In October, 2021, we ran a story about ghosts. More specifically, ghosts that some people working at the Edify offices believe to have seen or heard doing things like walking around the upper floor, making otherwise unexplainable chirping noises and opening faucets in either of the three bathrooms located in our old house that serves as our working space.
Investigators from Ghost Hunt Alberta made a preliminary visit back in ‘21, and the results were promising enough. When investigator Charlotte Shepherd toured our second floor, then asked if spirits were willing to identify themselves, our front doorbell went off, though there was no, ahem, tangible person there. And when I write “promising,” I mean that they wanted to come back for a second, more comprehensive visit.
After delays due to, you guessed it, COVID, we booked that second visit for earlier this year. And, we’ve got the results back. There’s an accompanying video for you to watch.
A whole team from Ghost Hunt Alberta arrived on a Saturday, about midnight, and we sat around our main-floor meeting room table, which was previously identified as a hive for paranormal activity.
Let’s go back to that night.
First order of business, turning down the lights. It’s not just to make the setting seem more like a horror movie — though that’s as good a reason as any, in my book. Turning down the lights fine tunes the human senses. It removes distractions. You’re more likely to pick up sounds from the building. And, yes, immediately, the whole group notices the weird chirp, coming at irregular intervals. No, it isn’t coming from smoke detectors. Sometimes it sounds like it is coming from far away, echoing up the stairs from the basement, or from the second level. Other times, it sounds like it’s right by our ears.
Ian Beck, who wasn’t along for the preliminary visit, is the one with all the tech equipment. He sets up EMF monitors in the meeting room, and monitors for energy spikes. OK, if you’re into horror movies about hauntings, you know there’s always one person on the paranormal investigation team who is in charge of all the equipment, wearing headphones and checking monitors. This person is the first to die in the horror movie. Everyone goes off to investigate, and the tech person is left alone, eating a sandwich, hunched over a screen. That person is then left unprotected, and at the mercy of malevolent spirits.
Beck is that guy. (Spoiler alert: He will not die tonight.)
We turn off our phones, to make sure we don’t trigger EMT pulses. According to the team, the EMT monitor will spike when it comes in contact with spiritual energy. Bonnie Milner, who runs Ghost Hunt Alberta, says that spirits can trigger the monitors by touching them.
Milner insists on asking for consent. She says if the spirits want us to leave, they will leave. She tells them an EMT monitor on one end of the table is a signal for a “yes” answer, and one on the other side of the table is “no.” Ian reports activity from both, but not enough to make their buzzers go off. Then, there are random buzzes in the darkness. Did any of us leave our phones on? No. Just in case, we wave some near the monitors, and they remain silent.
Ian confirms that the numbers aren’t spiking at regular intervals. The readings will go down to 0 and then spike, suggesting that the thing making it spike is not a computer or server or screen. Those would create regular cycles or patterns.
Milner asks again if the spirits are willing to communicate. The “yes” monitor is triggered immediately. As a control, she asks the spirit or spirits if they can trip the no “monitor.” The “yes” monitor goes off, quickly followed by the “no” monitor.
Bonnie asks me if I’d like to ask some questions, so decide to go for it. I ask if there is more than one spirit. The “yes” monitor goes off right away. The group then follows up, asking if there are more than three (no answer) less than three (no answer), and then, finally, if there are three.
The yes monitor goes off right away. So we ask again. Are there three? The yes monitor goes off again. And again.
We ask more questions, and we get a “yes” when we ask if at least one of the spirits used to work in the building. The old Oliver house that is home to Edify used to be home to a couple of different salons, Vega Hair Skin and Body Care and Julie’s House of Beauty. It has also been a rooming house. So, it’s not easy to narrow down.
We got a lot of chirps and EMT spikes through the night. Are you skeptic? A believer? Well, watch the video below.
