So, here we are preparing for our investigation at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. For those of you who are in the dark about this place, it is a former tuberculosis hospital which opened in 1926 (at the current site, though there was a smaller, wooden structure which was opened in 1910), and was later a geriatric care facility (1962) before its closure in 1981.

Here are just some of the legends associated with Waverly Hills:

Room 502

An episode of the Sci-Fi Channel television show Ghost Hunters featured the cast's investigation of Waverly Hills, including a local myth about the death of a nurse by murder or suicide in Room 502. Legend says the nurse found out she was pregnant, so she hung herself in the room she was in at the time.

[This claim has since been refuted, some saying the type of pipe she supposedly hung herself from was not in existence during the time period in which she hung herself, as well as the fact that there are no records of a young woman hanging herself at Waverly Hills. There are reports that a nurse did jump to her death from the top floor after learning she had tuberculosis though, so maybe that is who people are encountering on the 5th floor. ~Chad Wilson]

Death rate

Some urban legends claim that "63,000 deaths" occurred at the Sanatorium. According to Assistant Medical Director Dr. J. Frank W. Stewart, the highest number of deaths in a single year at Waverly Hills was 152. Stewart wrote that the worst time for deaths was at the end of the Second World War when troops were returning from overseas with very advanced tuberculosis cases. Some independent researchers suggest that since 162 people died at Waverly Hills in 1945, the highest total number of deaths possible over 50 years was approximately 8,212.

[8000+ is still a lot of people.~ Chad Wilson]

"Body Chute" or "Death Tunnel"

According to one urban legend, the tunnel was a "body chute" where dead patients were tossed, and a body thrown in would make it to the bottom by simple gravity. But actually, the dead patients were strapped onto a gurney and by a rope and pulley system the gurneys were rolled to the bottom and transferred to a hearse. This was done to keep the morale high in the remaining patients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium

Some other places I have an interest in investigating and doing an EVP session in are:

The Morgue

I was in here by myself when I was at Waverly 2 years ago. I was too chicken to stick around long, but this time I plan on doing an EVP session here.

The Gift Shop

The Tour Guide on my trip in 2008 said that the Gift Shop (not an actual gift shop, but the one from the days when it was a hospital) is supposedly very haunted. Again, a location where I think an EVP session is crucial, if only to validate, or invalidate claims (though ghosts don't perform like actors on a stage).

The 4th Floor

This is where there are many reports of shadow people. They have the Exit signs on the whole floor blocked out, making it very dark, and spooky.

The equipment we will be using is:

Sony Handycam with IR Illuminator

Sony A200 Digital SLR Camera

Zoom H2 Digital Recorder

Mel-8704 EMF Meter (with ambient temperature gauge)

That's it. Nothing fancy as you can see.

So, if we get any kind of anomalies, I will post them.

PS: BTW, we are going to attempt to do a webisode to post up on the site. We will keep you all informed about that.

Well, we did it. We completed our overnight at Waverly Hills Sanatorium. We just got back!

It was Andy and his wife, some of their friends, a few other forum members, Tracy, the president of my paranormal investigation group in Tennessee (ETPRS), as well as another member from that group named Scott, Cheryl, and myself. Now, I need to go through evidence, mainly video and audio, and see if we got anything. I'm sure the others will let us know if anything comes up as far as evidence is concerned.

Sithy, can you give us a little "taste" of what the investigation was like. Did you stay in the morgue?

I'm a failure. I was actually lying in the drawer by myself in the dark. That lasted for about all of 30 seconds as I lost my nerve and scrambled out. The 2 guys I was with came running back as they said it sounded like I was being attacked or something. Nope, just silly old me having a panic attack. /tongue.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mellow:' />

As for the rest of the investigation, it was dark (very dark), there were bats flying around, and there was a cat lurking around on the 1st floor. I know this because I caught a glimpse of it scurrying around a corner, and Tracy has a picture of it, complete with glowing eyes.

Cheryl got ill about halfway through and couldn't go on. I wish she had of been able to continue, as it seemed that more happened the second half of the night.

I've been to Waverly before, so I kind of knew what to expect. I still love the place and will jump at the opportunity to go back in the future.

PS: I just found out we have a 4 hour layover in Chicago tomorrow.

The investigation was awesome … well the first half anyway. LOL

I did get a horrible migraine halfway through and had to sit in the common area the rest of the night, which was a major bummer. I have a huge sensitivity to being in the heat/humidity for too long, and while I was hoping to hold out longer into the night, it wasn't in the cards. But … the first half of the investigation was amazing!

While I did not have any personal experiences, except almost falling down the 3rd floor stairway (my fault entirely, no spirits were pushing me LOL), the building was amazing, and I did have the feeling of someone watching us for a couple minutes on the first floor in the main hallway. A majority of our group did have personal experiences, and they were really cool to hear about.

I was constantly seeing shadows lurking about down the hallways and out of the corner of my eyes, but I think it was a trick of the eye trying to discern between the light and dark (mostly dark) areas and doorways.

Bats were flying around on some of the floors, and I saw about 3 or 4 do flybys. Eek! Karen, you would have had fun there. heehee

I was only scared a couple times in the building, one by a scary Frankenstein-like decoration in one of the rooms that I was not expecting (they have an upcoming Halloween tour and decs were already up), and a loud cricket that sounded off in my right ear, leading me to let out a yelp. LOL.

It was awesome to meet up with everyone from PUG. That was another highlight of our trip!

I would like to go back some day and make it through all 8 hours!

Yes, Andy and his mountain of equipment comes to mind.

Bummer about the migraine, Cheryl. Are you feeling better today?

I'm looking forward to the details. Perhaps we should set aside a little time in our radio broadcast this week to discuss it.

I'm working on the audio now, so who knows, we might even have EVPs by Thursday.

Or we could invite some of those who attended to talk about their experiences.

I am feeling 100% today!

Actually, about an hour after we left Waverly I was almost back to normal. Had a nice sleep and wish I could go back to Waverly today. LOL

I think we can touch on Waverly on this week's show, and we can set next week's show as a "Waverly show" and invite those who came with us to talk about their experiences.

I don't think Chad mentioned it yet, but he and his ETPRS teammates had a few really impressive Ovilus sessions.

Well, the Ovilus that they had was a little Rainmannish as it kept repeating "upstairs", "apple", and various other words over the course of many sessions. I was half expecting it to say something about Wapner being on at 6, but it never did.