On our first investigation of the building we encountered many problems with our equipment. Our camera batteries were being drained very quickly and we had a large amount of strange activity coming over our two way radios. At one point in the investigation, I was asking questions while trying to record EVP in the auditorium and I asked the question " Can anyone give us a name?" I got a reply in a way I was not expecting! A very harsh and mumbled voice broke the silence over my two way radio. The voice only came over my radio and one of my other team member's, out of the six radios that were being used that night. My team member confirmed what I had heard and so did my tape recorder that was recording at the time. The strange interference continued over the course of the investigation and seemed to happen only when questions were asked.
We had our Sony Night Shot video camera set up in the auditorium later that night and recorded two very intresting EVPs. About one hour into the recording our video camera picked up a woman singing opera for about five seconds! There was no visual just audio. The camera later picked up another paranormal sound, it was the sound of a gun shot going off within the building. This sound was also heard by myself and another team member that was sitting in the auditorium at the time it happened. The strange thing was it was very loud. I radioed down to the other team members on the first floor and they had heard nothing. We only later found out, through historical research, that there had been a suicide in the building and a gun is what was used.
Several pictures of paranormal anomalies were captured on the first investigation. One of the pictures is a large orb next to PPPS member Polly Rapp, which can be viewed in our Pictures of the Paranormal section under the Fife Opera House Menu We also collected data from our equipment that night which was picking up moving energy fields in the building. Our EMF meters were picking up spikes of 3.0 to 3.5 in different locations in the opera house.
After our first investigation of the opera house, I attended a Palestine Preservation Projects Society meeting. The meetings are held in Fife Opera House. The night of the meeting, I arrived a little late as usual! I was there to show the members the evidence we had collected of paranormal activity in the building and to get permission to present it on our website. When I entered the room where the metting was taking place, a door in the kitchen slamed followed by the door to the room I had just entered. There was no wind, or drafts, when it occourred and one of the PPPS members jokingly said "It must be the ghosts!" I got permission that night to post our evidence on our website.
On our second investigation at the opera house, CCIGHS team member Kim Wesley captured one of the most unexplainable pictures that we have taken in the building! As Kim was walking up the stairs she felt a presence behind her and took a picture with her digital camera. She was right, and captured an apparition on the stairs below her! No one else was coming up the stairs, or on floor below, so we do not have an explanation for what she captured other than a spirit that is still roaming the Fife Opera House. Footsteps were also heard later that night down in the lounge section of the building. It was the first time the footsteps were heard but would not be the last in the several investigations that we have conducted of the location.
A local author, writing a book about the ghosts of centeral Illinois, had asked me to take him to the cemetery where Elizabeth "Betsey" Reed is buried. We arranged a meeting and I showed him the cemetery and few others in the area. While we were talking I mentioned to him that we had been investigating the Fife Opera House in Palestine. He was very intrested in what we had found so I took him to the opera house to show him around. We were talking downstairs in the room, which was at one time the Fife Hardware Store, when suddenly we heard footsteps coming from the floor above us, where the auditorium is located. We immediately rushed upstairs to investigate the ghostly footsteps. Upon arrivel, we discovered that there was no one present upstairs, from this world anyway! I still have no explaination for what caused the sounds.
During the third investigation of the building, WAND TV out of Decator, Illinois joined us. They were doing a segment for Halloween and had contacted us earlier that month wanting to know if they could come with us on an investigation. We met with them and took them to the Fife Opera House. The investigation went well and we captured a few pictures of orbs, while the crew was right beside us. They later used our EMF meter to try to find activity for themselves. Not much was picked up on the meter that night and we decided to call it a night. My team and I were upstairs taking down our cameras while the tv crew was downstairs putting up their equipment. We finshed the take down and returned downstairs to see a wierd look on the faces of the two tv crew members. They said that a door, or somthing, slamed shut very close to where they were putting there equipment away and no one else was downstairs! The two part segment aired on Halloween Night of 2003, and the following night. During the second night, was when they told about their mysterious happening.
Several nights after we met with the first tv crew, WEIU TV from Charleston, Illinois, came down and filmed another investigation of the opera house. They were also very impressed by the activity that we found during the investigation and their segment also aired Halloween Night of 2003. We captured several pictures of paranormal anomalies on our cameras that night.
We have conducted several investigations since then and experienced a lot of different activity. I was in the basement during one investigation and heard someone talking, but no one was there. We have also felt cold spots and seen white blures go across our wireless infra-red video camera system, along with detecting moving energy fields in the building.
There are two types of hauntings: Residual; and a Traditional, or Intelligent Haunting. I believe that there is a combination of both going on in the Fife Opera House!
In a residual haunting things can be heard, or even seen, but it does not have to be an actual spirit, or ghost, causing the activity. It is like a battery releasing its energry over time, or a movie replaying itself over and over again. In theroy, when a place absorbes so much emotion, whether it be negative or positve, it can release this energy over time and can be felt, heard, or seen. When we recorded the sound of a gun shot echoing through the second floor of the opera house, that would be classified as residual activity. Since a gun firing has no spirit or soul, it has to be a release of this energy over time that caused the sound to be heard by us and captured on tape by my night shot video camera.
A traditional, or intelligent, haunting is caused by an actual spirit or ghost that is in the building. It can interact with you and show signs of intelligence. We know that there is also intelligent activity going on in building because of the interaction we get through two way radios and our EVP through audio recording when asking questions. It often feels like someone is following you up the stairs and in one case he, or she, was and it was captured on a digital camera. When talking about the ghosts, a pillow flew off one of couches on an investigation, another sign of a intelligent haunting.
It is hard to say whether the woman singing and the ghostly footsteps was caused from residual or intelligent activity. It could have been time replaying itself or a wondering spirit!
Most of my team now has heard the ghostly footsteps near the lounge area but we will countinue to uncover the mysteries of The Fife Opera House and can definitely tell you it is haunted. Whether it be from Harold Fife, who shot himself; David and Alta Fife, still roaming the building they put so much effort into; or the countless actors who performed in the plays during the opera house years and chose to come back and stay. The opera house will always be one of the most haunted locatons we have encountered!
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