Theatre Royal ghost hunt 19th January 2013
Margate, Kent
It is not often that active theatres are available for ghost hunts because of their schedule of productions. So when this theatre became available we jumped at the chance. Due to the nature of a theatre we did not intend to do what we usually do at a ghost hunt. Instead of different groups being in any particular area for any length of time, we just let the guests hold their own ghost hunt in whatever area they wished. We then would join them at various intervals to assist their ghost hunt. This approach worked well because there is no way that we could have conducted different sessions because noise travels throughout the theatre.
We gave all guests some of our equipment so that they could venture off on their own.
Whilst I was in the theatre talking to guests I became aware of a male spirit energy, his name was Edward and his wearing typical Victorian theatre attire; Top hat and tails. He was 72 years old and told me that he was waiting for a performance from Margaret Stevenson. (Our researchers have yet to find any actress with this name). Carl (Ghost Hunt Events Team member) was sitting in this area and he was able to detect Edward with a MEL meter & KII meters. The guests that were in this area watched as Edward managed to affect both the MEL & KII meter.
I then went off to find other guests, some were backstage and waiting to go to the Fly Floor, this is an area above the stage where the control of the backdrops occurs.
Whilst in this area I felt severe pains in my chest, which I could imagine a heart attack would feel like. Several of the guests also felt a tightening of the chest but nothing painful, although they did feel some strange cold spots. As soon as I left this area the pain subsided.
After catching up with some more guests below the stage, they too wanted to go to the Fly Floor, so having just recovered from that session I returned hoping not to feel the same pain. Fortunately I didn’t get the same sensations. A male spirit energy in his early 20s was now present, he seemed to be from the 1960s and when we held our hands out, we could feel the warmth of his energy and many guests reported a tingling sensation in their hands. There was also an unhappy male spirit energy present and this spirit made one of the male guests cry. The same guest also felt both hot spots and some extremely cold blasts of air around his face. Whilst asking for spirit to repeat my knocks on a wooden beam, we heard a strange tapping noise back, although the noises sounded like someone tapping on concrete.
I suggested that since the majority of the guests were backstage that we hold a séance to try to get those energies to interact with us. A Scottish spirit energy joined us and a very loud and outspoken male energy, both in their 20s. After a while many guests’ arms were raised, mostly on command and the spirit energies then went on to push people and sway them. There were also lots of occasions when the spirit energies were using peoples arms to stroke shoulders and heads of other guests.
At the end of the séance I conducted an EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena a.k.a. ghost voice) experiment. There were several responses although the majority of them we unclear, however the clearest can be heard at:-
http://youtu.be/KQTx067XrOc
http://youtu.be/Rx98_nfdBOU
http://youtu.be/3mZ8L45LE7s
http://youtu.be/z_arK5rnbKw
Back in the theatre I joined a few guests sitting quietly in the upper circle and turned on my spirit box (a device that scans the FM frequencies at 100ms in reverse) and asked the spirits that I could sense; a little girl of about 9 years old eating an ice cream called Dorothy and a strict looking women from the 1950s era waiting for someone to return from the bar to speak to us via this device. We all heard “Hi”, “Hello” and “Steve” then when I asked how many of us were sitting down we all heard “Not Sure” and other various words that didn’t make sense. As we were sitting here we became aware that the door on the opposite side of the theatre was opening and closing as if someone had walked through it. (Other team members had reported this happening when they were in the area) Since we were the only people in the circles (other guests were backstage or on the ground floor) we tried to emulate the door swings and we could not. There was no breeze to speak of and when we opened the door we couldn’t get it to react in the way we had previously seen.
Whilst standing here I was aware of another male spirit standing near to Carl and a guest on the ground floor. Both could feel a coldness as they neared to the spirit, which was in front of a radiator (which was on) and a tingling sensation. Carl could also see several spikes of EMF energy on his MEL meter.
Many guests photographed strange light anomalies in the theatre, some also saw them with their own eyes. Bob (from Surrey Paranormal, a guest) reported the following:-
11.30pm: it quietened down and I managed to sit by myself and see if I could sense anything. While on the top floor (balcony), I saw a couple of shadows move across the seats beside me – nobody else was on the same floor with me and I could find no explanation for the shadows.
12.00am: I moved down to the middle floor (circle) and was sitting in the seats at one side of the auditorium. After about 10 minutes of sitting quietly, I saw some orange lights over the …stage area. They were not distinct, more a shimmer. I thought it might be from the emergency lighting but when I looked at all the emergency lighting units, they were all giving out a steady light so were not the cause, nor could I find any other light source that might have caused the phenomena.
12.30am: I went down to the ground floor and stood, leaning against the stage, looking out into the auditorium. I was hoping I might see the spirit of the former theatre manager who is supposed to come into the auditorium through the back doors, but no such luck. I did, however, get the sensation of someone or something touching my hair!
Another guest (Penny) heard her named be called out, but didn’t take any notice at the time as she thought it was her sister calling her. However at the time her sister was with me, firstly below the stage and then on the Fly Floor both of which are backstage, Penny was in the main theatre.
Many guests also reported feeling odd and strange when initialling entering the Royal Box, although they all reported that these feelings dissipated very quickly.
An unusual investigation just because of the lack of our usual controlled sessions, but nevertheless an active ghost hunt, which didn’t become apparent until all the recordings were analysed. We have shadows and other oddities recorded from our video footage as well as numerous audio recordings that are still being analysed.
The Ghost Hunt Events team were:-
Jo – Paranormal Investigator
Carl – Paranormal Investigator
Steve – Psychic Medium
Steve
Psychic Medium
Ghost Hunt Events
www.ghosthuntevents.co.uk
