical work, intensive, techniques and skills. It does not mean, lecture, seminar, sit around or be talked at......but I will discuss that more later.

So both evenings started off with a ghost tour led by one of the Asylum Ghost Tour's guides. Nurse Cait on Friday and Laura on Saturday. Both guides brought their own quirky sense of humour and unique nuances to their presentations and both had different stories to share in each of the buildings, so in no way did it feel repetitive, even though we frequented the same buildings both nights. They both were very personable and knowledgable and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their stories. Both guides dressed in nurse or matron attire to add an atmosphere of theatrics, but there definitely was no theatrical embellishment.

Once we returned to the foyer, we had a lovely supper as we waited for the highly anticipated workshop, but to my utter disappointment, there was no workshop. The team from Sydney, in simple terms, talked at the group and when they weren't talking, we sat around waiting for all the other Asylum tours to finish up and leave the Asylum, so we could go out and investigate. Once everyone else had vacated the Asylum, we moved into the entrance foyer, where the presenter talked about a personal experience he had had in this location about six months prior and that he had returned to the Asylum to hopefully capture what he had experienced that night.

The group (well WSPR) set up some trigger items in the projection room upstairs, including motion sensors, video camera and a few toys, like balls, marbles and a chess set. WSPR asked the group to take as many photos as they could to determine base line data and when we returned after the paranormal investigation, we would revisit the space, collect footage and analyse the evidence. This never happened. Once we returned, a few hours later, we were rather hastily escorted out the door.

So once all the items were placed in the projection room, Adrian, the Asylum Tour Guide, gave a brief history of the spirits, tricksters and poltergeists, they claimed to haunt the foyer, namely Tommy and Ralph.  The lights were turned off and we sat and we listened and we waited.....and waited.....and waited. Nothing happened.

We then divided into two groups. One group moved off with WSPR's Craig and the Asylum Tour Guide, Adrian. The other group was with WSPR's Richie and Mel and the Tour Guide, Will. I was in Craig's group. He stated that he was very keen to try and capture 'slender man', the alleged frequently sighted ghost of Grevilia, the male infirmary.  The group, eager to start exploring, headed off to Grevilia. I walked around the space trying to get a 'feel' for the building, but nothing. We set up a laser grid, some KIIs and a parascope. Adrian shared some very intriguing stories of the building, but it was not long before focus was shifted to an alleged sighting of a full body apparition. Naturally the whole group moved to this space to hopefully see something. We all stood there in complete darkness until Craig says in a very agitated voice, 'get a light on me, get a light on me'. Once the torch was on him, Craig alleged that the zipper of his vest had been pulled down by a spirit. No-one else saw or felt anything and there was no other 'activity'. As a good paranormal investigator you are always trying to debunk and question any activity. Often when you flex and place your arms and chest out, you can force zippers down on your jackets, especially if they are tight fitting. Maybe this is what happened?

From here the groups swapped guides and my group, now with Richie, Mel and Will, moved into the Bull Pit. The Bull Pit is a ward for 10 to 25 year old male inpatients. We moved as a group up into the top hallway, an area reported to be very high in activity, with evidence suggesting that many guests have been scratched or have felt threatened. Will placed a few parascopes down the hall and an ovilus on the window sill. The only two words on the ovilus were rust and water. Any significance? Not that we could work out. Now if you have read any of my previous blogs, this is the space where I saw the orb of what I thought was a young boy move down the hallway and play with the parascopes, so, as you can imagine, I was rather excited to see if I could reconnect with the boy, or maybe place some balls for him to play with or move. Maybe set up a video camera or a full spectrum camera, maybe the parascopes and a motion sensor. But to be honest, I did not feel comfortable to do my own thing, so I just stood and waited, like all the others.

Nothing was really happening until one person on the tour appeared to be a trance in the doorway at the end of the hallway before the toilets. Other guests claimed they tried to move him, but he was rigid and stuck to the floor. Once he was pulled from the doorway, he tried to run, but was held back by a guide. He collapsed to the floor and was struggling to breath. Am I sceptical - very. This guest and a few others then went outside. About four of us were left and we moved through that doorway into the bathrooms. I was trying to sense any denseness or tingling. Nothing. One man, claimed to have a headache, another claimed their zip was undone, but for me, nothing.

By this time, it was 3.00 am and we moved back to the foyer and said our goodbyes. We were reconvening at 7.30 pm that night and I was looking forward to hopefully a more active evening.

So, we came together again on the Saturday evening. Ten guests had been at the Asylum the previous night and were excited to investigate some new areas of the buildings. A team member from WSPR grabbed us as soon as he saw us and stated 'as soon as you get back from the ghost tour, I will grab you guys and we will head off and get right into it'. Fantastic, seven hours of full on investigations.

After the wonderful ghost tour, led by Laura, we returned at around 9.00 pm for supper. At 10.00 pm, WSPR called us into the Bijou Theatre, for what I thought would be the Saturday night workshop, but I was mistaken. It was another hour of being talked at. After about 30 minutes I looked around the room and at least half of the guests were asleep, including staff from WSPR. Personally, I was bored and had to desperately fight from going to sleep myself. The talk finished up about 11.15 pm and we were told 'as soon as the last tour is back, we will get started'.

So to fill in time, I took some dousing rods, a KII meter, went up to the stage with another investigator and just talked to a spirit that is alleged to play on the stage, named Annie. We asked her to come dance on centre stage, nothing. We mentioned that we had lost an orange ball, one of the triggers from the projection room, and maybe if she had taken it to play with, that she might return the ball to us. We sat there talking to Annie, or maybe just to ourselves, for 10 or so minutes.

It was not until about midnight, we moved into the foyer where Will shared a quick story that had just happened in the back administration area, of a possible doppelgänger sighting of Laura. Very interesting indeed!

We then moved on to a repeat of the night before.  This was disappointing as there were so many 'last nighters', and I for one, wanted to experience something different. For another hour we sat and tried to capture evidence of Tommy, Ralph and the projection room. But again, nothing.

Then, just before 1.00 am, an orange ball came down the stairs from the projection room and was thrown across the room and landed on the floor of the foyer. This was rather exciting, did anyone have an explanation, no. Were there CCTV cameras on that stair case, yes. So I guess, the owners of the tour company will get to investigate that activity and try and debunk and see what happened. Was this the same orange ball that had gone missing from the projection room, or the orange ball I had asked Annie to return, possibly.

By this time it was after 1.00 am, five and a half hours after we arrived and we were yet to do anything new. We divided into two groups. The 'newbies' and the 'last nighters'. The newbies headed back to Grevilia, the third time that weekend, to try and capture 'slender man'. The 'last nighters', along with Richie, Mel and Will, headed to the maniacal ward for women. We were upstairs and not a lot was happening, but I was sensing heaviness, a feeling that the spirits felt threatened and that they did not like the men being there. As no one else in the group was talking, I expressed this. As I did, I felt a real sense of empathy and was hearing distressing  'ahhhh, ahhhh' sounds in my head. I felt like females were being restrained and mistreated. I said this to the group and tried to show what I was seeing and hearing. WSPR suggested a role play and as no-one in the group was uncomfortable with that, WSPR proceeded to role play in a very aggressive manner, more like a prison warden, as opposed to a nurse. At that point, I developed an unbearable pain in my stomach. I am usually not one to feel pain, but I was almost doubled over with cramps in my stomach. When I told the group, another investigator said she had felt it too. WSPR did state that sometimes these are the types of investigations they do, where they have to push to get a reaction. It made me really sad to think they may have been treated that way. I did not like the aggression and it was interesting when walking back, that Will, the Asylum Tour Guide, said to me 'we don't normally do investigations like that, we are more passive'. Will might use the word passive, I would say respectful.

From there we moved to the laundry where nothing was really noted. A few hits on a Ghost Meter Pro, but no real active conversation. From there we moved to the downstairs area of the women's maniacal ward. I had not been in there before and was rather intrigued. Although nothing of significance was noted by myself, a guest claimed that a spirit took her earring. Do I believe it, no I don't.

I did get a feeling of some young girl spirits in this area and would not be surprised if we found out that families or young children had lived there with their mothers in the later years.

We returned to the foyer to swap guides. My group was now with Craig and Laura. The group were keen to explore a new area and Laura suggested the upstairs pharmacy. Eager to see another new part of the Asylum, we headed upstairs. Laura placed a KII on the servery and my parascope on the window sill in the kitchen. By this time, many guests were falling asleep and even snoring. No one was really actively engaging, so Laura and I tried to make contact with 'Bobby', a young boy spirit in the kitchen. We had a few minor hits on the KII, but with no real activity, we moved on to, you guessed it, Grevilia.

We were in Grevilia for about 30 minutes and nothing was really noted. There were four of us on the far 'slender man' corridor and we did get a few KII hits and the feeling of cold in one room, but again, nothing major. We would have liked to stay longer and see if there was any depth to these feelings, but the group was keen to go down to the cellar.

By this time it was close on 4.00 am and the entire group moved down into the cellar. We divided into two groups of 10 and moved into the cells. I was in the cell with the tour guide Will. The WSPR team was predominantly out in the open area. This by far was my first real experience of the weekend.

I was standing there in a circle with Will leading conversation. I started to experience real heaviness in my feet and they were absolutely aching in pain. I said this out loud to the group and then the people to my left, right and Will, all stated they were having the same sensation. We welcomed the spirits into our space and at this point, I began to tingle from my feet. The sensations moved through my body and right up to my shoulders. It was intense. Just at that point, the man to my left said that he could see a very tall figure standing over me, right in my face. At that exact moment, I felt a very strong presence and pressure again my chest, it felt exactly like someone had come up and was standing chest to chest with me. It lasted about 30 seconds and then subsided.

We finished up the circle and both groups were moved out into the main area. We were sitting around the perimeter and Craig was pacing the room. He paced for about a minute before he walked off into the cell area, followed by Richie and a tour guest. Richie then came out and told us all to leave the cellar immediately as something had affected Craig and he was not himself. Will packed up and led the group out of the cellar, rather hastily.

When we returned to the foyer, Craig and Richie alleged that Craig had been scratched and punched and that the tour had to be cut short because Craig 'was not himself', implying something had attached themselves to him. The WSPR team then stated that they had tried to leave the cellar, after Craig, and the door slammed shut and they could not open the door and Richie was yelling to let him out and telling the spirit to stay 'down in the cellar with the granite'.

Well, by this time it was 5.00 am and nearly time to leave.

So to sum up the weekend, I loved Cait, Laura, Adrian and Will, the Asylum Tour Guides. They are personal, knowledgeable, engaging and respectful. Would I do future tours with them, absolutely!

As for the WSPR team and the paranormal workshops - let's say I am a little disappointed. I did not learn anything new or get to play with any equipment. We didn't get to analyse the projection room footage, not even time to go back and see if any of the trigger items had moved. To be honest I felt like the WSPR team was ill prepared. Craig did state that he had let his guard down during the weekend and was not in the right head space, which resulted in him being attacked in the cellar. He claimed that by not being 100%, the spirits took advantage of his vulnerability and 'stuff got crazy'. Do I believe that.....I honestly do not know.

To possibly have three 'attachments', two zipper un-dressings, a full body apparition, a doppelgänger sighting, a missing earring, a scratch, a punch, as well as a missing and then reappearing ball, all in just two nights, is difficult for anyone, sceptic or not, to believe. I can only comment on what I saw, felt and heard.

It was obvious that the WSPR team investigate very differently to me, and that is ok and everyone is entitled to do what works for them. Did I enjoy the weekend - without a doubt. Did I enjoy seeing how other investigators explore the paranormal - absolutely!

As for the multitude of experiences that people claimed to have had happen to them last weekend, maybe you will just have to go and book a tour and find out for yourself.

Lunatic Asylum, Beechworth, Victoria

On Thursday night I headed off to a paranormal investigation at the Lunatic Asylum in Beechworth Victoria, with three other people, and a great guide named Adrian. This is one investigation that I have been anticipating for many years. Ever since my son went there seven years ago and had quite a traumatic experience, one which he has vowed never to return. That in itself says something happened, something unexplained and something I want to know!

Although the investigation started slow, as the night progressed, so did the experiences. Experiences, some of which were the strongest I have ever had on any of my investigations.

So our investigation began in the women's wing. Quite quickly I had something or someone attach itself to me via the EMF device. I couldn't feel them or sense them, but they did appear to respond to questions I asked through a yes no light activation on the EMF device. For example, I would ask was this room the matron's bedroom, the device would respond no. Is this an area where the matron slept - no. I would ask was this a lounge type room for matron - yes. I then would go into another room and it would respond that this was the bedroom. This information was confirmed by the guide. We also had the light parascope light up in the doorway when requested. The other members on the investigation did appear to have similar responses with their EMF devices. Other than that, this area was low in activity, but great in history.

As we moved from area to area, it was apparent that the spirit who had attached themselves to me early in the evening had decided to be my travel buddy. When we moved into another area of the asylum that was quiet, my EMF would detect a spirit. On occasion it would respond that it was the lady who had been with me previously. The only areas this spirit did not come with, were the bullpit corridor and the cells.

From here, we moved across to the male wing where we used an ovilis device. There were a few words that came through on the meter, but I did not sense any activity personally. This was a great space with lots of rooms to explore and conversations to be had. We moved into a kitchen area where Adrian attempted to connect with a spirit using the parascope, to no avail. We also used the laser grid to detect any movement or shadows. Again, there was no movement. This area was very quiet, albeit it was early in the investigation.

From here we moved into the bullpit area and a long corridor area. It was here that I felt my first strong sensation. The sensations I feel are tingles which start in my toes and move up through my legs, similar to what lactic acid feels like. Usually they stay as strong tingles, but sometimes they can be so strong my legs go numb and hurt. For very strong sensations, the feeling will flow up my body and into my cheeks where my jaw becomes a bit paralysed. When this happens I also begin to sweat on my face (but no where else). It is the weirdest sensation.

So, here is what happened. Adrian placed an ovilis on the window sill of the corridor and a parascope at one end of the corridor and one about half way down. We all stood at the other end of the corridor in complete silence and darkness. I'm talking complete darkness, blackest of black. The history of the bullpit is enough to scare anyone in regards to males and the issues that went on, but to stand there in the dark - usually you would think it would be nerve racking, but no, not at all.  Not long into the session, I asked Adrian if he was aware if children were permitted or housed in this area. One thing that I have found on all my investigations is that if they are children present, they will usually come and find me. I can usually feel them, hear them; they have touched me, pulled on my clothes and played with my hair and at times - I can see their orbs or glimpsing shadows. It is a nice feeling, although I can sometimes get teary and emotional, but in a motherly way.

The other common sensation I usually experience, is one of a not so nice manner. The physical sensations are the same, but I generally feel anxious and uncomfortable as opposed to motherly and caring. Experience has indicated that this feeling is usually associated with older males and more dangerous males. So in this scenario, standing in the dark, in the corridor, in the asylum, I had the tingling sensation, but I felt calm and safe, hence my question regarding children. Adrian asked why. I said that I can sense a very small child, very small, maybe 3 to 5 years of age. Not long after I said this, I could see a flashing blue orb, very close to the ground and about half way between the two devices. I asked if anyone else could see it, to no satisfaction. After seeing this orb about 10 times, I walked down and showed the group where I was seeing it. At that point my tingles shot up through my body to my face. I knew then that a child was present.

Once I returned to the group, I stated again when I saw it. Adrian then confirmed he saw it too and that this was the first time he had actually seen one with his own eyes. He had photographed them, but never actually seen one. I then saw that the orb was moving back towards the end of the corridor at which point I saw a red line appear through the middle of the orb. Instantly the parascope lit up for all to see with a vertical red line. First was the red line and then on request, the child played with it until it moved to the green lights. Adrian then asked the child to come forward and do the same with the other device. I watched the orb move forward and cast a shadow across a doorway (the shadow and change in light, not the orb, was observed by Jack at the exact moment I saw the orb pass the doorway - Jack was another person on the investigation). A few moments later I was able to tell the group that the child was right near the second parascope. A second later, the child was able to light up the second device. I was blown away by his playfulness and that I could sense the child and see the orb. It was one of the best experiences I have had. I am so excited to return to that area and make contact with that child who appeared to be very happy to play and be around me.

I believe that this child and at least one other, followed me downstairs, because of an incident that happened when I was standing in a room with another member of the group. The other three members of the group had already moved outside. I was reflecting on what had happened in the corridor and how impressed I was with what the small boy (on instinct) had done. At that point, I heard the cupboard door close behind me. I went over and opened it and tried to emulate what I had heard. I then summoned Adrian and explained what I had just experienced. Whilst I was explaining it to him, we heard the cupboard door do the same thing in the other room. We ran in there to see the door opened, which had previously been closed, which I can confirm, as I was in that room only moments before. I then could hear very soft children giggles. The night was still, doors were closed and the asylum was deadly silent. We quickly realised that these children were playing hide and seek in the cupboards. It was amazing. The giggles were soft but audible. I ran from room to room, hearing them giggling. I didn't want to leave them, they seemed to love having me there.

From here we moved to another building. Adrian informed us that it is in this building where most people have photographed a spirit at the end of a hallway. Although nothing for me happened here, it was great to hear the tales and see the autoposy table. Again, there were plenty of rooms to explore and make connections. The only sensation I had was that I could hear whistling late in the investigation. It appeared to come from an area down a hallway. We also placed the ovilis on the autoposy table and Adrian made a connection with Sergeant John who was a returned soldier. I would have liked to explore this connection in greater detail, given my personal experience with the defence force, but the night was getting on and we still had the cellar in the Olivine building to explore.

So off we went underground to where criminals were held. These criminals worked on building the asylum during the day and then were housed in cells underground of a night. The five of us moved into a cell and stood there in complete darkness. It was not long before Adrian and myself heard footsteps. Distinct footsteps. You could feel the air thicken and you could sense a presence. In fact, I could sense three figures. Two male and someone else. On reflection, I believe one was a young female. My tingling was strong, painful and at times excruciating and I felt very uncomfortable. I knew these were dangerous males. We then set up the spirit box where Adrian asked questions. The only audible sounds that come through to the questions of whether we could stay, were NO and whatever. The whatever was a female voice. We then placed the parascopes on the stairs leading out of the cellar. As my tingles began to subside as they moved away from us, the lights on the devices were activated. This could be a response of the spirits walking up the stairs. Once the lights stopped, my sensations stopped and I no longer felt uncomfortable. We were alone. Very alone.

Our investigation was then over for the night, but I definitely need to go back and work through that child spirit, along with the young female that attached herself to me for the evening. I sensed a young teenage girl who worked sort of like a tour guide for me. I would like to see if I can explore that connection further and why she was so comfortable walking around the asylum with me.

Great night with genuine experiences and connections.

Until next time!