The Shaker Heritage Society

 

So. This is my first blog post. Kind of thought there would be more confetti, or something. But I guess if you can't even afford a website domain, confetti is the least of your worries. 

Anyways- right. This isn't a blog where I'm going to bemoan stuff, because this place is already gonna be as grim and creepy as it comes without that. It's also not going to be a blog where I post a goofy little anecdote or story before throwing the most toe curling recipe for quinoa at you. It's a blog where I talk about the paranormal and supernatural and a bunch of other long and fancy words. 

And then I'll throw toe curling stuff at you.

Before anyone is like "this is just some random ghost blog or something-" yeah, you could say that. Or, you could say it will be the very thing that changes your life. Because not every creepy thing is an old abandoned institution or area where things go bump in the night.

Now, that said- let's dive right into something that is exactly that.

    The Shaker Heritage Society is a place that promotes, education, enrichment, and history. Nestled auspiciously (and somewhat suspiciously) close to the Albany International Airport, this place is like, the pinnacle of community. I'm talking craft fairs, field trips, workshops, etc. SENIOR DISCOUNTS. So needless to say, it's a pretty open place for everyone.

In fact, historically, it was all about that too. The Shakers here (and this place is also known as the Watervliet site), were actually responsible for the invention of things like the flat broom, the garden seed industry, and vacuum sealed tin cans. But not only that, their communities had a huge emphasis on gender and racial equality. Watervliet itself was a huge inspiration for a lot of religious, social, and political changes and experiments.

One of the more prominent Shaker leaders- Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784) is actually responsible for constructing the site. She led her followers from England to New York in 1774, where she girlbossed her way into the public eye- preaching and leading the Shaker church. Around this time, not many women were religious leaders.

Mother Ann Lee 

Mother Ann's followers were a bit...eclectic. They honestly believed that she "embodied all the perfections of God in female form" and was "the second coming of Christ." Genuinely, they were just some happy (and really weird) people. You know, the kind that want to live their lives peacefully and spend their free time radically converting people to their religious beliefs.

Anyways, as it turns out, some people like to spend their free time doing things that are objectively Not That, like knitting or tap dancing or engaging in violent mob activity. That was actually one of the hardships the Shakers did face a lot- violent mob activity. As the name suggests, they were pretty darn violent, and all of the constant attacks and threats made Mother Ann pretty frail. She inevitably passed away on September 8th, 1784.

She's actually still buried on the site, alongside many other individuals. If you pull into the site and make a right turn into the parking lot, you'll see the Cemetery trail. Or , if you're like me, an old lady driving an absolutely massive Mustang and not paying attention. But once you manage to narrowly escape her with your life, then you should see the trail. There are also some cows, which was very fun. And further down the cobbled little road, there's another wooden trail that leads to the Mother Ann Lee Nature Preserve. To my knowledge, that place isn't haunted, but I am nearly 89% certain I encountered Bigfoot there.

Anyways, when Mother Ann passed, it actually led to this 10 year period of religious fanaticism and revelation, known as the 'Era of Manifestations.' Some people also call it 'Mother Ann's Work,' and it's a pretty notable period for paranormal encounters.

So uh, Shakers were called Shakers because that was actually how they would pray- by dancing in a way reminiscent of shaking. Literally, why did they not teach us this stuff in history class. Anyways, in the Era of Manifestations, supposedly spirits would visit to provide young Shaker women with visions, which they would interpret by dancing, entering trance states, or speaking in tongues. Regardless of festivity, the Shakers were known to shun society and live in an extremely celibate community. In 1841 there was a 'spiritual cleansing' where some ghost was like "hey, you know what sucks? Coffee, and pork, and stuff." This led to a lot of uproar and rippling in the community, leading to mass exiling. It's not surprising that a year later the Ministry was like "Uhhh yeah anyways so....don't practice this in public anymore."

Everything died down relatively quickly after that point, and in 1925 the main part of the site was purchased by Albany County; renovated into a nursing home, a tuberculosis sanitorium, and more over the years. Now it's a historic site run by volunteers.

You're probably thinking "this is great and all, but where are the ghosts," and trust me, we're getting to them. It's just, kind of important to set the scene and all that. Also like, the Shakers were supposedly communing with the dead which is literally the paranormal. Just...a couple hundred years ago.

    Nowadays, the trend of welcoming the paranormal still continues at the site. The Heritage Society has advertised ghost walks, paranormal investigations, and more in the past. When I last visited there, a while back, I legitimately felt like I was being watched the whole time. But eh, being alone in a creepy haunted historical site does that to a person. 

Groups like the Empire State Paranormal Society and the Tri-City New York Paranormal Society have heavily explored the buildings. In article was published in Times Union last year, citing the Shaker Heritage Site as one of the 27 most haunted places in upstate New York. 

Both paranormal societies have led investigations into the site, with pretty impressive results across the board. Over a span of 9 nights in January of 2014, the Tri-State Paranormal Society set up equipment and observed possibly activity across the 9 buildings that occupy the land. 

There have been quite a few investigations led by Tri-State, and they'll actually lead tour groups from time to time. People that have joined these tours have stated they've gone "from being skeptics to believers." 

Investigators claimed to have seen it all. Phantom footsteps, disembodied voices, shadowy figures. The whole 9 yards. Supposedly, a recording device was observed being thrown across the room. Not to be that person that's like "I'm built different," but if I saw a thousand dollar piece of equipment being hurled across the room by a ghost, I might get a little annoyed.

Do EMF readers and spirit boxes even have warranty?

Anyways, there were several other inexplicable activities. Now, I get that you can't really describe how something happened, but I think it's possible to explain what you might have experienced. I don't know, maybe that's just me. 

But still, there has undoubtedly been paranormal occurrences. Back in those frigid winter investigations, in the attic of the old 'Meeting House,' the ghost-hunting team witnessed "possible orb energy" moving about the space. 

Ghost orbs are finicky. They originate from spirits or ghosts that either returned to earth, or never could leave. They manifest as some kind of light, and supposedly the colors of these lights can have different meanings. If you know your color theory, it's not really super hard to discern what they mean. Black is negativity, lavender is peace and tranquility, blue is sadness, etc. I wonder what a fluorescent beige orb would indicate. 

A ghost orb caught on camera in a prison in Natchez, Mississippi

    Anyways, as Halloween treads the thin line that we call September, we're sure to see and hear more paranormal activity from the Shaker Heritage Site. Who knows, maybe we'll get a chance to go and explore ourselves? Until next time, keep your eyes peeled, and your nightlights on.

Cited Sources

The 27 Most Haunted Places in Upstate New York

Era of Manifestations

Mother Ann Lee

Ghost Hunters Encounter Paranormal Activity at Shaker Site

Shaker Heritage Society, Albany NY. Orb Movement Capture

Haunted Sites of the Capital Region and Beyond

Ghost Orbs: The Different Colors and Meanings