At the beginning of the month, I moved into Holmes Hall on Michigan State University's campus. This was the designated residential space the university was providing students.

Entry is only permitted for students only, and security is strict and heavily enforced not just at the building's entry, but within floors of the massive 6 floor hall.

In other words, for myself and the few others living here, this is where we've been quarantined the entire month of May.

Coincidentally, the day I moved in, this article was published, detailing five "ghosts" that supposedly haunt Holmes Hall.

Being that I've been running both this blog, and the paranormal webseries "Afterlife Road" for three years now, and I had all my "ghost hunting" equipment in my room with me, this was a perfect opportunity to conduct our largest investigation to date. 

For the past month, we've been conducting paranormal investigations and experiments within the building, even speaking with other students who shared experiences of their own.

Perhaps the most shocking experience a student relayed to us was hearing scratching and clawing coming from an empty and locked room.

Shadow figures are reported on the sixth floor; and a "creepy" feeling is reported in the basement. Those were the two places we focused our investigation, but we quickly added the fourth floor to our list after having a few weird things happen there, including a spirit box voice and unexplained technological malfunctions, both with the building's elevators and our own equipment.

Though most of the reports in the building are visual (ie. the sixth floor shadow), all of our experiences and potential evidence collected was audible.

Most startling for us was when we captured our most ​impressive EVP to date.

Hear that unsettling EVP, and watch the rest of our quarantined ghost hunt HERE:

In Michigan's most recent executive order (as of today, 5/27/20), people are now permitted to leave their homes in order "to attend a social gathering of no more than 10 people."
As has been the case, people may also leave their homes in order "to engage in outdoor recreational activity, consistent with remaining at least six feet from people from outside the individual’s household."

So what does this mean for "paranormal investigators" in Michigan?

As for us, we will be returning with brand new investigation videos starting this Monday. But, as with everything, there will be added regulations and precautions in place.

In order to safely resume investigating in Michigan (and safety is, as always, the #1 priority), we will be implementing the following policies.
 
We strongly recommend you implement these guidelines as well as you resume investigating:

It should be a given, but it's worth noting: outdoor locations are far safer to investigate right now than an enclosed space. The more secluded the better.

With the weather getting nicer, this shouldn't impact many of our investigations. We always use the summertime to investigate the cemeteries, haunted roads, and other outdoor locations we've been itching to get to during the colder winter months.

While at these outdoor locations, be mindful of touching points.

In other words: don't touch anything. If at a cemetery, don't touch any of the graves. Don't touch the gates. Don't touch the signs. Wash your hands before and after investigating.

While travel is allowed, excessive and unnecessary travel is discouraged. For example, the farther you travel, the more gas stations you'll have to stop at.

It's up to you to define what is and is not "excessive" travel, but we recommend staying semi-local for the time being (and not flocking to northern Michigan because it recently "opened up").

We've always had a rule in place of no more than 5 investigators at a time. It just makes investigating so much easier with few people, and logistically, only one car traveling to a location makes things more convenient.

In the days of social distancing, this policy is more important than ever. Note the recent executive order limits gatherings to 10 people. That is the maximum people you should allow on an investigation. We recommend no more than 4 or 5, because the fewer the better.

Plus, you'll likely capture better and potentially more evidence with less people and variables.

This should be common sense, but keep 6 feet from all investigators you don't live with.

If you MUST investigate in an enclosed space, a mask is REQUIRED.

Most importantly, please strongly consider and heavily weigh the risks of each and every investigation before heading out. Make sure you and all investigators are healthy and feel comfortable embarking on the investigation.

Safety is most important.

Last October, we posted a short video recapping some of our most "historic" paranormal investigations to date:

I start the video by saying: "Remembering forgotten history, and making an effort to engage with it and understand why it's so necessary to talk about is why what we do is so important."

A year later, this sentiment more than holds up. If anything, it's only been reiterated by recent investigations.

Two of these investigations help me better explain this.

First: the Belding Library outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Although it had been professionally investigated and long reported to be "haunted," we went in skeptical (as we always do).

Though we weren't able to disprove any of the claims, the investigation began relatively quietly, without much activity being experienced or documented. That is, until the library employee with us showed us a 100 year old time capsule they recently dug up.

The time capsule was from a century ago, and had period coins, news clippings, and other small objects that belonged to the library's original owner. The capsule was sealed back up again and prepared to enter the ground for another 100 years in just a few days. But, she made an exception, and opened the capsule back up for us.

We were the last people to see these historic artifacts for another 100 years.

Perhaps coincidentally, as soon as we opened the time capsule, activity in the library seemed to spike. We heard two disembodied voices and captured a loud breath on camera.

A year later, our main takeaway from this investigation was not the incredible potentially "paranormal" experiences we had, but the incredible historical significance of seeing and holding this time capsule.

Months later, we investigated the Bay City Masonic Temple, currently slowly being renovated after decades of sitting vacant and abandoned. We visited because of vague, and quite frankly, "urban legend" sounding reports from locals about the building when it sat abandoned.

Nonetheless, we visited and investigated the temple, despite not expecting much from it.

We were wrong.

There were some "paranormal" occurrences we documented, including strange feelings and (again) two instances of disembodied female voices appearing out of nowhere.

But then it went from merely cool to downright memorable.

In the main temple room, the building's owner revealed a hidden passageway underneath the staircase, which hasn't been entered since at least the 1930's.

He gave us the go ahead to explore this passageway, and we found old bible passages and sheet music dating back to the '20s, old playbills, and other small coins and trinkets. To reiterate: ​we were the first people to see any of these items, or know of their existence, since the 20's and 30's.

Because of both of these investigations, we were able to make historical discoveries that otherwise wouldn't have been documented on camera if it weren't for the ghost stories that drew us to the locations in the first place.

With every view these videos get on our YouTube channel, that's exposing more Michiganders to the otherwise unknown history that's around them.

Whether or not we are indeed communicating with the "ghosts" of these people, at these historic locations, what matters is that in us doing our investigations, their names are known and remembered by us and our viewers.

​Their stories are not forgotten.

Why do you investigate the paranormal? Let us know in the comments below!

On May 18, 1927, the small town of Bath, Michigan was forever changed.

School board member Andrew Kehoe planted explosives under the Bath Consolidated School, and detonated them while in session. In addition, he blew up his farm, killed his wife, and tied the feet of his horses together so they couldn't escape the deadly blasts.

93 years later, this remains the deadliest school incident in American history, and the town still mourns the tragedy.

Learn more about this heartbreaking story, and how the community is remembering the incident during these unprecedented COVID-19 times:

Today marks 102 years of service for the historic Alvah N. Belding Library in Belding, Michigan.

We visited the library in February of 2019, after hearing numerous reports of hauntings, coming from both the library's staff and patrons as well as credible paranormal investigators.

Apparently, investigators who previously visited the library heard and captured disembodied voices and whistles appear out of thin air right between them. Shadows and uneasy feelings, as well as technology malfunctions, were reported by staff working the library after hours.

During our investigation, we were shown a time capsule, at that time 100 years old and soon to be buried again. Interestingly, it seemed as though after we opened the capsule, the supposed activity escalated.

After our most skeptical investigator reacted to hearing a whisper in her ear, we all heard and captured a disembodied female voice talking for a good 10 seconds or so. Then, similar to the previous investigators' experience, we heard and captured a loud disembodied breath right between us. It was honestly a creepy sound, in part because of how loud it was, and how clearly it was that no one present had made the sound.

You can WATCH our investigation below, and when it is safe to do so post-quarantine, we encourage a visit to one of Michigan's oldest, most historic, and possibly haunted libraries:

Four teams joined together to help spread positivity and unity within the West Michigan paranormal community.

Hosted by our webseries "Afterlife Road," we reconnected with some of Michigan's best paranormal groups based in the west side of the state.

First, we spoke again with Kent County Paranormal, a team we have worked with in the past. Team leader Brandon Hoezee discussed the importance of debunking during an investigation; the importance of helping families; and intriguing theories regarding "paranormal activity."

Then, we spoke with members of West Michigan Paranormal Team, whose popular FaceBook group has brought many in the local paranormal community together. They discussed future plans; the importance of "Paraunity"; and words of encouragement to anyone looking to start investigating.

Finally, we touched base with investigator and YouTuber Darren Dykhouse of Lakeshore Paranormal. He described how being an empath has affected his investigations, and why he started investigating in the first place.

WATCH / listen to the full interviews with each of these three teams, and make sure to follow each of their pages, which are both hyperlinked here in the blog and posted in the description of the video below:

It's May 11... which means it's National Twilight Zone Day!

To best celebrate the occasion, we recommend a binge of the original series... starting with "The Thirty-Fathom Grave."

I know. This is perhaps an obscure choice to begin; although an intriguing episode, it suffers from all the problems the hour-long forth season brought.

But it's its little-known Michigan connection that makes this a must-watch for all Michiganders.

Docked in Bay City, Michigan, the USS Edson is a retired naval destroyer that we've actually been to before. Although we weren't there for a paranormal investigation, the ship has long been rumored to be haunted... so perhaps a revisit is in store when it is safe to do so.

But before any real-life hauntings were reported, the ship had a cameo in the greatest horror series of them all: The Twilight Zone.

In the episode "The Thirty-Fathom Grave," all the interior shots were filmed aboard the USS Edson, now docked in Bay City, and open (during non-pandemic times) for tours.

It intrigues us that this relatively obscure Twilight Zone episode concerning a haunted ship was filmed aboard a real-life haunted ship here in the great state of Michigan.

If you haven't seen the enhanced footage of this possible "apparition," you can watch it here:

Now that you've seen it, here's the context.

​This past October, we had the honor and privilege to film an investigation at Eloise Asylum in Westland, Michigan. This is one of the state's most infamous hauntings, most recently featured on the Travel Channel's "Destination FEAR."

But before Dakota and the team filmed at the asylum, we had our chance.

After an already intense investigation (capturing multiple spirit box voices, having flashlights turn on by themselves, hearing disembodied screams, and having an investigator fall ill and have to leave the premises), I decided to conduct a solo investigation in a basement room that an employee had been physically pushed out of by an unseen entity.

Upon provoking a little bit (due to the employees saying whatever haunted that room was "evil"), I felt an unexplained rush of energy behind me. That is when I whipped the infrared camera around, capturing a misty form in the center of the frame.

As a team, we are divided as to the origin of this misty form. Could it indeed be of "paranormal" origin? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Last October, we visited the Ledges Playhouse in Grand Ledge as part of our Halloween special exploring spiritualism in Michigan... including the annual Harry Houdini seances done here.

But Harry Houdini is a story for another day.

Now, we're going to focus on Grand Ledge, and its history of spiritualism as well as its natural beauty that likely drew the spiritualists here of all places, just as it drew us there last year.

The spiritualists had come to Grand Ledge in 1895, for meetings, seances, and summer camps.

Today, a large part of what was once the pavilion and other assets of the summer camp structures resides the Ledges Playhouse, a theatre company that runs summer productions.

We had hoped to return this summer to attend one of their plays, always a collaborative effort with several local theatre groups in the Lansing area.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the shows are temporarily on hold for now. But that didn't stop us from returning to Grand Ledge... this time to hike the picturesque trails near the playhouse.

These trails are full of naturally occurring ledges (hence the name "Grand Ledge") and utter beauty throughout. We were in awe, and consider these to be the best trails in lower Michigan.

WATCH our video below to learn more about the area, get a glimpse of the trails themselves, and learn how you can SAFELY visit them by complying with CDC and local DNR guidelines:

Deep in a forum discussion thread two years ago, I stumbled upon a comment regarding an abandoned mill in Grand Ledge, Michigan that was said to be haunted.

Unexplained bangs, voices, and odd feelings were supposedly reported there.

When we investigated the site... now a large stretch of land aside the railroad tracks... we were caught off guard by the level of activity documented, especially for such an obscure legend (we couldn't find anything else online describing any hauntings) at a location that you could hardly tell used to be an old mill (we had to have a local pizza delivery man point us in the right direction!)

Nonetheless, when we arrived at the property, we decided to place a digital recorder on the ground, leaving it by itself while we explored other areas. We put a flashlight next to it so we could easily find it again.

That's when the weird stuff began to happen.

We took out a K2 meter, and it began to spike. But every time it spiked, our flashlight blinked. For no reason. We have never seen this flashlight blink like this, and it was doing it in sync with the K2 meter. Then, we took out the spirit box, and we recorded three different voices that seemed to be discussing the K2 / flashlight activity. The first voice said "it's happening!" Then a voice said "I know." Then a third voice said "unbelievable." All while the K2 and flashlight were responding.

Watch this incredible interaction below: