Happy Holidays, everyone!
The semester ended fairly well, if I do say so. The last week has been kind of quiet--now I just have X-mas and New Years and prepping for my physics class next semester (I'll be teaching calculus-based E&M, waves, optics and, if time permits--which I doubt--a little relativity and one-dimensional quantum). I've already begun going through the text book and trying to figure out how on earth I can fit sixteen to seventeen chapters into fourteen weeks (allowing for Spring Break, holidays and exams). Yay.
The C.O.R.P.S.E. team did a training session (to bring some of the new members up to speed) at a local California cemetery last weekend. Cemeteries are notoriously bad investigations (being outside, in the dark, with noise from cars and nearby houses all tend to muck up any audio recordings), but they are good for training newbie investigators. (In other words, they are safe and secure--mind you, we don't trespass; our training sessions are held at publicly accessible locations--and nothing generally happens other than newbs learning some general techniques and team dynamics). That said, it was morbidly surprising to find an old child's grave--circa 1926ish--actually broken open! The rocks that had once covered the grave were scattered about and the cement slab--presumably to keep animals from digging, big help there--was cracked open. Our suspicion, however, is that this was down by time, erosion and animals--the opening was off-center and not very large--and that this was done quite sometime ago (and probably re-covered by someone and that the recent bout of rains had eroded the dirt re-covering--the area is isolated and we have no idea how often maintenance is on site; the grave is in an area with no weeds or grass, so maintenance may not get up there at all...). Still, we photographed it and the lead investigator contacted the local cemetery commission.
Now this was interesting but we moved on and did an audio/video session nearby--only to discover, when we were packing up--that some one had carved--badly--a pentacle into the top of another cement slab, about fifteen feet from the opened grave. On top of this, there were tea-candles left at the points of the pentacle, indicating that some one had used the carving for ritual purposes in the not-to-distant past! The pentacle, sadly, was carved into the slab--not drawn--and looks like it had been there a while (the edges were smooth). This was also duly documented and forwarded to the cemetery commission--one of the things C.O.R.P.S.E. does is voluntarily care for old grave sites (we've just never encountered anything like this; even in my own work, before joining the team, I've never encountered an open grave with occult desecration on another grave nearby).
Very disturbing. Granted, there was no evidence that the person(s) who carved the pentacle or who used it last knew anything about the opened grave nearby (the child's grave was hidden from the pentacle-carved grave by loose shrubs) but still....
So, all in all, not a normal cemetery session for C.O.R.P.S.E. Granted, there were some odd events on the voice recordings we took (the video is still being examined) but I think most of those auditory oddities can be ruled out--an odd metallic banging that occurred sporadically during our examination of the pentacle/grave desecration that isn't heard any other time; an odd electronic buzzing found on audio sessions recoded prior to discovering the opened grave (which I believe is an echo effect from our equipment), etc.
Anyway, fun stuff, huh?
Grave desecration is not cool.
The semester ended fairly well, if I do say so. The last week has been kind of quiet--now I just have X-mas and New Years and prepping for my physics class next semester (I'll be teaching calculus-based E&M, waves, optics and, if time permits--which I doubt--a little relativity and one-dimensional quantum). I've already begun going through the text book and trying to figure out how on earth I can fit sixteen to seventeen chapters into fourteen weeks (allowing for Spring Break, holidays and exams). Yay.
The C.O.R.P.S.E. team did a training session (to bring some of the new members up to speed) at a local California cemetery last weekend. Cemeteries are notoriously bad investigations (being outside, in the dark, with noise from cars and nearby houses all tend to muck up any audio recordings), but they are good for training newbie investigators. (In other words, they are safe and secure--mind you, we don't trespass; our training sessions are held at publicly accessible locations--and nothing generally happens other than newbs learning some general techniques and team dynamics). That said, it was morbidly surprising to find an old child's grave--circa 1926ish--actually broken open! The rocks that had once covered the grave were scattered about and the cement slab--presumably to keep animals from digging, big help there--was cracked open. Our suspicion, however, is that this was down by time, erosion and animals--the opening was off-center and not very large--and that this was done quite sometime ago (and probably re-covered by someone and that the recent bout of rains had eroded the dirt re-covering--the area is isolated and we have no idea how often maintenance is on site; the grave is in an area with no weeds or grass, so maintenance may not get up there at all...). Still, we photographed it and the lead investigator contacted the local cemetery commission.
Now this was interesting but we moved on and did an audio/video session nearby--only to discover, when we were packing up--that some one had carved--badly--a pentacle into the top of another cement slab, about fifteen feet from the opened grave. On top of this, there were tea-candles left at the points of the pentacle, indicating that some one had used the carving for ritual purposes in the not-to-distant past! The pentacle, sadly, was carved into the slab--not drawn--and looks like it had been there a while (the edges were smooth). This was also duly documented and forwarded to the cemetery commission--one of the things C.O.R.P.S.E. does is voluntarily care for old grave sites (we've just never encountered anything like this; even in my own work, before joining the team, I've never encountered an open grave with occult desecration on another grave nearby).
Very disturbing. Granted, there was no evidence that the person(s) who carved the pentacle or who used it last knew anything about the opened grave nearby (the child's grave was hidden from the pentacle-carved grave by loose shrubs) but still....
So, all in all, not a normal cemetery session for C.O.R.P.S.E. Granted, there were some odd events on the voice recordings we took (the video is still being examined) but I think most of those auditory oddities can be ruled out--an odd metallic banging that occurred sporadically during our examination of the pentacle/grave desecration that isn't heard any other time; an odd electronic buzzing found on audio sessions recoded prior to discovering the opened grave (which I believe is an echo effect from our equipment), etc.
Anyway, fun stuff, huh?
Grave desecration is not cool. VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
paranormal stuff, huh?