Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
The following stories are a couple of my personal accounts of when the Estes Method was used during a paranormal investigation, beginning with the paranormal investigation I participated in at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans. Three years ago this month, I accompanied a team of paranormal investigators to this historic cemetery. It was late at night and pitch-dark, and all we had for light were a couple of flashlights and the small screens of our portable video cameras. The voodoo priestess Marie Laveau is buried in this cemetery. The team and I were hoping to contact her using a Frank's Box and document our interactions with her. We were successful in our efforts, and we spoke directly with her. She gave us direct answers to our questions, which included specific information and a few names that were later verified. We incorporated the assistance of a French interpreter (and her friend) because the last time the team was there, they recorded EVPs in French. The interpreter and her friend used the Estes Method after we heard voices coming through Frank's Box in French. She wore the blindfold and the noise-cancelling headphones and used an SP7 spirit box while her friend asked questions in French.
The second personal account I would like to share occurred at a historic Civil War fort that I've visited several times. Two of my daughters, two fellow paranormal investigators, and a National Park Service Ranger participated with me in the spirit box session and burst EVP sessions. In the middle of the afternoon, a fellow paranormal investigator and I conducted a spirit box session using the Estes Method in the infirmary of the hospital building and in the officer's quarters house. We spoke directly to Union soldiers and a couple of Confederate soldiers who were held as prisoners of war. We also captured thermal and SLS images in the empty morgue, the empty barracks building, and an empty room upstairs in the hospital building. We placed a boom mic and digital recorders just outside the ruins of an old horse stable for over an hour in the late evening. We placed the recorders on each side of the flat surface of two cement blocks. We marked on the recorders when we turned them on and turned them off. We quickly left the area of the old stable and went to dinner, and the park closed for the day to the general public. Before we left, the rangers on duty searched the fort for any lingering visitors and established that there were none. They agreed to patrol the fort's entrance and perimeter to ensure that no one went near the old stable or anywhere else on the property. When we returned to the fort site, the ranger who had participated in our earlier investigation led us back to the stable. He confirmed that no unauthorized person had entered the fort site while we were gone, and the other rangers steered clear of the stable and kept a distance from it in order to avoid interfering with our investigation. We retrieved the boom mic and the recorders and then proceeded to the ranger station to find out if we had captured anything. Much to our surprise, we heard horses neighing (the rangers confirmed that there were no horses on the premises), soothing voices speaking directly to the horses, a couple of disgruntled soldiers complaining about other soldiers, and a command to secure the perimeter of the fort.
And the last personal account I'd like to share occurred at the Pea Ridge National Military Park in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my niece, three of my daughters, and my youngest son accompanied me on a short version of an investigation as we walked through the designated areas of the old battlefield. We had my thermal imaging camera, my SLS camera, a couple of my spirit boxes, REM pods, and two digital recorders. My sister-in-law and I conducted a spirit box session using the Estes Method on the front porch of the tavern (see here). We also captured SLS images inside an empty room of the tavern and outside by the old canon. Inside the tavern, we all heard voices and footsteps coming from the upstairs floor that was roped off from visitors. We went outside, and my mother-in-law called the visitor center and told the gentleman on the phone that we had heard voices upstairs. She asked for a ranger to come and check to see if there was anyone upstairs who wasn't supposed to be there. While we waited, we kept an eye on both entrances to the tavern to see if anyone came out, but no one ever did. Two rangers showed up and went into the tavern. They went upstairs and found no one up there, and then they searched the other rooms, and there was no one there either. Once the rangers determined that it was safe for us to go back inside the tavern, my kids and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were freaked out and didn't want to go back inside, so we left and went back to the visitor center and museum. My niece and I wanted to stay and attempt to make contact with the spirits upstairs, but we didn't push the issue or tell them that we had seen a couple of full-body apparitions of Union soldiers peering down on us from an upper window. They were freaked out enough already, but I told them later that evening when we discussed what we had experienced at Pea Ridge. Overall, everyone enjoyed the time we spent there that day.
The second personal account I would like to share occurred at a historic Civil War fort that I've visited several times. Two of my daughters, two fellow paranormal investigators, and a National Park Service Ranger participated with me in the spirit box session and burst EVP sessions. In the middle of the afternoon, a fellow paranormal investigator and I conducted a spirit box session using the Estes Method in the infirmary of the hospital building and in the officer's quarters house. We spoke directly to Union soldiers and a couple of Confederate soldiers who were held as prisoners of war. We also captured thermal and SLS images in the empty morgue, the empty barracks building, and an empty room upstairs in the hospital building. We placed a boom mic and digital recorders just outside the ruins of an old horse stable for over an hour in the late evening. We placed the recorders on each side of the flat surface of two cement blocks. We marked on the recorders when we turned them on and turned them off. We quickly left the area of the old stable and went to dinner, and the park closed for the day to the general public. Before we left, the rangers on duty searched the fort for any lingering visitors and established that there were none. They agreed to patrol the fort's entrance and perimeter to ensure that no one went near the old stable or anywhere else on the property. When we returned to the fort site, the ranger who had participated in our earlier investigation led us back to the stable. He confirmed that no unauthorized person had entered the fort site while we were gone, and the other rangers steered clear of the stable and kept a distance from it in order to avoid interfering with our investigation. We retrieved the boom mic and the recorders and then proceeded to the ranger station to find out if we had captured anything. Much to our surprise, we heard horses neighing (the rangers confirmed that there were no horses on the premises), soothing voices speaking directly to the horses, a couple of disgruntled soldiers complaining about other soldiers, and a command to secure the perimeter of the fort.
And the last personal account I'd like to share occurred at the Pea Ridge National Military Park in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. My mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my niece, three of my daughters, and my youngest son accompanied me on a short version of an investigation as we walked through the designated areas of the old battlefield. We had my thermal imaging camera, my SLS camera, a couple of my spirit boxes, REM pods, and two digital recorders. My sister-in-law and I conducted a spirit box session using the Estes Method on the front porch of the tavern (see here). We also captured SLS images inside an empty room of the tavern and outside by the old canon. Inside the tavern, we all heard voices and footsteps coming from the upstairs floor that was roped off from visitors. We went outside, and my mother-in-law called the visitor center and told the gentleman on the phone that we had heard voices upstairs. She asked for a ranger to come and check to see if there was anyone upstairs who wasn't supposed to be there. While we waited, we kept an eye on both entrances to the tavern to see if anyone came out, but no one ever did. Two rangers showed up and went into the tavern. They went upstairs and found no one up there, and then they searched the other rooms, and there was no one there either. Once the rangers determined that it was safe for us to go back inside the tavern, my kids and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were freaked out and didn't want to go back inside, so we left and went back to the visitor center and museum. My niece and I wanted to stay and attempt to make contact with the spirits upstairs, but we didn't push the issue or tell them that we had seen a couple of full-body apparitions of Union soldiers peering down on us from an upper window. They were freaked out enough already, but I told them later that evening when we discussed what we had experienced at Pea Ridge. Overall, everyone enjoyed the time we spent there that day.
