Evangelical Spiritualist Church 2022 Investigation

Originally this property was owned by the Duck Family consisting of Daniel Duck and Stephen Campbell as an 80 eighty acre tract of land in 1835. Around 1876 the property transferred to John H.R. Duck due to the deaths of the original owners. After a fierce court battle the land became the property of Francis Duck on April 26, 1876. In 1914 the land was being divided up into lots and then on July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland capsized on the Chicago River drowning 844 people. The citizens desperately needed funeral homes to help with the enormous task of tending to the funerals of over 800 people. The Hrejsa Mortuary, at that time, across the street, was eventually moved when that same year Mrs. Libuse Hrejsa bought the lots across the street to build a larger mortuary.

Mrs. Hrejsa was the very first female mortician in the state of Illinois. In the 1940s, living quarters were added after the house was sold and moved down the block where it is still standing today. The garage was originally a stable or barn used to house horses. The mortuary operated until 1975 when it closed down and the building was purchased by Rev. Harry M. Hilborn.

The Evangelical Spiritualist Church held its first service in November of 1934 in a different building on Austin and Lake. At that time it was called The First Spiritualist Church of Austin lead by the youngest ordained minister at that time, Rev. Harry M. Hilborn. In 1935, the church received its current name, Evangelical Spiritualist Church. When the current building came up for sale, the congregation and ministers moved. Rev. Hilborn died in October of 1997. The church’s minister then became the Rev. Mahala D. Bacon and she continues to hold services there to this day.

Located at: 5130 W. 25th St., Cicero, Illinois 60804

Telephone: 708-863-7190

Owners: Rev. Mahala D. Bacon

Hauntings: Reports of shadow images by the doorway to the right of the main altar. Laura Hannigan founder of the paranormal group SNAPIT which stands for, SuperNatural and Paranormal Investigation Team has seen a number of shadow figures within this building including one that appears to block the light coming in from the back door that leads to the parking lot on numerous occasions. A local psychic, Bill, who lives on the property, has said that he has felt a lot of spirit activity downstairs; almost like a party was going on at the time. He also goes on to say that his cat will not enter into the church under any circumstances.

The GRS investigated the Evangelical Spiritualist Church May 26, 2022 and the team included: Paul Adams, Marge Sucha and Dale Kaczmarek

Equipment setup: Only hand-held equipment was used in the Basement and the Chapel Area such as digital recorders, Phasma Box application, Phasma Box Optimum, Ovilus V in dictionary and phonetic mode, ParaTek app, Echovox, Melmeter, and digital cameras.

Experiments performed: EVP and Phasma Box sessions were conducted in the Basement room used for meetings and assemblies for addicts and in the church pews.

Personal experiences:

Marge Sucha: I used: FLIR, K-II, and Recorder.

This church was once a funeral home. We decided to start upstairs in the church area by the altar. We started out our session around 6:30 pm using the Phasma Box. The session started with some swear words coming up, but got lighter as our session went on. Dale asked the question "Who's president of the United States. The reply was "me". Later the question what year is it? Reply was 1970. What are the chances "me" was Richard Nixon?

Next we moved to the basement in a room I call the meeting room. I felt this room started out a little heavy and dark. Replies to questions didn't make sense. Example when asked their name the reply was Devil Alice Nation. Who am I talking to? Reply "Your hell. This also came up later. We heard noises and pinging in the corner. Using the SLS Camera, Paul briefly had a stick figure show up in one of the corners Temperature registered 66.6. Then the word “incubus” came up. Paul's name came up later. Some other names that came up were Debbie, Jeff, Peggy, Sammy. We also had some K-II activity.

Overall it was a fairly active evening.

Dale Kaczmarek: This was another investigation that was set up for Paul’s visit. We investigated the church area around the pews and the large meeting room downstairs. Only one somewhat intelligent response upstairs and just a interesting random word downstairs.

Paul got his name called in the ParaTek app and a lot of negative random words came through downstairs including, devil, incubus, hell, your hell (twice) and criminal (twice). These were disturbing in a way because this is a spiritualist church and a former funeral home. Also, the downstairs was used as a rehabilitation room for former drug users; so criminal could be a relevant word.

We were hearing little noises in a corner of the basement during the Ovilus V session that could not be accounted for. The K-II Meters used sometimes went into the red and were blinking pretty much throughout our sessions.

The Phasma Box had a whistling sound and said “I’m a medium” which is very relevant for the face of a spiritualist church. Some other interesting words were; murder, soul, saint. The word “Ghostbuster” was unexpected coming through the Echovox in the basement.

This time the church wasn’t very active but the random words, whistling, noises in the corner and a stick figure that was picked up with the X-Cam SLS device was fascinating.

Evidence collected:

1970 evangelical.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session upstairs by the pews, a question was asked, “What year is it?” The device first repeated the question, “What year is it?” followed by, “1970”

Behind you I can’t evangelical.MP4 – while conducting a Phasma Box session upstairs by the pews, a question was asked, “Walk across that stage please.” The device responded with, “Behind you” followed by “I can’t.”

Ghostbuster evangelical.MP4 – while conducting an Echovox session downstairs, the device said in a low, quiet voice, “Ghostbuster.”

Words spoken by the Phasma Box: thinking, murder, delightful, three, scream, (whistling sound), I’m a medium, criminal and recognition, behind you & I can’t; Phasma Box Optimum: I’m not sure, come to me, Cathie, insect, flipper; Ovilus V in dictionary mode: devil, Alice, nation, ticket, upon, truth, black, ambition, continue, being, soul, attitude, news, cold & cable; Ovilus V in phonetic mode: I’m here; ParaTek: ready, once, saint, was, your hell, beside, until, designate, party, those, halt, haste, hall, scientist, thought, matter, ground, incubus, please, fly, if, them, induced, hell, breach, Paul, dash, pain, famous, phrase, criminal, about, up, highway, industry, waves, Debbie, Jeff, wardrobe, three, Peggy, necessary, hear, others, gave, person, six, tell, Sammy, your hell, passed, new moon, indeed, I am, yard, blind, using (train noise) & those; Echovox: ghostbuster, self, love, you, slimed, take me, Smith, stop, Paul, three, I’m scared, disband & me.

Conclusions: This area still needs further investigation in the future with more equipment and personnel. There are other areas such as the preparation room and temporary morgue that might provide additional evidence.

While there was at least, in my opinion, one intelligent response near the stage area, there were quite a lot of possibly relevant words that matched the location that we were investigating at the time. Additional equipment would most likely gather more evidence. I look forward to being able to investigate here again in the future.