Boston, MA – August 29, 2008 – Do you believe in ghosts? Although sometimes a silly question, Do You Believe in Ghosts? has been a fundamental aspect of all human culture since long before recorded history. Belief or disbelief in ghosts crosses all past and present civilizations, cultures, countries, religions, ethnicities and belief systems. Accounts of individuals crossing from the physical to the nonphysical and then communicating with the living are found in everything from ancient cave drawings to the Bible, from folklore to scientific journals to local newspapers.

While a generous slice of humanity readily or reluctantly believes in ghosts, a larger slice refuses to believe in the paranormal despite stories of hauntings in cities and towns across the world. And while a good percentage of ghost sightings are faked, false alarms or practical jokes, another good percentage is believed to be the real thing.

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It’s almost Halloween and that means plenty of skeletons, axe murderers and mummies at various “haunted” attractions throughout the 570. It also leads to talk of “true” hauntings, which usually brings out a strict distinction among those in the conversation - the believers and the non-believers.

The idea of ghosts existing was glorified years ago by the over-the-top, more-than-slightly-ridiculous mega-hit movie Ghostbusters and more recently by the Sci-Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters.

But here in the 570, a handful of groups exist with the goal of proving the paranormal exists. One of the most active and longest-running groups is the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, better known simply as SPRI.

It would be easy to term SPRI as a group of ghost chasers, people who run around investigating paranormal incidents and documenting them, but SPRI’s goal runs much deeper than that.

“Part of what we do is we go out there and try to help (people) understand what’s going on,” said Tom Fritz, who along with his wife, Robin Luchko, founded SPRI. “A lot of times when people understand what’s going on, that makes them a lot more comfortable with it.”

Rather than try to determine who or what the spirit is that’s causing the disturbance or phenomenon, SPRI tries to find a logical explanation for all events the group investigates. In other words, they do everything they possibly can to determine that a house or building is not haunted.

“The holy grail would be the full-figured ghost standing there with a sign that says, ‘I’m a ghost,’” said Daelynn Farrell, a member and public relations director for SPRI. “That’s the holy grail. Movement we try to explain away as much as we humanly can. With (Fritz’s) background and the backgrounds of the other people (in SPRI), there’s almost always something that we can say, ‘Hey, this is what it could be.’”

Farrell is one of the groups “sensitives,” which, simply put, means she can communicate with or sense paranormal spirits. She assists in investigations by entering the premise with no prior knowledge of any potential paranormal events, then tells the other investigators what she senses, which helps them determine where to set up cameras, sound recorders and other devices used to detect potential activity.

Fritz is jokingly known as the “anti-ghost magnetic” because he has never experienced what he truly believes to be a ghost during an investigation. He has, however, seen things that he hasn’t been able to explain, one being the group’s first big investigation, which took place at Andy Gavin’s Pub & Eatery on North Washington Avenue in Scranton.

Gavin’s, as many of the pub’s regulars know, is believed to be haunted by a ghost named George. Pots have moved unexpectedly in the kitchen, bar stools have slid on the floor for no reason, and on rare occasions, those inside the bar have felt a presence or even an actual touch from George.

During SPRI’s investigation about three years ago, a camera was set up in the kitchen. Investigators asked George to give them a sign and immediately the sprayer hanging above a big sink began to sway slowly. Video of the sprayer moving is posted on SPRI’s Web site, www.spriparanormal.com.

Coincidence or an actual paranormal occurrence? Nobody’s really sure.

“We went by running faucets and flushing toilets to see if we could get a pressure change in the plumbing system that would cause (the sprayer to move),” Fritz said. “We couldn’t get anything that actually changed that, but since it is a city water system, somebody doing something could do that. (Andy Gavin’s is) across from the prison. If 25 of the prisoners flushed the toilet at the same time, that might make that pot washer move.”

So no hard proof, but another occurrence that has added to the legend of George.

There have been other, more significant events during investigations, but still nothing that can be 100 percent classified as a ghost. On one investigation in a home, a camera set up in the basement with no humans around provided footage of a beam of light that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, another phenomenon the investigators could not recreate.

“The interesting thing about it is, there are no windows on that side of the room and there are no openings in the building behind the camera, there were no investigators in the basement,” Fritz said. “It seems a little bit like a flashlight, but in a couple of the frames, you can almost see an end to it and it did not hit the floor and refract. It almost looks like it has a point on the end of it. We tried to replicate that with flashlights and we could not get that to happen. We can’t figure out what that light was.

“That’s pretty much as sensational as it gets.”

Fritz said the group hopes to post the video on its Web site soon.

The group does not do ghost removal, a la Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters - “We do not use proton packs,” Farrell jokes - and it only investigates in buildings it’s invited into. With investigators from as far away as Honesdale and Hellertown, the group’s reach is far. SPRI usually conducts about two investigations a month, but during this time of year, the group appears at numerous Halloween attractions and other events to help educate the public about the possibility of paranormal activity.

“It’s about educating people, not just about SPRI, but about the things they may be experiencing and how they themselves may be able to discount things based on knowledge, common knowledge,” Farrell said.

“Education erases fear,” Fritz added.

For more information, including video and other info on past investigations, and how to become a member of the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, visit www.spriparanormal.com.

Source: http://www.ecweekend.com/features/story.asp?id=47602

Published: October 22, 2008

Jammie Spradlin, founder of Virginia Appalachian Mountain Paranormal Investigations, isn’t in the ghost busting business. He says he’s looking to give reality to eerie situations.

Spradlin and his team have done almost 60 investigations throughout the area, distinguishing between the paranormal and the normal.

“The goal would be to help people, be it let them know it’s something paranormal going on in their house or their business, or if it’s not,” Spradlin says.

VAMP is usually called out to a building because the owners are unsure about what is going on, whether they hear footsteps, voices or see something out of the corner of their eye.

Spradlin said, “They’re not jumping out saying. ‘We definitely have a ghost.’”

Many times, he says a simple change can fix the situation.

“We end up finding the reasons why the things are happening that aren’t paranormal. You change this or you unplug that and switch it over here. It makes it go away for (the owners) and usually they’re grateful for it.”

After someone contacts VAMP Investigations with a problem, the team spends one night investigating at the house or business, armed with cameras, voice recorders and night vision video cameras, all free of charge. Spradlin says the team also uses EMF detectors.

“EMF is electro magnetic field,” he says. “It picks up any kind of change in the electro magnetic energy in the air coming from appliances or anything electrical. Supposedly spirit activity changes (the level of electro magnetic energy).”

After the initial investigation, Spradlin says he then spends a week or more researching and backing up VAMP’s claims. Yet, there are just some things that cannot be explained. VAMP recently investigated a property on Campbell Avenue in Roanoke. After explaining aloud that if the presence would get closer to the EMF detector so it could acknowledge the presence’s existence.

“I’d ask for (the paranormal activity) to get as close to the EMF detector as possible to make the number keep going up, and it started doing that.”

Spradlin said the EMF detector’s gauge shouldn’t have been increasing.

“(The EMF detector’s) not being moved, it’s not handled, so it shouldn’t even be bouncing from movement, and yet it would fluctuate with questions.”

The VAMP team later checked the floorboards and the surrounding area for electro magnetic energy, and found nothing.

“It’s something that I can’t explain,” Spradlin says.

And that is tough to tell the owners of the building.

“I had to explain to the clients when they got there, ‘I’m not telling you, you have paranormal activity. I’m not telling you there’s a ghost in your house,” Spradlin said. “I’m just saying that this is anomaly that we found that is very strange.”

In that Campbell Avenue situation, Spradlin says there was nothing concrete to back up suspicions, besides the fluctuating EMF levels.

“I definitely want to take the scientific approach and not just jump out and say I heard something over here, so it’s definitely a ghost; I don’t want to be that type of person.”

Spradlin and his brother-in-law did have a skin-crawling experience at a tunnel in Lexington. Usually Spradlin says the investigators ask questions aloud, and listen to the recordings later to hear the answers.

“Most of it seemed to be from a female or a young female,” Spradlin said. “We’d ask a question and get an immediate answer right back. And this place is in the middle of nowhere, so it’s not like somebody’s hiding out in the woods waiting.”

Spradlin says there is usually an increase in paranormal activity this time of year, but not because of Halloween.

“A main theory that most investigators have is the build up of electro magnetic energy helps make things more prevalent,” he says. “And the greater time of year for electro magnetic energy to be up is between September and March.”

Spradlin says with the weather cooling off, with floorboards adjusting for temperature and humidity, people begin hearing footsteps. Though in a lot of situations, he says people’s perception of the paranormal has been formed by scary movies. In reality, Spradlin says it’s more like hearing voices with no body to go along with it.

“A lot of people think, from movies, TV shows - and you have that little creepy music playing in the background, it kind of makes you get ready for the jump scene,” Spradlin said. “It’s not really like that.”

Source: http://www.wsls.com/sls/entertainment/news/article/finding_the_normal_in_the_paranormal/19858/