blackbear church
10/4/2010 - 12/13/2010
General Information
Investigators: Christy, Chris, Cathy, Logan, Dustin, Mike & Taylor
Equipment used: Walking Sony video camera, personal audio recorders, digital cameras and various EMF meters
Historical/Factual/Relevant Info:
The "Black Bear" church was originally known as New Bethany Baptist Church, and little information about it is available. Its original structure was likely built around the turn of the Twentieth Century when families started settling the area to farm.
The Baldwin family, upon whose land rests the cemetery across from the church, moved there in 1896 and are some of the earliest burial plots.
As a small community church, New Bethany was awarded a $500 bond in 1942 in a newspaper-sponsored scrap metal drive that nearly paid for all of their $693 debt. The debt was probably accrued for the newer building that now rests on the land, and the 40 member church collected 3,275 pounds of metal for the war effort.Little else is known about New Bethany Baptist Church, but by 1972 it had disappeared from local maps as the building fell into disrepair and became an attractive hang out for teens.
Investigation Report
This location has turned out to be an on-going investigation for OKPRI and is one that we will continue to investigate periodically. Despite its quiet background history there is something about this location that has left it scarred. Something has happened from the time when it was an active working church where it is storing negative energy rather than positive energy
Curious as to the dark tales and interesting stories this location seemed to hold, our group visited this location late one night after another investigation and from that time on we found ourselves investigating the location many times after that initial night. Each time our group visited the location we seemed to encounter some of the same things but then at other times we would have something unexpected happen.
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The team heard footsteps coming down the road that were loud enough that we actually got back into the car and drove down the road to see who was there. We were unable to find anyone. On another night the darkness flowed over the church covering the roof where you could not see the sky any longer. Logan was pushed back from going going into the basement and was knocked off his feet approximately 6 feet from where he was standing. Cathy was able to capture a photo of mist with faces. The photo was taken at a time when light anomalies were being seen with the naked eye by several members. Mike photographed a glowing
ball of light. We were very fortunate to be able to get photographic evidence here on more than one occasion. It is very rare to capture true paranormal pictures.
On another particular night after we entered the ruins of the church we felt like we were being moved in upon and surrounded by unseen visitors from outside the church. There were a few shadows that were seen moving towards the church and some of these shadow figures were seen standing at the long broken windows of the main floor. There seemed to be some invisible barrier built into the walls as the majority were not coming inside of the church. Christy saw a crawler come into the church as we decided to move on to the basement level.
We all found the area to be really heavy in energy as we saw several shadows start to come to the basement windows and stand there as if to block us in. Christy saw a low moving shadow come down the basement stairs and straight into the basement area before disappearing. There was a pop bottle on the ground close to her. Taylor, Mike and several others in our group heard the bottle pop a few times as if something had stepped on it but we verified that nothing was there. Our group decided we would try singing some church hymnals to see if the tension in the air would change and if anything would happen. After singing a couple of songs the negative energy seemed to dissipate although it was still eerie.
Another interesting thing about the church is that there's an old cemetery right across the small dirt road. The Cemetery known as Black Bear was originally called by another name. It was most likely nicknamed Black Bear because of the the creek that flows not too far away. The cemetery is connected to the church with some of the original owners and church members buried in there. Our group investigates this place as a part of the investigations of the church.
One night Logan saw black masses running around on the outside of the church and jumping into the trees at the cemetery. On another night after a few minutes of wandering around the cemetery asking questions for our audio recorders the group felt like they were being followed. None of the group knew who or what could have been following us. Christy heard a man ask what we were doing in the cemetery although we were alone. After a few moments the team encountered a man by the name of Bartholomew Jenkins through Christy. After a long conversation with Bartholomew the team learned several interesting
things about him and his life. He warned about some of the spirits over at the church grounds and how the grounds had been "poisoned". He suggested our group should be careful due to former satanic rituals that had once been performed over there.
Conclusion:
Black Bear Church is an active location. We feel that with all of the personal experiences combined with the collected evidence justify us in saying this. We also feel that the location has been tainted by years of negative behavior from rituals as well as people needing a secluded spot to do bad things. The area is imprinted with this energy. It feels as if at one time there may have been a portal opening that let something negative cross over. We could not find a portal however Chris was able to pick up on a residual spot within the church. Perhaps the activity will someday cease if it is allowed to be left alone. The location is known to several groups who will most likely never let it rest as they try to conjure up whatever they feel they need at the moment. Negative acts draws negative energy towards itself to keep growing. We will continue to investigate periodically to see if anything is still there.
Psychic Investigator’s Comments
This investigation was a very strange one because of the different energies that were present there. I definitely felt like this location held a lot of negative energy and I couldn't help but wonder if it was from the numerous satanic rituals we had heard that had been performed there.
One of the more interesting things that stuck out to me was when I saw shadow figures move in and surround the open windows of the floor level of the church and then suddenly I saw a shadow crawler come into the church and disappear as we decided to move on to the basement level.
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Once inside the basement level of the church, I saw what appeared to be the same low moving shadow crawler come down the basement stairs and straight into the basement area before disappearing. There was a pop bottle on the ground close to me in which I heard pop very loudly. Taylor, Mike and several others in our group also heard the bottle pop a few times as if something had stepped on it but we all verified that nothing was there.
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When we were investigating the cemetery area across the street, I heard a man's voice inquire about what we were doing there and he later identified himself as Bartholomew. He conveyed several interesting things about himself to me which I shared with the team and he warned about some of the spirits over at the church grounds and how the grounds had been "poisoned". He suggested our group should be careful due to former satanic rituals that had once been performed over there.
evidence collected
There were no EVPs that was recorded during this investigation and no sound clips.
There was one interesting misty photo and no positive video clips.
photo
