On Saturday 18th September, I had the privilege of joining The World of Paranormal, a brilliant team of investigators, on their 8pm-3am vigil at the Old Police Cells Museum, Brighton. The night turned out to be far more eventful than I’d anticipated – a bit unfortunate, because now I’m even more nervous about my solo vigil scheduled for Halloween. But before I tell you what happened, and present some audio evidence for your consideration, let me set the scene…
There were nine of us on site for the investigation. For most of the time we were split up into smaller groups. World of Paranormal travel with an impressive array of equipment: CCTV, EMF detectors, motion sensors, plus video and audio recording equipment. On the more ‘intuitive’ side they also use a Ghost Box, a device believed by some to enable audio conversation with spirits in real time, about which – more later. And I also brought along my Ouija board and pendulum.
The World of Paranormal at work in the uniform storage area.
The investigation centred on four main areas, including the council chamber on the first floor (which proved paranormally very ‘flat’ on the night we were there). On the upper basement level is the main area of the museum, which comprises two separate corridors of former prison cells. One of them was used for female inmates (sometimes with children), the other for males. The female cells seemed to me slightly to moderately spooky. The male cells were a different story: I sensed an ‘unpleasant’ atmosphere, but would be hard-pressed to say exactly what. It simply felt ‘hostile’ and at the same time ‘miserable’. The lower basement level was distinctly colder and gloomier than the level above. In this area were storage racks formerly used to hold police uniforms. Before this, it was the Chief Constable’s office, and still contains an original fireplace – the spot where Henry Solomon was murdered in 1844. Adjoining this area are some former wash-rooms and disused toilets. Despite this area being the deepest, gloomiest, and the scene of the famous murder, it was nevertheless also quite ‘flat’ atmospherically. A small group of us held a Ouija board session by the fireplace, but the spirit that came through claimed to be one PC Edward Hawkins (1934-1957) rather than Chief Constable Solomon. Whether there ever was such a person, we’ve not been able to verify. (I’d guess that the answer is probably ‘no’.)
A first indication things were getting ‘interesting’ occurred during our vigil in the male cells. Each of us chose a cell, then we sat inside alone with the door closed in complete blackness. It didn’t feel too bad at first, although I reminded myself that on Halloween I wouldn’t have the comfort of knowing there were fellow investigators nearby. But then, quite suddenly, I sensed from behind me an extremely unpleasant yet recognisable smell: unwashed bodies.
I’d had a shower before I came out, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t me. The smell came with a weird, oppressive feeling, as if someone were approaching me from behind. However, both smell and feeling departed sharply when I decided I’d had enough and snapped on my torch. (I realised at this point that during my night alone I’m probably going to have to keep my torch on all the time.)
The male cell at the furthest end of the corridor. (Nice.)
I had a good chance to examine this ‘smell’ before it became too creepy to bear. In fact, I’d describe it as not really a smell at all. It was more like the impression you get when you imagine a smell – such as when we imagine the smell of flowers, or of burning, for example. It arises in the mind rather than in the place we’re standing. Yet I certainly wasn’t intending to imagine the smell of unwashed bodies – so where had the idea come from?
That was my first experience of the evening – purely subjective, with no evidence other than my personal impressions. But all manner of weirdness kicked off after we switched on the Ghost Box.
It was a couple of hours later. I was among a group of five in one of the male cells – the one kitted out with a bunk and blanket, complete with a horribly creepy mannequin for an inmate. A Ghost Box is a radio device which scans repeatedly through the AM or FM wavebands, pausing only briefly to emit what signal it finds before moving onto the next wavelength. The idea is that spirits can manipulate the random sounds that emerge in order to speak to us in real time. I found the device very interesting: firstly, because it emits a rhythmic noise that has quite a ‘trancey’ effect; and, secondly, you have to listen hard for any ‘words’ that emerge, which creates a strong impression that there is indeed some entity struggling to get through. Whether the effects of the device are psychological rather than paranormal, I was certainly very shocked at one point when, in response to our question, ‘Do you want us to get out?’ the words ‘GET OUT!’ hissed back at us through the device, in a horrible, hoarse voice.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have my recorder switched on at that point. Another team member did, so hopefully I’ll be able to get hold of the recording and post it here. But even so, the activation of the Ghost Box seemed a signal for all manner of electronic weirdness to erupt.
The World of Paranormal use a set of walkie-talkies to communicate between teams. As we sat in the male cells, another group was checking out other locations. We had two walkies with us, which were lying on the floor. As soon as the Ghost Box had been switched on, we noticed that one of our walkies was picking up random snippets of talk from the other group. The snippets that were being picked up seemed oddly relevant to the questions we were asking the Ghost Box. We used our walkie to ask the other group what they were doing. They informed us that their walkie was on a table a few feet distant – which was odd, because a button has to be depressed to make the walkie transmit. Furthermore, both of our walkies were tuned to the same channel, but only one of them was picking up snippets from the other group.
We turned off the Ghost Box and used the Ouija board instead, but the walkie weirdness continued. Indeed, the entity communicating through the board – who went by the highly dubious name, ‘SMAX TEYA’ – appeared able to activate the walkie on command. It did this exactly on cue a number of times, in a manner that left us all quite stunned.
I’ve put together a short sound file [MP3 1.8MB 1min 55secs] that illustrates three instances.
In the first snippet, we have become suspicious of the spirit’s intentions and ask it to leave. The planchette moves to ‘GOODBYE’, but at the same moment the walkie erupts into life with a burst of laughter, and the oddly-relevant words, ‘The activity says it all!’
In the second snippet we ask the spirit if it can affect the walkie. The planchette slides to ‘YES’. When we say, ‘Do it now,’ the walkie immediately emits a transmission.
In the third snippet, a member of our team whose brother is in the second teams asks the spirit to transmit the sound of his brother laughing. It takes quite some time before the requested result comes through. Indeed – we start to ask other questions in the meantime, yet we still react when the original request is fulfilled, even though more than a minute has passed. This raises the fundamental question: are these really the intentional actions of a spirit, or are we simply projecting intentionality onto random events? Or if a spirit is involved, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect there to be a delay whilst it waited for the member of the other team to laugh?
The fireplace where Henry Solomon was murdered in 1844.
Make up your own mind!
I came away with a definite impression that there is something odd about The Old Police Cells. The way this seemed to involve electronic equipment makes me doubt it has much to do with the departed souls of former policemen and policewomen. Another oddness: during the Ghost Box session I noticed my audio recorder light up and its shutdown message appear. I assumed the battery had run down, but when I turned it back on it was fully charged. I could not account for it suddenly switching itself off.
At the end of the male cells corridor is a bank of electrical equipment. The World of Paranormal’s resident electrical expert informed me that his EMF readings in this area were off the scale – at levels he suggested might be hazardous to health, if the equipment were sited where people were present for long periods. I couldn’t help wondering if this equipment were responsible for the ‘unpleasant’ atmosphere. Indeed, there is evidence for a link between ‘hauntings’ and strong electrical fields. But even that couldn’t account for the mischief SMAX TEYA seemed capable of.
In fact, there was even more weirdness to SMAX’s antics than I’ve reported here. But perhaps I’ll leave that for another time…
