The Edinburgh Experience

By: Jim Winter

In the daytime, the building seems out of place, dropped in a countryside that is all too peaceful. At night, the brick structure that’s seen better days is downright foreboding.

Justin Simonis, 31, of Fitchburg, Wis., walked into Edinburgh Manor on April 28 a skeptic. He left the former poor farm and insane asylum near Scotch Grove, Iowa, the next day, with a softened stance.

“I have heard things and seen things that I can’t explain,” Simonis said. “I wouldn’t say I’m a full believer, but I’m much less skeptical about it now.”

Simonis was one of 10 people who participated in a VIP experience on April 28 as part of an investigation by the Odyssey Paranormal Society (OPS), based in the Twin Cities. The next night, 13 other people joined the VIP group for another investigation at the property that touts a sign stating “Country living at its finest.”

Michael O’Neil never had a paranormal experience before joining a paranormal investigation team. The paranormal always intrigued him, and he read books about the topic. Then a mention to a friend and her chance encounter at a family reunion led to O’Neil’s first observation of an investigation at a cemetery.

“I recorded my first ever EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) on that investigation,” O’Neil said. “And at the end I had my name come out of the spirit box. When that happened, I was hooked.”

A few years and about $15,000 of equipment later, O’Neil formed Odyssey and is investigating all over Minnesota and Iowa, often three out of four weekends a month. The event at Edinburgh was O’Neil’s first foray into doing a group investigation. The site was a poor farm from 1850 to 1910, when the poor farm was demolished. Edinburgh Manor was built in its place, and operated from 1912 to 2010.

People from four states descended on Edinburgh. Each night started with an orientation followed by structured group investigations. Each night ended with the guests roaming all three floors, including the top floor, where the windows howled and the basement, where ceiling fans wilted.

Bekah Berger, 38, and her daughter, Maddessen Berger, 18, came from Gibbon, Minn., for the chance to capture evidence of the paranormal. Cool air caused sweatshirts to come out, but so did spirits.

“I heard and saw things I never dreamed I would,” Bekah Berger said. “I went in thinking it had to be active, halfway through I didn’t, but the things I saw, yeah, I think it is.”

The Bergers and nearly everyone else witnessed a question-and-answer session with spirits in the billiard room on the first floor near the end of the second night. A group of investigators who came with their own equipment, had a flashlight set up on the billiard table. For 45 minutes, they asked questions and the flashlight would turn on to answer yes, and then, when asked, go dim and turn off. In the same room a night earlier, O’Neil used a device called the spirit box, which rapidly scans radio frequencies, to allow spirits to talk, and a couple did.

That wasn’t the only experience of the weekend. Simonis and his sister, Kassie, 29, of Fitchburg, caught an EVP while they were the only ones in the building. O’Neil listened to it and agreed it was a legit EVP. Later that day, Justin and Kassie were part of a group investigating the kitchen in the basement. They heard a loud exhale from a part of the room no one was standing in.

“That loud exhale sent chills down my arms,” Justin said. “I didn’t feel it, but I definitely heard it.”

O’Neil heard things too. This was his second time at Edinburgh Manor. While leading a group investigation the first night in a far wing of the third floor, O’Neil asked if there was anyone on the other end of the floor who wanted to talk to the group. Instantly, an audible “Ummmmmmmm” entered the room. O’Neil was stunned. So were the other members of his group who heard it.

“I don’t remember having any personal experiences the last time here,” O’Neil said. “I definitely didn’t hear a disembodied voice like this time.”

Odyssey investigator Josie Brugman, 19, of Bloomington, Minn., was on her second investigation. She grew up in a family that watched paranormal TV shows, and unlike O’Neil, she did have paranormal experiences.

“When I was young, I would always see a dark mass at the foot of my bed,” Brugman said. “It would sit still before it crept up and I would feel all this static around me. It was creepy.”

Brugman and O’Neil led teams of novice investigators around Edinburgh, which was battered by rain and wind all weekend long, adding to the eerie ambiance. Paint peels downward, unable to escape gravity. Nearly everything was left behind when employees and patients left for good, from patients’ daily schedules to tools, from toys to kitchenware.

O’Neil’s equipment aided investigators both nights. Among his items were the spirit box, K2 meters, SLS camera, thermal imaging camera, BooBuddy bear that senses temperature changes and a rover that measures temperature, takes video, pictures and is a full spectrum night vision camera.

“It was great that we were able to use all that high-tech equipment,” Madessen Berger said. “It was my first experience with the spirit box. I never quite believed spirits could communicate verbally with us, but now I do.”

For Kassie Simonis, the weekend was a chance to tick a few things off her wish list.

“Being an introvert who has struggled with social anxiety, I experienced a mix of excitement and nervousness at the prospect of this adventure,” she said. “I’m happy to say it was an absolutely wonderful weekend. I got to feed my love of old buildings (especially asylums), seek out new experiences in the paranormal and wound up making new friends.”