Of course my post today has to be about the Palmer House! One week from today, Ghost Stories Ink will be there with a group for an almost sold-out event. (Want to keep track of our upcoming events? Find out more here: Ghost Stories Ink Events.)The Palmer House has been in operation as a hotel for more than 100 years. It has been featured on Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, and will even be one of their Halloween episodes tomorrow! (Saturday, Oct. 31 at 6c) Earlier this month, it was also voted the country's "Best Haunted Hotel" by U.S.A. Today.
It's an easy place to investigate - there are so many stories about the spirits, and a lot of information about who haunts where within the hotel. A lot of psychics have been through, and every visit or investigation seems to add another piece to the puzzle.
One thing we knew, was that Raymond, Lucy and "Annie" all seem to have their own rooms. Information like this helps. If you've never been on an investigation before, it's a lot of sitting around in the dark, talking to the air, waiting for something to happen. It helps A LOT to have a name.
My group was in Raymond's room. I am pretty inept when it comes to the equipment. I can barely handle being in charge of a walkie-talkie, and I'm satisfied when a flashlight turns on in an intelligent response to a question, as "proof" that something is there. But we had the other tools too, an EMF meter, temperature gauge, an EVP recorder and a spirit box (that gives me a headache so I never use it if I can help it).
From what we knew about Raymond, back in his day, he was a pimp. His prostitute (and girlfriend) was Lucy. They lived at the hotel, and Lucy was killed, possibly by Raymond (I don't remember the story). What I do remember, is that when we sat in the room, saying all of this into the air with the hopes that Raymond would turn on a flashlight or an EMF meter, or speak into our EVP recorder, nothing happened. No lights flashed on our equipment, and no flashlights turned on by themselves.
But the more questions we asked, the more my own emotions began to change. Sometimes, the best ghost hunting tools are our own senses. The prickles along the back of a neck, or the chills from a drastic temperature dip. A lot of us are more psychically sensitive than we give ourselves credit. It's not unusual for someone in the room to start feeling a certain way, for no reason. (My favorite is when this happens to the person who is the most skeptical).
But in this case, it was me, and I was feeling anger. Anger I knew, wasn't my own. The more questions that we asked about Raymond's shady past, the more the anger grew. Ready to curb that anger, I said out loud, "I feel like maybe Raymond doesn't want us to talk about that. Maybe, Raymond wants to be remembered for something other than the bad choices he made in his difficult life."
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, the LED flashlight on the bed turned on, as strong as I'd ever seen it. After that, Raymond cooperated and we proceeded to ask him more questions. The flashlight turned off and on in response, until it was pretty clear his energy was fading.
So if you ever stay at the Palmer House in Sauk Center Minnesota, and if you find yourself staying in Raymond's room. Maybe...make sure you don't talk about him being a pimp and killing his girlfriend.
