Autumn Ghost Hunt at the Ghostlight Theatre

On September 26, 2020, the Ghostlight Theatre opened its doors and held its first public ghost hunt… and the spirits were ready to talk!

The Ghostlight Theatre has a special place in my heart. If you’ve followed Spook-Eats for any amount of time, you’ll recognize the name and maybe even know about my amazing personal experiences there.

The 130 year old building is now a community theatre where I have been a member for 15 years. I’ve experienced unexplainable noises, touches, and sights over the years and even managed to capture a few experience as evidence. My greatest piece of evidence (ever) was captured down in the basement of the theatre–a photo of my brother who passed away in 2015 as well as an EVP of his voice reassuring me, “I’m fine.”

So when I was thinking of a location for my next public ghost hunt, it seemed like a no-brainer. The Ghostlight Theatre was the perfect place.

With 130 years of history, people have constantly been filling the historic building from its time as a church to its days now as a theatre.

The building has been dark for the last seven months thanks to Covid-19. In the meantime, the theatre company should have produced their radio show fundraiser as well as their smash hit Lottie and Bernice and their summer musical. Thousands of people should have visited the theatre in the spring and summer, so when we decided to open the doors to 30 brave souls for a ghost hunt, we knew the spirits would be desperate to reach out and talk.

We split the guests into three groups (Ghostlight owner, Don, was backstage, Don’s son, DJ, in the basement, and myself in the auditorium) and used a variety of equipment to communicate with the spirits of the Ghostlight.

Check out the EVPs and spirit box sessions below and let me know what you think! As always, it’s best to listen to some of these with headphones.

EVPs

Two quality EVPs were captured with the help of Joe Pieri’s (of Paranormal Oddities) DR-60.

The first was recorded down in the basement with the Red group. The basement has been the site of my personal experiences as well as the spirit of a little girl named Mary and the Lady in Red. When the Red group asked, “Do you mean us any harm?” this is the response they received:

We here at the Ghostlight don’t think that there is anything malevolent or evil at the theatre. We don’t think there’s anything demonic and many of us are comfortable inside the building. However, one member did have a negative experience when they first acquired the building 20 years ago… and it was in the exact same spot this EVP was captured. It could be because the spirit doesn’t recognize some of the members of the group… either way, the intelligent answer sends a shiver down your spine and coincides with an Estes Method response we also caught in the auditorium (learn more about the Estes Method below):

The second EVP that was recorded was captured in the auditorium directly after we heard someone running through the attic above us (there is no floor in the attic). To establish contact, Joe asked a specific question and we got a specific response:

Unfortunately, as soon as we did establish contact and tried to continue to ask questions, the other group arrived, contaminating the recording.

The final EVP was during an Estes Method session. While we were asking questions and waiting for answers to come through the SB-7, one young woman in the group heard something that no one else seemed to catch… luckily our recorder did:

Personal Experiences

As mentioned before, the Red group which consisted of Joe Pieri, two members of the Ghostlight Theatre Company, and three others, were in the auditorium when everyone in the group heard someone running in the attic directly above them. It continued long enough for someone to point it out, others to ask them to repeat themselves, and then everyone was able to quiet down in order to hear it.

With the same group, myself and two others heard a chair move somewhere in the auditorium. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to pick it up on the recorder because someone else was reacting to the SB-7.

During the final spirit box session, I got extremely nauseous. It got so bad, I actually admitted it out loud in case I needed to excuse myself from the group. It only lasted about five minutes and dissipated as suddenly as it arrived.

SB-7 Estes Method

The majority of evidence that I captured while on this public ghost hunt was with the SB-7 as that was the equipment we were using in the auditorium.

Now the SB-7 is a controversial piece of equipment. In theory, it sweeps various radio waves, staying on them for a fraction of a second before moving onto the next one. The idea is that spirits can use this white noise to answer questions.

I’m personally a huge fan of the Estes Method where one person sits with headphones on, listening to the sweeping radio stations, either blindfolded or in the dark. The remaining investigators ask questions and see if any answers come through the SB-7. I like this experiment because there’s very little room for anyone to sway an answer. The trouble with dowsing rods, pendulums, and Ouija boards is that you can hear the question so it’s easier to manipulate an answer (whether you realize you’re doing it or not). That is no longer an issue with the Estes Method.

We got a lot of names coming through the SB-7. And one named appeared in each group–Alexander. We had Alexander, Alex, and Al come through the spirit box in every group.

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It took a few minutes of going through the church archives to learn that Alexander was a family name. The Alexanders were one of the founding families of the Friedens Church in 1889.

Alexander wasn’t the only name that was heard during our spirit box sessions.

There were several occasions when my name came through the SB-7 as well as Mr. Spook-Eats’ name.

The final spirit box session had some of the best results calling out people’s names:

The name “Patrick” came through at one point. At first, we thought it was because one of the guests had Patrick from Spongebob on her shirt… but it turned out one of the gentlemen in the group was named Patrick.

Several minutes later, another name came through–the name of the young woman who was wearing the Patrick T-shirt.

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Sometimes, to see if there is a spirit in the area, I like to ask a simple question of how many people are in the room. Over the years, I’ve gotten some interesting responses, including this one:

When trying to figure out how many spirits are in the building, we heard:

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One of the biggest claims to fame the Ghostlight has is the photo of a ghost in the middle of a production of A Christmas Carol. It’s simply part of life at the Ghostlight to think that the performers are not alone on stage.

It seems they like to watch the shows:

And even perform (something we already knew).

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But the most incredible interaction with the spirit box was this conversation during the final group:

For those of you who don’t know… I just had a baby.

The Ghostlight Theatre did not disappoint at our first public ghost hunt. It was the first time the building had been open for months and the building felt alive as we wandered around. For me, it’s a home away from home where I’ve come to know the spirits and I like to think they’ve come to know me over the years.

We have our Winter Ghost Hunt at the Ghostlight Theatre in January. As of publication of this article, there were still 10 tickets left… join us for an incredible night at the Ghostlight (if you dare).

If you’d like to support the historic Ghostlight Theatre, there are several different ways for you to help them during this difficult time:

*You can donate directly to the theatre via their PayPal account.

*Purchase tickets to the ghost hunts (a portion of the purchase goes back to the theatre).

*Purchase a copy of The Ghosts of the Ghostlight Theatre. Spook-Eats’ very first fundraiser book where 100% of the proceeds go directly to the theatre! Available at the theatre as well as on Amazon.

If you own a haunted bar, cafe, hotel, or restaurant and you’d like us to check it out, reach out to us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.  If you have a favorite haunted hot spot with great food and atmosphere and you’d like to share it with us, hit us up on social media or leave a comment below! We’d love to hear from you… Thanks for joining us, and Happy Haunting!