Paranormal Investigation: Schenectady, New York - 2008

• Site Type: Private Residence
  
• Location: Schenectady, New York
  
• Date: March 16, 2008
  
• Client Status: Specified: Jason and Heather
  

(March 9, 2008, Schenectady New York) The ISIS Paranormal Team investigated a private residence in Schenectady, New York after being contacted by a couple living at the location that reported experiencing an increase in unusual and unexplained events. Jason, age 18, and his girlfriend Heather, age 19, had been living at the location for a period of two months when they noted several odd, paranormal events that caused them concern. Heather first noticed the fact that the bathroom cabinets beneath the sink were always open every morning, despite the fact that they were closed the evening prior, and Heather and Jason witnessed paranormal activity related to a candle flying off the top of the television without aid on several occasions. The distance the candle traveled was estimated to be about five feet and the candle was not lit at the time of the event. Visitors to the location have complained about paranormal activity including seeing the apparition of a girl in the bathroom of the location; and some visitors have reported the feeling of being touched by something unseen in the bathroom of the site.

Heather’s sister spent the evening at the location and reported experiencing paranormal activity; she reported hearing an unidentified voice telling her to wake up. The voice repeated, “Wake up, Wake Up!” Heather’s sister believed it was Heather trying to wake her, claiming the voice to be that of a female, but Heather was not present at the location during the incident. In addition, there are paranormal reports of items suddenly disappearing at the location and turning up in unusual locations; Heather’s sister had a ring that disappeared and for a week the ring remained lost. Heather then found the ring while cleaning – it was discovered beneath one of the burners of the stovetop in the kitchen. This latter occurrence parallels the assertions of another tenant residing in the same building; a man living in the building reported that his keys went missing, only to be later found beneath one of the burners on the stove. Heather’s keys disappeared and after searching for them, the keys “just appeared on the side of the couch.” Finally, Heather and Jason report an incident when the two were quarrelling. During the disagreement, the radio was on and shut off by itself.

Jason and Heather own a cat that is seemingly affected by the events that occur at the location. Heather reports that “the cat goes crazy sometimes,” and behaves in ways that go beyond the normal, playful behavior of a cat. Heather asserts: “Sometimes she will just sit here and look like she is being petted,” and Jason reports that sometimes the cat will get up, have all its hair standing on end, arch its back and run off as if it is terrified. Both Heather and Jason report seeing the cat look as if it is watching something, and it seems as if the cat is chasing it.

Jason and Heather estimated that the building they reside in was built in the early 1900’s and they did not know the number of previous owners of the location. The building is currently undergoing major renovations, no other media has been involved with the case in question, and the location, to the best of the occupant’s knowledge, has never been blessed. The couple claims to have no current religious preferences or affiliations. Heather however, was raised Catholic. The couple occasions Church on Christmas, but they make no regular practice of going to church or engaging in prayer.

When Jason was asked about his current belief about what happens to a spirit after death, he stated no opinion on the matter. Heather stated that she believed that when people pass on they can do what they want to do; she believes they can maintain contact with the living if they choose to do so. She believed that whatever was present at the location was present because “they didn’t know where else to go.” The couple reports contacting our team, not necessarily out of fear, rather, the couple is curious about the events and the causes of the activity in question.

Jason and Heather are not taking any prescribed or over the counter medications; they are not receiving treatment for mental health issues; they have not tried any herbal remedies; the couple has not attempted to have visions via herbal means; and they report having no issues with undue stress or anxiety.

The couple reports having an interest in the paranormal, and on occasion, have watched paranormal television shows. They do not however, read books about the paranormal or use the Internet to research paranormal interests. The couple has never been involved in ghost hunting pursuits, and they have not, until our team’s visit, made an effort to end the events in question. Further, Jason and Heather assert that they have never used an Ouija Board on the property, nor have they engaged in séances. Jason, however, in the past, has used an Ouija Board which is now located at a place separate from the location under investigation.

When questioned as the whether or not they believed they had psychic abilities, both Heather and Jason denied having such abilities. The couple does not report experiencing any unexplained memory loss, the sense of lost time, or large periods of time where they cannot remember what they did. The couple further asserts no problems with sleep walking, sleep eating, narcolepsy, insomnia, sleep apnea, or other sleep disturbances. Heather responded affirmatively when questioned about incidents involving psychic sleep – when Heather has tried to wake Jason in the middle of the night when she was hearing strange rattling and unexplained noises, she could not wake him from his deep sleep no matter how hard she tried to wake him. Neither Jason nor Heather has experienced nightmares or night terrors while living at the location.

Jason reports having an automatic writing experience while visiting his grandmother’s location. The writing produced looked like “chicken scratch” and did not make any sense to him. The incident occurred after using the Ouija Board at the same location. He does not report any further experiences with automatic writing.

Jason and Heather report hearing both male and female voices at the location, as well as unexplained banging, footsteps, scuffling, and the sound of chairs moving around when nothing is being moved. Jason has heard a voice whispering “get back,” and Heather has heard whispering, but could not make out what was being said. The couple has also reported seeing strange shadows. The shadows appear out of the corner of the eye and have not been seen straight on.

The couple report having a lot of plumbing difficulties – the cold water fails to work, and sometimes it sounds as if the toilet is flushing by itself. Along with the latter difficulty, the couple reports experiencing both cold and hot spots throughout the location at random times. Heather reports feeling something touch her shoulder, and at first believed it was Jason. When she turned, there was no one there. Jason reports that he has never been touched by anything unseen, but that a male friend reported the feeling of something touching the top of his head. Finally, the couple reports the strange sensation that they are being watched all the time. Heather reports feeling particularly uncomfortable in the spare room or extra bedroom of the location and Jason reports that the bathroom is the most uncomfortable in terms of its eeriness.

THE INVESTIGATION

Case Stats:

Weather: Cloudy

Temperature Predictions: High 40F/Low 27F

Outdoor Temperature: 36F

Extremely Windy/Some Snow Showers

Moon Phase: 4 percent waxing

Geomagnetic Field: G1 Storm

45 Day forecast: no geomagnetic storms expected

Sunrise: 7:16 AM

Moonrise: 7:55 AM

Low Tide: .26 Feet/1:41 PM

High Tide: 5.3 Feet/7:10 PM

Sunset: 6:54 PM

Moonset: 9:39 PM

Moon in Aries/Not Void of Course

EVPs

A total of fifteen EVPS were captured at the location, ranging from A to D. To listen to the EVPS associated with this case, visit our evp gallery.

Photographs

Several photographs were captured at the location, including images of orbs and mist. To view the photos captured at this location, visit our photo gallery.

Video

No video was captured at the location.

Temperature Fluctuations

A temperature fluctuation was detected in the kitchen location. Base reading 65.3F dropped to 52.3F.

11:25 AM – temperature reading in kitchen 68F; at 11:35 AM dropped to 63F.

11:59 AM: Temperature fluctuation noted in the bedroom of the location. 66F to 70F. At 12:00 PM the reading dropped to 64F.

12:00 PM – unusual temperature fluctuation in bedroom indicating a hot spot – reading from 140F dropped to 86F.

12:10 PM - The bathroom of the location had a base reading of 66F. A fluctuation is detected; temperature rises to 84F. Investigator reported the feeling that the room was unusually cold. At 12:15 PM the temperature in the bathroom dropped to 70F.

EMF Readings

Note: At the time of our investigation, there was a power outage at the location. The clients had no electricity on during the entire investigation process.

One Cellcensor EMF detector failed to work at the location, despite passing initial testing before the investigation began.

No EMF readings were detected in the bedroom of the location.

Audible EMF was detected in the living room by an EMF detector that converts electromagnetic fields to audible sound waves.

Other Events

While conducting EVPs in the extra bedroom of the location, a dime appeared on the floor where there was no dime prior. The same thing happened in the living room during the process of the cleansing.

Psychic Experiences

Note: Our team members are not given any information about a case prior to an investigation. They are not permitted to discuss the case while the investigation is conducted, and although paired up into teams, our team members are not permitted to share findings during the investigation. The latter is performed in an effort to prevent evidence contamination, and to eliminate the possibility of preconceived notions developing about a case and its associated events.

Patricia and Dayna both noted the change in vibrations upon entering the location. When entering the home the energies seemed far more oppressive than when standing in the hallway just before the home's entrance.

Justyn Staley, Clairsentient

10:30 AM – Justyn reports the feeling of being watched from the bedroom area.

11:03 AM – Justyn reports having an unexplained stabbing pain in his left arm. Justyn used the dowsing rods which then pointed toward the bathroom.

11:06 AM – Justyn notes that his camera fails to operate. The camera had to be reset.

11:08 AM – Justyn reports extreme, unexplained frustration. He could not discern a cause for the frustration experienced.

Robin Evans, Investigator

Robin notes several periods of unexplained nausea throughout the investigation, despite feeling perfectly fine before our arrival.

11:45 AM Robin went to retrieve her ritual notes so that a cleansing could be performed. The notes were missing and had to be rewritten.

Pendulum Readings

10:25 AM – location: living room – pendulum begins to spin widdershins near television.

10:45 AM – Widdershins pendulum activity by window in the spare room situated across the hall from the location.

10:52 AM – pendulum pulling toward window near bed and then pulling to foot of bed while spinning in circles.

12:00 PM – in the bedroom, pendulum begins spinning widdershins at the precise moment a temperature fluctuation is detected from 140F to 86F.

Angela Kaufman, Psychic Sketch Artist

At 10:20 AM – Angela sketches the image of a female spirit, a girl which is noted as being a “very young blond girl, dressed in white.” This correlates with the sightings witnesses have had pertaining to a the spirit of a girl at the location.

10:30 AM – Angela notes sensing a presence near the television – the precise location where the client reports witnessing a candle fly off the television unaided on several occasions. Angela notes: “I felt pressure around my head and like there is a presence hovering to my right, near the television.

10:30 AM – Angela note a sharp pain in her right knee and the feeling of a lot of energy in the “spare room.” An image is captured in the same location.

10:46 AM – Angela notes smelling the smell of “feces” in the spare room.

11:05 AM – Angela notes that the bathroom of the location feels considerably colder than the other rooms. At 11:10 AM the cat ran out of the bathroom.

Brian Evans, Psychic Sketch Artist

10:40 AM - Brian has a bad reaction to some energy he is feeling and begins to feel ill.

11:17 AM – Brian sketches a presence in the male bedroom and notes – this “person” likes to watch all the time what is going on.” This correlates with Justyn Staley’s assertion that “something” was watching him from the bedroom area.

Conclusions:

Location: Haunted.

With the EVP captures, photographic evidence, numerous temperature changes, positive EMF findings, and the experiences of the clients and our investigators, our team positively concludes that the location is haunted. Our findings are also based on the fact that our team has received and previously investigated similar complaints at the same location. We surmise that more than one spirit is present at the location. The clients did not necessarily fear the events that were happening, but we conducted a cleansing at the location in an effort to rid the location of any negative energy that might have been present. After being in touch with the client, Jason reports spending the night at the location the day of our investigation and cleansing. That evening, he believes that he heard a female whisper, “help me.” No other further activity has been reported since.

Additional Evidence:

• View our Photo Gallery for paranormal photos associated with this case.
  
• View our EVP Gallery for Electronic Voice Phenomena captures associated with this case.