Spirits at Sunset Strip - Part II

Summary

The Night Owl Podcast — Episode 55

"Spirits at Sunset Strip, Part II"
Released December 30, 2024

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Overview

In this immersive episode, host Stephen Belyeu and the Night Owl Paranormal Research team continue their investigation into the Sunset Strip Comedy Club, a venue layered with decades of Austin history and mounting reports of chilling paranormal activity. The crew, including psychic medium Jeffrey, investigative teammates Alexis and Franklin, and staff members, aim to both validate personal experiences and scrutinize physical explanations for strange phenomena within the club. Through psychic impressions, technical experiments, and unprecedented witness validation, the team explores what — or who — haunts these historic walls.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Recap & Context: What’s Haunting Sunset Strip?

• Previous reports included:
  • Disembodied voices calling out staff names
  • Shadowy apparitions in the back areas and green room
  • Unexplained, shifting foul odors
  • A pervasive, ominous presence in the back stairwell, possibly tied to a reported suicide (Lysol ingestion) years prior
• Purpose: Test these reports with a fresh investigation, including use of the Estes Method and Ganzfeld experiments (psychic/sensory deprivation techniques).

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2. Arrival & Psychic Impressions (00:25–14:00)

Early Impressions from Jeffrey (Psychic Medium)

• Without prior knowledge, Jeffrey reports:

  “For the last couple of days, I've been seeing someone hearing their name called, you know, when nobody else was there…” (04:06, Jeffrey)

  • Picks up on music and old records — possibly referencing prior venues (The Parish, Mercury Lounge).
  • Hints of overlapping human voices, laughter, secrets, and a lingering sense of activity, especially in hallways near the green room and bar.

Validation

• Staff confirm this matches their experiences of invisible voices and misplaced objects.

Specific Visions

• Witnesses the back of a man’s head, brown hair, white shirt seated in the audience:

  “It looks like the back of a guy's head, brownish hair, wearing a white shirt. He's just sitting there.” (10:11, Jeffrey)

• In the former apartment area (now storage):

  “I feel like it was a guy who lived back here. I saw him in the shower...” (11:04, Jeffrey)

  • Historical note: Former male owner did live there, though still alive.

• On the infamous stairwell: not much felt, but mentions a “liminal space” (transitional, energetically charged).

• Repeated encounters with a male “stagehand” energy:

  “Taller than I am...maybe kind of chunky, short brown hair from the back...stage manager vibe...” (13:09, Jeffrey)

In the Green Room and Backstage

• Echoes of strong, residual energy; shadow figures glimpsed only in mirrors.
• Feels a touch on his shoulder, hears “excuse me” (from male entity). Feels dedicated but lonely; possibly attached to equipment, not the building.

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3. Technical Investigations: Explaining the Unexplainable? (25:33–27:49)

• High EMF readings in the back office (breaker boxes): can make sensitive folks feel uneasy, but not dangerous.

• Dimmer switches that move on their own: some explained by age/faulty parts, though one high capacity dimmer remains a mystery:

  “The dimmer switches moving on their own wasn't as explainable. So this still remained a mystery to us.” (27:49, Stephen Ballew)

• Attempts to debunk loud banging noises (thought to be pipes or restroom sinks) fail:

  “...banged on the wall as hard as they could. It did not produce a banging sound at all...very hard to debunk.” (30:22, Stephen Ballew)

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4. The Experiments: Estes Method & Ganzfeld Sessions (37:27–59:30)

a. Jeffrey’s Estes Session—Evidence of Theft, Fear, and a Sinister Voice

• Keywords repeatedly surfaced: thief, theft, switches, six (6), fear.
• Notable exchange:

  "Thief. Again. Snake. Sneak. Jump." (37:55, Jeffrey) “Six. Six. Six...Sinister.” (39:02, Bo) "Fear." (39:10, Jeffrey)

  • Multiple presences: young man, young woman, and a deeper sinister male voice.

b. Franklin’s Estes Session—A Skeptic’s Terrifying Encounter

• Repeats “thief”, “Steven” (not sure if host or historical), “jump”.
• Name “Emma” surfaces, amid urgent, repeated female screaming:

  “Muscular. Screaming. Woman screaming...” (45:14–45:19, Franklin)

  • After session, Franklin (self-proclaimed skeptic) admits:

    “...the woman would scream, the sounds would ultimately just turn dark and then it would sound like you're hearing a woman screaming on the telephone...Afraid for their life. Screaming.” (46:40–47:21, Franklin)

c. Alexis’ Ganzfeld Session—Faces, Snakes, and a Demand for Attention

• Experiences physical sensations (chair kicked, face touched), intense visuals of angry male with snake-like eyes, crowd of shadow figures.
• Repeated mention: "Steven, the stairs–you need to go see the stairs." (51:18, Alexis)
• Staff member Philip confirms seeing similar visualizations, adding further credibility.

d. Philip’s Estes (on the Stairs)—Snakes, Screams, and a Plea

• Snakes “coming from the outside edges,” loud female screams, words “snitch,” “bodies,” “leave,” “escape,” and “war against women.”
• Unnerved by desperate pleas:

  “I didn't like the ‘please’ at all. It kind of made me want to take it off immediately...the pleas was, like, desperate.” (57:34, Philip)

e. Jeffrey’s Second Estes (on the Stairs)—Names Surface, Blocked Communication

• Voices fragment: “Help. John. Help John, out, please...”
• "Stop" and silence whenever the team tries to press for details about “John” (possibly referencing J. Waller Stevens, Jr., alleged suicide victim).

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5. Physical & Historical Correlations (Throughout)

• Psychic impressions frequently match staff reports and historical sketches:
  • Audience/Stagehand presences
  • Area between the green room and the stairwell recognized as a “liminal” hot spot
  • Several sessions reference a “theft” (rumored bookkeeper embezzlement, confirmed by staff memory but unproven by research so far)
  • Female presences—some friendly, some in distress

  “I feel like he's...a guardian angel for this building...kind of a backstage work hand.” (29:20, Jeffrey)

  • Aggressive, possibly protective or oppressive male presence.

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6. Witness Testimony: Performer from St. Louis Validates Psychic Visions (68:49–78:27)

Lindsay's Account (remote performer)

• Walks into the building and feels “a lot of presence, a lot of heaviness,” especially at the top of the stairwell.
• Backstage, repeatedly feels an extra person present, hears unexplained rolling noises (“...something was rolling, but there was nothing.” (68:49, Lindsay)).
• Feels a youthful, feminine energy in the green room and an older, masculine energy at the stairwell/back door.
• On stage, senses both someone in the audience and another on stage with her, both masculine:

  “The energy and presence that was on the stage with me felt like someone who was there to do a job. The energy in the audience felt like someone who was there to have fun...” (77:26, Lindsay)

• Stephen:

  “The most prominent energy [Jeffrey] felt was a male who worked the stage there...not something that the staff ever described.” (77:58, Stephen)

• Lindsay’s testimony strikingly validates Jeffrey’s earlier, otherwise unconfirmed impressions.

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Psychic Impressions Matching Reports:

  “More than images this time. Usually it's pictures, but this all had to do with human voices. Lots of human voices.” (04:29, Jeffrey)

• On the Stagehand Spirit (“Hank”):

  “He's a big guy...very dedicated. He likes being busy, but it feels like he's kind of hurt, too. Maybe lonely.” (14:58, Jeffrey)

• On Technical Failures to Explain Phenomena:

  “...banged on the wall as hard as they could. It did not produce a banging sound at all...very hard to debunk.” (30:22, Stephen Ballew)

• On the Repeated Theme of ‘Theft’ and ‘Snitch’:

  "Thief. Again. Snake. Sneak. Jump." (37:55, Jeffrey)
  "Thief Again." (43:00, Franklin)

• On The Female Scream (Estes Sessions):

  “The woman would scream, the sounds would ultimately just turn dark...Afraid for their life. Screaming.” (46:40–47:21, Franklin)

• On Validation from Lindsay’s Outside Testimony:

  “I felt someone on the stage with me who wasn’t there, and...someone in the audience...Both of the energies felt male...” (77:51, Lindsay)

• On The Unexplained ("Hank")

  “...no one on the staff had ever reported anything like him. I wasn't sure what to make of that...” (67:24, Stephen Ballew)

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Segment Timestamps

• 00:00–04:00: Recap of prior episode, staff reports, introduction of the team
• 04:00–14:00: Jeffrey’s first psychic walkthrough and initial impressions
• 14:00–28:00: Investigating private areas, back stairwell, green room, and backstage—psychic impressions, object movement
• 25:33–27:49: Alexis & Franklin run EMF and technical explanations on electrical “hot spots” and dimmer switches
• 30:58–33:47: Alexis & Franklin try to debunk unexplained sounds
• 37:27–41:21: Estes Method session #1 (Jeffrey)
• 42:28–47:56: Estes session #2 (Franklin) and detailed debriefing on overwhelming “screaming woman”
• 48:54–53:16: Ganzfeld session (Alexis): physical sensations and intense visualizations, “Steven, the stairs”
• 54:20–59:30: Estes sessions on staircase (Philip/Jeffrey): snakes, “bodies,” desperate pleas, “help John”
• 61:20–67:24: Final team recaps, staff & psychic perspective, open questions
• 68:49–78:27: Lindsay’s surprise witness account from Missouri—external validation of psychic findings
• 78:27–80:20: Stephen’s reflection, next steps, plans to research "Hank’s" true identity

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Conclusion & Ongoing Mysteries

The investigation delivers a rare blend of psychic impressions, technical scrutiny, overlapping witness testimony, and unresolved mysteries. The team's findings suggest:

• Multiple distinct spirits: A busy, recent-era male "stagehand" (possibly “Hank”), a frightened or oppressed female (possibly tied to historic or criminal events), and a more sinister, controlling masculine presence.
• Persistent themes: Thievery, pleas for help, intense emotional echoes (fear, loneliness).
• Physical phenomena: Name-calling voices, shadow figures, objects moving, unexplained electrical anomalies, and ritualistic mention of “snakes.”
• Historic intrigue: Rumored embezzlement and suicide (J. Waller Stevens Jr.), yet unconfirmed by research.
• External witness validation: Independent testimonies echo the team’s psychic findings, especially regarding stage/audience presences.

Next Steps:
The Night Owl team will continue their investigation, seek deeper historical context, and introduce a new psychic (Kate the Brave) in a subsequent episode, aiming to further unravel the Sunset Strip’s ghostly enigmas.

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For New Listeners

This episode is a prime example of the Night Owl Podcast's evocative, respectful approach to paranormal investigation. The team’s balance of skepticism and sensitivity — coupled with technical rigor — offers a compelling, accessible entry into real-world ghost hunting.

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Tune in for Part III of “Spirits at Sunset Strip” on January 27, 2025.

Transcript

[Stephen Ballew]

The Night owl Podcast Episode 55 Spirits at Sunset Strip Part 2 welcome to the Night Owl Podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Ballew, and this is a place for all you restless spirits out there to tune in and hear true tales of the paranormal. I hunt these stories down, capture them from the mouths of those who've experienced them, and share them with you right here. We're currently looking for more personal ghost.

[Bo]

Stories or haunted locations, so if you.

[Stephen Ballew]

Or someone you know has one, please submit it to us. For consideration, go to thenight owlpodcast.com Click on the Submit yout Story page and let us hear your ghost story. In this episode, we return to the Sunset Strip Comedy Club nestled in the heart of Austin's iconic 6th street, to continue our investigation into the unsettling paranormal activity at this historic building. Last time, we uncovered chilling reports from staff and locals. Disembodied voices calling their names, shadowy figures rushing them, mysterious, foul odors that appear and disappear for no reason throughout the back of the building. And most commonly reported, an ominous presence felt in the back stairwell that may be tied to a mysterious death in the building's past. But the mystery deepens today as I'm joined by team members Alexis Franklin and psychic medium Jeffrey, who will dive in and explore the dark corners of this club with me. We'll attempt to find rational explanations for some of the strange reports. But as we dig in, Geoffrey begins to make eerie connections to the claims while uncovering new possible spirits lurking in the venue's shadows. Utilizing cutting edge techniques like the Estes Method and Ganzfeld experiments, the team and I will venture into uncharted territory. And just when we think we've hit a dead end, a surprising witness from Missouri steps forward with a shocking validation that could change everything. Is the Sunset Strip Comedy Club truly haunted? Join us as we dive deeper into the mystery, unraveling the past and confronting whatever spirits might still haunt this historic building. Stay tuned. Once again, I'd like to thank AG1 for their continued support of the Night Owl Podcast. It's the perfect time to start a new healthy habit. And that's why I've been partnering with AG1 for so long. AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift. When you sign up for you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of D3K2, and five free travel packs with your first box, so make sure to check out drinkag1.com night owl before we jump into the investigation, let's quickly recap where we left off the reports from the Staff at Sunset Strip Comedy Club are nothing short of unsettling. From disembodied voices calling out names to inexplicable smells that appear and disappear without warning, it's clear that something strange is happening here. Staff members like Philip have encountered full bodied apparitions, and others have felt the unmistakable presence of a female spirit lingering in the green room. There were also reports of a darker, possibly demonic force hiding in the back office. And then there's the eerie back stairwell that could potentially hold the weight of tragic history. Whispers of a man who may have taken his own life here by ingesting Lysol, adding to the sense of dread that surrounds this space. Now the time has come to investigate further. Our team, including psychic medium Jeffrey, is ready to delve into the heart of these claims. On day two of this investigation, we'll be stepping into the shadows, attempting to gather evidence and pushing our tools to their limits as we seek to connect the dots between the strange experiences and the history buried within these walls. On Monday, September 2, 2024, most of my team and I had met at team member Alexis's shop on East 6th Street. Since it wasn't far from the location, I had Jeffrey meet us there as well, and we carpooled to the Sunset Strip. As always, Jeffrey had no knowledge of the location or any of its claims. This also is not a publicly reported haunting, so there were no online reports anywhere to be found. When we got parked downtown, I walked the team over to the building and we had Jeffrey step aside and share some general impressions he'd already gotten the night before.

[Jeffrey]

Well, for the last couple of days, I've been seeing someone hearing their name called, you know, when nobody else was there, like that kind of a thing. Music, records, almost like was like an old record shop or there was something to do with old, like vinyl records and then some kind of like music. That kind of old music. I got a flash of like a record store. Does that mean it was actually a record store?

[Bo]

No.

[Jeffrey]

There's something about that kind of a vibe to it, though. Lots of noise. More than images this time. Usually it's pictures, but this all had to do with human voices. Lots of human voices.

[Stephen Ballew]

This was incredibly early on and he hadn't set foot inside the building yet. But it's worth noting that one of the most commonly reported occurrences is staff hearing their name called or disembodied voices. Jeffrey was also picking up on something with the records and the music that might be pointing to the long term music venue, the Parish, who occupied this building for nearly two decades. Just so I'm clear on who's with us today, Alexis, Franklin and Jeffrey were my investigative team and our pal Bo. We was here to document and take photos for us. Sunset strip's barista Philip and co owner Christina were going to be the staff present for today's investigation. At this point in time, Philip had arrived early and was letting us into the building, being led upstairs by Philip.

[Bo]

Making her way to the third floor. Okay, we just entered the third floor. Sunset Strip Comedy Club. It is Monday, September 2nd.

[Jeffrey]

I feel like when the lights are off like this, maybe they see the back of someone. Like someone sitting in these chairs out of the corner of your eye, and then, you know, they're gone. I don't know what's special about these two chairs, but I was. Felt like I had to come right here. I just want to walk around a little bit.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Stephen Ballew]

Jeffrey pushed his way toward the back of the building, heading down the hallway to the right of the stage, leading back to the green room door.

[Jeffrey]

Maybe from back here that, you know, hearing your own name being called from somewhere around here, I got the impression it would be, like, down a hall, around a corner. Corner kind of a thing. So I wonder if it's coming from back here.

[Bo]

Now we're making our way into the green room. Interesting.

[Jeffrey]

This is cool. This is the inner sanctum. There's lots of residuals back here.

[Bo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Lots of conversation, laughter, you know, that kind of thing. I feel like the lights aren't usually this bright in here.

[Bo]

Places.

[Jeffrey]

I mean, conversation, maybe some secrets, that kind of stuff. Stuff you'd expect in a cool back room like this somewhere. It's not back here somewhere. There's the face popping out from behind a doorway. Maybe back out in that hallway area. I want to go back.

[Bo]

Okay. Yeah. Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

We're leaving the green room, going back.

[Bo]

To the main shotgun hallway leading to the stage.

[Jeffrey]

Looking around, calling someone, you know, hearing your name called from here, when you're up in the bar, that kind of a thing, Especially if you're by yourself or working, working or something. Somebody, like, washing glasses behind the bar. It's like, what? And then there's nobody there. Because this is. This is just full of energy. Because, I mean, there's a stage, obviously. Yeah, here's the music for sure. Comedy.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Laughter. There's all the noise.

[Bo]

And I'll. I'll confirm with you right now that.

[Stephen Ballew]

Music does have a tie because he.

[Bo]

Picked up on a music type.

[Stephen Ballew]

Something to do with music here.

[Bo]

Although it's comedy now.

[Stephen Ballew]

I'll let him know later that there's some history.

[Jeffrey]

It's like an overarching music kind of vibe.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

It's not like one specific musician Jeffrey.

[Stephen Ballew]

Had hit on disembodied voices and name calling from the back of the building area and that hallway leading by the stage to the back. He also picked up that someone by themselves would have more activity. And there was the tie to the music venue that he continued to pick up on.

[Bo]

We're making our way back to the bar. I don't.

[Jeffrey]

I'm always thinking, oh, it's not this. And then it turns out to be that, like the boarding house thing at the pompy house. I should have slowed down with that one. So stuff being moved around, like you reach for a glass and it's over here now kind of thing. Little things like that. Maybe the noise, although it sounded louder this morning, like a banging, but maybe it was the chairs. I heard the scraping noise. Maybe chairs being moved again when nobody's around. But like when you're down here doing something and you hear from down there and you're the only one here.

[Bo]

But.

[Stephen Ballew]

And just to note Philip, we'll talk about it later, but he's picking up hearing things from over there. Objects kind of moving and not being where you put them back here. And then also he heard originally a banging and then. But he doesn't know if it's banging.

[Bo]

On, like, a surface or it could be like furniture moving being heard here.

[Stephen Ballew]

So just take note of that and.

[Bo]

We'Ll talk about it later. Cool.

[Jeffrey]

I'm still looking at those two chairs over there.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Expecting to see the back of someone, like they're sitting in that chair waiting. It's like waiting for the show, even though it's not going to start for a long, long time.

[Stephen Ballew]

We did a quick pass through, letting Geoffrey roam where he wanted to. It was very brief, but he explored the main front of house and made his way to the green room, then back out to the front of house and main bar area. Some key things to note here were that he was, in fact pointing out that the main area, he felt people would see things or hear those disembodied voices was the hallway and space between the green room and front of house. This was indeed where a lot of the people feel this occurring and where Philip himself had his sightings. This, oddly enough, was also where the banging was coming from when Christina got a call from a staff member and they couldn't find the source or make it stop until it eventually just ceased on its own. But one thing Jeffrey was continually picking up on and drawn to was something that had never been reported to me. He was seeing glimpses of an audience member kind of toward the center of the audience seating.

[Jeffrey]

It looks like the back of a guy's head, brownish hair, wearing a white shirt. He's just sitting there.

[Bo]

Over there.

[Jeffrey]

I can't see his face, but it's just an image. He's not there right now, but he.

[Bo]

Just kind of got that flash.

[Jeffrey]

That was the first thing I was immediately drawn to were those two chairs right there.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

The two to the right of that little bitty table. Yeah, on that aisle.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

At this point, I decided to start taking Jeffrey places that weren't public facing. The first place I showed him was the back apartment area. If you'll recall, this is where some staff reported feeling a presence constantly. And also a location where the phantom smells would appear often.

[Bo]

They have a storage thing back here that was like once an apartment, apparently. Oh, cool. So we can check back here, too.

[Jeffrey]

Lots of stuff going on back here. Or was someone lived back here?

[Bo]

That's what. That's what they said.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, this is like a little, tiny little studio apartment. Yeah, it's a garret. I feel like it was a guy who lived back here.

[Bo]

A guy?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I saw him in the shower. Not to be untoward, but.

[Bo]

Not the.

[Jeffrey]

One in the chair, though.

[Bo]

Different. Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Not the same one in the chair. I don't feel too much back here. I mean, I could. There's a lot of Back here. Yeah, I don't feel like anybody's hiding back here anymore.

[Stephen Ballew]

Sadly, Jeffrey didn't pick up on any smells or any ominous or watching presences back here. But he did pick up on an image of a male in the shower. In my initial interviews, I did know that a former male owner of the building used to live in this space. So Jeffrey stating that a man lived back here was accurate. However, this man was still alive, so it could be that Jeffrey was just picking up some residual stamps of his energy here. But now I wanted to guide Jeffrey down the back stairwell without telling him anything. I was curious if he'd pick up on any of those many reported feelings that the staff all seem to feel here.

[Bo]

Making our way down the back stairwell down to the speakeasy.

[Jeffrey]

Do we go in here? Or is it.

[Philip]

Is this someone else's property?

[Bo]

Okay. Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, I gotcha. I thought maybe it was part of your prison.

[Bo]

Okay, cool.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I would imagine the spirits are curious about that stuff that's cool. I feel like people sit here and talk. I don't know if it's open at night because it's probably a health thing, liability thing, But I feel like people sitting on these stairs, like, modern now, way before, back in the old days, when this was probably a certain stairway.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Just a public entrance or something. It feels like they're cocktails sitting down there.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

Surprisingly, Jeffrey didn't have much to report on the back stairwell. The speakeasy was also closed, and we were going to have to wait for someone to arrive to let us in. But when we made it back upstairs, Jeffrey wanted to tell me he was picking up on another male presence in the building. Aside from the seated male audience member.

[Bo]

Keep.

[Jeffrey]

I don't think it's the same guy that's sitting in the chair, but I get the impression the guy in the shower. It's like there's a male spirit.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Taller than I am a little bit. Broad shoulders, maybe kind of chunky. All I can see is short brown hair from the back.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Like, maybe he worked here or was, like. Had some sort of past history as, like, a roadie kind of a person or something. Definitely dealing with, like, the stage equipment, you know, the speakers and the moving and that kind of stuff. But not. Not like a. Not like a janitor who's just moving stuff to clean.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

And not a bartender. Like, almost like a stage manager vibe or something. And there's. He's the main one I'm getting right now. But there's something else.

[Stephen Ballew]

Jeffrey mentioned seeing this male presence in the shower of the apartment area. We were earlier, but noticed him throughout the venue now as well. He also mentioned noticing him in the dark back area of the stage, but we had only passed that area and had not gone back there yet. We're going back to the green room.

[Bo]

And we've got backstage we haven't done. I don't think I've been back here. Yeah. Sorry. If I can.

[Jeffrey]

That's okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

I'll hold it for you.

[Bo]

You got it. Alexis? Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

Over here. Tell you one thing. Only when I look in that mirror right here on this wall, I can see, like, the outline, like a shadow figure. And then it was like, for a minute it went. You know, like on tv, when someone's invisible and you can see them, they're kind of blurry. It was almost like that. Almost like a blur. And I could see it moving. It was like moving. It wasn't just standing there looking into that mirror. Only when I looked and it was.

[Bo]

Standing over there, but it was over.

[Jeffrey]

Here against this wall. And I think feels like it's the same guy.

[Bo]

Same guy.

[Jeffrey]

The big guy. When I was standing in the little entryway to the green room, I felt him put his hand on my shoulder and go, excuse me. Like he was in a hurry. Not in a mean way, but he's just. He likes being busy.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

And then I said, you know, did you work here or something? He goes, I'm attached. I don't know if he's attached to the place. I think he's attached to the whole music stage kind of crew vibe. Maybe he's attached to a piece of equipment. I don't know.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

But it doesn't feel like somebody from here. Like, you know, when this is new in the 1900s, it feels more recent than that. I get a nice feeling from him. He's very dedicated. But it feels like he's kind of hurt, too. Maybe lonely.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

But seems like a nice guy. It's that other little room, that little electrical, that little closet.

[Bo]

You felt something there.

[Jeffrey]

Yeah. Likes to go, like, take a break. Likes to hide out for a few minutes.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

To hide from the boss kind of a thing.

[Stephen Ballew]

I'll recap what unfolded here. As it may be hard to visualize. The way you enter the backstage is through the green room. There is an actual door that lets you into the tiny hallway with an electrical closet to the left of backstage. Then there are some steps up to the main backstage area, which is tiny, by the way. Then there's a curtain that you can push through to enter the main front stage, where comedians perform the stage itself and the audience butts up against a wall on stage right. Jeffrey shared a story with me that when he was walking the venue earlier, in a mirror on the opposite wall by the minibar, where the more active hallway is, he saw a reflection of a shadow figure standing in the corner where this right wall and stage meet. He wasn't sure, but felt it could be this roadie, stage hand, male energy he had been encountering. A couple other notes that were important to keep in mind here was that Jeffrey was picking up that he was around music equipment and. And his spirit wasn't from a very long time ago, like he died. More recently in modern times, possibly the 80s or 90s. The parish music venue apparently opened its doors here in 2003, so it's possible the spirit could be from that time. But I've also discovered in the 90s, it was another concert venue called Mercury Lounge. At this time, however, we needed to Explore one more space that Jeffrey hadn't had access to. The back office. This is where Christina and a couple other staff felt a much darker presence. Some even believed it could be demonic. I was curious to see what Jeffrey was gonna feel here.

[Jeffrey]

This is another. Like, I just put this paper down, and I turned around, and now it's here. Like, little stuff, like, almost just sort of trickster, like prankish, like, you know, or I can't find my phone, and it's like, I found it for you kind of a thing back here. Especially at this. Right here, this station. I got that with some other stuff, too. Like familiar sounds, but no one's supposed to be there to make them. Voices around corners.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

So that rattling stuff, Same kind of thing up at the bar stuff. You know, I set the gin down, and now it's to my right, and now it's to my left.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Kind of the same, but I don't think that's the same guy. I mean, a place like this is gonna attract all kinds of stuff. Yeah, any kind of theatrical place usually does. Trickster spirits.

[Stephen Ballew]

So here, Jeffrey did not pick up any negative vibes at all, which surprised me. But then again, we never know when things are going to be active or present when we're there. And the feeling staff we're getting could be attributed to the breaker box and high EMF in this space as well. This wasn't enough yet to rule out anything, but Jeffrey was only picking up a more playful movement of objects, like setting things down on the desk and them not being in the same place they were in or they changed position. And Jeffrey did not believe this activity was attributed to the Mel stagehand or helper, but wasn't picking up on who or what this playful or trickster energy was. At this time, Christina hadn't been following us, so I wanted to update her on all that Jeffrey had, in fact, picked up. Jeffrey was going to roam and try to track more down during this time. After I updated Christina, Jeffrey came back and told me to come with him to the back stairwell. Apparently, he'd had an experience there while we were talking.

[Jeffrey]

Let me show you what happened over here. And it's probably just the sensors.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

But what is interesting is I stepped back here because I just.

[Bo]

I don't know why.

[Jeffrey]

I love this hallway. I stepped here and I saw stopped. That light comes on. And when I said, you can show me things, that light came on, and I did not move forward. I was here, nowhere near this, and it just came on right when I said, you can show me things? Because I was looking to see if that, you know, if it was just a shadow down there or maybe something. Again, I feel like people sit on these steps, but when I said you can show me things, it felt like you turned that light on and you.

[Bo]

Think it's the still. This one is tied to the main guy.

[Jeffrey]

Yes, that main guy that I'm picking up on. I think there's other stuff here, too. I'm not picking up anything malevolent like we have at other places.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

For sure. But he just likes being here.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

I mean, that's the thing. I'm attached.

[Bo]

I don't know if I'm attached to.

[Jeffrey]

The building, to the business.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Or to literally to an object that, you know, may have been used before or something, you know?

[Stephen Ballew]

But what Jeffrey experienced in the stairwell was similar to something Christina had actually reported for her. The lights turn off when she's making her way up or down the stairs. But for Jeffrey, when he told the presence that it could show him things, the automatic light turned on. Jeffrey in this moment, was also picking up a name for this more friendly male spirit.

[Jeffrey]

But I want to call him Hank just because he looks like a Hank, but I don't want that name.

[Stephen Ballew]

Day before doing a quick recap with Jeffrey and Christina together, we hopped into the men's and women's restrooms. In the hallway here, close to the stairwell, Jeffrey only picked up some subtle impressions, like whistling in the men's room and a playful presence in the women's room, but nothing significant or that tied to many reports. At this point, I wanted Jeffrey to share with Christina everything he'd picked up on so far.

[Jeffrey]

The first thing that happened when I came in was I felt like, there's two chairs over here. I can show you where they are. Where it's like when nobody's here and the lights are low, it looks like the back of someone head sitting in the chair. But then the main impression I've been getting is. And it started when we looked in that apartment. I don't know if he lived back there. It feels like it's a guy maybe about your height, maybe a tiny bit taller, Broad shoulder, Like somebody who's like, was a roadie or somebody that's used to moving this big kind of equipment. He's. I asked him, I said, did you work here? He's like, I'm attached. And he was like, excuse me. You know, carrying things. He's very busy, but he likes it. It's not like he's trapped or Anything. He seems nice. But when I would, like, look in that mirror, I could see a figure up against that wall over there. Only when I looked in the mirror, it's weird, but it wasn't just a shadow figure. It started to look almost like a blurry outline, you know, moving. And then it kind of went away. And then I get. I like him. I get a really nice vibe from him. So I don't think he's the only one here. He's not the one doing the little trickster y things. I think he's the one that hides in that little closet in there. Kind of like the backstage closet. Yeah, with all that, the big electrical wire and stuff like that, where that yellow crate is, just to kind of like, you know, I don't want him see me taking a break, you know, kind of a thing, because he. He worked very hard, but he enjoyed it. But when I stepped out here and the lights were out, that light came on. Sensor. I know, but I didn't move. And we just tried it. I had to take like three steps forward before the stairwell came on. I was standing in the spot, though, well aware from that other sensor, and I was like, you can show me things. And the light came on and illuminated the whole staircase. So it was almost kind of like a response. It was of kind.

[Bo]

Kind of cool.

[Jeffrey]

But overall, I mean, general impressions I've been getting are like, before I even came here this morning from home, it was like almost like a street fair atmosphere. Crowds of people. Even sometimes when nobody's around, you hear those kind of echoes of noise and laughing and music. I got like an image almost like of a record store. Like, you know, maybe sometimes I get images that I have to translate. There's symbols and so maybe was like, you know, kind of like retro music or something like that. That kind of. I almost felt like a vibe from this 80s street fair that used to happen in Houston. You know, revelry, all that kind of stuff. I wrote it down. I have to look at my notes. Rushing, moving, the shadow outline.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Did all that records. And then, you know, furniture moving, stuff being moved around, scraping. But sometimes a banging noise. I don't know if it's banging on a door.

[Christina]

Do you know where it is?

[Bo]

Or.

[Jeffrey]

This was from home this morning. So I didn't really have a sense of the place, but it seemed like it would have been like out in the middle or something. Or maybe this area, for some reason I'm drawn to as well, this hallway pass through area, because I feel like. Like right where Bo's standing. If you're over here, you might hear someone call your name from around this corner. Something that happens here. It's almost like this is. Is one zone. Of course it is. It's more private, but. And then there's the public place. But the energy kind of changes right here in this pass through area because, I mean, it's very liminal. It's between the two spaces. It's the side entrance to the stage. So this is actually kind of a lot of energy. Hearing your name called.

[Bo]

Hearing your name called.

[Jeffrey]

Oh, yeah, I got, you know, noises, crowded space, that kind of a thing. So that's mostly it. But it kind of makes sense, right? Big nightfall like this.

[Stephen Ballew]

I wanted Jeffrey to also clarify the male spirit he had seen in the apartment area shower. I wasn't sure if this male spirit was a unique new presence separate from what he told us yet or not, but apparently this was the spirit that he was referring to as Hank. The only thing you saw was a male in the shower, right?

[Jeffrey]

Yeah, I think that was him. The same guy. I want to call him Hank. I don't know why he looks like a Hank, but I just. And I didn't. I saw again, head and shoulders, back of his head, but in the shower. That's why I was like, did you work here? Did you live here? And all I heard was, I'm attached.

[Bo]

But.

[Jeffrey]

Busy, busy, always carrying things.

[Stephen Ballew]

While I had been traveling the spaces with Jeffrey, Alexis and Franklin had kept their distance from us and checked up on some of the areas that had activity that they wanted to try to find rational explanations for. I met Alexis and Franklin now in the back office, where Christina and some folks felt a darker presence. This was that small, narrow office that had the building's breaker boxes in it.

[Alexis Franklin]

When we came in here the first time, I was just standing here listening to everybody talking, and then immediately I felt the. And I was like, whoa. And I told Franklin, I said, can you read behind me? And immediately, hi. Emf.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Alexis Franklin]

But I immediately felt like the shift of, like, oh, this is not like.

[Bo]

A normal feeling, is it? Normal readings for a breaker box.

[Stephen Ballew]

It has some older breaker components.

[Sam]

We're talking like, you know, 10 to 15 years old. Not like that one house we saw.

[Stephen Ballew]

With it, like, where I got really sick.

[Jeffrey]

46, 40 plus.

[Bo]

Okay, so it's not as bad as that one.

[Jeffrey]

No, no, no, no.

[Sam]

I don't think it's like something that's like an emergency.

[Bo]

Okay, good.

[Stephen Ballew]

So there was high EMF output here, but nothing to a severe Degree that would require emergency action. But if someone is highly sensitive, it could potentially affect them and lead them to feel strange, sick, or uneasy.

[Bo]

Back here.

[Stephen Ballew]

Next up, I wanted to get Franklin's take on the dimmer switches in the green room hallways and the one by the mini bar in the middle hallway where a lot of activity takes place. So many reports of witnessing these dimmer switches actually lower or lift up had been reported by the staff. Flickering and light fluctuations is one thing, but the staff were also seeing the switch itself move up or down, which is way more intriguing to me.

[Bo]

The dimmers, the ones that actually move, tend to drop or lift, and they.

[Stephen Ballew]

Can see it happen.

[Bo]

I don't know if you've gone and tested that out, but I wanted to get your theories on that.

[Sam]

So the only, like, general theory I have on it is. So it's a high capacity dimmer. So you put the EMF on it. It goes straight to 100.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Sam]

Be interested to put this one up.

[Bo]

There to see what it does. Yeah. Okay. This is the light switches by the.

[Stephen Ballew]

Sidebar beside the stage.

[Sam]

Now, the lights, the D dimmers in the hallway by the bathrooms, those are really. It's a really old dimmer. And I don't think that dimmer should probably be replaced because when I was moving it, the tri field was. The light was flickering and the trifle was flickering. So that's just the dimmer being faulty.

[Bo]

Yeah. Okay.

[Sam]

And you have to buy dimming bulbs for that.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Sam]

To basically stop it from flickering. So that might be two reasons as.

[Bo]

To why that one.

[Sam]

So that one's pretty explainable. This one is not.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

The dimmer switches moving on their own wasn't as explainable. So this still remained a mystery to us. At this time. Christina was working to get us into the speakeasy below. So I took this as a good time to have Jeffrey clarify all that he was feeling more certain on so far. He walked me over to the audience seating in front of house and took me to where he was constantly feeling and seeing a presence sitting in the audience. The chair itself even had impressions as if someone was sitting on it. But it could have just been grooves from constant butts in the seats and not paranormal. However, all the seats around it were smooth.

[Jeffrey]

It's a perfect center stage. He's like in his 40s, short brown hair, white shirt. I think maybe I don't see some of this stuff. I don't know if things were attached to some of the equipment, which might have been somewhere else at one time or whatever. This place was before, but it feels like he's like people are auditioning for him, and he's just. That's why he's just sitting there.

[Bo]

Right.

[Jeffrey]

White shirt, he's not moving. So it could be just sort of a leftover thing. But of all the seats, I mean, a few have wrinkles, but this one looks like somebody's sitting in it. There's a spot. Bo took a picture of my hand over here on that. That wooden bump out where the Hank guy, he stands like this and watches the show over there.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

But I had to, like, reach way up like that to put my hand on the spot because he's taller.

[Bo]

Do you think this is still Hank or this is somebody.

[Jeffrey]

No, that's not Hank. This is just somebody else. When I first walked in, I was like, do people see somebody sitting in this chair?

[Bo]

Okay.

[Jeffrey]

And so I sat next to it and all that kind of stuff. But the thing about the Hank figure is it's almost like if everybody left, Hank would still be here. He likes this space. He likes the energy of it being a club and that kind of a thing. But he's almost like a guardian angel for the. For this building, for this, you know, this space, which is why he's here. Like I said, almost like maybe he had an experience as a roadie or a stage hand, that kind of a thing. That kind of a backstage work hand.

[Bo]

Kind of a thing. Okay.

[Jeffrey]

But I don't get the impression that he's been here since, like, 1902 or anything either. Not like, you know, from when this place was. Whatever it was, when it was first built. No, it's much more modern. He would have been around this kind of equipment and stuff like that.

[Bo]

Okay, gotcha.

[Jeffrey]

And the music and the lights and all that stuff.

[Bo]

Is there any other presences that you're getting at all?

[Jeffrey]

There's something about that stairwell that's occupied. You know, I don't know if it's because it's between the two different places, two different businesses or whatever, but the.

[Stephen Ballew]

Speakeasy was now available. So I took Jeffrey down the back stairwell and into Eden for the first time. Meanwhile, Franklin and Alexis were going to hang back and test out ways in which that banging noise might have occurred. The opposite side of the wall in which it happened on was the wall that the mirrors and sinks in the women's restroom were on. Franklin and Alexis turned on the sinks, used dispensers, then actually banged on the wall as hard as they could. It did not produce a banging sound at all. So in the end, this was another thing very hard to debunk. Jeffrey and I made it down to the speakeasy and he wasn't picking up much. But here is what he was relaying.

[Jeffrey]

Almost like waiters or busboy carrying something, one of them backward. I hope it's not a body. But I don't know. Something came through here. Something came. Came through here, like after hours. So maybe something I. It's really vague. It's really blurry. It would have been like now it's dark. But no one's here yet. It's not during. They're not open. It would have been something hushed. That's what I'm getting, the word hushed up. Almost like the guys doing the moving. Don't worry about them, you know, they're just bus boys. They don't know what's in the boxes or whatever it is they're carrying. I wonder if some money went missing. Kind of like petty theft kind of stuff.

[Stephen Ballew]

If you can recall some of the lore around the death of J. Waller Stevens Jr. The man who reportedly took his own life by way of Lysol ingestion in the small closet under this back stairwell, which is the bathroom here in speakeasy, was that he was also a bookkeeper for the furniture store in this space in the 20s and supposedly was caught fudging numbers and stealing money, which ultimately led him to kill himself in this space. Supposedly Jeffrey mentioned people carrying something out and he even said that he hoped it wasn't a body. Then he mentioned shady business, like possibly money going missing. I had not at this point done any research to determine if the stories about J. Waller Stevens Jr. The theft and this suicide were true. But I was now even more interested to look into it with my father and team researcher. Naturally, I wanted to take Jeffrey to the small bathroom under the back stairwell now where supposedly J. Waller Stevens took his own life. But when we did, to my surprise, Jeffrey didn't feel anything here.

[Jeffrey]

I don't really feel anything in here. It's the stairs, you know, because it's a well traveled liminal place is what I'm picking up. And it's the stairs themselves, it's not the underneath. I mean, other than it's a very cool room.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

Sadly, nothing to report here. Jeffrey went back to spend some time upstairs while I had Franklin and Alexis come down to the speakeasy now to do some readings. Apparently there were a lot of very high EMF areas floor to ceiling down here. We weren't sure what could be generating this and were not able to determine what was on the other side of either wall. However, Alexis spoke up about a sighting he'd had upon arriving down here that he dismissed because of potential high EMF affecting him. But when he shared with me what he'd seen, I told him to let me record it because it was, ironically, what Jeffrey had just seen.

[Alexis Franklin]

I literally saw something like coming in here, but I can't trust it just because I think it's emf.

[Bo]

What did you see?

[Alexis Franklin]

I saw the best way to describe it. It's kind of weird. It's like a box went like whoop.

[Bo]

Well, Jeffrey's seeing them carry boxes through here. That's what he saw.

[Jeffrey]

Really?

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Stephen Ballew]

He sees men carrying two boxes, like.

[Alexis Franklin]

Somebody was holding a box and went whoop.

[Bo]

Like that. That's exactly what Jeffrey reported when I were done here by herself.

[Alexis Franklin]

That's weird.

[Stephen Ballew]

Right here is where he did.

[Alexis Franklin]

I literally just saw it when I was coming over here to talk to you guys.

[Bo]

That's weird. What color was the box?

[Alexis Franklin]

Black.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Alexis Franklin]

It was like a. Well, it was a real quick. Just like a shadow.

[Stephen Ballew]

Yeah, that was fascinating. Alexis actually saw something very similar to Jeffrey in the same exact spot in Eden. But we were running out of time for this first investigation. We'd already been here several hours, but there weren't a lot of hits made regarding the stairwell, the supposed suicide of Jwaller Steven Schuner, or the darker presences that were felt in the back office. Or like the shadow figures that frightened Philip. But today, the team and I had come prepared to try some experiments. Both the Estes method, the Gansfeld, and also a hybrid of both of these we've been experimenting with. When we get back from this short break, we're going to dive into some of these experiments to see if we can tap into any hidden spirits that we've yet to uncover on this investigation. Stay tuned. Well, night owl listeners, I don't know about you, but my willpower was severely tested during the recent Thanksgiving holiday. How does one say no to a second helping of grandma's savory homemade dressing? And who could possibly refuse a slice of mom's pumpkin pie? And now it starts all over again. During the Christmas holidays, it is extremely difficult to stay motivated to eat healthy during these occasions. I may have indulged a teeny bit myself, but one thing I did stick to is my daily AG1 regimen. No matter what else is going on in my life, whether it be the hustle and bustle of the holidays or just busy stressful schedules in general. I know that when I drink my AG1 every morning, I am getting all the necessary vitamins, nutrients and pro and prebiotics to keep me healthy and going strong. I tell all my friends and family that AG1 has become so important to me in regards to improving my overall gut health and energy levels. Many of you may have health goals for the upcoming new year and I can't think of a better way to help you meet those goals. Do what I do and turn to AG1 to get you on the right track this coming year. One scoop once a day, every day for all the foundational nutrition you need. So this new year, try AG1 for yourself. It's the perfect time to start a new healthy habit. And that's why I've been partnering with AG1 for so long and AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift. When you sign up for you'll get a welcome kit, a bottle of D3K2 and five free travel packs in your first box. So make sure to check out drinkag1.com nightowl to get this offer. That's drinkag1.com nightowl to start your new year on a healthier note by now we had set up our gear and were ready to begin testing our Estes Method and Ganzfeld experiments in the Green Room with these sensory deprivation experiments that incorporate white noise, red light and sometimes rapidly scanned radio stations. We hope perhaps some of our team members going under this experiment might tap into communicating with one or more presences that could be eluding our psychic friend Jeffrey. But we were also going to involve Jeffrey in these experiments as well. And first up, we actually set Jeffrey up in a comfortable chair in the green room, hooked him up with some Ganzfeld goggles that emit red light or pulse red light over his eyelids, and used noise canceling headphones tied into a spirit box that was going to wrap rapidly filter through AM radio stations. We usually let these sessions last around 20 to 30 minutes. So what you're going to hear is a very trimmed up sped up version of the key moments. And I highly recommend you put headphones on for this because when we ask questions we purposely speak very light to ensure that Jeffrey or the person in the headphones cannot hear what we're asking and it makes their answers if they're connected more valid. Lets dive into Jeffrey's first session now.

[Jeffrey]

Hi.

[Bo]

Hello.

[Alexis Franklin]

What is the your name?

[Bo]

Thief.

[Alexis Franklin]

So who is a thief? Did someone steal something?

[Bo]

Help.

[Alexis Franklin]

We're here to help.

[Jeffrey]

How can we Help them, please.

[Alexis Franklin]

Yes, we're listening. What is your name?

[Bo]

Proof.

[Alexis Franklin]

Yes.

[Jeffrey]

If you give us your name something.

[Alexis Franklin]

We can have proof of who you are.

[Jeffrey]

Pearson.

[Alexis Franklin]

What's your first name?

[Jeffrey]

Thief. Again. Snake. Sneak. Jump.

[Alexis Franklin]

Are you a spirit associated with this space?

[Jeffrey]

Second.

[Alexis Franklin]

Second floor.

[Jeffrey]

Switches, lights.

[Bo]

Are you on the second floor?

[Jeffrey]

Sense.

[Bo]

Jump. Jump. Theft.

[Stephen Ballew]

Theft again.

[Bo]

Is your name John?

[Jeffrey]

Side switch.

[Bo]

Switches again. Okay, so people turn on and off.

[Jeffrey]

Snakes.

[Bo]

Snakes.

[Stephen Ballew]

About my dream.

[Bo]

I don't remember.

[Alexis Franklin]

I had a weird dream about this space last night.

[Bo]

To do with snakes.

[Stephen Ballew]

Had to do with snakes, yeah.

[Alexis Franklin]

Specifically, an entity that's connected to snakes.

[Jeffrey]

Fright.

[Bo]

6. 6. 6. 6. Six. He said six. Six. Now this is the third six.

[Jeffrey]

Sinister.

[Bo]

Six. Six. Six. Six. 6. Six. What's the significance of all these numbers?

[Jeffrey]

Fear.

[Bo]

Are you trying to invoke fear?

[Jeffrey]

Never.

[Bo]

Okay, so you're not the one causing fear. Also, is there another one evoking fear?

[Jeffrey]

Are you afraid of whatever threat?

[Bo]

So is it threatening you that you can't share with us? Is there something here that scares the staff? Tax.

[Jeffrey]

Vincent.

[Bo]

Fright. What's fearful? What is scaring you or scaring people?

[Stephen Ballew]

You can take them off now.

[Bo]

We're gonna take a break.

[Jeffrey]

There was a lot of voices, but there were like two or three that kept coming back.

[Bo]

What do they sound like?

[Jeffrey]

One was a man, one was a woman. They sounded, you know, young adult, not kids. But they kept saying six over and over. But they were saying six. They were saying it in French, but there was the man, the woman and. And then what else? Yeah, I think there was another woman voice, but again, some of them were too blurry. There were a lot more words that I. That were blurry that I couldn't catch. That's okay, right? Lots of numbers or things like thief and theft.

[Stephen Ballew]

Fear as well.

[Bo]

Fear. What was going on?

[Jeffrey]

I heard the word theft in the man's voice. Super clear. So the theft.

[Bo]

So the man was theft?

[Stephen Ballew]

Mostly, yeah.

[Jeffrey]

I heard switch several times. Set. Switch again. Theft is one of the words that came through crystal clear. Everything else was like, you know. Or it was in French.

[Bo]

There was a lot to do with fear. Who was talking about fear?

[Jeffrey]

Sometimes it was a deeper man's voice. Fear. But other times it was just sort of an average, like, you know, male and female voice. But I do notice it was the same voice. It was the same woman's voice. Like, if I heard 10 things, I heard her four times and the other guy four times and the guy four times. And then sometimes it was all different. But I repeat, I heard the young or the, you know, average age man, a young adult man and woman. And then the deeper man's voice. Pretty several times I could recognize them.

[Bo]

So that's like three different.

[Jeffrey]

But they. They came back okay. Over and over. Yeah, it was weird. It was very loud and the words were like just a little quick snatches.

[Stephen Ballew]

Thief and theft hits were interesting to me because we knew of the reported beliefs that J. Waller Stevens Jr. May have been a bookkeeper who stole money from the furniture store that he was working for. Again, I had not done any historical research, so this was not a fact. These were just claims. It was interesting to hear the 666 references. The more sinister, darker male voice saying the word for fear. But Jeffrey did not feel this was demonic at this time. Switch was also something that came up a lot, and I'm not sure if it was pertaining to this, but the dimmer switches and lights throughout the building had unusual happenings surrounding them. Lastly, the mention of a female voice was interesting because many of the staff reported in my interviews feeling a woman presence that seemed friendly in the back green room area. But throughout all this, Jeffrey made it clear the spirits he picked up on his walk through weren't the same voices that he felt in this experiment. Next, we decided to hook up team member Franklin, our most skeptic and rational minded team member to this experiment. Here's what unfolded with Franklin in the chair using the same Hybrid Estes experiment.

[Bo]

Dad, how did you die? Did you die here? Where are you?

[Stephen Ballew]

In the building?

[Bo]

Hey. Hi. We can talk to you through this so you can share anything.

[Sam]

Skeptical.

[Bo]

Fair enough.

[Stephen Ballew]

Fair enough.

[Bo]

So we are here to actually help both you and the people who own the building now. So you can let us know if there's anything you need us to know about you, your death, anything that needs to be revealed. He's back. Who's back?

[Sam]

Don't.

[Bo]

Don't what?

[Sam]

Annoying.

[Bo]

Thief.

[Stephen Ballew]

Thief Again.

[Jeffrey]

We're.

[Bo]

Who's the thief? What floor is the thief? We're on the third floor below us. Second all the way at the bottom one. Where's the thief?

[Sam]

Excuse me.

[Bo]

Yes?

[Stephen Ballew]

My name's Steven.

[Bo]

He's Alexis. We've got Bo, Jeffrey, Philip, Christina. Don't.

[Alexis Franklin]

Don't what?

[Bo]

Don't. Don't what? Steven. Hello. Hi, I'm Steven. I'm Stephen. And you can tell me anything you need.

[Stephen Ballew]

We're actually here to help.

[Bo]

We're not here to hurt or kick you out. We just want to know what's going on. There's some staff that are having experiences. They're getting afraid.

[Stephen Ballew]

Is that you?

[Bo]

So staff are getting afraid. Do you know who's scaring the staff?

[Sam]

Don't you?

[Bo]

Don't know. Don't know. Is it not you? So there is. There is a potential name that you said, Steven. That could also be a name that might be tied to the building. Soul. Soul.

[Sam]

Laundry room Head.

[Bo]

Yes. Stop. It's okay to tell us what happened. Leak. What happened?

[Sam]

Jump.

[Alexis Franklin]

Jump again.

[Bo]

Does the name Steven mean anything else other than my name? I didn't want to jump to conclusions and think you were talking to me. Do you have a name? You know my name. Steven. This true? So tell me your name.

[Sam]

You assume rubbish.

[Bo]

I don't. I don't. There's a lot of stories here. I want to know the truth. I don't assume rubbish, actually. So what's the truth? What actually is here? Who's here? Emma. Emma.

[Jeffrey]

Is it Emma that spoke ice?

[Sam]

I'm sorry.

[Bo]

What? It's okay. Really. What is it? Are you Emma? Or do you know that there's an Emma here?

[Sam]

Don't kill me.

[Bo]

We're not gonna hurt you. We're not gonna kill you. We just here to ask.

[Sam]

Fight.

[Bo]

Fight. Whip.

[Sam]

Muscular Screaming Woman screaming He's hearing a woman screaming.

[Bo]

Is that Emma? Is it Emma screaming Is that you? Are you Emma?

[Sam]

Wasn't someone kill her?

[Bo]

Tell us more about Emma. Or you. I don't know if you are Emma. Talk. Okay.

[Jeffrey]

Did someone kill Emma?

[Bo]

We're gonna be closing this out, so.

[Stephen Ballew]

We don't want you to go.

[Bo]

If you have something you need to tell us, is there anything else you need to say?

[Sam]

Woman screaming Again.

[Bo]

What messages do you need to get across to everybody that's in the room right now? We can. We can get that message across.

[Sam]

Woman screaming oh, my God. Some dark voice.

[Bo]

Stop. What is this? What are you showing us? Him. Who's him? Millie.

[Sam]

Millie, Millie, Millie.

[Bo]

Where do we need to go to communicate with you more? Where do we need to go next?

[Stephen Ballew]

Yeah, we can.

[Bo]

We can.

[Sam]

Sorry.

[Bo]

Okay, man.

[Sam]

When you tap in, you, like, everything changes. Yeah, but, like, when you pull out, like, everything's just gone.

[Jeffrey]

You just.

[Sam]

You just hear radio, basically. But the woman screaming was like, fucking terrified.

[Bo]

Yeah. Tell me more. Like what. What felt unusual for you because you're very skeptical. So what felt more than just like radio noise? Okay.

[Sam]

So when these things are going, you're supposed to close your eyes, and it basically just like reverberates the light like this. But eventually you see a circle kind of form in the middle, and you kind of Focus on that circle. When you see that you, you kind of like tap in, in a sense, and the like, voices kind of string along into like phrases almost. But when that woman would scream, like the, the. The sounds would ultimately just turn dark and then it would sound like you're hearing a woman screaming on the telephone. And I don't mean like, oh my God, I mean like someone is like actively trying to murder that person.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Afraid for their life. Screaming.

[Bo]

That's so weird.

[Sam]

So that happened twice.

[Bo]

Yeah, it happened quite a bit, actually.

[Stephen Ballew]

I remember you.

[Sam]

And then the third time, the third time it was the same woman, but she was, she said, oh my God, don't. And then there was a couple voices that would come in that they were the same voice and it was kind of the same, like when the, the circle would appear and like the visuals would get a little bit darker and then the voices would kind of string along and try to make like some semblance of, of sense. And then when the, the images would go bright, you just see the red light in your eyes and then, you know, there'd be nothing. You just hear radio, essentially.

[Stephen Ballew]

It was really cool to see our more skeptical team member actually experience something he felt was intense and more than just radio noise. And we did get the word thief again with Franklin. Only once though. The name Steven again.

[Bo]

And.

[Stephen Ballew]

And I wasn't sure if this could be a reference to J. Waller Stevens or my name. Then the word jump again. Some random names were mentioned that we were taking note of as well, but they didn't ring a bell at the moment. You assume rubbish was interesting because I had not yet done research and was dying to see what I could find. Lastly, there was a female again, but this time she sounded scared and was screaming and saying, don't kill me. Accompanied by a deep male voice again. Lastly, in this green room space, we were going to change up the experiment a bit and go with more of a traditional Ganzfeld experiment. This uses red light goggles, noise canceling headphones, but instead of rapidly changing radio stations, it's just white noise. Alexis was the subject in this one and here's what unfolded with him in the chair.

[Bo]

This one's different because there's no radio frequencies.

[Stephen Ballew]

This is all white noise, so not.

[Bo]

As many, like, voices coming, coming through.

[Stephen Ballew]

I won't talk through this one because.

[Bo]

He can probably maybe hear me more. So Franklin or Jeffrey.

[Alexis Franklin]

I'm hearing mumbling.

[Jeffrey]

Can you tell me your name?

[Alexis Franklin]

A very strong, deep, like a guttural sound. Oh, it's weird. It Felt like something touched me. It felt like somebody kicked the back of my chair.

[Bo]

Communicate with words.

[Alexis Franklin]

The staircase. I heard someone say the staircase.

[Bo]

What about the staircase?

[Alexis Franklin]

Got the name Lila. Keep feeling like. Like something's moving. The chair. Snakes. I heard snakes.

[Bo]

What about snakes? What is it?

[Alexis Franklin]

Something just touched my face. It was like. Like somebody did this. I need to adjust the light because something's trying to show itself. But it's like the light's too slow, so I'm gonna make it faster. It's a person's face. It's like they're right in front of my eyes, so all I see is their eyeball, and they look angry.

[Bo]

Tell Alexis why you're angry. We are here to help clear anything. Get your story out there. What is it that you're angry about? You don't have to scare. You don't have to touch. Touch him. You can just tell him. You can speak to him.

[Alexis Franklin]

Their eyes, almost like a snake eye. It doesn't have a pupil, it has a slit.

[Bo]

Are you connected to anybody here or are you tied to the building? I'm not asking. I'm demanding that you actually answer these questions. So what are you and why are you here?

[Alexis Franklin]

I hear a bunch of people talking. Like a crowd of voices.

[Bo]

If you're trying to communicate.

[Alexis Franklin]

A man with bald head, bad teeth, kind of like a. Like big ears, very kind of funny looking. He's wearing a white. Like a white shirt, but it's, like, dirty.

[Bo]

Who is this? Who are you trying to show to Alexis? Is this you?

[Alexis Franklin]

There's a crowd of people around me right now. They're all looking down at me.

[Bo]

Y' all can communicate. Y' all can share anything else.

[Alexis Franklin]

It's just like, shadows, like there's a light behind them.

[Bo]

This is about. You have only 10 seconds left to communicate. You're getting a lot through, Alexis. So what is it that you're wanting to communicate?

[Alexis Franklin]

Steven, the stairs. I heard. Steven, the stairs.

[Bo]

We're gonna go to the stairs. But what's there? What do we need to look for? Where do we need to be? Why are they significant? Last chance to get a message across to me, to Jeffrey, to any of us. What do you need us to know?

[Alexis Franklin]

It's almost like I'm seeing stations of people stationed around the building. Like when a man behind the backstage. A man on the stairs, the back stairs.

[Bo]

Okay, we're gonna close out. How did that.

[Alexis Franklin]

Jesus Christ.

[Bo]

Okay, turn.

[Stephen Ballew]

Turn that one off right there.

[Alexis Franklin]

Whenever, crazy, crazy, crazy experience, it's intense. So I kept seeing things and Then I would sense them. So when I saw the person behind the stage.

[Bo]

Right over here.

[Alexis Franklin]

Yes. Like literally like standing behind the stage and a person standing in the stairs, I was sensing that it was like, it was like an image, but it wasn't like I was seeing it physically, but I would physically see, like face. It started with the eye. Like, it kept seeing like. Like if somebody was like this close to my face and it was just like an eye and I was like, pull back, pull back so I could see the rest of you. And they were like. It was just like, I'm pissed off. And I would not respond.

[Philip]

It was resonated with me. I don't know. For whatever reason.

[Bo]

Oh, my God, the man.

[Philip]

Yeah, the kind of dominant ball, what I explained to you earlier, it's almost like it feels that way.

[Alexis Franklin]

Oh, yeah, that guy was creepy looking.

[Bo]

Yeah. Okay, we'll talk about him a little bit more.

[Alexis Franklin]

She was like, like shorter in stature, bald, kind of like big ears, kind of almost kind of pointy. And he had like bad teeth and he was wearing like a, like a button up white shirt. And he was very kind of pasty white.

[Christina]

Were you scared ever?

[Alexis Franklin]

Not scared, but, man, it makes you feel like you're so. Like you're in a wild ride.

[Bo]

We had a couple instances that said stairs, right. So we definitely got to go to the stairs.

[Alexis Franklin]

The message I saw was that, Steven, the stairs, like, you need to go see the stairs.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

Alexis had a much more visual and physical experience, which we've noticed happens more with Gansfeld, but Alexis had a deeper male voice. He also got several messages for the staircase. Snakes came back again as well. What was kind of hard to hear in the segment was when staff member Philip chimed in to let Alexis know that the creepy old man resonated with him. He's felt and visualized a similar presence and tied that to the more eerie, oppressive feelings in the building. Lastly, and most importantly, my name and the stairwell came up multiple times again, even a time where I asked for it to tell us what it needed or where we needed to focus on. So we did just that. And this time, sitting on the back stairwell, staff member Philip, who seemed to be more sensitive than all the other staff, asked if he could be a part of this experiment. So we hooked him up to the Estes method on the stairs, and here's what unfolded.

[Bo]

So we're going to go under with Philip as the. The actual person going under, and then we're going to remain in the stairway with him and go ahead and Begin. So we're going to take talk quietly.

[Jeffrey]

So here on the stairwell, do you have any reason why this is Sophie. Why is the staircase so important?

[Philip]

I'm seeing snakes coming from the outside edges.

[Bo]

Wow. The number two. What happened on the staircase?

[Stephen Ballew]

What's important about the staircase?

[Philip]

Who are you speaking, girl? In a man's voice, silly woman. No.

[Bo]

So we're gonna introduce ourselves again. Steven.

[Philip]

That was right.

[Bo]

Jeffrey, Alexis. Beau. And Christina. And Philip is the person you're speaking through. Philip is the person you're speaking through.

[Philip]

Somebody help.

[Bo]

What do you need? What's the imagery of the snakes? What do we need to know about these snakes? Why do they keep coming, coming up girls.

[Jeffrey]

What are the girls names?

[Philip]

It was a really, really loud scream. A woman screaming. And the noise like cut out.

[Bo]

Wow. We're here to help. So.

[Philip]

So.

[Bo]

So let us know how to help.

[Philip]

Happy time.

[Bo]

Are you not happy anymore? Why are you not happy if that's the case?

[Philip]

Snitch.

[Bo]

Snitch. So there's a lot of talks of like theft. Snitch. What is that relating to? Is that relating to you? What happened?

[Philip]

Bodies.

[Bo]

Where? Where are the bodies?

[Philip]

Leave.

[Stephen Ballew]

You want us to leave?

[Philip]

I'm okay.

[Bo]

Well, we're not. We're not gonna try to force you out. We're just here to. To share a story because sometimes things.

[Stephen Ballew]

Need to be told.

[Bo]

Escape. Are you stuck or trapped anywhere? Nice war against women that keep scoring. Screaming. What is that? Where are they from?

[Philip]

Night.

[Alexis Franklin]

Women of the night.

[Jeffrey]

Was she screaming in the stairwell?

[Bo]

Here.

[Jeffrey]

Good thing you brought us to the staircase. We're here now.

[Philip]

Something catching. Something catch me. No. In a very deep man voice. No.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

Who's this deep man?

[Bo]

Who are you? Why? You've come into every session that we've had and you seem more aggressive. Who are you?

[Stephen Ballew]

Who are you?

[Philip]

Jesus.

[Alexis Franklin]

We know you're not Jesus.

[Bo]

Yeah, but who are you? Who are you?

[Jeffrey]

Them.

[Bo]

Who are them?

[Philip]

We.

[Bo]

We.

[Alexis Franklin]

You're saying that you are several spirits?

[Stephen Ballew]

No.

[Alexis Franklin]

So are you one?

[Stephen Ballew]

Are you one presence?

[Philip]

Sent.

[Alexis Franklin]

You were sent here.

[Philip]

What else?

[Alexis Franklin]

Well, I want to know who you are. We want to know more about you and why.

[Philip]

Please.

[Alexis Franklin]

Yes, please. We would like to know who you.

[Bo]

Are and why you're here. All right.

[Philip]

Can I stop?

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Philip]

Please.

[Bo]

Was very, very weird. Okay.

[Philip]

I didn't like the pleas at all. It kind of made me want to take it off immediately.

[Bo]

What did the police sound like?

[Philip]

The same woman that had been kind.

[Bo]

Of screaming or different.

[Philip]

I definitely noticed it was like the same thing coming through each time. That voice. But the pleas was, like, desperate. It made me feel uneasy. I didn't want to do it. It was like, enough for me to be like, okay. That was like a weird.

[Alexis Franklin]

That's what I asked. I asked.

[Bo]

I wanted.

[Alexis Franklin]

We want to know more about who. Who you are.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Alexis Franklin]

And then she said, please. Yeah, I thought we were talking to the male, though.

[Bo]

Yeah, we thought we were talking to the male, but that was a few. So you were. You pro.

[Stephen Ballew]

Talk about what you predominantly were hearing.

[Philip]

It was kind of softer. The woman's voice was very softer. Almost like old 19, like 80s syrup commercial. Like, very nice and calm. But then the melt came through. And he said no. And he said no, like, very powerfully. It was like, no.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Philip]

And then it. All of the noise kind of. Kind of like started getting farther in between. It seemed like even the static was getting kind of abruptly stopped. And then the woman came back, it seemed. And was saying them like send and sound like protect.

[Jeffrey]

Seems to be like, there's this one man, but there's this group of women, one of whom screaming and saying no and stuff.

[Bo]

And you have your. He doesn't seem to be coming through a whole lot here.

[Jeffrey]

He's like, upstairs.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Jeffrey]

This is all like a different story.

[Bo]

Yeah, it's like, please.

[Philip]

It's like a very heavy please.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Stephen Ballew]

Eerily. Philip was seeing snakes as well. Then he was getting more women. Women's voices, females screaming pleas for help and the desperate pleas that rattled him out of the session. But there was also a stern male voice, much like the other sessions as well. We felt the need to try one more session on this stairwell. And this time, Jeffrey was going to be the participant again.

[Bo]

Okay, we're going to begin. Two, we're on the stairwell. We want to know what's going on in the stairwell.

[Stephen Ballew]

Why is this a place that's happening?

[Bo]

So many things are being felt here. Are there two spirits in this particular time?

[Jeffrey]

I missed it. A man's voice, but I couldn't understand it.

[Bo]

Help.

[Jeffrey]

John.

[Bo]

Help. John.

[Alexis Franklin]

Help John. With what?

[Bo]

Help.

[Jeffrey]

Help John, out, please. Oh, that was clear. I heard maybe a yell.

[Bo]

Help.

[Jeffrey]

A woman.

[Bo]

Help.

[Jeffrey]

It was mine. A man.

[Bo]

Are you through?

[Jeffrey]

Another man.

[Bo]

Harry, you said name earlier.

[Alexis Franklin]

You said the name John. Who is John?

[Bo]

Help.

[Alexis Franklin]

Help, John how?

[Bo]

Help. Help, John how. Stop. Every time we talk about it, it says stop.

[Jeffrey]

Everything just went. There's no sound now.

[Bo]

I'm not. There's no sound.

[Jeffrey]

You just die sometimes. Three people were talking all at once, like, young man, young woman. And then the deep voice. I was Trying to do the voices.

[Alexis Franklin]

Yes, I could hear them.

[Bo]

Oops.

[Stephen Ballew]

I Again, Jeffrey's hearing female screaming. There was a male voice saying please this time, similar to how Philip had heard a woman say this. Then there was finally a hit with the name John. The J and J. Waller. Stevens Jr. Was the name John. Several people in these sessions had gotten the name Stephen, which we assumed was me. But there's a possibility that it could have been John Stevens trying to come through. But every time in other sessions as well, when we try to get answers for Stevens, we were told don't or stop, which happened in this very last session as well. It was really late by this time, and we needed to call it a day. So we decided to move up to the main floor and get some final recaps from Jeffrey, Alexis and staff recap.

[Bo]

Just in general, like, what you're overall feeling in this building.

[Stephen Ballew]

And it can be floor.

[Bo]

You know, you've done the first, the third floor and the second floor, but.

[Jeffrey]

Well, it changed dramatically when we came down here. But upstairs, I felt, you know, all the residuals you would think of in it. A lot of it is stuff that I got before, you know, this morning at home, you know, the. The crowd noises and the laughter and, you know, all that kind of festivity going on. Maybe even some of the dancing we talked about in the open area. But the main thing I picked up on once I got past that was that. That male spirit that I wanted to call Hank, who seemed to be like a caretaker, like, had, like, stagehand, stage manager kind of experience. I could feel him, you know, watching the show, but not for entertainment. Watching to make sure everything was all right, like. Like he works here kind of a thing, you know, But I felt him all over the main part. But then the energy changed when we came back, you know, like into the green room and then especially on the stairs. I'm not sure whether it was him or not that turned on the light that one time when I asked to be shown things. Definitely downstairs was a different energy, but completely different, like, feeling. I didn't feel him back here when we started doing the Estes Method and stuff. Those different voices felt like earlier I was getting like. And, you know, again, it seems kind of classic, but I was getting these, like, 20s, 30s impressions for some reason, whereas he's, like, more recent kind of a thing. He seemed to be familiar with all the equipment on this, you know, the speakers in the stage and the lights and all that kind of stuff like that. Again, I didn't get any feeling I felt like the sort of mischievous things that were moving stuff around in the office and stuff back here, that he sort of kept them in line. I never felt anything dangerous or foreboding. I did see that one shadow figure in the mirror, but it just was sort of standing there and it moved a little bit to let me know I wasn't having pareidolia, you know, seeing a shape in the. In the brick wall. But I didn't get any strangeness until we came down here and started getting all the. The other stuff coming through the Estes. So it's like I said, the energy really changes between the front of the house and then through that hallway and back here where the green room and the office are.

[Bo]

Yeah. And then speak to, like, now that you've done the Estes twice, both in the green room and on the stairwell, is there something that you haven't fully picked up on just with your senses here? But through those methods, do you feel like you're picking up on more energies here right now?

[Stephen Ballew]

Do you feel that?

[Jeffrey]

Yes, I felt consistently. I mean, there were other voices, but I felt the older, deeper male voice and then the. The male and the female voice that were probably, I don't know, late 20s, early 30s, you know, just sort of average age adults. Those consistently came through. I could. I could recognize them. The deep man's voice that came through a few times came very clear. The word please. The young man said please. Crystal clear.

[Stephen Ballew]

One time I needed to remind Jeffrey to clarify something. He got down in the speakeasy pertaining to money or theft. Since we'd gotten so many thief and theft hits during these experiments, I wanted to know exactly what he had gotten down there.

[Jeffrey]

I don't know if it was the same thing about the thief, but I was like, was there some money missing? Like, you know, things didn't add up. Was there a little money missing and then maybe even like a case of liquor missing, that kind of thing, Little petty things. But there might have been some, you know, sticky finger stuff going on, that kind of thing. Again, nothing super dramatic, but okay.

[Stephen Ballew]

Again, I was going to need to research this claim that Stevens was a bookkeeper and there was money stolen by him. I don't know if this is something I could actually find out, but I was going to do my best to begin research after this investigation. Finally, it was time to check in with staff members Philip and Christina. Of all the things you know, I know, I know most of it, but.

[Bo]

Like, I don't want to stretch, and.

[Stephen Ballew]

This is not what I want to do.

[Bo]

I don't want to make things fit. But like, what is kind of fitting so far in your mind, Christina?

[Christina]

A lot of the girls that are calling out names, it kind of lines up with Quinn and Cassidy, how they said that they hear their name being whispered and you know, they turn to look and no one's there. And how it's just verified that there's. There's a female spirit in here.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Philip]

For me, the biggest thing that they validated was the area spot on the everything typically for me, happens between the green room and that staircase. Like he said, the liminal space between everything kind of meeting. That's pretty spot on the staircase activity. And then like the. The bruteness of that male energy is it makes me feel more comfortable knowing that we like have labels for it now, like said I said, but that specifically this area. And then the male force being kind of a problem, malicious in its own little way. That adds up to me as well.

[Bo]

Yeah.

[Christina]

Also like hearing Steven, which, yes, is you, but also his last name, the books, the snake and the thief.

[Bo]

And then he did say money was stick your fingers. And I think I read that somewhere. I haven't done the full research yet.

[Christina]

Yeah. So Jay was, and his full name.

[Bo]

Is John Waller Stevens.

[Christina]

Apparently he was stealing and he used to do the books for everything in this building.

[Stephen Ballew]

Christina had also heard the rumors about Stevens apparently stealing and being a bookkeeper at the business at the time. And I agreed the key hits this time around were the disembodied voices, the names being called, and the area where Jeffrey pointed out was the most active area resonated with the reports of the staff. I was slightly surprised that with all the reports on the back stairwell, Jeffrey wasn't getting anything there. But as I've learned doing this, it sometimes isn't certain psychics finds or things that are on the same specific wavelength as them. And I had plans to bring another psychic here soon. But the one thing I was really curious about was how strong this new Hank spirit was to Jeffrey. And yet no one on the staff had ever reported anything like him. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but if you've stuck with me this long on this wild ride, in this case, get ready, listeners, because we're about to make a phenomenal discovery at the close of this episode that might very well tie to Hank. When I got home this evening, my thoughts would not let me stop thinking about Hank and the other audience member spirit that Jeffrey felt the most. I knew I had one phone call that I hadn't made yet. It was a performer who lived in St. Louis, Missouri, and her name was Lindsay. And someone who ran a show called Punchline here in Austin had given me her contact. The owner of Punchline did regular shows at Sunset Strip. She was a big fan of my show and actually was the person who made this entire series possible. Her name's Jonna. So Jonna hadn't had an experience herself at Sunset Strip, but recalled that one of her performers who traveled in for her show at Sunset Strip a while back reported having experiences. However, Jonna didn't even know what those experiences were. Although I had a very long day investigating, I actually decided to sit out on the back patio, light up a cigar, and give Lindsay a call. In it, she would inform me of some incredible validating experiences that align with what the staff regularly experience and feel. But she would shock me. At the end of the call was something I did not expect.

[Lindsay]

My name is Lindsey, and I am a dancer by trade. I perform, I teach, and I grew up performing a lot, and that's pretty much all I do now. I also make some content, but it's really interesting because I performed in a lot of buildings, and they're all different. But the first night that I went to Sunset Strip was to watch a performance, to watch a comedy show, and I was actually going to support friends, and I took my brother and my partner, and it was super fun, but the energy there was very strong. I stepped into the building and went up the main stairwell, and immediately I felt just like a lot of presence, a lot of heaviness, but not. Not necessarily in a bad way, not in a negative way. I didn't feel negative energy. I just, you know, I just felt like I was walking through a lot of history and a lot of. Lot of energy. And when I got to the top of the stairwell, that's when it kind of shifted a little bit, and I started to feel a lot of different types of energy. So when you go into the building, you go through a doorway, and there's a bar to your right, and it just hit me all at once. I didn't hear any voices. I didn't see anything. It was just very, very strong energy. So we were enjoying the show, you know, walking around and all this stuff. And I went to the bathroom, and every time I went to the bathroom, you have to go past the side stage in order to get to the women's bathroom. Every time I went to that area, I felt like I needed to go outside of the building. But I never did. There's a doorway right across from the women's restroom doorway. And I just thought, I really need to go outside this door. But I never did, and I couldn't figure it out. But there was definitely something out that doorway. Fast forward to the next time. The second time I went to Sunset Strip, and this time I was performing. Same thing happened when I went up the stairwell. Felt same energy. Went through the main doorway again, got heavier. Went past the first bar, past the second bar, went to the back area where I was getting ready to perform. And all the performers gathered back there. All the comedians gathered back there, and, you know, they just. They talk and they. They have fun, and they get ready for the show. Well, before everybody started to go into the back area backstage, I kept thinking about. Certain words kept popping into my head, and it was so random. I was like, why am I thinking about these words? The first word that popped into my head was toys. And I just kept thinking, oh, there's a toy over there. Like, I. You know, it's not. It's not an area where there would be toys. There's no children back there. And I kept thinking, there's a toy. And I kept looking around for a toy, and of course, there's no toys back there. And then I started to hear some noises, like going across the floor, almost as if something was rolling, but there was nothing. I think there were maybe two performers back there at this moment when this happened. And as the night progressed, there were more people backstage, and I kept thinking about these words. I kept feeling like there was someone there who wasn't there. But I never saw anything. I just kept hearing certain noises that didn't make sense. I kept feeling like there was an extra person there, like maybe someone was watching. And it was kind of eerie. I'm not gonna lie. It was definitely something that I felt before in other places. Other places I've been to places I travel a lot and other places I've performed in have had similar energy. It was not. It was not normal. And then I went to the bathroom, and I felt the same energy. I felt the same pull wanting to get me to go outside of that back door, and I couldn't figure out why. Of course, I never did. It was. That energy was too intense for me. The energy out back. Out that back door. I was leaving that alone. But the energy in the backstage area was pretty cool. It was definitely. It was definitely younger. I felt. I felt that it was. It was a youthful energy, and it wasn't negative. It was Just there. And I was enjoying it. So that's pretty much everything that I felt when I went into Sunset Strip. And I'm really glad I didn't come out that back door. I'm not gonna lie. I grew up in a really religious household my whole life, and I don't go to church anymore. But pretty much my whole life, since I was a kid, I've heard spirits or things talk to me. I did not ever reach out and communicate back to them when I was younger because I grew up believing that it was wrong. So it wasn't until I was an adolescent, young adult. And now that I really made a conscious effort to listen and take on the information that if a spirit did tell me, I would decide whether or not I would respond. And that's not something that happens very often. When it does happen, I don't always connect. I have the choice. I believe I'm in control, and I have the choice to not respond or to respond. And there have been times where I've been contacted and I decided to respond and it was a very good idea. And then other times I decided not to. And I knew that it was the best, it was for the best. In Sunset Strip, I did not feel like I was being talked to. I just felt their energy around me. And it. It wasn't trying to talk to me. But I do have quite a bit of experience or experiences that have happened to me where things did speak to me and they reached out. And that's kind of my. My whole life that's happened. When I went into Sunset Strip, I had no information or no idea that there was anything going on in there. Supernatural wise. I was not very familiar with the building. I only knew the show producer. And it was. I'm not from Austin, so I really had no connection to that building whatsoever. So going in there and then being in the green room, I definitely felt, I would have to say 100% it was a feminine. A youthful, feminine energy. And it was something that really stood out immediately. The fact that it was leaning more feminine than the other way. I definitely felt that it was a feminine, useful energy. And then when I went to the bathroom, I felt a different energy, but I definitely felt that pull from the separate energy outside of Sunset in that back. In that back area where there's like, you go outside the building and the people, I think they. They smoke out there and then there's a stairwell. I felt a separate energy, but there was a pole. And it definitely felt like an older masculine energy. And again, didn't go out there, didn't explore it, but it felt older and masculine. It's the. Okay, so it's the weirdest thing because it's been nagging at me and I feel like I have to tell you it right now. If I don't tell you, it's going to keep nagging at me and I'm going to have to text it later. So maybe I should say one more thing. So, one, One more thing that I. It's. It's telling me to tell you this, and I don't know why, because it's the dumbest thing. But while I was on stage, I felt someone in the audience who wasn't there, but also I felt someone specifically on the stage. Now I'm getting goosebumps. I felt someone on the stage with me who wasn't there. And I. Like, I seriously was not going to say this because it wasn't. It wasn't anything that was like, super significant, but it was. Hopefully, you understand what I'm saying. There was a presence there on stage and in the audience when I was performing. And I don't know if anybody else has said the same thing, but it was. It was the weirdest thing. It's so weird that I didn't even want to say it.

[Stephen Ballew (interviewer)]

That's okay. Let me ask you. Let me ask you a little bit more about that because that is. That might be relevant for what we picked up today with my psychic. So.

[Lindsay]

Oh, good.

[Stephen Ballew (interviewer)]

The person in the audience, was it the same that then came on stage with you or was it two different energies?

[Lindsay]

I believe that it was two separate people, and I don't. I don't think they were the same. The energy and presence that was on the stage with me felt like someone who was there to do a job. And the energy in the audience felt like someone who was there to have fun. It was. It was distinctively different.

[Stephen Ballew (interviewer)]

Were you getting any. And this is. Okay, if you didn't, please don't answer if you don't feel it. But were there genders to those energies at all that you felt?

[Lindsay]

Honestly, both of the energies felt male.

[Bo]

They.

[Lindsay]

Both of the energies, both on and off stage, felt masculine.

[Stephen Ballew (interviewer)]

This is going to raise your hair. The most prominent energy he felt was a male who worked the stage there, and he did help with shows, and he said he still helps the show this day. And that's not something that no one I've interviewed and the owners. This is not the stories. So that's really fascinating that two sensitive people have picked up the same Exact thing. And you might have been getting that today because, yeah, we were picking it.

[Lindsay]

Up.

[Stephen Ballew]

As you just heard this call confirmed something my psychic medium, Jeffrey, had been sensing all along. A unique discovery that hadn't aligned with anything or anyone tied to the Sunset Strip. We still didn't quite know who Hank was or if that was even his name. But I knew I was going to have to go further back into the history of this building and try to reach out to previous business owners like the Parish, and see if we could possibly discover who Hank really was. But now I can't help but wonder, what else is there to uncover at this fascinating location? My father and I were going to have to dive into the archives of history to hunt for any trace, any shred of evidence that might confirm the stories surrounding John Waller Stevens, Jr. Could our findings reveal more about the past or open doors to something even more twisted? Another next step is very clear. We needed to return to the Sunset Strip. But this time we would need to bring an additional psychic friend, Kate the Brave. She, too, would not know where she was going or have any prior knowledge, just her instincts. Will she confirm these new revelations? Or will she uncover more of what eluded Jeffrey on his first visit? Whatever happens next, I'm starting to question who's actually driving this investigation anymore. Is it us or the spirits at Sunset Strip? Thanks for listening to this episode of the Night Owl Podcast. Be sure to join us as this paranormal adventure continues into the new year. Part three of this series will release on January 27, 2025. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website thenight owlpodcast.com follow us on Instagram or Facebook. The Night Owl Podcast and consider becoming a patron and supporting our show on Patreon.com.

[Bo]

To stay up to date with.

[Stephen Ballew]

Our show's news and events. Stay restless out there. I'd like to thank my investigative team, Alexis, Franklin and Jeffrey, for going on these crazy adventures with me. Nicholas Fair for his talented musical contributions to this show. My dad, Sam, for his incredible historical research. Mikey for his assistance editing Bo. Tristan and Devin for their help with our Night Owl events and tours. Sandra for keeping us all on schedule and on budget. And last but not least, David Dalton of Driftworks Sound for mastering every single episode on the tight turnarounds I give him. Please support their works by visiting our website, thenight owlpodcast.com and clicking on the about tab. There you can find links to all their individual works and websites. This podcast was mastered by David Dalton of Driftworks Sound. Do you have a song that could use a professional touch to get it across the finish line. Do you wish you could remove the sound of a loud air conditioner or distracting mouth noises from your podcast recording? Whatever your issue, David can repair and enhance your audio and help you achieve rich, full professional sound at industry standard loudness levels. Quit struggling with audio engineering and get back to creating. To discuss your options, reach out to [e-mail] that'S-R-F t worksound.com and set your creative self free.