'Help! My House is Haunted' The Unexplained Explained: "The Walk-In & The Lift" (Episode 1)
By Chris Fleming
This article is more than four years old.
Introduction
We all know that footage gets edited and cut down for television, especially on paranormal shows when producers can come away from a shoot with literally hours of footage of an investigation that they need to cram into an hour long show. Which is why it's really interesting that one of the stars of a ghost hunting show has written about his unique insight into the production of an episode.
Chris Fleming, the American psychic medium who stars in 'Help! My House Is Haunted' has written a detailed account of exactly what happened during the filming of the show's first episode of the new series, and in doing so has answered many questions that fans of the show had about what they saw on TV.
In the first of the 12 new episodes of the British ghost hunting show, Chris is joined by Barri Ghai and Jayne Harris as they investigate the Hertford Corn Exchange. Its owners claim to have been plagued by "abnormal levels of spiritual activity" and inexplicable sights and sounds since taking over the venue 13 years ago.
You can read our full review of the episode here, but some of the standout moments from the investigation were the moment when Chris collapsed after seemingly being taken over by one of the spirits of the building, and an incident with a haunted lift.
It was these two moments in the show that caused the most discussion online, but thanks to Chris' post we can now get a much better insight of what was really going on and he's even included his original, raw EVP recordings from the investigation.
What happened to Chris when he went down?
More From 'Help! My House Is Haunted'
You can read more and the team's investigations on our 'Help! My House Is Haunted' hub, where you'll find detailed reviews of each episode, trivia quizzes and news on future episodes.
In my line of work I have come to witness and experience four different occurrences where spirits can affect or access our human body.
- Around us or non-locally from a distance - They can project into our consciousness thoughts that are not our own. In an attempt to influence or frustrate us. With repetition it can direct us to do things we would not normally consider. Manipulation of our emotions (energy). This is why we need to always protect our thoughts and be aware of our emotions when we investigate or communicate with spirit.
- Walk-ins/jumpers - Spirits either good or bad that enter into someone for a brief moment. They may possess the person for a few seconds to minutes. Then leave. Negative spirits can try and make someone say or do something bad, or attack a person as a warning. Positive spirits may slip in and deliver a message to a person present, or bring an overwhelming sense of peace to the person they have accessed.
- Attachments - A person may have an attachment that is either negative or needy. This entity can drain your emotions, energy and create lack of motivation, oppression and sometimes fits of anger. They like to feed and nest. Emotions can fluctuate and sometimes one can get overwhelming sense of emotions that are not their own. Attachments can last for a few hours to months. Animals tend to notice this when you have something like this going on.
- Possession - the person is no longer in complete control. The entity can take over at will and have full to moderate control over the persons thoughts, body and speech. Very noticeable by family and friends.
In this field, no one is invulnerable. Anyone that thinks they are, are fooling themselves, and have yet to come in contact with true demonic forces. I have seen this time and time again those that felt they were protected to only one day get an attachment.
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What is a walk-in?
In this particular situation, I believe there are four elements that led up to what occurred at the Corn Exchange:
- It was our first case and episode for season 2. I was on no sleep for over two days having just arrived from the states. I had jet leg and having difficulty with the time change. I was in a weakened numb state. Somewhat tired mentally and physically. This left me open to attack.
- It was my first time back since season one where we confronted various evil and demonic entities on various cases around the UK. Evil Spirits don't forget. They look for the right moment to attack. They hit me hard the first week of filming and followed me home during our first break. It was brutal. Barri knows what I went through. I went into a huge oppressive depression. But I was able to pull myself out of it quickly by confronting it with humor and making people laugh. Change your emotion you can change your reality. An emotion they do not like is humor. Humor can bring peace, good will, love and acceptance to people. It is an uplifting emotion. They are a heavy smothering energy. They retreat from uplifting energy. From making other people happy.
- I have had evil entities trying to get at me for a long time. They don't want souls helped. They don't want people to know about them. When you work on cases that deal with evil or demonic entities they fight back and never forget. If they can't get at you, they will get at you through other people. Relationships, family members and anyone around you is game to them. People think they can protect other people. Yes you can pray for other people and send light to them, but the other person has free will and if they don't protect themselves and pray or stop putting themselves in compromising situations there is nothing you can do.
- We were there to help any spirits wanting to cross over. They don't like this. Negative spirits, some demonic type entities were present on this property keeping some of these souls in place. Trapping them. I believe they, along with others attacked me through what we call a walk-in. A Short term forced possession. Knowing I would be doing prayers and bring heaven with prayer. They chose to attack.
I have had more than enough of my friends, relationships and family be attacked by these forces over the past 11 years and back in the 70s during my childhood. Recently my mother has been a victim. Currently she is back in the hospital again from another episode of blacking out. This time, she has suffered the worst fall breaking her hip and left leg completely in multiple places. She has seen black masses in her house, as have I. I have cleansed her home on a few occasions but, once again it is the free will. They will find a way to bet back in, unless the people present constantly keep their guard up. They seemed to have found one of my weaknesses. They look for your fear and your weakness.
In the first episode when I got dizzy and collapsed. There were multiple spirits that forced themselves into me. If you notice the second time just before it happens, I reach behind my back as I walk through the main room. I kept feeling something behind me trying to get in. (They usually enter through the back or through your breath). Then as I was walking behind Jayne they jumped into my back with their force again caused me to lose control of my legs (they went numb) and start to slip out of consciousness. I quickly forced them out while I was on the floor with intensity and regaining control of my breath. They try to time your breath, and want you to breath them in. This allows them to control each breath, timing it just right to stay inside your vessel. If they can control your breathing, they can control the body. Think about it. You stop breathing you die. Your soul will leave your body. It only stays in as long as you are breathing.
I believe I was attacked for all four reasons I mention above. There were multiple spirits. You can hear some of them as they laid me out. It was payback and a message. After listening to the audio of what happened. You can make out..."take him"..... "I got him...I got him"..."he's mine!" as well as other comments and commands regarding them trying to take control. For a few moments, they had the edge.
Knowing that evil spirits can also speak in reverse, I took the audio file and reversed it. You see me sit at my laptop soon after in the episode. But they don't show exactly what we uncovered in the words. The words speak for themselves. The Spirits were channeling through also in reverse... "I am in"..."I got us through"..... along with "barri seems relaxed." Why the last one? Evil spirits like to dominate causing fear. They saw Barri was not afraid and commented as such. We found that remarkable in the analysis.
You can listen to the original audio and EVPs captured from the Corn Exchange here. You will hear this walk-in (attack) and notice it only happened for a few seconds as I regained control. There were two more additional minutes after as I laid on the floor regaining my strength and cursing the F bomb. I took that out. I don't think you want to hear me swear over and over again. Hear the spirits speaking during the walk-in incident in the original audio below:
There was no background explanation nor did viewers get to hear or see us confront this afterwards. I did an EVP session right after I regained my senses. On my recorder, I got a sense of IMPS. They were also involved, not just the negative human spirits that were there. The walk-in involved multiple spirits.
Knowing I was able to regain control and was not afraid of them nor their attack. They mention something that did bother me. I asked for it not to be on the show due to personal reasons. They mentioned my mom. "Hows your mother?" This was a threat. Knowing what she has been through over the years and recently I put two and two together. Being in the UK and not home got to me emotionally. I walked out of the building to regain control of my emotions, to think and to pray. I realized I didn't prepare myself enough for this. But I knew what I needed to do. I then called my mom to make sure she was okay and told her what happened. Then said a few prayers. You don't see this. Barri comes out and the director and I along with Barri discuss what we need to do next to confront this as well as the safety of the crew.
Why wasn't he protected?
I was a bit upset with myself that I let my lack of sleep, affect my protection.
This wasn't just a random attack. There were other attempts later in the season. But none like this. Doing what I do. You pick yourself back up and get back to work. It reminds me of my years playing American football. You get knocked on your ass, you get back up, you have more plays and the game isn't over. Next time you get the chance you knock them (the evil spirits) on their ass. That is how it works.
The investigation was just beginning.
The Lift that would not close... what you didn't get to see
I understand watching this scene some felt our reactions, especially mine was a bit over the top and seemed a bit "dramatic."
Let me explain what occurred that you didn't get to see and I know you will get that "aha" moment.
While walking in, Barri Jayne and myself heard the elevator coming down. We had taken a break before launching into more of the investigation. The crew was outside grabbing some snacks and coffee. I was enjoying my black octane (coffee) as well. Hearing the lift come down, we paused... wanting to see who all of a sudden decided to take the lift. The massive black metal door opens and surprisingly no one was in it. At first it seemed very odd. Then we realized everyone was outside. Instead of the door closing by itself, you know... passenger gets off that floor... the door closes... but in this case, it didn't. It kept banging and jamming. It was so loud. Soon it became creepy. Really creepy. Barri walked over and stepped inside. It still jammed and would not close. I then walked over and banged on the doors thinking maybe it was stuck. We pressed the button as well. Nothing, it was still jamming very loudly. Barri tells me to get in the lift. I refuse having had a walk-in occur previously. I laugh it off. Hey, Lift not closing, not my problem. I yell for camera crew to get over here and film this. The crew races over with camera and starts filming. The door is still banging and not closing. This whole scenario went on for about 10-15 minutes. I felt some fear coming from the elevator. I felt this was a sign. Intimidation. But I felt it was so uncharacteristic. It did remind me of my childhood when doors would open and close by themselves in our home. Then slam shut and open again to slam shut again over and over until I yelled for it to stop. I started to reflect on that moment as this lift banged over and over again.
I kept my distance due to what I was remembering, what transpired earlier and I was curious... I wanted to see what was gong to happen next. Barri asked me to get in again and see if it would close and I said no. Can you blame me? Last thing I need is to get possessed in an elevator. We quickly joked. What if the elevator goes to hell? Could you imagine, you get in, then the door closes and you get jumped by god knows what while stuck in complete darkness? Nope. Im thinking I still have to finish my coffee while its warm.
The director says, "What can we do?" Barri gets an idea and goes into the elevator and still it wont close, It keeps jamming. (You can see a slight edit here where you don't see this scene.) He then says "Let me try something!" that is when he tells it "I dare you to close this lift" and then we all witness, after 15 minutes of it not closing, of Barri getting in before and nothing happening.... IT FREAKING CLOSES!!!! That is why we all screamed and Barri then runs out. We screamed, we nervously laughed ..we couldn't believe it. It only closed when he dared it to! If that is not creepy, then I don't know what is. It was a normal reaction due to the circumstances to freak out. Some crew would not go near the lift after that. Having been jumped previously, I chose to stand back and watch the scenery,
Later Barri got on the lift and nothing happened. I faced my fear and got in the lift as well with a camera man and my digital recorder. We took it to the 2nd floor and nothing happened. It was only that one time with Barri, Jayne, and myself it did what it did.
While you only got to see a minute or two of it. The build up to what happened deserved some explaining.
What you also don't hear, are some of the other weird lift stories told to us by the owners, during the reveal. One involving a famous person trapped in the lift due to his presence on the property.
Yeah, that lift was creepy as hell!
Then seeing the little girl, all dirty and with clothes torn wasn't what I expected. I chose not to race after her as I didn't want to scare the child, but also I was trying to rationalize what I just saw. Short, dark, long hair figure. I stood there as it took me a few moments to realize what I had just seen. As my mind was still on the lift. I didn't expect a spirit to appear around the corner of the landing at the moment. Out of the lift, yes, not behind the wall on the steps.
It seems our yelling got her attention. Or was she trying to get ours?
No, I do not know exactly who was controlling the lift. I felt a dark male presence, but then seeing the child moments after contradicted my feelings. SO I can only assume we were dealing with two different spirits at that time.
More EVPs from the Corn Exchange
Missed Episode One?
If you missed episode one of 'Help! My House Is Haunted' you can watch on demand on dplay now.
The series continues as part of the Really channel's #Freakend event. Watch in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of the Discovery family of channels. You can watch Really on Freeview (17), Sky (142), Virgin Media (129) and Freesat (160), plus YouView, BT TV and TalkTalk TV.
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