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Linda Vista
Early 2011
I was invited by the
Boyle Heights Paranormal Project
[BHPP]
for one of their open, public investigation events being held at
Linda Vista Hospital;
the event would have speakers throughout the day, then in the evening Full Access to the main hospital and insane asylum aspects.
On arrival, those with the investigation package were given Room Assignments in the asylum ward.
Based on results, no paying participants acknowledged their room assignments and just called dibs on random
(or possibly specific)
rooms.
As I had been an invited VIP guest, I was told I'd have a room, but was never given a specified assignment room.
When I finally did crash at around 5am, I had to go down the corridor to find a room not being used in which to snooze before the 6am boot-out time.
I searched every bit of both buildings as I could upon my initial arrival, later learning that technically one shouldn't be doing that.
We were also told we couldn't go into the cellar so I felt elated I'd already explored it, and had found the underground tunnel/s connecting the two buildings.
(I actually came upon one of the working film sets in which a set creator was painting a flat; at my apology she politely and with amusement clarified that technically she wasn't supposed to be there either...)
During the main investigation, each floor's entrance doorway had a little sign describing what sort of activity had been previously experienced and reported by people.
My main experience during the event involved the Fifth Floor, when
(on my own),
I was preparing to take a photo of the far-end corridor door "comically" closed off with planks in standard Horror Movie style.
As I went to take the photo the digital camera provided the Pre-Flash, as it were, for a moment throwing on the wall within the quick light a small shadow of a clearly defined head and shoulders.
The photo taken of the door revealed nothing beyond the door itself and the nailed-up planks, but for a second I thought the shadow was of me
(only for a second, than realizing the camera being in front of my face, how could it throw a shadow of an object
behind
the light...?).
Many yards behind me was the only other entry to the corridor to the otherwise empty floor, and I thought I saw the lights of approaching Other Investigators, but no one entered or even opened that distant door.
I kept going over in my head what I'd seen.
The hallway had been pitch black as I'd gone to take the phote as I'd switched off my flashlight.
What light could have caused "my" shadow on the wall?
On my way out, I came across two female investigators who had just been substantially creeped out,
as on a lower floor one of the two had just realized having seen a large Shadow Person.
She had looked down the hallway to the end door
(the one exactly below the one at which I'd seen "my" shadow);
a large black mass eclipsed the door, which her mind matriced as being an overturned table on its side.
But the next moment when she turned her light back to the same spot...
suddenly the green door was completely visible.
No table, no black mass.
I conveyed to them my own WTF experience and we joined forces for the remained of the evening as my presence seemed to relax them.
Later I requested they assist me back on the fifth floor, in trying to recreate the effect I'd seen.
They stood at the entry doorway as I went all the way down to the sealed off door.
They showed their lights towards me, but it raised more questions than answers.
Not only was my thrown shadow far more solid black than the softer, "transparent" one I'd seen, my own shadow was at the same level as I.
The only way I could get the head to match about where I'd seen the other shadow's head was to go to my knees...
Whatever Shadow I had seen was at least less than half my height.
I clarified this by noting my shadow obviously growing larger as I approached the girls' light source.
The shadow I had seen was "of someone" who seemingly was right next to me, the size of a child...
Checking the raw audio files, many EVP attempts were compromised
(and/or contaminated),
with distant voices of multiple other investigators.
Saturday, August 05 2011
I attended
STU Con 2
being held at Linda Vista, and was set for the night time investigation.
My friends
Andrew and Stacy
of
L.A. Paranormal
came from work for some investigating as well.
We had had them
as guests
on the weekly radio show I co-host,
The Paranormal View,
and with them investigated the Pasadena
Colorado Street Bridge
(aka the Suicide Bridge),
torward their second edition of their
webisode series.
No overt experiences this time, but from one of the vendors I'd obtained for five bucks a pen-light that alternates with a red laser pointer, a white light, and an Ultra-Violet light.
In an area of the cellar across which I'd not previous come, we were in the farthest room and did some more EVP work
(audio still being reviewed),
and I casually switched from the white light to the UV light.
To our astonishment, the walls "lit up" with a form of glow-in-the-dark paint that only shows up with UV light; no residual glow.
Apart from appearing like random splattering of the paint, the name
Livina
was in countless places on the walls and ceilings, and in different "fonts," as it were.
As we went to leave that area, another group was coming in.
I asked if they wanted to see something cool, and once they were down the corridor, I switched from the white to UV light, much to their surprise and delight as well.
Stacy still has her video and still photography through which to go, and apart from everyone
(but me),
amusingly freaking out over a small family of raccoons across which we came in the boiler room,
on one of the higher floors we three did hear some scratching in what appeared to be a laundry chute.
It was far too wide and smooth for it to have been a raccoon traversing it, and there was nothing visible within.
What was causing the loud scratching sound...?
When we were done and wrapped, they were awseome enough to drive me back to where I'd been staying, so I wouldn't have to hang out for about six hours before the first Gold Line train started running in the morning.
We also agreed that most likely they'd collected enough cool footage for two editions of their webisode series...
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