On Saturday 16th February 2013, Twilight Shadows Paranormal conducted a small investigation at Nikita Sablier in Salisbury, Wiltshire. I have always felt a female presence when I enter this shop and I was excited to see if she would make her presence known to other members of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal Team.
We weren’t intending to conduct a table tapping exercise this evening and there weren’t any tables around to do so anyway. But, because Dave has a bad back, we assembled a large craft table just so that we could sit around it comfortably.
Jacky started to ‘call out,’ asking if any spirit people could connect with us by using the ghost box. We heard a knock at the far corner of the room. The ghost box said a word but none of us could decipher it. Jacky asked, “What is your name?” The ghost box said, “Hello!” This voice was really loud. We then heard the name, “David.”
We discussed that the general area (not specifically this shop) was known to be haunted. We were wondering if any of the ghosts from the surrounding area may be drawn towards our investigation and communicate with us. So I ‘called out’ to any other spirits nearby. I said to them, “Hello.” There was a “Hello” straight back from the ghost box. Dave asked, “What is your name?” The ghost box replied, “Michael, Michael.” A voice from the ghost box then said, “Put your coats on.” Jacky asked, “Do you want us to leave?” There was no response to this and we started talking about a private matter which we had found surprising and the voice said, “I agree.” This seemed to be an intelligent being who was active in our discussion and certainly had an opinion. I asked, “Is there anything you’d like to tell us?” The voice replied, “Be off!” Jacky said, “Do you want us to leave?” A different voice came through which said “Help me.” There were knocks from both ends of the room and the temperature suddenly dropped. Jacky and I felt that there was a dominant spirit trying to keep back a weaker spirit which is why he was trying to get us to go. Well, we were not going to be doing that.
Jacky said, “Please try and step forward and we’ll try and help you. Is this a female spirit with us?” I said, “You said that you needed our help, please can you speak to us again?” I then told the spirit that I felt the presence of a female spirit every time I cam into the shop and I wondered if it was her or a different spirit. We were all quiet for a moment and then the sound of an angry cat was heard by us all. It was so loud and right there with us. We were all quite shocked by this. It was unmistakable.
I ‘called out’ again. I asked, “What is your name?” A male voice came from the ghost box and it said clearly, “Robert.” It repeated a little while later, “Robert, Robert.” Dave and Andrew were getting strange readings from the EMF meter. There seemed to be one specific space at the table where we were sitting where the readings were higher. We heard a movement within the room and then many different sounds. A voice from the ghost box said, “Save us!”
I ‘called out.’ All was silent for a while. Dave went into the adjoining room and found some interesting props to show us. A voice from the ghost box said, “What are you doing?” Then, “What? What?” We all laughed and apologised to the ghosts. We all decided that the smaller room at the end felt quite strange. We had all experienced this when we entered earlier. It was definitely colder in there. We heard hissing noises from the corner which we assumed would be a boiler/heater or water pipes but upon examination, we could find nothing which caused this sound. There was also a definite cold spot in the room but we couldn’t discover why. There did not seem to be any draughts.
Jacky ‘called out’ asking for the spirits to make another noise. Jacky and I were leaning on the table and not asking for any table movement whatsoever but we both realised that for a while, the table had actually been moving. As we recognised this, the table started pulsing. Jacky asked, “Can you tap under the table and answer questions that way?” The table tapped, then again. Jacky asked, “If you are happy, can you tap the table again?” The table tapped. We asked the spirit to continue communicating through the ghost box. A female voice said, “What is your name?” Jacky said, “My name is Jacky.” The ghost box said again, “What is your name?” There was also a tap on the table.
Jacky asked, “Have you communicated with Maria when she has been in the shop?” The voice clearly said, “Yes.” Jacky said that she could feel something building up. I told the ghost that I had been aware of her previously and asked that she tapped the table three times, which she did. A voice came from the ghost box, “There, I did it!” The table tapped, started to move and then lifted up. The temperature plummeted. There was a knock in the corner of the room and movement to my left, like a footstep. Jacky asked if the spirit was happy. We assumed it was not happy as it tapped on the table twice thus indicating ‘No.’ This spirit seemed very strong but suddenly we all felt it pulling back and it left us.
Jacky could feel a different spirit building up behind her. This spirit brought a cold chill with it and we all felt that it was male. We asked if the spirit was linked to the building and it said, “Yes.” The table was moving and Jacky felt as if the spirit was annoyed that we had assembled the table in the middle of the room. We asked for his name and the ghost box said, “Robert” clearly. We also heard the name “David” but we heard the name “Robert” again after this. Jacky asked a lot of questions, “Did you work here? Did you die here? Is this the same building that you knew? Was there a fire? Do you want to move on? Are you looking for someone? Are you here because of a love affair, a business, a daughter? Are you aware that you are dead?” This provoked a response of “Yes.” Jacky carried on asking, “Are you aware of other spirits here?” We received a “Yes.” Jacky asked, “Here?” Ghost box, “Yes.” What about from other buildings near here, are you aware of spirits from other buildings?” We were told “Yes.”
Dave could feel cobwebs around his face which usually indicates to him that there is a female spirit close by him. We felt that a spirit had entered from another building. The EMF meter started giving strange readings again. We decided to assemble around the table and conduct a séance. The EMF reader continued to give a high reading even though it had previously been silent in the exact same place earlier. We could all hear little knocking sounds coming from around the room. We ‘called out’ and there was a large rapping sound to our right. Initially, we could not decipher what we were being given but we were aware that although a spirit was communicating with us, it wasn’t entirely happy about us being there. Eventually, the spirit told us to “Go.” Jacky told this entity that the spirit who had communicated with us prior to that was nice and wanted to talk to us and she suggested that if this spirit didn’t want to speak to us, perhaps it should be he, who leaves. The spirit said, “No!” Earlier, when Jacky had been firing questions at the spirits, she had asked about a fire although she didn’t know why she had asked this. Interestingly, this spirit just said the word, “Fire!” Jacky asked, “Was it with a candle?” We were then given the name, “John King.” Then the spirit left us. As he was leaving, Jacky said, “Goodbye John King, it’s been a pleasure.”
Another spirit joined us. This spirit was female and she quickly started to give us words.
She said: “Mary. Lost. Past. Lost. My Marc. Must go. Past. Door past. Murder me.”
Jacky: “He murdered you Mary?”
Mary: “Yes.”
Jacky: “How?”
Mary: “Pierce.”
Jacky: “Did he stab you?”
Mary: “My heart.”
Jacky: “Did he stab you physically?” (We were wondering if Mary meant pierced her heart in an emotional sense).
Mary: “Yes.”
Jacky: “Did this happen in Salisbury?”
Mary: “Marc. Justice. Need justice.”
Jacky: “Is this connected to this place? Did you live here?”
Mary: “No.”
Jacky: “Did you work here?”
Mary: “Yes.”
At this point Mary became very upset and did not want to tell us the nature of her work but she did give the impression that she may have been working in a house of ill repute.
We then became aware of a spirit child called Michael who started to communicate with us. He wanted us to know that his body was in a tower although not in this building. We weren’t entirely sure that he had not also been connected to the person Marc that Mary was telling us. We had no idea where the tower was, whether he was murdered inside a tower or whether his remains were still inside the tower but we managed to conduct a simple ceremony and send this child to the light. We all felt very emotional when he finally passed over.
We sat in the room and decided to take a small break. The was knocking from the far end of the room so we knew that the spirits were eager to carry on with us. We eventually sat around the table again with our hands resting lightly on the table. We asked for any spirits present to make contact with us. The table started knocking, moving and lifting. It seemed to be knocking from one end and pushed from the other end. It suddenly pushed right up against Dave, trapping him against his chair and then actually pushing his chair backwards. Dave tried to push the table back away from him, he had to push really hard against the force that was pushing the other way.
It was getting colder in the room and we could really feel a presence close by. There was a lot of tapping from underneath the table and then something shot across the floor in the other part of the room. (When inspecting the floor later, we could only find some hairpins but as we threw them, they did seem to make the same noise). There was a heavy knocking sound and something moved in the corner. It sounded like a footstep but as if the foot was stuck to the floor by something sticky. There was a noise by the stairs, the table moved and there were footsteps right by us. There were two loud knocks and I heard something moving about in the adjoining room. It was so cold now inside the room.
Andrew heard a rustling sound in the corner. He said that it sounded like clothes moving. The spirit was doing something in the middle of the table. It felt as if it was trying to fold the table up. The table was very large and heavy so it didn’t have enough energy to complete what it was trying to do. We heard the squelch of the sticky footstep again.
Dave suddenly jumped and said that the area right in front of him was icy cold. We all felt this area and he was right. It was just a small area in front of him. We felt that we had been joined by several spirit people and we could feel them standing amongst us around the table. I asked one of the spirits to knock out how many spirits had joined us. There were seven definitive knocks. We were surprised that there could be as many as seven spirit people with us.
The table started moving down towards Dave quite forcibly again. It started knocking. I asked for a different noise and immediately it started making a noise which sounded like rapid finger rapping instead of using the main part of the hand. Something started to knock in each of the empty spaces around the table. I knocked the table in some different sequences and it copied me every time. I felt a little tug on my hair. Something touched Dave’s shoulder. We all heard a strange noise on the stairs but we could all see that nothing was there. The table moved again and we all heard a strange groan really close to the table.
Loretta jumped and said that she had seen a reflection in the mirror. At the same time, Jacky saw a shadow walk by the wall. She said that it was just the lower part of the wall. Jacky was also aware that she was being touched. It was kneading her calf and also prodding her in the back. The table was still moving about.
We started to discuss whether we thought that sometimes you may see spirit people in your everyday life and you just assume they are mortal beings. As we discussed this, the table started to shake quite strongly and then it started to pulsate. Dave said that he could feel cobwebs on his face again. I heard a clinking sound in the room and Loretta heard it as well. It was like two bottles clinking together. The room suddenly went darker for no apparent reason. We immediately heard a really loud noise within the room and then Dave said that he had heard the screechy cat noise again. There was another loud noise behind Jacky and Loretta and they both visibly jumped forward. Andrew said that he suddenly felt frozen. The table continued knocking and moving around of its own accord for ages. Dave said that he could smell burning and at the same time, Jacky and Loretta both said that they could smell porridge. Andrew and I couldn’t smell anything. Everyone was sitting back in their chairs and not touching the table except for Jacky and I, who were leaning on it. It was moving from side to side. I asked the spirits to move the table with some force, really shove it and it did. .I then asked for the table to move me and my chair. It did this but quite gently so that I was not knocked off of my chair.
We all heard a growling noise which came from the stair well. As it was getting late we wondered how we could finish our investigation with a light note. Jacky and I suggested that we both lay on top of the table to see if the combined spirits would be able to move the table with us on top of it. We really thought that we’d be too heavy but we both climbed onto the table and lay downwards on our fronts. This was an ideal opportunity for the spirits to tip the table and throw us onto the floor but they didn’t. Although it seemed to take much more of an effort than an empty table, they managed to drag the table to and fro and even gently lift up the sides. The spirits present at the table with us seemed light hearted at this point and enjoyed this experiment as much as us. Shortly after this, we closed down our investigation and sent the spirits back to their usual realms. We really enjoyed ourselves and we were excited about the way that the spirits had communicated with us. On behalf of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team, I would like to thank Nikki Hambry for allowing us to investigate her lovely shop.
Written by: Maria Williams
