Marc and the Paranormal Radio Show Team

After my usual experience with the ever so slightly annoying M25 motorway I finally arrived at Fort Horsted and only a few minutes late, which wasn’t bad going considering the Sat Nav had told me I would be at least thirty minutes late! 

As usual the HQ for the evenings investigation was Room 51 and once we had all settled in; generally this means checking, comparing your equipment with others and grabbing that all important first cup of coffee, we received a brief talk on the location. These days an introduction talk at a location is somewhat becoming the normality, especially with the high focus on health and safety. However I have to admit the Fort Horsted ‘talk’ has become hands down, one of the most entertaining ones I have experienced to date. We laughed, we learnt and all understood the serious nature of keeping safe thanks to Paul’s excellent delivery and clear understanding of comedy. 

We all started our evening knowing categorically that the biscuits, may contain biscuits! Plus an old slightly derelict Fort may contain trip hazards in the dark. I wonder if I could incorporate this approach into my day jobs manual handling talk?

Paul also showed us a photograph taken by one team at the Fort which included a spooky extra, though difficult to say for sure how paranormal it was, the picture was certainly interesting. 

Following Paul, tough act to follow, the Paranormal Radio Show Team advised us on how the investigation would be approached. Which basically was along the concept of a few main areas that we had access to for the night; Room 10 area, Room 36 area, Casement 26 and Room 14 area. 

The team for the night was made up of a few people from different teams, which in all honesty is fast becoming my favourite way to investigate purely because it encourages excellent cooperation between more in the field. Something that many of you know is close to my heart, but this isn’t a soap box moment, so lets move quickly on. 

There was of course Medium Marc Richardson and the Paranormal Radio Show Team, Mel, Lucy and Loz too. Then there was the GCUK Team made up of Rachael, Amanda, Danielle and Stuart. There was also Paddy, Sue, Vicky, Jacqueline and Nicola. I would just like to say for all those I had met previously, it was great to see you again. For those that I met for the first time, as ever its fantastic to make to new contacts within the field. 

So without further a do, we all hit the Fort for a walk around with Marc. 

Location Tour with the Whole Team

We truly began our nights investigation with a walk around as a whole team to view the main areas available to us. 

This covered the Room 10 area and those spiders that often get a mention. In fact during my last visit back in March with Sage Paranormal’s D-Day Tour and Brian J Cano, the little spiders were a tad elusive. However this time around they were out in force and some were positioned in some places which you felt you needed to keep an eye on. Something which is a little difficult when its so dark you can’t see your hand in front of your face. 

That said these little creatures are actually really amazing and in this environment almost beautiful in a way. Granted their little bodies glistened in the light like the creature from the Aliens movie, but they captured our attention for a little while that’s for sure. Sometimes when you visit so many historic locations in search of ghosts and spirits, you miss what’s living there and the very point of paranormal investigaiton is to seek out the answer to the survival hypothesis, but its like that the answer equally lies in life itself. 

We moved on from Room 10 and across to Room 36 and its adjacent tunnel. Room 36 was again another pitch black location, but this one had a table and chairs setup in it and has been a good location for seance and glass work in the past. Marc advised that the tunnel ajacent to Room 36 had a good energy and he heard a voice and whistling. An area which should be good later on. 

Next stop was Casement 26, which meant a long decent under the moat I believe. Just to place it into perspective, if you had to walk up and down these steps on a regular basis then you could certainly cancel your Gym membership. During our visit to Casement 26 Marc picked up on a number of things in the area. A couple of the team managed to take a few interesting pictures too. My ‘on the fly’ analysis of the photos make me believe that one may have been slight digitisation when the photo was taken and the other possibly a close up of dust or moisture in the air. However this was my quick look at the photos and as ever there could be other explanations for these. After all at the point when one photo was taken, Tommy (Marc’s spirit guide) was advising when to take the photo. Sometimes you have to zoom out and analyse the bigger picture, so to speak. 

In one of the rooms in Casement 26 we all held hands in a circle and Marc attempted to communicate with the localised spirits. There were a couple of interesting points during this session; one being the distinctive sound of footsteps (boots) and the other was the fact that we all turned and looked at the door at the same time for no reason. 

Lastly after another long trek up and down the steps from Casement 26, we headed down the tunnel to the area near Room 14. At this point most of the group headed upstairs to the room. As they did I asked Mark what he had picked up on here, which he replied with a description similar to that which I heard during my last visit. These cross-overs always interest me. 

Finally we headed back for a break, well deserved and to re-group before heading out on our first vigils. 

Room 36 and Tunnel

Our first vigil of the night took us back to Room 36 and the adjacent tunnel. We all started off in the room, with most of the team sat around the table attempting to communicate to spirits using glass divination. However at the time this didn’t seem to be working, so the group attempted a little table tipping instead. 

During the most of this Marc, Mel and Lucy were with us, but after a while they went to investigate the nearby tunnel. 

The table tipping didn’t appear to actuate into much, although a few of the group believed they felt the table was kind of vibrating in a way. This was something I equally felt albeit extremely lightly. 

Whilst Marc, Mel and Lucy were off in the tunnel they had three items thrown at them; a tea light candle, small stone and what looked like a piece of ceremic. When they viewed these items through their phone camera FLIR attachment, the items all appeared to be as hot as a human hand. I believe that Lucy may have even mentioned that one of the objects might have been warm when she first touched it. We later looked at this and sure enough all three objects appeared to show as warm on the FLIR, but we soon realised a possible problem with this. Something I am sure I have heard mentioned previously and that’s the fact that often more shiny objects can reflect the FLIR giving off a false reading. We tested this on all these objects which sure enough all appeared warm on the FLIR, but were cool to touch. 

This would become the subject of a slight debate between Lucy and I for the evening. This by the way is a good thing, after all we should question everything, but equally all theory must have supporting evidence. So, we set about looking at this problem. My theory was that reflective items like these, mirrors and coins would indeed show as warm when they weren’t. However I would have to prove this. Love a challenge. 

Before heading back we all spent a little time in the tunnel and Marc was picking up on a voice near by, which at one point another team member believed they heard something too. What was very evident and would make it difficult to conduct audio experiments there was how you could literally talk at one end of the tunnel and it would be echoed exactly at the other end. Often a few were caught out by this believing that they heard a voice. 

As the rest of the group headed back Lucy advised me that she had seen a large fluctuation at the entrance of the tunnel on the KII meter there earlier. We took a look with my MEL Meter, but their wasn’t any activity at the time. Once again we fired up another debate, this time regarding how mobile phone checking with the nearest towers can make the KII flicker. However its highly possible that any nearby phones were in flight mode or too far away to interact with the KII. This also appeared to occur a couple of times on the way back to our HQ too, so although my explanation is relevant, it may not be the cause on this occasion. These fluctuations remain unexplained, but only because under those circumstances at that time I couldn’t 100% prove my phone theory as the cause. Sometimes science does hold an explanation, but if we cant equally utilise that explanation to prove the paranormal event, then we must keep looking. 

Room 10

After a good break the whole group headed across to Room 10, the Spider nest! After we admired the spiders we all stood in a circle in one of the rooms on the right. With all the lights out this area was pitch black and could be a little unnerving. 

In fact it wasn’t long before many of the group were experiencing something or picking up something. Once again proof that sensory deprivation may indeed heighten our psychical ability. 

Even I had the feeling that there were a few additional energies with us in that little room. At one point a ten pence piece appeared to be thrown into the circle too. This would give us four thrown objects or apports for the night, which is a great effort. 

As the session moved forward the attention seemed focused around where Rachael was stood. Some even believed they heard a growl at times. In order to return some balance and also becloser to the action Marc moved over to stand next to Rachael. 

Following this the energy appeared to move around the circle, with a couple us seeing shadow movement at one end of the circle when Mel was using the FLIR. However towards the end of the vigil the energy moved towards me. At this point Paddy told the group that he could see a kind of blue light coming from me. What Paddy didn’t know was when he said this I was actually getting random words in my head. This then changed to a weird feeling almost like pins and needles down one side of my face, literally as I began to feel this and was about to mention it, Marc asked about it! Now that’s pretty damn paranormal right? 

Question then becomes; did Marc and Paddy both telepathically understand what was occuring to me or did spirit communicate it to them. These are the questions that keep me up at night. Although telepathic interaction is the most likely logical explanation, its still as unproven as mediumship according to mainstream science. Certainly the possibility of experimentation ahead on this one. 

Room 14

We then headed directly to Room 14, climbing the stairs which are very steep by the way. This was also where we were treated by the Batman. Okay it was a little bat just hanging around as they do. Again though it drew our attention briefly away from the search for those that have passed back to the living. Many of us took photos of the little guy, but apparently he’s not too keen on having he’s temperature taken by an IR thermometer. As he flew off, both Loz and I decided to do ski impressions honest! It was purely coincidental and not because we thought a bat might suddenly attack us. 

So, with the bat out of the picture we attempted a little table tipping using Paddy’s purpose build table. It was a little slow going, but after a while the table lifted on one side ever so slightly. Nothing like the Royal Oak, where a table walked out of the door on me once, clearly something I said, but still interesting. 

After this the room seemed a little dead, pardon the pun. So we decided to call it a night and regroup back at our HQ before heading home. 

Round Up

All in all this was a great investigation, with some fantastic people at a location that is heading up my favourites list at dramatic speed. Somewhere I would like to investigate again for certain. 

The team were great too, with an excellent mix of individuals that were a pleasure to investigate with. 

The investigation certainly delivered some interesting activity, both physical and psychical too. It’s always good when you can leave somewhere with your own unexplained personal experience too. Although I have a funny feeling I wasn’t quite alone in that respect when leaving Fort Horsted. 

Oh yes, that FLIR debate with Lucy. Well in order to try and prove the theory it was suggested we left a fifty pence coin on the concrete floor in the main tunnel whilst on our final couple of vigils. When we returned sure enough the coin showed as warm on the FLIR. It was of course not warm at all and certainly not the same temperature as say our hands. We also used an IR thermometer to measure the floor temp and that of the coin (on and off the floor). They matched. This in my mind proves the theory that objects with a smooth or reflective surface are likely to bounce back causing false measurement. Debunked Lucy! 

If you have any info on the FLIR attachments for smartphones regarding this, please feel free to share. 

Still Fort Horsted was an excellent location to investigate and once again I was lucky to investigate with some great people, thank you all. 

Special thanks to Marc, Mel, Lucy and Loz from the Paranormal Radio Show Team – follow them on twitter @prslive and catch their show every Wednesday at 9pm on Spreaker. 

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