I walked in to the Egyptian Theatre, 135 N. Second St., Saturday night not knowing what to expect from their “Haunted Tour,” an event centered around reported paranormal activity happening at the theater that allows people to be part of the investigation. I left not knowing exactly what I had experienced.

I’m open to the idea of there being things going on that we don’t fully understand, but being a physics student I want to find some kind of rational explanation. This is also the mind-set of Illinois Ghost Hunters, a team led on Saturday by George Hawrylenko and Mark Schwabe.

With all the time we all spent trying to pick up EVP or spotting strange shadows, we spent as much time trying to reproduce what was witnessed or photographically captured, They would rather debunk what happens than make a living, crying ghost.

After a brief history of the theater and tour of the grounds, all the lights were killed and we split up into groups to check out different parts of the theater at will. We heard that there were sightings of people peeking into the theater and walking across the doorways for the two center aisles.

I was skeptical, but wanted to check it out for myself. All disbelief was gone when Northern Star photographer Julie Dobrinski jumped next to me at the same time I saw a figure dart across entry number two. As a group, we saw more things walk across the doorway or peek into the theater. And no, there wasn’t somebody out in the lobby playing tricks on us (I had to check for myself a few times).

A few hours later, Julie, Mark and I were in the hall walking past the doorways into the theater. As I was about to walk past the last propped open door, someone on the stage took a picture.

When the flash went off, I saw the black silhouette of a head and I stopped dead in my tracks for a second before darting into the theater. The closest people were up on the stage, so it wasn’t a reflection of anyone inside. From where we were in the hallway and how the door was angled, there was no way it could have been a reflection of anyone. The flash shouldn’t have messed with my eyes because I was a good seven or eight feet away from the doorway. I don’t know how to explain what I saw, but I am positive that I saw something.

The dressing room area beneath the theater was another hot spot that produced two photos with phenomena that could not be replicated after the group collective took over a hundred more shots.

I brought along my Sony digital voice recorder to tape what the experts were saying when we were walking around. I started to have trouble with it on when we were in some hot spots. It would stop recording and start again on its own, and the display would cycle through its different options. Multiple people were able to see this and that there was no way I could be pressing the buttons. This device has never acted this way.

I know that it sounds unbelievable. I honestly went in hoping to write a story about a ghost hunting team that was full of crap. I am skeptical of a lot of what’s out there, and I instinctively want to find explanations. There were things experienced and photographed that just weren’t normal. I don’t know what’s going on at the Egyptian Theatre, but something definitely is up.

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