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All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream...Edgar Allan Poe
Field Notes & EVP...St. Mary's Art Center Virginia City |
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Truckee Meadows Community College's first Nevada Ghost Hunting Conference was held on October 25th and 26th. The speakers were Dennis Hauck, Dr. Dave Oester, Dr. Sharon Gill (IGHS) and Tom and Lisa Butler (AAEVP.) The event was a smashing success and I was proud to have been its coordinator!
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| Day two of the event found me at St. Mary's Art Center with Tom and Lisa Butler, Directors of the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena (AAEVP.) While St. Mary's Art Center Director, Mimi Patrick, greeted conference particpants with a talk on the building's fascinating history, the Butlers and I, prepared to demonstrate some of the techniques used in ghost investigations.
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| One demonstration focused on the effectiveness of the use of dowsing rods in an investigation. Students were thrilled and excited to see first hand how dowsing works.
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| In the photos below a participant dowses in the darkroom. The doorway area of the darkroom is where everyone seemed to feel an energy. This energy was also felt in the same area on the third floor directly above this. Could this be some sort of spirit elevator or pathway they take between floors? One person said that she saw the entity go through the ceiling. |
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All of the EVP recordings were done on the bottom floor and were centered around the dark room and kitchen with some recording taking place in the hallway between these two rooms.
Attendees were using dowsing rods on the bottom floor of the Art Center to practice sensing energy when the rods began signifying that an energy or ghost was perhaps present. Tom and Lisa began recording in the doorway of the darkroom.
Several people said they felt energy here. A Class A EVP was recorded saying, "Get Back, Dear." This may sound like a man but we feel that it is the scratchy voice of an older woman whose voice was captured on both recorders (saying different things). Notice that this female is also polite using the term dear. We were standing in the energy field at the dark room door when this was recorded.
This same woman's voice was also recorded on another EVP message that said, "Sanctuary … hid me." Is she telling us that the Sisters of Charity hid her and provided sanctuary? **A historical point here is the death of Virginia City madam and brothel owner Jessie Lester. When Lester was shot on Christmas Eve 1864 she refused to name her assailant. Over the next month Lester lingered on and was cared for by the Sisters of Charity. As the wealthiest madam in Virginia City, Lester left a sizeable sum to the Sisters of Charity. This is probably why she was permitted burial in Silver Terrace Cemetery (other prostitutes, and ladies of ill-repute were forbidden burial there)
Lisa was recording and asking the spirits questions in the hallway between the kitchen and dark room. She asked any spirits that were present why they were at St Mary's and received a voice saying, "I have wandered." |
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Tom was recording in the same location and got an EVP of a man saying, "Shamus got Frann," and then "That mine is just a dread." Although this EVP is quite loud it is mixed with the voice of a participant asking the question, "Were you a miner." Because of this, it is not clear enough to post on the web.
Two of the most intriguing EVP were also not loud enough to be posted for public listening but will be mentioned due to what was said. In response do the question, "Is there anything you would like to say?" an EVP of a sad man's voice is recorded saying, "I killed." About 30 seconds later he is heard again saying, "I broke his neck."
** A historical note here is the fact that the grounds St. Mary's sits on is the former the site of a popular drinking spot, Van Bokklen's Beer Gardens. When Jacob Van Bokklen died in 1873 Louise Mackay bought the land and donated it to the Sisters of Charity for their orphanage.
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