DISCLAIMER: This episode and accompanying article is from a time in our careers we are not proud of and do not reflect our current views. Instead of removing the content and pretending it never happened, we are keeping it up so as not to seem like we're hiding our past. Our behaviour was insensitive and inappropriate, we did not treat such serious topics with the respect and gravity they deserve. Furthermore, certain aspects of these videos contained doctored or otherwise fabricated evidence. If you or a loved one are struggling with mental health, you are not alone. Help is available.
(Be sure to watch the accompanying episode, "DÉJÀ-BOO: The Restless Spirits of White Oak Hospital (GHOST CAUGHT ON CAMERA)" for the full experience.)
Preface:
As we continue on our journey down the West Coast, we have found ourselves in Oregon. From cursed towns to haunted underground tunnels, this state is certainly no stranger to the paranormal. What we will be investigating today is the long abandoned White Oak Hospital, a site rumored to be the final resting place of hundreds of souls.
From what we've heard, this four story hospital saw well over 300 deaths while it was operational. Typical of the time period, the patients were victim to plenty of malpractice and treatments considered unethical by modern standards. At night, lights can be seen coming from patients' rooms, with figures peering out the windows. Some explorers have felt ghostly touches of unseen hands in the morgue. Many have reported sightings of a spirit referred to as The Stair Man. According to the legends, The Stair Man threw himself off the roof after his hospitalized wife died, and his ghost can sometimes still be seen retracing his final steps up the stairwell to this day.
We arrived at the hospital in the late afternoon. The chain link fence surrounding the property was tall, but not tall enough to keep us out! After Francisco cut the lock on the door, the four of us were greeted by the strong feeling of negative energy. It didn't take Jess's mediumship to tell right away that the spirits that roam these halls were upset with our presence. Of course this did not deter us, it'll take more than some unsettled spirits to frighten the Déjà-Boo crew! Stepping carefully past the broken glass bottles on the floor and crudely drawn genitals on the walls, we began to explore the White Oak Hospital. Before continuing this article, be sure to watch this week's Déjà-Boo episode for all the goofs and spooks!
Investigation Breakdown:
Morgue
We decided to begin our investigation in perhaps the creepiest part of the whole building: the morgue. This room surely stored hundreds of corpses before they were laid to rest, though perhaps not all who saw this room have truly left it. It is common for people to experience the feelings of being touched or having their hair pulled in this room, so as you can see in the episode, we invited the spirits to touch us as they pleased. (Granted, I probably could have asked more politely, but sometimes you gotta rile up the spirits to really see any action!) We tried to dare Jess to lay in one of the body storage cabinets but she wimped out, so instead we placed our REM pod inside.
Immediately we started getting activity. It makes sense that touchy morgue ghosts would be interested in playing with the blinky red light machine. While the REM pod was very reactive, we were not able to get any clear or timely responses when attempting communication. As we were leaving the morgue, Francisco stopped in his tracks. He said it felt like someone had tried to push him, as you can see from the slowed down footage at 22:04, there is a clear indent in his hoodie sleeve where you can see the ghosts touch against the fabric! This is amazing evidence to have captured on camera, but it pales in comparison to what we would be witness to later in the day.
Operating Theater
Making our way up out of the dingy basement and skipping over the ground floor, we made out way to the second floor operating theater. The spacious room felt eerie, with tables and tools still scattered about, as if they had been dropped and forgotten in an instant. Jessica would also not lie down on the examination table in this room either. We have no way of knowing how many patients could have lost their lives in this very room, so we tried to find our answer using the spirit box.
I started by asking the usual questions -- what's your name, how did you die, how many ghosts are here -- before moving on to more specific questions. Rumours say that the surgeon who worked at White Oak was a cruel man who would perform unnecessary surgery on patients to test his own experiments. We asked to speak to him, to confront him about his terrible practices. Starting at 31:25, you can witness the chilling conversation for yourself. Based on how our spirit box session escalated, its safe to say that this man is not someone any of us would have liked to meet when he was alive.
Third Floor Patients' Rooms
On the third floor is the infamous room 309, where its said that the ghost of a little girl resides. People sometimes leave offerings of dolls or other toys for her in this room, and we of course brought along our own to offer to this young spirit. After placing the doll on the rusted bed frame, Jess said she could feel the girls presence with us so she began trying to make contact with her. Learn about Jessica's powers as a medium and hear what this child spirit had to say at 44:42.
Superintendent's Quarters
Up now on the fourth floor, we found ourselves in what was once the White Oak Hospital's superintendents private quarters. According to Francisco's brother (featured in our episode about the demonic Rosebridge Hotel) the man who held the title of medical superintendent was notoriously abusive towards patients, withholding privileges such as food or courtyard access to those he deemed unruly. And since this hospital also often doubled as an asylum, there were plenty of unruly patients to pick on.
Here we brought out both the ovilus ghost box and our two maglite flashlights, red for yes and blue for no. It was actually Grant's (our cameraman) idea to use both at the same time to attempt to get more clear responses to questions. As frequent viewers know, using maglites only allows us to ask yes or no questions, but with the inclusion of the ovilus the ghost would theoretically be able to add further context to his answers. If you'd like to see how this experiment turned out, and find out why the superintendent was so horrid to his patients, go to 53:31.
Stairwell
Finally, we headed to the most infamous part of White Oak: the terrifying stairwell where many have stood witness to echoes of a man's last steps towards death. As we stood at the very top looking down towards the cold concrete floor below, it was frightening to imagine what The Stair Man must have felt as he climbed those stairs, distraught by his wife's death, knowing he would not let himself live in this world without her. You'd think having to walk up all those stairs would deter him, even I was winded as we'd been climbing them all day. Francisco, Jess and myself had no idea as we stood there that we were about to witness the most compelling ghost evidence we'd ever caught on camera.
It begins at 1:08:11. Watching the blinking light of the EMF detector, we were all shocked as it suddenly jumped into the red. The sounds of footsteps echoed out through the stairwell, though all four of us stood still. Closer and closer they came, though we couldn't see anything that could be making the noise. Thinking quickly, I whipped out my phone camera and angled it downwards, snapping a handful of shots. Moments later ,we all felt a cold chill breeze past us, even though it was a fairly warm spring day. It was only after checking my phone that we realized what we had captured, something so shockingly clear it was undeniable proof of the thing we've been searching for all these years: in that photograph, I had captured a full body apparition of The Stair Man.
And this, my dear fearless viewers, is why Déjà-Boo is the best in the game. My sharp wit, Jess's mediumship, Francisco's know-how; nobody else does it like us.
Closing Thoughts:
The White Oak Hospital is by far one of the most active hauntings we have ever experienced. From top to bottom, this historic site is crawling with the ghosts of staff and patients alike. Our amazing team was able to capture audio, video and photographic evidence of these restless spirits, and we must hope that none will follow us home. Thanks for joining us on this investigation, we'll see you all again next week as we continue our ghost hunt down the West Coast!
If you have any evidence of a haunting near you, feel free to submit it to our evidence folder and we may just have to investigate it for ourselves!
- Ethan
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