The workers claim that the spirits are now outside. Photo / Haunted NZ
The workers claim that the spirits are now outside. Photo / Haunted NZ
More tales from the other side have emerged from the Auckland property at the centre of an outbreak of ghost sightings, as ghost-busters reveal what they found when they went to the historic home to drive out the spirits.
The group has also shared exclusive video of their investigation but sceptics warn there is "nothing particularly convincing" in the footage.
The Pukekohe property was at the centre of a paranormal mystery last month, with the occupants sharing tales of spooky visitations and the previous owners saying they had believed the home haunted for years.
The terrified Filipino workers currently in the home complained it was haunted by three female spirits and engaged the services of paranormal investigators Haunted NZ to remove the ghosts.
Haunted NZ's Karen Williams told the Herald it was "a pleasure" to perform the cleansing ceremony.
Karen Williams said the property had a "vibe". Photo / Haunted NZ
She said that the group had monitored the property for electromagnetic fields (EMF) and found no evidence of elevated levels.
Raised EMF exposure has been linked in the past to a range of physical and psychological complaints, including a general feeling of unease.
However in 2005 the World Health Organisation found that although electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) can be "a disabling problem for the affected individual" EHS has no clear diagnostic criteria. They also found that there is no scientific basis to link EHS symptoms to EMF exposure.
Williams revealed that the night before the group visited the men had held a karaoke party at the address and one of the partygoers reported seeing the figure of a woman sitting by a window.
She described the group's visit as quiet and said the group didn't have any "major experiences".
She said that two members of the Haunted NZ team, independent of each other, both reported seeing balls of "white light or white mist" in separate locations.
"We can't say that was paranormal. Maybe they were tired, maybe it was a trick of the light."
She described an unnerving experience the group had when a piece of their equipment crashed to the floor in an empty room.
Williams said there was "a vibe about the place, for sure".
The group used audio equipment to record noises in the house. Photo / Haunted NZ
Before performing the cleansing ceremony, the group recorded audio in the house and claim to have picked up growls, sighs and short phrases in their recordings.
They also used a device known as a Geoport, which they claim can be used to communicate with spirits.
The device provides some light relief in the video, with the team claiming that spirits had difficulty operating the technology.
Williams and the team then performed a cleansing ceremony, which she had previously described as "the nuclear option".
"This is where my Wiccan training comes in," Williams told the Herald last month.
"There's a ritual I like to use which is called the lesser banishing ritual of the pentagram, it's a very powerful banishing ritual."
Williams shared some details of the ritual with the Herald. The ceremony is conducted using the Hebrew language and calls on the "divine light" to help cleanse the house.
The ghost with no eyes
Since the ceremony, the men report that they have not been disturbed in the house but claim that the spirits did not travel far.
The men's manager Glenn Pool told the Herald that the spirits had moved outside after the ceremony.
"Whatever she's done has pushed them outside," Pool said of Williams' cleansing ritual.
He said the men described banging and scratching on the windows and said a number of them had described seeing a ghostly figure outside.
Another colleague told the Herald that the men were "freaked out" by the developments, but were happy that they were now free of the spirits inside the house.
Scaffolder Darwin Rivera said he had seen the figure of an old woman, wearing what he described as old-fashioned clothing, standing outside the French doors that lead from his room.
He admitted to being scared by the apparition, which he said had long black hair, only black holes for eyes and an "angry" expression.
Rivera said he was happy to stay at the house despite the haunting, but Haunted NZ have already made plans to return.
'Nothing particularly convincing'
NZ Skeptics Society spokesman Craig Shearer told the Herald that there was "little in the video that is actual evidence".
"Claims of balls of light being seen might well have a prosaic explanation. But, they're not on the video so can't be analysed, so we'd only be guessing," Shearer said.
"Claims of bumps being heard are, again, just claims - not actual evidence which can be analysed," he added.
Shearer said that what the ghost-busters claimed to be voices could just be noises, and argued that we often hear what we want to hear in similar circumstances.
"The claimed words to me sound like just noise. The human brain is good at pattern matching - and through a process called audio pareidolia where the brain interprets sounds and tries to make words out of them
"I'm sure most people would have experience hearing their name called at some point when nobody was actually calling their name. The phenomenon is enhanced when you're told what to listen for," Shearer claimed.
The GeoPort. Photo / Haunted NZ
Shearer slammed the GeoPort as looking like a "karaoke machine" and said that the money invested in the group's equipment could provide a "strong incentive psychologically" for them to believe in the devices' efficacy.
"At the end of the day, the video has been edited to have a spooky vibe but that will only convince people who already believe," Shearer said.
"There's nothing particularly convincing on the video that couldn't have a prosaic explanation. But when you go hunting for spooky happenings with the expectation you'll find them, then you'll probably be convinced."
