Arundel Town Hall Cells
This was to be mine and Rosie's first all night investigation with Spiritrealms Paranormal Investigation Group. The build up to this investigation was high with tales of how haunted the place is and it had been ages since we'd been to a all night, indoor venue. Arundel is a beautiful city, we spent a couple of hours there having a look around but unfortunately didn't have time to visit the magnificent castle we'll have to save that for another time. Anyway we took a walk up to the Town Hall, which is an impressive building itself, and went in to inquire about the nights activities. The lady behind the desk told us that in actual fact it was not the Town Hall but only the cells that we would be investigating.
Later when we entered the cells we were very disappointed with the tiny location that had been altered and disturbed to create the "Arundel Ghost experience", which in my opinion makes a mockery out of what may truly lye beneath the Town Hall. Still we remained optimistic that if it's as active as what everyone implies then size does not matter. The night would have been a disappointment as I did not experience anything personally, but actually it proved to be a great success....
- In the first seance we decided to light a couple of tea lights to avoid sitting in complete darkness. Our Medium, Alan, took us through an energy building meditation and then continued to request any Spirit present to make contact, eventually they did....I cannot recall the question but when asked the two tea lights both reacted as though they ware being blown. Of course forever the sceptic I presumed this was due to the actions of someone in the group (voluntary or involuntary) but the same question was asked twice more and again the candles reacted, it was becoming more than a coincidence. And so it went on as the questions were asked they would move for yes and remain still for no! Unfortunately Alan blew out one of the tea lights when he tried to prove how much effort would be required from one of the group to effect the candle in such a way but one remained and continued to act as a communication tool between "our world and theirs".
- After the seance above I discussed the phenomena with a fellow sceptic and we agreed that it would be good to be able to rule out the possibility of one of the participants effecting the candle in some way (again voluntary or involuntary). We decided to put the candle in a glass so that it could not be effected by an outside source, unfortunately though the glass created a vacuum of air around the candle which caused the flame to constantly fluctuate and make it's response to questioning incomprehendable. So the tea light communication was resumed without protection from the group. In all honesty I do not believe that the candle could have been manipulated the way it was by any member of the group, especially given the fact the the flame moved in different directions and even in a circular motion too. In my opinion this was definitely paranormal. Below is video evidence of this phenomena, as with everything on this site it is genuine and unaltered, I hope that it leaves you as convinced as I was:
- During a break whilst we were standing around chatting about the seance and spirit in general Rosie let out a yelp and lurched forward as though she had had her bottom pinched. She described the feeling more as her jacket being lifted and perhaps a feeling for a pocket. She said that at first she thought it was me but when she realized there was no one there she jumped, hmm....interesting. She made sure that there was no one in the vicinity and moved closer to the wall behind her to prevent anyone or anything getting behind her again, but then it happened a second time! This time it felt more like her jacket had been pulled down. Maybe it was a pick-pocket that had done some time there, or perhaps just a randy old man that liked to touch womens bottoms! Now if it wasn't for her startled reaction I would've probably dismissed this and just given her the benefit of doubt but to react in the way she did I am more convinced that she did feel something. Unfortunately when we swapped places Spirit didn't fancy giving me the same treatment, guess I just wasn't his type :) One observation I'd like to make about this incident is that we were standing around chatting with the lights on, evidence that we do not need to sit in silent darkness for something to happen, if it's going to happen then it will....
There was one other incident; the mysterious self boiling kettle. Half the group were in the solitary confinement cell whilst the other half were in the main area. We weren't up to much just having a chat and a laugh when suddenly we heard the kettle boiling! Wow! Being sceptical I was reluctant to believe it was paranormal but with no explanation I was hard pressed to work out what could've happened. We decided a reenactment was in order and got the last person to have used the kettle, whom happened to be Rosie, to retrace her actions. Sometime after she had finished another cup of coffee sure enough the kettle boiled again upon investigation we found that the switch on the kettle was faulty and caused the kettle to reboil sometime after it had originally. A satisfactory, yet disappointing conclusion to what appeared to be paranormal phenomena. Oh well, you win some, you learn some :)
So all in all a good night. That candle thing was remarkable, truly, the more I ponder it the more amazing I find the phenomena to be. The biggest disappointment, other than the kettle, has got to be the size of the venue, it made for an awkward investigation and would've been much more suited to a smaller group. Good night though.