Reaching Through for the First Time

The Stanley Hotel has drawn me into it's lobby since I was a child.  It lingers in the background of my dreams and gives me a feeling of calm, even though it is quite possibly the most haunted place in America. I stayed there on the 99th anniversary of the hotel on July 4th, feasted at many a mother's day brunch and even held a position as a ghost tour guide for a whole day (the commute from Denver was too much.  The fact that I couldn't work there is one of the biggest disappoints of my life to date), so it's only logical I took part in a ghost hunt.

It resulted in the first time that I successfully reached through the veil...

It's not only what you know...


I will admit, I was a fan of the show "Ghost Adventures" on the Travel Channel.  I rarely watched "Ghost Hunters" on SyFy, though I knew they had done a live event from the Stanley Hotel a few times.  I became obsessed with the Ghost Adventures Crew right before I made a *cough* mistake and dislocated my knee and had corrective surgery, keeping me prone in front of a TV for a month and a half.  I started to follow host Zak Bagans on Twitter, mostly because he posted pictures of where they were  currently filming.  


About half way though my knee surgery recovery, I opened Twitter on my phone to a picture of the three guys of Ghost Adventures standing in front of the fountain behind the Stanley's main building.  Any other time I would have been in my car and making the 45 minute drive from Fort Collins to Estes Park, but I was still incapacitated.  What timing.  But I knew that an episode at the Stanley was coming, and that was exciting enough.


When the day of the show finally came, I got a brilliant idea: Watch the premier at the Stanley!  I gathered by friends Katie Bolger and Nick Farnan and we were on our way just in time to arrive before the show started.  The Cascades bar was full, save for the corner of the bar next to who I figured was running the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the hotel.  Her name is Callea Seck and she is the resident paranormal investigator at the Stanley Hotel.  


Callea is by far one of the nicest people I have met in a very long time - she has been willing to put up with me on several occasions.  From my eagerness at the GA premier to giving me an interview for the CSU paper, she has proven that she is always willing to communicate to anyone who asks.  I got really excited to know her and started to pay attention to her posts on the Stanley's Facebook and Twitter accounts, which ultimately led to my brief employment and the ghost hunt that has changed my life.  I also met Karl Pfeiffer, who won season 1 of the show "Ghost Hunters Academy," and Clay Johnson, who was a paranormal investigator in Wyoming before becoming tour manager at the hotel. 


Ultimately, the paranormal crew at the Stanley is a force to be admired.


The Meeting...


Racing up the Big Thompson Canyon at 7:15 pm, my heart was pounding.  The ghost hunt was starting at 8:00 and I barely had the time to make it up to Estes Park.  I screeched into a parking space at 7:57, just enough time to get in and join the group.  


According to Callea, who was running the show, it was one of the first times that a ghost hunt hadn't been sold out.  The fewer people to hunt, the better.  From the Ghost Tour lobby in the basement of the Stanley Hotel, we moved east to the Music Hall, where we were introduced to the crew mentioned above.  After a quick intro to our hosts and an introduction to the available equipment, we were split into two teams.  The decision was clear: we split in half as though we knew who we wanted to hunt with. I was part of the team that would stay in the Music Hall while the other team would move the Manor House.


While in the Music Hall, KJ McCormick of "Ghost Hunters" introduced us to "Lucy's Room," which was reported to hold the spirit of a runaway named Lucy who took shelter in the Music Hall during the foreclosure era of the hotel (which happened many times).  According to Karl Pfeiffer, Lucy was a very active spirit.  She had run away from home in Estes Park at the age of around 18 and found shelter in the boarded-up Music Hall.  She lived there until she was discovered by the police who had no choice but to throw her out into the streets.  The police found her body after that night, frozen to death in the high-altitude town of Estes Park.


KJ and Clay took our team (which I will call team 2) into Lucy's room in the basement of the Music Hall.  Mr. McCormick explained the state of the hotel at the time: Lucy had become quiet, and something called "elementals" have moved in from the Carriage House, East of the Music Hall (More on this phenomena soon).  Short story: We had no experiences, save for the rose scent emanating from Mrs. Stanley's viewing balcony.


Then the time came to change locations.  Team 1 came to the music hall, and my friends from Team 2 were to move to the Manor House.  


Nothing could prepare me for the Ghost Box session that happened in the Manor House.  


I found myself with Callea Seck and Karl Pfeiffer as they explained the experiences they had in this room in the Manor House of the Stanley Hotel.  These included the "Pig Man" and an explanation of the history of the ouija board (Again, to be explained in detail later).  Then Callea pulled out two paranormal devices: A PX Device and a Ghost Box.  As a team, we decided to use the Ghost Box to reach though the veil.  


Here is where it gets crazy...


Ghost Box Session - The Stanley Hotel by OneManMedia22
This is the conversation that we experienced.  If you listen, you can tell the main points of the investigation.  


I heard "Shooting Buckhorn."  After many references to this, we find that it may be the spirit of Lord Dunraven, the man who owned the land before the Stanley Hotel was built.  Listen to the Ghost Box session, especially the explanation of the story after the ghost box turns off, and I will post soon about my conclusions of this first time that I reached through the veil...