After weeks of waiting, it was finally time to take the hour drive to the Shanley Hotel in Napanoch, NY. Despite my skepticism, I was determined to have a good time, ghosts or no ghosts. When Jeremiah and I arrived, we noticed the outside of the house looked as though it hasn’t been cared for in years. The paint on the side of the building was chipping severely and the small amount of property the old house sits on is more natural than landscaped, which is what one might expect from a hotel. There was a nice sized wrap-around porch, and on that porch sat a rather large sign with “Tarot Workshop” in big, bold letters, as well as other information underneath. I do have to say this seemed very appropriate, especially based on the design of their website. I didn’t feel a thing as we walked up to the house, and even less as we walked in. There was a small group of people standing right inside the door chatting. For a moment I thought I had gone through the wrong door as no one said anything when we walked in. We asked where check in was and older man who introduced himself as Sal, one of the owners, spoke up and informed us there was no check in and that his wife, Cindy, would be downstairs in a moment to show us to our room. No check in? Interesting. We introduced ourselves to everyone. Each person had a smile on their face and seemed very friendly, which was a relief to me as I assumed they were all there for the tarot workshop and paranormal investigation as well, and being around bunch of assholes until the sun comes was not my idea of a good time.
Cindy came downstairs a few minutes later dressed in pink sweat pants and a large dark blue sweatshirt that engulfed her small frame. Interesting attire for the owner of the inn. She smiled and told us to follow her. We got to choose from a couple different rooms, but we ultimately chose what is known as Vincent’s room. I didn’t feel anything in either room, so we chose the one we liked better. To be quite honest, I didn’t feel anything in any room I walked through at all. I was starting to think that my first instincts about the place were right. Oh well, I thought, it’ll be fun anyway.
A bit after 7 p.m. everyone was gathered in the main room, or what Cindy called “home base.” Everyone found a table and sat across from the other person they came with (no one came alone, which I found interesting) and the tarot workshop began. This in itself really was an amazing part of the night. A woman named Norma was teaching the hotel guests the basics of tarot: the meanings of the cards, the relationship of the cards to each other, how to cleanse and store your cards, a few examples of spreads, and other things that she felt were good things to know as a beginner. Krissy had just bought me tarot cards for my birthday because of this upcoming event, and I am very glad she did. For some reason they really seem to work for me. Mind you, I’ve had my cards for less than a month and I really don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know the meaning of the cards without looking to something for reference and it does take me a bit to really understand what the cards are saying, but it does come to me. I never thought I’d be so interested in them. You learn something new every day I suppose. Now during the workshop two things happened that may or may not be paranormal. About 20 minutes in, Norma was talking to the group when all of a sudden I felt a heaviness. It was hard for me to breathe and it felt like the air was pushing down on me. It lasted for just a few minutes, then the heaviness lifted. I feel as if that was a change in energy around me, though for what reason I’m not sure. Not long after that, Norma was still talking to the group when I heard this noise behind me in my left ear. It almost sounded as if I’d taken my fingernail and run it down the quilt that was draped behind me on the wooden bench I was sitting on. I thought something had fallen next to me, or worse, on me, so I quickly turned to see what it was. I didn’t see anything. Afraid it was a spider or some other creepy crawly creature, I stood up and had Jeremiah look in my hair and on my back. Nothing. Just when I was about to dismiss it, he told me he’d actually seen something fall. I asked him what it was, but he said he had no idea. The only thing he could tell me was that it looked like a little white ball, almost like a pearl. He saw it fall from the top of the bench and then disappear. I checked the quilt. There were no pearls or beads or any sort of little white balls that could have fallen off. I thought perhaps it could have been just a big piece of lint or string, but then that wouldn’t have made the noise that I heard. I never heard whatever it was hit the bench though. You would think if it was solid enough to make that noise falling that I would have heard it hit against the wooden bench. I again checked my hair, my shirt, the bench, the floor, and anywhere else I could think of. I told the others at our table what happened, and they started looking for the mystery white ball as well, to no avail. There was nothing there. When we sat back down, I told them all about the heaviness I’d felt not long before this occurred. The first thing they thought was perhaps it was an orb, but do orbs make noise when moving against something else? Anything is possible I suppose. All I know is that to us it was unexplainable.
After the workshop the group got a tour of the entire house. In every room we were told a tale of paranormal events, either what other guests experienced or what visiting psychics have said about the room. One of the first rooms we visited Cindy stated several psychics have claimed there to be a vortex along one of the walls. I don’t claim to be psychic, but personally if there was a vortex in a room I’m fairly certain I would feel a whole lot more going on, but I didn’t. That’s not to say it wasn’t there, but there wasn’t much activity in that area, both when we toured and when Jeremiah and I went back to investigate later on that night. On the second floor were all the guest rooms. Of course each room had a name and a story. I felt absolutely nothing in any of these rooms. The stories were fun and exciting but nothing came of them, even on our later investigation. The rest of the tour went similarly to that. Cindy told us a story, I felt nothing or not enough to mention. There were a few places though that caught my attention. We went into the basement at one point. Everyone crowded around the furnace, but I couldn’t help but be drawn to a room just to the right of everyone. I shined my flashlight in what appeared to be a storage room and peeked my head inside to take a better look. Suddenly I felt very nauseous, so I backed away from that room. A few moments later, Cindy directed the groups attention to that room and informed us that is where they kept the dead bodies of the ex-slaves when they died in hiding as the house had been part of the underground railroad. Interesting. Another place that piqued my interest was a hidden room beneath a closet on the first floor. There was a ladder that descended into what really is just a hole. Cindy said that is where they took the prostitutes to have their babies as no one could hear them. That could very much be true, however, when I was down there I felt something completely different. The room could have been no more than 10 x 10 feet. I stood in the middle of the room with just a couple other people and yet I felt as if there were dozens of bodies crammed into it. I felt suffocated and claustrophobic. All I could think was I had to be quiet so no one could hear. I believe that hole was part of the underground railroad as well, and when the slave owners found the hiding place in the basement the slaves all gathered in that secret hole for God knows how long and prayed not to be found. Another interesting place is the third floor, which is not used for guest rooms or anything at all really, and is covered in dust, has unfinished floors, hardly any furniture and no electricity. I do believe this is more for effect than anything. We walked past a room filled with pieces of furniture, wood, and random other things just thrown into it, essentially blocking the doorway though the door was opened. I peeked in and an eery feeling came over me. Something creeped me out about that room, though I wasn’t sure what or why. We continued to a back corner of the house into a room that had toys spread out on the floor. Cindy told us a little boy was in this room and he loved to play with these toys. I did feel something in the room but it certainly was not a little boy. For some reason I felt it was something darker than that. I wouldn’t dare say evil, it didn’t feel sinister or malicious, but perhaps a disturbed or angry spirit, though it definitely was a male. Other than that, the third floor felt very calm. Jeremiah and I did an EVP session in the “little boy’s room” later that night, though nothing was recorded. However, we did both see a shadow dart across the floor. Headlights perhaps. Now this last part of the house we actually toured early on, but I had to save the best for last. This was part of the second floor, but it wasn’t accessible from the main staircase. This part of the house is called “The Brothel” or “The Bordello.” I was the last person up the stairs in the group as I wanted to take my time to look around and not be shuffled about with the others. Half way up the flight is a very small landing where the stairs turn and there is a small window seat. As I approached the landing, I felt the presence of a little girl sitting on the seat and in my head I heard “nah nah nah nah nah nah” as if a child were teasing me. Then she was gone. I haven’t had an encounter like that in a very long time, so needless to say I was a bit shocked. I walked up the stairs, put my back to the wall, and stood there with wide eyes. Cindy told us a story about a little girl named Rosie who’s room was up in the Bordello. She explained that Rosie fell down the well across the street, hit her head and died and is now haunting this part of the house. Often, she said, women go up the stairs into the Bordello and end up with their back against the wall breathing heavy. At that point, I noticed everyone was looking right at me as I was up against the wall breathing heavy. Interesting. Cindy pointed out the different rooms, including Rosie’s, but for some reason I was drawn to another room. At that time I thought that they claimed the wrong room to be Rosie’s, but thinking more about it I realize it may have been the room of someone she was close to. When no one else was up there, Jeremiah and I went back up to the Bordello to do an EVP session. I felt drawn into that room again. At one point he commented that the doll in the room was rather creepy, and I agreed. I went on to say that he should have seen my house growing up as my mother had dozens of dolls in our living room alone. Today I listened to the recordings we made that night to see if we caught anything. At the end of that conversation about the dolls I distinctly heard someone say “we’re here.” We didn’t hear this when we were in the room, mind you. I believe it also went on to say “behind you” or something similar but it’s less pronounced. I had to listen to it at least 10 times before I could really come to the conclusion that we had successfully caught an EVP. As soon as I figure out how, I will make sure to post it.
That concludes my stay at the Shanley Hotel. Nothing happened in the room we slept in. I felt nothing the next morning. I highly recommend this place to anyone who is interested in a fun, calm, slightly creepy night away.
