Ramblings On...My Recent Ghost Hunt!

I went on one back in about October, but hadn’t heard much from the group since, but Thursday around 5:30 the call came in and I eagerly tweeted:

WE GOT ONE!!!

In true Annie Potts style!  I don’t know how many of you know this about me, but I actually have met Steve Gonsalves.  It was before he was on that Ghost Hunters show.  He used to be in a band with my best friend’s husband.  I remember thinking when I heard about the concept for the show--well, what are you guys going to do if you run into an “I’m dead as Hell and I’m not taking it anymore” poltergeist? Why yes, I did quoteXander Harris...

But the show has become a success, and although I don’t watch it much, I am a big fan of a non-reality, that is to say “scripted” little show on the CW called Supernatural where the boys actually do fight ghosts and demons and whatever other evil comes their way.  They even have this cute ghost hunter group on the tv show, set to resemble the “Ghost Hunters” of Syfy fame--that is to say the “Ghost Facers”.  So of course when my friends found out about me joining an actual paranormal investigaton group in my town, their first response was:  You mean like the Ghost Facers?

Well, yeah.  Kinda.

How did I get involved?  Well, I was scoping out the programs offered at the library...Sometimes we have Zumba classes, sometimes creative writing classes...so it is always worth a look--keep that in mind for your own libraries!  But one program really caught my eye.  Ghostology 101.  Huh.  Sounded right up my alley.  So I decided to check it out.  The person who runs the local paranormal group:  www.agawamparanormal.com was giving a little tutorial on what they look for, what equipment is used, what it does, etc.  I was intrigued, so I talked to them about after, and well, here I am.  An investigator in the group...that still needs to complete her bio on the website.  But moving along!

The call asking me if I wanted to join in on the investigation came in on Thursday night, and I was very interested to get another investigation under my belt.  The plan was to investigate a house in Springfield on Saturday night.  There would be three groups of three investigators--this would allow for a client in each group should any stay.  For potential contamination purposes it may be better not to have the family members present--or at least not present for the whole investigation, but sometimes, especially if the spirit has a close personal connection with the inhabitants of the house, it might be helpful to have them involved.  Three groups because there were four floors  One team would be at our “home base” which was going to be in the garage, while two teams were in the house, with a floor in between so as to prevent contamination--hearing the other group.

We all met up and went over the game plan.  First things first--find out what was gleaned from the personal interview our leader had with the clients.  We have a detailed questionnaire to help find out certain things that may come into play, and help gauge the possibility of supernatural activity versus some other reason.  The leader gets the lay of the land, to see if there is anything listed as having occurred that can be debunked as faulty piping, or loose floorboards, etc...some things seem very obvious, others not so much!  We go over the findings during the meet up before going to the site.  

We also go over any history of the premises at this time.  Did any one die inside the house?  Maybe a suicide, or a bad fall down the stairs?   Maybe an overdose?  Was the house built on ground that was once something else?  Since the job was only found on Thursday, our investigative team (which I may soon be a part of) didn’t have the time to research the house yet.

We got to the house and set up our equipment in the garage, using a television screen for a visual on an area of the house we decided to put a camcorder on--it was an area thought to have the most powerful psychic connection.  We then passed out EVP (Electronic Voice Projection) and EMF (Electromagnetic Frequencies) detectors, walkie talkies (to stay in contact with the other teams), heat monitors, and of course pen and paper to record everything and went to work!

The first floor my group did was the second floor, and honestly, I felt nothing. No weirdness, no cool spots and nothing was coming up on any of the devices either.  It looked like the house would paranormally speaking probably be a dud.  Which quite honestly is what I had expected based on the information we got from the initial interview and walk through.

After a few minute break, we headed up to the attic.  The attic had some strange closets and passages as under the stairs was all hallowed out for closet space.  We got to one room, and the EMF detector did go nuts, but it was by an outlet, and that does happen!  We decided to do an EVP session--that is essentially sitting down and asking questions while recording.  Oddly enough, the recorder can pick up sounds our ears cannot, so there may be something trying to communicate that lacks the power to make itself heard or seen by us.  And then we got bizarre interference on the walkie talkie! We asked via walkie talkie if another team was trying to contact us, and no one was!  No one else even heard what we did!  Luckily we got it on tape.  What can I say?  I’m a skeptic.  I’m the Scully character in these kind of things!  I need proof, and beyond proof, I need essentially to be hit in the back of a head with a frying pan by something that actually is undead...  I say that because when asked if we found anything on the hunt my reply was:  “I did witness something to which I have not yet been able to explain.”

My group had two more floors to go, but nothing else as exciting. Well, except that I think the temperature that night got into the single digits for the first time since the last time I went ghost hunting and base camp was set up in a garage!

All in all an awesome time. We will probably be going again to the address after the psychic walkthrough, so hopefully later I will be able to update y’all!