Diary of a Dayton Ghost Hunter

Paranormal Group Dynamics (Part One): Reasons Why / Types of People

2011-05-18T10:48:00.001-07:00

I've had a couple people inquiring about different aspects of what a paranormal team does as it relates to the group dynamic. In what I'm hoping will be a series of blogs, I want to try to cover some of my opinions about group hierarchy, personalities, schedules, and some pointers I've found from doing "ghost hunt" events with the general public. I'll also go into some of the different personalities that I've seen, not just in my group, but others as well. I don't want anyone to think that I'm calling them out or attaching some label to them. We're all different. If we weren't, it would make for an awfully boring world.

Just as everyone is unique in this world, so are the reasons why people get involved in paranormal groups or ghost hunter groups in the first place. And as I've discussed before, there is a difference between a paranormal investigation group and a ghost hunting group. I won't really go into it here. Those of you who have been following along with my blog should already know my thoughts on that.

The least popular reason, in my opinion, why someone would get involved in ghost hunting is because they are what I call "Hollywoodies." They are all about themselves and want all eyes to be on them (more commonly referred to as "attention whores"). Their dream is to become the next Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Zak Bagans, or Ryan Buell. "Look at me! I'm hunting ghosts at Waverly Hills!" the caption on their Facebook photo will read, or something similar. They're only in it in order to ride the wave of the paranormal craze all the way to the bank. A group comprised mainly of persons with this ideology will ultimately fall out of favor and fail due either to their "manufacturing" of evidence or their "all eyes on me" attitudes. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to have the local news team come out and follow you along on an investigation, but total shameless self-promotion is a major turnoff to most people.

Akin to the Hollywoodie is what I term the "wanna-be" ghost hunter. This person wants to get involved because they saw it on TV or think it's cool because paranormal seems to be the flavor of the month right now. I'll admit that in the beginning, I could have termed myself a "wanna-be." I watched the shows and got the idea to begin our little group of ghost hunters by taking mental notes on how the TV guys did it. However, for me, those shows were a jumping off point or a gateway into the wider world of the paranormal which led me toward reading and expanding upon the theories they were presenting. Hopefully most "wanna-be's" overcome their wide eyed wonder and pursue self-education through reading and studying what's currently available in the paranormal world. It's not bad to be a "wanna-be." We all wanted to be something at one time or another. Just don't get stuck by limiting yourself to only what you see on television.

In pushing the boundaries of paranormal science, we find what I call the "science dork." This person, usually a guy, can rationalize away just about anything with his meters and computers and recording devices. His sole interest lies in disproving or capturing absolute scientific proof of paranormal activity. Once I moved out of the "wanna-be" phase, I spent a lot of time trying to explain away everything scientifically. "Oh, it's just high EMF due to the ungrounded wiring in the house." "I hold no credence in the orb phenomena because it can always be explained as dust, moisture, lens flare, or a dirty lens." All of these and more are what comprise the mantra of the science dork. Sure, they want to believe that something's out there, but they just can see past the filter of rationalizing science that they're wearing. I have since moved on from this phase as well.

From the sci-dork comes the tech-head or techie. Much like the "Ghostbusters" did in the movie, they firmly rely on their electronic gear to capture audio, video, or a picture of the ever elusive spirit that haunts a location. They have varying degrees of belief in paranormal activity, but they do believe that there is something out there. It isn't a bad thing to be a techie. Every group should have at least one member that is one. Our group has about three of us that have various levels of technical expertise. I'll proudly admit that I am a tech-head, and defend myself by saying that technology is probably the only way that we're going to catch the proof that everyone will consider as "the answer". You might as well embrace it in one form or another because it isn't going away. A sub-group of the techie, which I hold in high regard, is the builder who understands electronic engineering and fabricates all the neat little devices that we use.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, and held in highest regard in many people's eyes is the psychic or sensitive. These people, to varying degrees, feel like they have the ability to see/communicate with spirits and entities on a much higher level. Only because it bears repeating, I hold a lot of skepticism for people that throw around the term psychic and sensitive. Nowadays, this is bandied about like a term of endearment. Everyone is a sensitive or thinks that they can see spirits or commune with the dead. That's all well and good, but my skepticism lies in the fact that this is so easy to fake. I won't go into it any further only to say that I require a lot of proof that a person is indeed the genuine article. Anybody can say they're sensitive/psychic and feel like they sense things. I want proof that you can glean what only I know or only what the spirit knows before I'll even consider you legit. With all that being said, since it seems that everyone is sensitive in one form or another, it's probably a good thing to have at least one person in a group that have proven themselves to be at least mildly sensitive. Personally, I'm about as psychic as a dead tree stump.

In a perfect world, everyone would care about everyone else and do everything they could to ensure that no one suffered and everyone was taken care of. Unfortunately, Alice, this ain't Wonderland. However, being altruistic in your reasoning for getting involved is akin to taking the high road. This kind of person genuinely cares about people and wants to help them work through their problems. Generally nurses and social workers would fall into this category, and it's a good idea to have more than one altruist involved with your group. These folks put their personal needs and reasons aside and want only to assist others. Sadly, I am far from an altruist, but strive to at least be able to put myself in other people's shoes and try to see things from their perspective. Nobody's perfect though.

This brings me to the final personality type to close out the first part of this blog series. This person has watched every horror movie and totally buys into what Hollywood has been selling about ghosts. They believe that every spirit attempting contact is either a demon wanting to possess and drag a person's soul to Hell or that any human entity has evil intentions and wants to only maim and kill. They bring their crosses and holy water along with a bucket to catch the "pea soup" as it belches forth from those possessed souls to every investigation fully expecting a full on battle with Satan himself. I call these people clueless. They have totally sold their souls to the notion that art is a direct imitation of reality. More often than not, a group with at least one these people as a member won't last long at all.

So that's the end of the first part of this series on Paranormal Group Dynamics. Remember, this is just my opinion from what I've seen. Your mileage may vary. In the next part, I'm going to go a little bit more into the different personality traits that people have and how they relate directly to the group dynamic. I'll talk about how people function in the group due to how they seem themselves. I'm also going to cover in the third and final part the hierarchy that seems to be prevalent in most groups.

Drinking the Paranormal Kool-Aid

2011-05-15T14:55:00.001-07:00

It's been quite some time since I've blogged about paranormal stuff, so I thought I'd give it another go, this time maybe stirring up a little debate from those that read this. I want to talk about three topics that are important to the paranormal field—stuff we hear/talk about every day. First, I want to cover some of the misconceptions that we've been forced into believing about EMF (electromagnetic fields/energy). Then I'll go into a topic that's been hotly debated in my paranormal community lately which is EVP evidence. Finally, I want to put my opinion out there on the topic of psychics and sensitives. And keep in mind, these are only my opinions and observations from what I've seen in the past—gosh, it's coming up on 4 years this December. In no way do I mean any disrespect to anyone or stir up harsh feelings or drama. (I don't need any more drama. I've had enough!) In other words, this is just my two cents on the subject, so don't sue me.

We have all been told that electromagnetic fields can cause a variety of ill effects on a person such as skin irritations, paranoia, delusion, hallucinations, fatigue, and nausea and can even drive a person to suicide. We've heard our favorite para-TV personalities chanting this same mantra week in and week out. However, according to a 1996 World Health Organization scientific review [1], there is no link between EMF and the aforementioned symptoms. Those TV experts also go on to say that there are certain persons that are more sensitive to EMF. Again, the WHO review doesn't back that theory up either. The only effect they have found so far, with mixed results, is that long term exposure to EMF has some association with cancer in adults. [2] There have been other studies as recent as 2006 further confirming no correlation between EMF and the associated delusional effects as claimed on TV.

There are many places out there on the Internet that cater to our fears of EMF. Many offer different shielding devices and solutions to protect us from it. I think that the concern for long term exposure is warranted due to the association with certain cancers. So these businesses are actually providing a legitimate service. And while there is legitimate cause for concern regarding health, there isn't anything backing up what we hear on TV about EMF causing hallucinations, etc.

So what is it, if not EMF, that causes people to feel like they're being watched and see entities and ghosts around their homes and businesses? I truly feel that further research is needed in this area; research attempting to directly correlate the type EMF found in homes (poorly shielded wiring, etc) with hallucinations and other paranormal claims. I have heard through the Paranormal Activity Network that D.O.G.S. is a part of that there is research taking place in Cincinnati regarding this very topic. I eagerly await the results of these experiments.

Another topic that is very hotly debated is the electronic voice phenomenon that all paranormal investigators know and love. A very good article I've found is the ATransC paper titled "Transcommunication White Paper with Emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)" [3] I've not had a chance to go over this paper in great depth, but it talks a LOT about what EVP is, how to go about doing it, and the different types. I highly recommend reading it if you are at all interested in EVP.

But around here, there are groups that are getting hundreds of EVPs in one investigation. They claim to be utilizing specific older models of Sony digital audio recorders (specifically ICD-P320, ICD-P520). I purchased the P520 model but have yet to use it on an investigation. I want to see for myself if this is repeatable or if something else is at play.

I also want to see if there is any possibility that these recorders are picking up radio broadcasts, TV signals, or any other stray interference. I'd like to build a Faraday cage (but I'm not savvy like that) to put the recorders in during an EVP session which would hopefully rule out any outside electrical interference, but might this also impede the ability of the spirit to imprint its voice? I just don't know. But I'm willing to experiment (if I could find someone to build a couple small Faraday cages for me) and find out if there is any truth to the notion that spirits somehow imprint their voices by manipulating the magnetic field around the recorders.

Finally, the thing that has really started getting to me (and not just me) lately is that it seems like everyone and their Aunt Martha is "sensitive." I know this is going to get me some flak fired my way, but I've got to come out and say this. And remember, it's just my opinion. Like "you-know-what," everyone has one and is entitled to their own. I am VERY skeptical when it comes to persons claiming they are psychics or sensitives. Sorry, that's just how I am. I need proof before I believe what you're telling me. That would be like me saying that I'm the greatest karaoke singer in Ohio. You'd need proof of that.

[And not to self-deprecate here, but I am nowhere near even a good karaoke singer. Believe me, I've heard way better.]

That's one of the reasons why I investigate the paranormal: to prove to myself (and hopefully others, too) that there really is something else out there that we don't understand. I would love to work with someone who is genuinely in tune with the other side and can communicate, but they've got to prove it to me personally before I will vouch for them and say that they're legitimate. And that's the hard part. Legitimate to me certainly isn't legit to you.

I'm not saying that all psychics and sensitives are charlatans, but believe me, there are more than a few out there that are. In the past, I have investigated with two ladies from the Hamilton and Northern Kentucky area who I truly feel are the genuine article. Investigating at the Patterson Homestead with them, they were pulling up stuff that even I, in my research, didn't know about and was later confirmed through the museum curator. And don't even get me started on all those that think that they're just like Melinda on "Ghost Whisperer" and can see spirits. Maybe you can, and maybe you can't, but until you prove it to me, I'm not drinking your Kool-Aid.

And sadly, that's what all of this boils down to, dear friends. All of this paranormal investigating and all the photos, video, EVPs, and personal experiences are all subjective events that occurred on a personal level. As of April 2011, we have moved away from labeling what we gather during our investigations as "evidence". Until we can get past the skepticism and disbelief, is there really any way that we can absolutely prove to everyone that there really is something to all of this paranormal stuff? I hope that one day the answer to that question is yes. I want to believe that somehow someone (hopefully me and my group or one of the groups that I'm friends with) will get that absolute proof that is totally undeniable and without question. I've had some personal experiences—really minor stuff—but I know that there has to be an explanation out there somewhere for this.

It seems that this absolute proof is elusive as a ghost, if you'll pardon the pun. Maybe someday we'll figure out a way to definitively communicate with the other side--all the time and every time. Or maybe, there's a reason why we haven't been able to? Maybe we shouldn't? But that's what keeps me doing this: the uncertainty and the desire for the answers.

Bibliography

[1] World Health Organization: What are electromagnetic fields - http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html

[2] Possible Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields Associated with Electric Power Systems: http://www.emfservices.com/article.htm

[3] Association TransCommunication: Transcommunication White Paper with Emphasis on Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) - http://atransc.org/theory/white_paper-evp.htm

Further Reference

Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) – Preliminary Opinion on Possible Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) on Human Health: http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_risk/committees/04_scenihr/docs/scenihr_o_006.pdf
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH) – Electric & Magnetic Fields: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/emf/
Environmental Protection Agency (RadTown USA) – Electric & Magnetic Fields (EMF) Radiation from Power Lines: http://www.epa.gov/radtown/power-lines.html

Some General Thoughts/Opinions/Theories on Paranormal

2011-01-19T03:27:00.001-08:00

I was at a client site the other day (1/12/11) for work and during a lengthy (3+ hours) upgrade process on a laptop from Vista to Windows 7 I was talking with one of the girls in the office about her experiences with the paranormal. We talked for well over an hour while the upgrade was installing about events that had gone on in her life, her sister's suicide, spirits that haunted her parents' house and forced her to leave, ghosts that have chased her out of at least one house she owned, and another spirit she believes is haunting the home she's living in now. We also talked a bit about demons, as she said the house across the street from where she's living (in Loveland) had a demonic entity in it, according to a local paranormal group. I forget how we even got started on the topic of ghosts and spirits, but it allowed me to put forth a lot of my theories about spirits, demons, and what my opinions are about the paranormal in general. With it being relatively fresh in my mind, I thought I'd post a blog about it.

The first thing we talked about was my theory on what I think spirits are (yeah, I jumped right in head first). I explained that we are made up of two parts, the physical body and electromagnetic energy (spirit, soul…whatever you want to call it). I discussed that when amputees have phantom pain or ghost itch, it's the electrical part of them that is still whole that they're feeling. When the physical body dies, the energy is released into the environment and goes wherever it's supposed to (crosses over/goes to Heaven…whatever). The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, so it's got to go somewhere. However, when a person dies a violent or sudden unexpected death, this energy doesn't have time to go through the natural process of dissipating so it hangs around on our plane. Whether this is sometimes a conscious effort or force of will, I can't say, because there exceptions that go both ways. Sometimes a person dies naturally, but for some reason their spirit remains. Conversely, not all suicides or sudden deaths hang around either. So there must be something else at play other than just the way a person passes.

I went on to talk about vibrational frequencies and how we perceive the physical world as opposed to the spirit world. Humans see our world at a certain frequency (I think it's 60 Hertz, but I may be wrong, it is probably more like a range of frequencies we can detect). Much in the same way we can't see ultraviolet or infrared light because they're beyond the frequency which we can detect with our eyes, many of us can't see the spirit energy because it is vibrating at a higher frequency. It is easy and natural for this energy to dissipate to this higher plane, but the energy requirement is so great that attempting to "vibrate back" to our plane is very difficult and fraught with complexities we aren't yet equipped enough to understand.

I also talked a bit about visitations, which is totally different from spirits/ghosts. In my opinion, a visitation is when the spirit energy of a person that has properly crossed over comes back to this plane for some reason. This probably happens more often that we realize and can also take place while we dream. That seems to be the easiest way for them to talk to us. Unfortunately, many of us don't remember our dreams, which is a totally separate topic that I won't go into here.

Our discussion then turned to what are demons. What I've come to believe is that demons are negative energies that have never held a physical body and never walked on the Earth. Much in the same way anti-matter can destroy any matter it comes in contact with, these energies seek to possess and ultimately destroy the positive which is human life. These energies are highly intelligent, and whether they are the Biblical demons (fallen angels), some kind of alien being, or something else entirely, the fact remains that these energies do exist, and they travel through our world seeking targets. What draws them, what they feed off of, is negative energy. Depression, rage, and lust is what draws them in, although they can also find their way in by those uninitiated in the proper use of tools such as Ouija boards and séances.

We continued talking about the Native American people. She said she felt the area where she lived used to be an Indian burial ground. That's a commonly held opinion I've found a lot of people hold when it comes to attempting to explain why paranormal activity is happening. I have much respect for the native people of America. I feel their culture had knowledge of the spirit world as well as an endearing respect for the earth and nature. They knew how to co-exist with these energies and spirits and held them in high esteem. Their hunting grounds and burial locations have always been protected by energies or spirits that only they knew how to invoke and commune with. So while I don't think that every ancient Indian site has paranormal activity associated with it, I do feel that we are ignorant to exactly what these people were capable of.

Then we went on to discuss what I call nature spirits. I believe that these go hand in hand with the native people and are the protector spirits that they called upon to watch over their sacred places. I used the Loveland Frog Man as an example, saying that it is probably the manifestation of a nature spirit. In the city of Loveland, there is a deep connection to the Native American people with the land. Many areas they held sacred still have those protective energies around them. I can't claim to understand exactly what the Indians knew about manipulating and contacting spirits and nature energies, but they were very good at it.

In a nutshell, that's pretty much what I discussed with her. She tended to agree with the vast majority of what I was saying (which is always nice, when you have a captive audience like that). Our only disagreement was when she said, "I believe that the Earth is Heaven." I shook my head vehemently saying, "No, no, no," but smiling. I still hold firm to the belief that the Earth is a form of hell that we have to go through in order to learn lessons that we can't fathom as spiritual beings.

So there are a few of my own theories and thoughts on different aspects of the paranormal. Please feel free to discuss and share them with whomever you want. As always, these blogs will also be appearing in the book I'm writing about my paranormal group.

Believability and Authenticity of Evidence

2010-12-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

A recent status post on Facebook from Dave over at Paravizionz got me to thinking about the topic (which I touched on briefly in an earlier blog) about evidence and the quality, believability, and authenticity. In his post, Dave was warning other groups that the website scifake.com and someone (Ron Tebo) was going around investigating groups’ websites and “mocking” their evidence. A quick look at the SciFake website reveals that they are nothing more than a group of what I would call modern day witch hunters. They target most, if not all, of the para-TV show personalities in an effort to discount and nullify the evidence they’ve captured.

I’m not against putting our group’s evidence out there for everyone to see. I feel that I write fairly well worded explanations of each of our cases, outlining the investigation from start to finish. I detail who was there, why we were there, how we went about attempting to figure things out, and what we used to do this. Recently, I’ve also started including relevant info about weather and the phase of the moon. All of this is done anonymously (for private residences), for mostly privacy reasons. The evidence I put out there is scrutinized first by myself (I’m the tech department, so it’s my job to review all the footage), and then I turn what I’ve found over to the group for their input. If it passes their inspection, it is included in the final evidence package which is turned over to the clients. There have been times when something I thought was an EVP was explained away by investigators that were there. I feel this adds a second layer of “fact checks” to our evidence.

However, there are many people out there that totally discount all things paranormal with the reasoning that it cannot be duplicated in a lab setting. Unless someone builds a “lab” over a Native American burial ground (or some such “paranormal hotspot”), there is no pristine setting in which to conduct our research and investigations. Our investigations take place out in the real world, and the real world is an imperfect place. The mere fact that we’re investigating the paranormal dictates that there’s nothing normal about it, and hence not reproducible in a lab.

I will go on record saying that there are groups out there (not just in our area, but all over) that are less than reputable. I have personally seen websites that look like someone in the 3^rd grade put them up—replete with spelling and grammar errors (which irks me to no end, but that’s another blog) as well as obvious fake or misrepresented evidence (oh so many dust orbs!). If your group is doing this in the name of science and furthering paranormal research (as many websites, even ours, claim) put a better foot forward and try to legitimize yourself. You only look foolish with your spelling errors and dust photos.

As I believe I’ve mentioned before (at least, it’s on our website), our group does what we do because we enjoy it. Each member has his/her own talents that they bring to the group, and we utilize a lot of what we do in our work lives. Some are techies, some research property, others have medical backgrounds, and still others are naturally curious and problem solvers. In and of itself, what we collect and post to our site can be considered the best “college try” at replicating the situation and conditions and explaining what we think is happening. Our science is not an exact one by its very nature, but we do what we can.

I feel that all the groups that we associate with are honest and legitimate. They all have different investigative strategies, and some try a lot harder than others to elicit some kind of response from whatever might be there. I don’t consider any of them as hoaxers or manufacturers of evidence. If someone out there wants to try to shoot holes in what we have on our websites, they can feel free to do so. However, they should approach it with the same mindset that we do: open-minded skepticism. I read a quote somewhere that went, “keep you mind open, but not so much that your brain falls out.” I feel that’s a good motto to live by, especially when doing paranormal research. Don’t go into a situation totally disbelieving everything, and by the same token, don’t approach it with total belief and acceptance. Good evidence should stand on its own merit.

Giving in to the Knee Jerk Reaction

2010-12-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

I’ve found that most people are too quick to assume the worst about a situation. It’s almost as if they want the absolute worst possible scenario to be the reality. For instance, if they’re hearing noises in the attic, they think, “OMG! We’ve got a demon in the attic!” I can give a list of examples as long as a gorilla’s arm, but my main point is that as a whole, we tend to make a mountain out of a molehill.

This may be hard wired into us from when the first humans were coming down out of the trees and walking around in the grasslands. The probability that any little sound or movement was actually danger was a pretty safe assumption. However, now that our society lives under relative safety from vicious predators, we still have that inherent panic button response.

With all the paranormal shows out there (this is a “dead horse” you’ll find me whipping again and again in my writings) as well as movies of the past five or six decades, we are over-exposed to the idea that, among other things, ghosts and spirits want nothing more than to scare us, harm us, possess us, or attempt to kill us by any means necessary. Again, we still have that fear hard wired into us that the unseen forces are out to get us.

From what I’ve seen, this just isn’t the case as far as ghosts and spirits are concerned. Granted, I’ve only been investigating the paranormal for three years. I do, however, consider myself pretty knowledgeable (not an expert by any means) on the topic, as I’ve read a good many books about ghost theory and the paranormal. In those three years, I’ve never come across anything malicious or anything that had any ill-will towards anyone.

Spirit energies interacting with the living are extremely rare, and the vast majority of these are merely humans without physical bodies that are still here with us on Earth. There may be other entities out there that aren’t and never were human (nature spirits and negative entities), but those energies aren’t going to bother mere mortals unless they’re called upon in some way. [And that’s a topic for another blog someday.]

One of the members of the paranormal group I’m in (DOGS) has said on more than one occasion, “When I was younger, I always wanted a poltergeist, until I found out what it was.” This serves to prove another point I want to make. When we don’t have the knowledge about something—when it’s simply unknown to us—we make assumptions that are most likely wrong. Again, I could enumerate a lengthy list of examples of how people just assume something is one thing when it’s actually something totally different, but I’ll hold off on that for brevity’s sake.

With a little thought, some research, and just stepping back from a situation, a lot of unnecessary worry and expense of time and effort can be avoided. Don’t immediately jump to the conclusion that just because you walk into a cold spot, the spirit of your uncle Charley is there with you. Just because a door slammed shut by itself doesn’t mean that there’s a ghost trying to get your attention. Don’t think that every little flicker of the lights in the house is a demon trying to worm its way into your soul. Use your brain and rationalize that maybe there’s an explanation for what’s going on. It will save a lot of worry on your part.

The Closer You Get (to the Paranormal)…

2010-12-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

I wrote a blog about this same subject on the DOGS MySpace page dated April 16^th, 2009. I was fresh off my investigation with East Side Paranormal at U.S. Grant’s Boyhood home in Georgetown, OH. I hadn’t even been investigating for more than a year and a half. The wide-eyed wonder and newness of this still hadn’t started wearing off. In the blog, I mention having read that those of us going out and actively seeking the paranormal become almost like a beacon to it. Somehow the spirits know we’re out there looking for them, seeking the answers, and they tend to hang around us—or at least the energy of the encounter does. I said this because on the digital audio recorder I had next to my DVR camera, something spoke my name. At that time, I was floored, and a little scared. I remembered thinking, “Oh my God, now they know my name!”

Admittedly, I’m an avid watcher of a lot of paranormal TV shows. Of course, there’s the obvious ones (“Ghost Hunters”, “Paranormal State”, “Ghost Lab”, “Ghost Adventures”) and the not so obvious (“Ghost Whisperer”)—I guess I basically gravitate to anything with either “ghost” or “paranormal” in the show title. When they come out with a show called “Ghostly Paranormal”, I’m sure I’ll watch it too. But what I’m noticing a lot of lately is that my interest is turning away from the technical side of these shows (the equipment, the evidence), and I’m drawn in more to the story--specifically that of the spirits, the story that tells about why they’re haunting a place and what happened to them.

I’m not going to cop to being a sad sack and crying at the end of every episode of “Ghost Whisperer”, at least not in a public forum like this. What I will say is that as I close out our third year of investigating, I’m finding myself becoming more empathic about what’s out there. It’s almost like I can feel what they feel: the despair, the sadness, the wishing that they had more time. Let’s face it, most of the time, if there is suspicion of an entity haunting somewhere, the circumstances surrounding it are quite tragic. Whether it’s suicide, murder, traumatic death, or whatever, the emotional energy is there in the environment to be picked up on. Maybe this is my psychic side finally deciding to show up and rear its head? More than likely, I could probably do well to get myself on a daily anti-depressant! Regardless of that, I’m discovering that I’m more sensitive to these spirits’ plight.

Now, how does that affect me as an investigator? Having a look at our case files in chronological order might offer some insight. If you notice, in the past year or so, they’ve become more detailed. This is especially true of our last case in Kettering. I don’t know if that’s because our group has gotten much better at investigating these cases (especially during the “pre-investigation” interview) or if I’m just getting wordier in my descriptions of the cases. Either way, it’s beneficial, both to our group (and the archival process) as well as the clients. I think that our presentation at the Kettering-Moraine library back in October helped our core group members feel like we do know what we’re talking about. All the book reading and watching of the para-TV is finally starting to pay off. Our knowledge of the theories surrounding the paranormal is getting much stronger (as evidenced by the Q&A session following our presentation).

I can feel myself being drawn further into the whole “what happens to us after we die” discussion. I have my own opinions that I’ve shared with others (which are going to be included in the book I’m writing). I have found there are a lot of other teams having similar theories and thoughts.

To close this blog out, I’d like to finish up with what I started talking about earlier. On the investigation I did with East Side Paranormal when I thought I heard my name being called. It took a while for me to get to it, but I finally synced the audio up with the video footage. What I found was that one of the investigators from ESP was leaning over the camera and whispering my name. It took me about a month, which during that time, I was nervously wondering if the “ghosts were gonna get me.” It wound up being someone trying to prank me. And it worked…until the evidence proved otherwise.

How I Got Interested in Ghost Hunting

2010-12-02T06:20:00.000-08:00

With this, being my first official blog on here, I’ll try to be brief and concise. My long winded tirades about the paranormal will come later (watch for my book--of which this is a very condensed version of what's included in the prologue). To begin, I’d like to tell everyone a little about myself and about how I got interested in ghost hunting.

Like a lot of ghost hunters in the past five years, I got my idea to form an actual group from the shows on television. Before that, I had no idea how to go about looking for spirits or what equipment to use. However, unlike many, I didn’t have a life changing personal experience as a kid that motivated me to find out what it was that I saw. Granted, I’ve always been an oddball. In the second grade, I wrote (and illustrated) a story about aliens invading the earth, and the Army’s attempt to stop it. From there it went on to mystery stories about haunted houses in the fourth grade and an interest in cartooning in middle school.

[As a side note, I had a library book I’d borrowed called “Cartooning the Head and Figure” by Jack Hamm. After thumbing through it and renewing it for a couple months, it finally got misplaced, and I had to pay for it. Eventually, I received the book as a birthday present and used it for a while until that copy mysteriously disappeared. I don’t know if that was paranormal or just childish absentmindedness, but I took that as a sign to stop cartooning and pursue another path in life.]

Granted, my dad swore that the house we lived in when I was kid (and am renting from my mom now) had some kind of ghost in it. He was always misplacing things and getting the feeling like someone was watching him while he was downstairs at his work bench. Now, that work bench is where I have my computer workshop, and I too feel like someone's over there. However, I know why. The EMF in that particular area of the house is a bit higher than normal. The electric is grounded to copper pipes that run overhead.

In the 7^th & 8^th grade and partway into my freshman year, I was heavily involved in Dungeons & Dragons. Some would say I got obsessed and went a bit overboard, but at least I wasn’t one of those that went on a “quest” into the real world. After being in high school for about 6 months, I was introduced to heavy metal music and then Stephen King. D&D started taking a back seat to reading everything I could get my hands on by Mr. King. It was at that point that my journey into the world of the weird began.

So I’ve always been interested in strange and horrific stuff. Since graduating high school and going to college to get a creative writing degree, I’ve gotten myself interested in technology and computers, audio recording and editing using Sonic Foundry Sound Forge, and doing web design stuff. Between all of that, and my love of writing (which has never really left me), going out, looking for ghosts, utilizing high tech, writing about it, and putting up a website is a natural progression.