Taverncast Ghostcast
Background
For Halloween 2010 - as part of our Halloweekend celebration - we interviewed local paranormal researcher Matt Laura about his experiences and beliefs regarding the ghosts and the paranormal. A decade ago, he and Bryce were part of AAPRO (the Ann Arbor Paranormal Research Organization) and repeatedly investigated a local legend - the abandoned Scio village graveyard.
To quote the original AAPRO case file:
Nestled in the forested and under-developed region of southeast Michigan known as the Huron River Valley, about 7 miles northwest of the city of Ann Arbor, lies the location of a place long since lost to the flow of time and change. Where there now stands rows of oak and walnut trees, a new manufacturing plant and a few houses, there once was a small town named Scio.
Now there is very little left of the area that was Scio village, as can been in the satellite photography of the region. You can see the original AAPRO map here - an animation that cycles between a period map and the modern layout of roads in the area. Today there's a small park in the area, but that's about it. The park does have a sign with a little information about what used to be there.
A local legend holds that a warlock (male witch) was killed for heresy and buried in the (now abandoned) cemetery. A tree eventually grew around the grave's headstone. As seen in this photo from one of AAPRO's original investigations (in 1998), there was some sandstone found in the roots of the tree. When we went back in October 2010, we could find no sign of this stone.
The Taverncast Crew Investigates
In early October 2010 the Taverncast crew showed up with Matt Laura to investigate. We spent nearly an hour wandering from spot to spot in the abandoned cemetery, finishing up a bit before midnight. As we toured the old cemetery, two of us were constantly taking pictures, and we had two separate audio recorders - an extremely sensitive digital recorder, and an older analog voice recorder.
After our short time in the woods, we retired to our cars to listen to the audio that was recorded and review our photos (and to warm up!). Not expecting much, we were amazed when we heard some seriously creepy whispery sounds that certainly none of us had heard during the investigation!
We've isolated just the anomalous sounds from the digital recording, and you can play them using the player to the right. Each sound is played once at its original recording level, and then for some an amplified and clarified version is played. There are tones and silence between each segment.
The EVP
As heard on the show, we did record some EVP during our visit. You can use the players to the right to play both our EVP (from 10/3/10) as well as the older EVP recorded by AARPO in 2000. To help you find specific sounds, the key below gives the time at which each is played.
AAPRO EVP (from 2000)
- quick tone
- 0:07 initial "whisper"
- 0:15 second "whisper"
- 0:24 third "whiser"
- 0:37 fourth "whisper"
- 0:49 tone
- 1:05 fifth "whisper"
- 1:22 whisper "keep walking"
As we mention in the show, for all of the "whispery" sounds - none of the seven people there heard the sounds. Have no doubt that if any of us had heard such things, we would have at the very least mentioned it! We all have our theories on the origins of the sounds in the recording, but until we go back to the cemetery to investigate more, they will remain just theories about some spooky recordings.
The Pictures
During our visit, two of were taking pictures with Canon DSLR cameras. We each took dozens of pictures. Because it was dark, most of these are out of focus and not going to be winning any awards. However, there were a couple photos that had "anomalies" that are interesting. Probably both of these are due to the conditions under which the pictures were taken, but we'll let you decide.
This picture includes an odd black circle/shadow on the trunk of the tree - likely a shadown caused by the flash, but it's not entirely clear what's throwing the shadow.
An odd reddish "haze" or mist is visible in the middle ground of this picture.
The fallen "obelisk" headstone
The "Warlock Tree" (picture taken in September 2010)
Old AAPRO Pictures
We've dug up the following pictures from the old AAPRO case files about the Scio Village cemetary.
An older picture of the "Warlock Tree" showing the stone in the tree.
An animated image showing the "red mist" that was photographed surrounding Matt on one visit. A higher resolution version of the image is here
Check back later - we're going to keep adding to this page with background information from the old AAPRO investigations, as well as pictures from our efforts.
Comments
Happy Halloween!
Our Taverncast Halloweekend for 2010 wraps up right now, with a special TC event: if you like ghosts, the paranormal, or just freaky stuff - you're going to love this one - it's a TC Ghostcast - get it now on iTunes or direct!
And look for a special page on the TC website with more information, audio and other goodness relating to this show. We'll post the link as soon as it's ready in this thread.
UPDATE - The special ghostcast page is here!
I'll tell you - I try to be "open minded" with this type of stuff as long as there are some logical theories backing them, but I'm definitely more of a skeptic. I tend to live on the side of "the simplest answer is usually the correct one". So a theory involving electro-magnetic physics and unknown energy transfers isn't as appealing to me as things like "every time someone moved because they thought they heard something, the person holding/nearest to the equipment moved in a certain way causing slight unexpected noises caught by the recorder".
All that being said - definitely some freaky stuff going on there. Just the perfect level of creepy/unknown to let my speculative side out. I do think it can be good to step back once and awhile and think "what if?". I'm anxious to see any of the visual disturbances you may have caught.
Anyway - enjoyed this one way more than I was expecting. Hope it gets some good press on itunes.
I'm with your 100% splive. I still think the sounds were being caused by us somehow, and just were "amplified" by the recorder because of the nature of the recorder, it picks up certain frequencies better than our ears - or something along those lines...
No idea though - they were certainly freaky at the time. I plan to go out there again and try recording without moving the recorder at all, or with two of the same kind or something like that and see what happens! Whatever we find we'll post on the ghostcast page of the site, which will go live soon!
I tend to look at things very scientifically as well, but I also feel like we've probably only scratched the surface as far as understanding how the universe (and any parallel/coexistent/quasiexistent/whatever universes) actually work. You look back at when we thought that the stars were being held up by a giant glass sphere and you have to realize... almost everything we know, even today, is on a "best guess" basis. Hell, we can't even definitively prove with modern science that we're not all plugged into the matrix. As an individual, you can't even scientifically prove that anyone beyond you exists. However sure we are that we know anything, it's almost all just whatever theory seems to make the most sense at the time.
TDLR: I think "ghosts" are a distinctly possible phenomenon in one form or another despite my analytical worldview.
That was a very entertaining show guys, very cool. So when can we check the photos?:)
As always, you guys never cease to amaze me with your topics and quality. The most unnerving thing about that audio was the fact that it sounds nearly fake, it's so clear (the first time it's heard, I thought it was Cartman from South Park whispering).
It's the best EVP I've heard since the clip from my buddy took in an old mansion of a little girl whispering "Go in Peace"...
We'll have a page up with pictures, etc. very soon
Thank you for another excellent episode! You definitely need to get back out there and get more samples.
Can't wait to see the pictures that you captured.
Head back out there again! Sure there's the fact that most of the time nothing happens during investigations but hey give it a shot!
Another excellent Halloween present from the Taverncast crew!!!
It was a great episode. I was listening to it while driving back in the dark and had to turn it off a couple of times! :)
Waiting for the pics!
OK, here it is in its current state... I'll be adding to it throughout the week most likely. And I expect that we'll have similar pages for each episode in the future!
http://taverncast.com/ghostcast.php
I'm with your 100% splive. I still think the sounds were being caused by us somehow, and just were "amplified" by the recorder because of the nature of the recorder, it picks up certain frequencies better than our ears - or something along those lines...
No idea though - they were certainly freaky at the time. I plan to go out there again and try recording without moving the recorder at all, or with two of the same kind or something like that and see what happens! Whatever we find we'll post on the ghostcast page of the site, which will go live soon!
There's an inherent environmental influence too. As you said: "freaky at the time". Just being there with other people and the environment and the history and the atmosphere and the temperature. It tends to influence your thoughts and feelings at the time to the point that you start believing what you didn't before. EDIT: Ah, you discuss this.
Quite enjoyable show!
How come we didn't hear the weird noises on the actual "live" part?
Or did i miss it?
Quite enjoyable show!
How come we didn't hear the weird noises on the actual "live" part?
Or did i miss it?
No, I actually edited it that way so that the sounds are kind of a shock to you as much as they were to us - better drama for the show that way. If you listened to the actual recordings all the way through, they're in there.
I'll listen to it again then! :D
I'll listen to it again then!
Not sure you're following me - the EVP sounds were edited out of the graveyard audio you heard. You were right that they were not there. I pulled them out to heighten the suspense and emulate what we heard when we were out there...which was nothing.
I'm linking to our Ghostcast page again because it keeps growing - and it's pretty awesome. Check it out:
http://taverncast.com/ghostcast.php
New video from our Ghostcast episode - our guest host Rebecca getting a little jumpy in the dark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyg8bMSP-D8
Rebecca seems pretty sharp, keep her around.
Just posted another video that I made last week - a short video tour of the cemetery. Not the greatest quality, it was a spur of the moment thing with my cell phone
But hopefully it's enough to give people a feel for what it's like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G46nCiG9b-8