Connors Farm Investigation

I was contacted on July 24, 2014 by Alexis (a Connors farm employee) who was seeking an investigation of the property at which she works (30 Valley Rd. in Danvers Massachusetts – Connors Farm). Alexis claimed that several employees have had uneasy feelings in various areas of the property and she has experienced, on at least on occasion, the turning off of a power generator located behind the corn field on the South East end of the property. She claimed that following the event she experienced a strong feelings of scopaesthesia and a fight or flight feeling that caused her to exit the area as quickly as possible. Other mentions include children’s laughter late at night and a strange feeling of foreboding present around the mechanical irrigation pump.

The property houses nearly 140 acres of land and was an active settlement and farm for over 300 years. Allegedly a deceased human male was found at one are in the northern corner of the property. The individual apparently died from suicide, although not much is known about the death and records of the event could not be located. The property also contains a cemetery strewn with unmarked graves and a decaying wooden fence. Employees have noted a sense of fear surrounding this area and the origin or age of the cemetery is unknown. Some believe it was native American in nature, and may also have been used all the way through early half of the 20^th century. An old farm house that is built on the property (which now functions as a school) is claimed to have large amounts of Paranormal activity including, but not limited to visions of apparitions, sounds and moving objects. This portion of the property is off limits during this investigation however.

After sitting with the Connors Farm team for a quick reiteration of the activity concerns and an explanation of our investigative process we gathered our equipment and began our investigation. The sheer size of the location was a concern since we only had a fixed amount of equipment, investigators and time. Not to mention that outdoor locations are traditionally difficult to investigate due to sound contamination, varying light levels and the interference of people/animals. With this in mind we decided to focus specifically on the areas that were identified as a concern during our initial interview. The corn field, the irrigation pump, the School area and cemetery.

Since non-contaminated sound samples are nearly impossible to record outdoors we decided to focus on energy measurements (EMF) and video. For energy measurement we would use several EMVP coils designed to detect a broad range of frequencies within the electromagnetic spectrum (.01 to 10,000Hz). EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) has been demonstrated to record well within the frequency limits of this equipment. For this investigation we used several coil designs including multiple solenoid coils of varying sizes and one concentric circle (disk coil) designed for lower 60 cycle hum detection.

Our initial sweep was on the South East end of the property just behind the corn field. It was here that Alexis (one of the Farm’s employees) experienced the power failure and symptoms of  scopaesthesia. Using three solenoid coils we began sweeping for power sources. Our hope was to confirm or eliminate the possibility of a potential power source capable of triggering electro-magnetic hypersensitivity. EMF concentrations could be a possible explanation for the mechanical failures and strange feelings that have occurred here.

We soon discovered that this area of the field contained no adverse emanations of EMF capable of causing the claims. It should be noted that this area is also the approximate location that Alexis claimed to hear children’s laughter late at night and while the area does seem remote, one of our investigators did notice children playing at a nearby home. Of course this doesn’t conclusively dismiss the voices, but it does offer a possible explanation. The energy emissions being captured at this time were fairly quiet. Distant power line noise was present, although minute and certainly not strong enough to contribute to any form of temporal reaction/mechanical failures. A crackling sound was heard and attributed to air ion discharges against the coil.

Initially everything was quiet and non-eventful. However, during an energy sweep along the back area of the corn field, I had heard what I assumed to be a tapping sound being picked up from the largest solenoid. It seemed rhythmic and hard to identify, but I soon realized that the quality of the headphones I was using prevented me from making a valid initial judgment about what it actually was. I moved the coil in different positions to try and get a better lock on the anomaly, but the sound just seemed to dissipate, so I moved it back into the original position and the sound resumed. The occurrence lasted only about 20 seconds. Because it was such a stark anomaly from the other readings I decided to play back the audio and let the team review as well.

We were astonished to hear what sounded like native drums. Everyone agreed. The sound was very similar to a natural skin drum head being hit in succession. Excited by the find we tried to replicate the results but were unsuccessful.

The “Drum” sounds pictured in spectrograph format above were truly an unusual anomaly. We have calculated that the tempo of the beat is 122 bmp (Beats per minute) and the overall audio amplitude of the original recording was just under 4Db. The average frequency analysis of the sample (shown below) showed 59.91Hz. This frequency is a standard “power hum” frequency typically picked up from power lines. Because the sample was so low in volume the power lines (shown as purple horizontal lines above) over-powered the average. It should be noted that there were no power lines in the immediate area of recording. The nearest transit lines were approximately 200 yards away, however, due to the high sensitivity of the equipment, our sample was still ultimately contaminated (although scarcely).

The spectrum analysis (shown above) confirms the recording is within the appropriate frequency range of a large native drum and shows signs of echo dissipation with each beat. Additionally, there are signs of a second set of drum hits not easily seen or heard in our recording. This indicates that either there was a second drum which didn’t quite record or the beat was truly faster than we counted (perhaps double speed)

After sending this file to several individuals familiar with native drumming it is suggested that the drum pattern (as it appears) is ceremonial in nature, however, many have pointed out that it is peculiar for the sound to be lacking a singer or singers (something that traditionally accompanies Native American Drums). It should be noted that if the sample is indeed a faster tempo than believed, the drum meaning may take on a more war like intention. There is also the possibility that these drums were intended for communications. Communication with drums over great distances was also a common practice of Native Tribes.

Some research was done to identify the possible native tribes that once inhabited this properties. While not much information was available to pin point a specific sects or individuals, we did determine that primitive inhabitants of this land were likely part of the Massachusett or Wampanoag Indians. They were the predominant tribes inhabiting

Since the direction of our Indian drum recent find was pointing in a North Western direction it was determined that the sound may have emanated from either the Cemetery/Cornfield or the marsh which was directly behind us. Since we were unable to investigate the Marsh, our next location was the cemetery.

When we arrived at the cemetery we once again took sample energy readings. The area was quiet with the exception of ION activity emanating within a higher frequency range. At this location we conducted an EVP session led by or researcher “Laura”. We recorded audio and EMF for the entire session. While Laura was asking questions, Alexis claimed to feel a sensation of being touched on her left shoulder. No sensations were noted by any of the other 8 people there but at this time I recorded an increase in ION discharges that seemed to emanate from same direction of Alexis’ encounter. The significance/source of the ION increase and touching sensation was unknown. With no other notable experiences we made marked the file for analysis and continued on.

The last areas of investigation was the irrigation pump and the Farm house (School) areas. Similar investigation methods were applied here but no notable experiences were recorded with the exception of a light headed feeling from one of our researchers.  The equipment was then packed up and the investigation concluded.

In the weeks that followed there was a significant increase in activity claims. One of the farm owners brothers (who lives on the edge of the property) claimed that he and his wife were woken at 3:00AM by the sound of native drums. Several employees of the farm claimed to have been touched or overcome by extreme feelings of nausea, light headedness  or fear.  As part of their annual Halloween festivities the Connors Farm, they opened up the cemetery to public tours and employed two people to bring groups the abandoned burial ground.

On September 26th, 2014 the first Cemetery tours were given. Both tour guides had experiences that would subsequently cause them to resign. One guide “Colleen” claimed that a music box (which she brought and opened at the cemetery) slammed shut and leaped off of the headstone. That evening when Colleen returned home allegedly the pots and pans in her kitchen would rattle by themselves throughout the night. Colleen quit her job the next day.  The second tour guide also made claims of being touched and due to excessive fear the management at Connors farm decided to replace them both.  It was then they called in Para~Boston to conduct the tours. We welcomed the opportunity.

We saw this as a research opportunity and so each night of tours we would leave equipment in the cemetery hoping to gather additional data to help explain some of the unusual feelings and experiences. We also noted the claims by the visitors to the cemetery.  Without telling them the specifics related to the experiences of others we asked them to point out the areas they felt produced unusual experiences for them. Our findings so far (investigation is still underway) are very interesting. Out of a group of nearly 110 tourists, 19 thus far have had experiences ranging from being severely lightheaded and nauseous to being grabbed, touched, poked and even scratched. Our data from these tours has yet to be analyzed and there are still many tours to complete before we can process the data completely, but please check back for future updates to this blog as more information becomes available.