‘Ghost Hunters’: Kristen Luman Previews Team’s ‘Return to Waverly Hills’ Sanatorium With Haunting Season Finale (Exclusive)

On Wednesday night’s sophomore season finale, Ghost Hunters makes their hotly anticipated return after almost 15 years to Kentucky‘s Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Dubbed “one of the most haunted places on earth,” the historic southwestern Louisville edifice has long been hailed a “Mecca” for paranormal investigators as the 20th-century site has produced striking paranormal activity, most notably seen in the show’s third season in 2006. Built in the 1900s, the former tuberculosis hospital has subsequently become a museum of sorts, preserving a tragic history of more than 8,000 deaths on-site, prompting vibrant paranormal activity over the years.

However, with owners and visitors detailing a whole new set of paranormal claims, including blood-curdling screams and unexplained sounds, team leader, Grant Wilson takes his investigators to one of his favorite haunts, eagerly hoping to get some answers. Ahead of tonight’s case, “Return to Waverly Hills,” co-lead investigator, Kristen Luman shares with PopCulture.com what fans can expect from the exploration at the infamous site, which has skyrocketed in interest among paranormal enthusiasts, admitting it’s a case that “really doesn’t disappoint.”

“The original Ghost Hunters team pretty much put this place on the map, and Grant oftentimes visits,” Luman told PopCulture. “He has experiences there all the time, and a lot of the team members hadn’t been there before, and for any paranormal investigator, this is like the Mecca place to go because there is so much activity. And oftentimes, people will experience it where a lot of times it’s a hit or miss, and you usually will get a hit in this building, [but] we discovered possibly another theory that explained some of the paranormal activity that they have there.”

Without sharing any spoilers, Luman teases how she observed some peculiar activity she’s never before experienced on a case with communication via the team’s tech. “Daryl was with me, and he’s experienced that before, but I never have and so, that was pretty awesome to have the whole new experience on this investigation,” she said. “But the fact that everyone basically experienced pretty much the same thing that the original team did and even took it a step further, I think is pretty amazing with some of our devices that we were able to use.”

Luman further shares how the team uses one of their more unique devices to support a correlating theory between entities and energy, admitting, sure enough, their experiment provoked some wild paranormal activity thanks to modern technology. “So, we think it actually did indeed work, and so, we got to do different experiments that the original team weren’t able to do because of our technology, and so it’s just a really exciting episode. And like I said, it doesn’t disappoint. We’ve got pretty much everything you can get on an investigation.”

The parapsychologist and paranormal researcher goes on to share how this season has not only been incredible with the team’s findings, but the technology used in every case has been beneficial in finding and understanding proof of the afterlife, including the EMCCD camera. “The fact that there is a theory that spirit matter or spirit substance is created are made up of some photonic event — that is a measure of light that our eyes cannot see on our visual spectrum. There’s always been that theory, and the fact that we were able to put that to the test with this camera is pretty remarkable,” she said, adding how it further opens up questions for her, especially with how everything they have captured on camera is different than what’s witnessed elsewhere. “That opens up other questions of, ‘Is it the right place, right time? How do these environment’s factors playing into what we’re seeing?’”

The Ghost Hunters Season 2 finale airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on A&E, and is produced by Lionsgate’s Pilgrim Media Group. For more on the groundbreaking reality series, spooks and other paranormal-related news, keep it locked to PopCulture.com, and follow us on Twitter @PopCulture for the latest in news and entertainment coverage.