I finally have some time to write about my haunt jaunt to the Old South Pittsburgh Hospital. I know I’ve written about it before, but only about the superficial stuff. (Who invited me, who else was there, general impressions, and how hot it was!)
But this post is about the good stuff. What kind of potential paranormal activity I experienced while ghost hunting with Ghost Eyes, Southern Ghosts, Rocket City Paranormal, and Jessica of Ghost Stories and Haunted Places.
EXPERIENCE 1: UNEASY FEELING BY THE NURSERY
When I first arrived Steve asked me if I was sensitive at all. I didn’t know quite how to respond. I am. Sometimes. But not like how I know so many others are.
He said if I was he wanted to warn me about the third floor. Duly noted.
I didn’t feel a thing up there. Until I walked past the windows to the nursery.
Luckily I got a photo of that hallway (above). In the photo you can see the frames of the nursery windows on the right hand side. (In between the two door frames.)
I didn’t say anything to anyone when it happened. Because as soon as I was past the area, I was fine. Plus, I was suspicious of myself because maybe I’d let myself be biased by Steve’s forewarning.
Also, the windows were dark. I couldn’t see into the room beyond them or what (or who) might be in there. I think it’s natural to feel uneasy in such a case. (And my imagination doesn’t need much to work with!)
But later, downstairs, Brett from Southern Ghosts mentioned he’d felt uncomfortable in the nursery too. (And I think he actually went inside the room, whereas I remained in the hall.)
Conclusive of anything? No. Interesting? Yes.
EXPERIENCE 2: THE ORB
I am NOT a believer in orbs as evidence. Everyone I know has an orb pic to show. I always dismiss them as being hopeful and wanting very badly to believe it’s proof of something. (Even though I’m convinced even they know it’s not.)
That’s why I can’t even believe I’m going to share this next picture and relate this story, but…it happened and it was a weird experience.
We were all on the third floor together moving from room to room. Suddenly the K2s started going off in the hall outside of the nursery. (IMO, that was definitely one of Old South Pittsburgh Hospital’s hotspots. You’ll see why in Experience 3 because that area will be mentioned yet again.)
They started tracking it around that vicinity. It started off sort of low, then started floating higher, and ultimately went up behind them. I was clicking away with my camera the whole time. These are the pics I got. The 1st with an “orb,” the 2nd without (but in the same spot).
I reviewed my pics right then and noticed it. I showed it to Angie to get her opinion. She said it was likely dust, but we could blow it up bigger on the computer later to be sure.
If you click on the pic it’ll make it larger. As we suspected, it’s likely dust. (But the K2 going crazy and potentially capturing something at that moment was a cool experience!)
EXPERIENCE 3: THE SHADOW
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this one. Steve suggested we do what he called a “four corners” exercise in an old surgical room on the third floor. (Just right down the way from my favorite place, the nursery.)
Steve, Angela, Alex (Jessica’s husband) and myself all picked a corner of the room to stand in. Jessica volunteered to be the one standing in the middle of the room.
Angela was across from me on my left, Alex on my right. For three minutes we stood silent in total darkness. But I noticed an odd shadow on the wall by Alex. It was just a long, horizontal shadow mid-way up the wall right next to him.
It was late, and I was tired, but I kept thinking, “Something’s not right about that shadow.”
It wasn’t scary, I didn’t feel alarmed, but my intuition was telling me something was wonky with it.
As I’d done by the nursery, I wasn’t going to say anything. I couldn’t prove what I’d seen. Once we turned our flashlights on it was gone.
That’s when Alex said, “Huh, it’s gone now. There was this weird shadow on the wall.”
“I saw that too!” I said amazed.
We all quickly turned back off our flashlights to see if we could recreate it. We couldn’t. No matter what we tried.
That’s when someone (I forget who now) said, “How could there be a shadow without any light anyway?”
I don’t know, but there had been a darker than night shadow lingering on that wall in the windowless, empty (save for us an some shelving) room. And no matter what we did, we could not make that shadow come back.
EXPERIENCE 4: THE ELECTRICAL SENSATION
After the above four corners experiment, Steve, Angela, Jessica, Alex and I set up a few doors down in another surgery room to conduct another four corners experiment.
This time Angela was in the center, Steve was across from me on my left, and Jessica was across from me on my right.
We stood in complete darkness and silence for another three minutes. But this time the three minutes seemed almost unbearable.
I started feeling what I can only describe as a “sizzle” sensation. I felt all prickly and “charged.” It was very uncomfortable. To the point I almost spoke up and said I couldn’t handle anymore.
When Steve said, “Time’s up,” I responded by saying, “Thank God! I don’t know how much more I could’ve taken.”
But to my surprise, Jessica muttered similar sentiments at the same moment. She, too, described feeling much different this go around. A strong sense of discomfort and an urgency to have the experiment over.
This is just what happened on the third floor. There’s more. I’ll be writing about that in subsequent posts, as well as sharing the evidence Ghost Eyes found. Some of which coincides with experiences I described above.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.