IONE – Forget Paranormal Activity 3.

Forget Poltergeist, The Shining, Silent Hill and White Noise.

It’s a Saturday night and I’m sitting in a plastic chair on the third floor of what many believe is a haunted building in the pitch black – asking questions to the ghost of a woman that was allegedly bludgeoned beyond recognition and stashed in a kitchen in the basement.

There’s really nothing more real than this.

I knew that my experience with the California Ghost Chasers – a professional paranormal investigation outfit from Manteca – was going to subject me to a myriad of these scenarios. Attempts to summon the ghost of the aforementioned Anna Corbin, flashlight views down dark and dingy hallways and time in stale and dark rooms that have been abandoned for 50 years.

But that’s just what nights are like in the old Preston School of Industry.

Referred to as “Preston Castle” by Ione locals and ghost chasers, the building at one time represented a state-of-the-art concept in rehabilitation for young men – an alternative to hardcore penitentiaries like Folsom and San Quentin – is a destination for those chasing the paranormal. Its location up on a hill makes it visible from nearly every part of town, and its brick façade only makes it even creepier the longer you look at it.

It was there that young men like Merle Haggard had the chance to attend classes, learn a trade and get the tools to become a productive member of society – a stark departure from spending most of their time bottled up inside of a primitive concrete cell.

Like any facility where movement is restricted and leaving is forbidden, however, bad things likely happened. Nearly a dozen young men died during their time at Preston, and docents have captured EVP voices – electronic voice phenomenon – of boys as young as six years old.

And the fact that I’m part of a group that is intentionally out trying to capture these voices – essentially through a séance – doesn’t hit me until I’m sitting in that plastic chair on the third floor and feel my pulse starting to rise because all I can see to my left is darkness.

What if I actually do hear a voice? What would my reaction be like if the outline of a body were to appear in front of me? I know that would be the Holy Grail for Ed Krietmeyer and his team of dedicated investigators, so would I ruin the experience for them?

All of this, naturally, is running through my head while these questions are being rattled off by team member Steve Watson and docent Sally Aquino. Krietmeyer steered the conversation while his wife, Lourdes, filmed the session and the open spaces at both ends of the hallway.

While my head is still swimming – what kind of e-mail would I be getting from religious readers that consider these sorts of activities to be Satanic? – I’m also starting to understand that this isn’t just a fun weekend activity for those involved.

The group had to come up with $1,000 just for the pleasure to spend the night prowling around a condemned building full of rusty square nails, dust, exposed walls and bat guano.

They each had to give up their Saturday night in order for the event to come together and they knew that it was going to be more work than play for the time that they had access to the “Castle.”

Such is life when you’re chasing a passion.

Each of the team members knew that there was verified activity inside of the walls. When team member Frank Anderson asked for something to grab his long beard last year, he picked something up on his EVP that said, “I’ll get a razor.”

Krietmeyer heard a desk being dragged across the floor in an area that was off-limits to the public because of poor structural integrity, and others felt things – from cold spots to actual hair being pulled forward when an antagonistic comment was made.

So here we were – decked out in black and waiting patiently for something to happen. Personally, I was hoping for a good ghost story to share with people as Halloween came closer, even though I knew I would probably take off down a hallway screaming if I actually did see something.

But there was nothing to officially be seen. Team member Candy Riggs reported hearing something up above her and watching the plaster on the ceiling start to drop, and said that she felt something as well. Krietmeyer felt something touch his leg during a pitch-black EVP session I was sitting in on.

As far as the “full-body apparition” that each hunter searches for goes, nobody was lucky enough to lay claim to that bad boy.

But there was one major incident that shaped the entire night. Jessica Humphries heard a disembodied voice that said “get back” while in the kitchen near where Anna Corbin’s body was found – something that was caught on both film and the EVP recorder she had rolling at the time.

And as of press time, the hours of film footage and electronic sound recordings were still being broken down.

While the California Ghost Chasers might not have hit the gold mine that they were hoping for, the eeriness and creep factor of the building itself cannot be stressed enough. The only way to appreciate traversing a 110-year-old building that has been abandoned for nearly half its life is to tackle it yourself.

It’s beautiful and it’s trashed. It’s simple and it’s complex. It’s haunted and it’s, well, I’m not quite sure. That’s up for the individuals that have the experiences to explain to you.

The bottom line is quite simple. I spent the evening with an outfit that far exceeded my expectations – from their equipment to their approach to their attitudes. I was accepted, educated and informed. And then I was left to draw my own conclusions. The California Ghost Chasers could just as easily be one of those teams from television, and they gave me a glimpse inside of the world that they pursue not because of the glory but because it’s what they love to do.

Quite simply it’s a passion. And when that passion aligns with the forces they’re trying to locate, it would be the bonanza they’re all looking for.

In the meantime, I’m making sure that my conversations in plastic chairs take place in the daylight. That one night creeped me out enough to last a lifetime, and I’m sure that’ll linger for a while.

Now if I could only get this silly voice recorder to work.