WRITE IN THE THICK OF THINGS: Para Investigation

The swirling of orbs of an angry ghost, the voice of a famous dead astrologer, and invisible touches in front of a portal to another dimension -- this investigation had it all.

This is Part 2 of our paranormal investigation in Cripple Creek, Colo., at the Outlaws and Lawmen Jail Museum followed by our same-night return investigation to Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn/Last Dollar Inn. (If you missed Part 1's account, click here.)

When Hector Zeferino of Hotchkiss Paranormal Investigators (HPI) invited us to participate in their fourth investigation in Cripple Creek, we jumped at the opportunity to work alongside a seasoned professional team.

Cripple Creek's old jail house

After we'd encountered the spirit of "Amy" on the jail's third floor (see previous account), we shifted our portion of the investigation to the main cell block, where one of the more notorious spirits resided, an entity known as "Joe." His most concentrated presence was in the confinement cell where he spent a great deal of time before his death, and he'd previously attacked HPI investigator Seth Davis, who was determined to confront the spirit again. We served as his back up when the three of us took our turn in Joe's cell during a lock-down with lights off.

That cell would provide one of several memorable experiences that evening.

Until that night, we'd made the calculated decision to conduct all the previous investigations for our Colorado haunted hotels book during the day. Our assumption was that ghosts didn't necessarily operate on an earthly 24-hour clock and, besides, we figured it was better to see what we were doing. Still, we wondered how our nerve would hold up in the presence of a known hostile spirit. And in the dark.

As it turned out, we were too busy recording the experience to over-think what happened next.

Multiple flying orbs sail around

HPI investigator Seth Davis

Seth put on prison garb to goad Joe, and we bravely trooped in and set up our equipment just as we normally would. The atmosphere seemed oppressive in the cell, but this time no violence occurred. However, Joe was definitely present. Although our digital recorder captured no EVPs of Joe, we did record to video a whole series of flying orbs sailing around Seth as he taunted the angry spirit. In fact, we captured 28 flying orbs over the next 15 minutes.

It was a new kind of evidence for us, and we were so delighted with our documentation it never occurred to us to feel scared.

Astrologer Linda Goodman

After an hour in the cell -- and three hours total at the jail -- we moved our investigation to the next locale, Linda Goodman's Miracle Inn. We'd arranged to conduct an experiment at this B&B with an e-quaintance we'd met, a psychic and medium who'd known the famous astrologer-author Linda Goodman, who died in 1995. Though a thousand miles away, the psychic tried to contact Goodman while we were there and to have Goodman contact us.

Using our audio-only digital recorder, our EchoVox spirit box, and our camcorder, we conducted two sessions aimed at Goodman -- one in her former bedroom and the other in the living room where she herself had encountered a full-bodied apparition of Nikola Tesla while she lived there. We captured several clear, intriguing EVPs during those sessions, one on the recorder and others when we turned on the box.

A voice immediately said, "Look at the machine" (referring, we assume, to the EchoVox), followed by "Spirit box" and "That's it." Then we heard, "We come." The lines of communication seemed plenty open.

One clear EVP in a woman's voice said, "I can solve that." When we later shared this recording with our new psychic friend, she confirmed the voice was Goodman's.

Linda Goodman speaks

to us through our EchoVox

We also conducted flashlight experiments to establish communication, asking spirits to respond by winking the flashlight once for yes and twice for no. This means of instrumental trans-communication established Tesla was, indeed, still present in the B&B, and we also made contact with one of the shadow people reported to walk through walls in second-floor bedrooms.(For more on that, click to see our account of the earlier investigation this past October.) We recorded our flashlight queries and responses to video as well.

One unexpected encounter at the Miracle Inn was meeting still another paranormal investigator, Shaun Crusha, who decided to come over from Colorado Springs when he heard we were coming. The more the merrier! Shaun turned out to be generous in sharing both expertise and advice, which we much appreciated. We also loved seeing first-hand his array of ghost-hunting gizmos, which rivaled those of Zac Bagans on Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures.

One of Sofia's portal paintings

More exciting was Shaun's offer to collaborate with us by using his equipment in our own investigation of the reported spirit portal in the Miracle Inn's basement, normally off-limits to visitors. B&B co-owner and artist Sofia Balas had begun painting a series of pictures depicting portals a year before she and her partner bought and moved to the inn. Only when she arrived did she learn that other investigators had detected the presence of the portal in their basement.

We could hardly wait to set up our equipment (and Shaun's).

It was close to 1:30 a.m. by the time everything was in place. Shaun arranged a series of instruments attached to to two long platforms and then pointed an array of laser grids at the region where the portal was reported. Then we waited.


Investigator Shaun Crusha's laser array

But not for long.

As we all stood at the mouth of the portal, both Shaun and Mark soon noticed disturbances in several of the laser points of light, and the flickering seemed to advance toward us. At the same time, several of Shaun's motion detectors klaxoned, followed by spikes in all of our EMF meters. (EMF stands for Electromagetic Field, and spirits are said to disturb or even use such fields to signal their presence.)

The disturbance seemed to settle down, but within moments Kym felt something tug the hair on the top of her head. The tug felt like someone (or something) had firmly grasped a handful of hair and pulled straight up hard enough to get her attention. Mission accomplished. The same thing happened to the other B&B co-owner, Jason Barton, shortly afterwards.

We continued to monitor the portal for another 45 minutes, but nothing as dramatic transpired after that. Just as well -- it had been a long night. Memorable, but long.

We packed up everything and headed back upstairs. By 3 a.m., we finally turned in, sleeping that night in Linda Goodman's former bedroom. She could have bounced up and down on the mattress for all we cared.

We slept like the dead -- or next to them -- until mid-morning.

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The book featuring our investigations at 14 lodgings in Colorado is now out!