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News
Article from: Citrus
County Chronicle
Ghost hunters
have grave expectations
Justin Hall, center, from the Daytona Beach Paranormal Research
Group, uses an electro magnetic field meter recently during an
investigation at a Crystal River cemetery. Participants of the
Second Annual Paranormal Ghost Hunting Conference were looking
for paranormal activity in the graveyard. /BRIAN LaPETER/Chronicle |
By Chris Van Ormer
Only a weirdo
would want to hang around a cemetery at night, right?
On a recent
Saturday night, a group of people investigated a Crystal River
graveyard, carrying scientific equipment and taking readings from
meters. But this was more than a mere case of “ghouls just want to
have fun.” The graveyard shift was made up of teams of ghost hunters
from across Florida in town for the day to attend the Second Annual
Paranormal Ghost Hunting Conference in Crystal River.
Last year, the
inaugural conference in Cedar Key drew an attendance of 20. This year,
the conference roster contained 105 names of people who hunt ghosts or
are interested in the subject. Curiosity about paranormal activity
appears to be a growing trend.
Hosting the
conference was a team called Research Investigators of the Paranormal,
based in Crystal River. Its founder, Larry Braziel, opened the
conference by explaining his interest, which started fairly recently.
Braziel experienced some unexplained phenomena while at work.
Conference
attendees were asked to introduce themselves. Several teams identified
their group status by wearing personally designed T-shirts. These
included Tampa Ghost Watchers, SPIRITS (Servicing Paranormal
Investigators Reporting Information Through Study) of St. Petersburg,
The Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group Inc. and SPIRITeam
(Scientific Paranormal Investigation, Research and Identification Team)
from Punta Gorda.
Many county
residents attended because of an interest in paranormal activity.
 The first speaker,
Doug Kelley, leader of SPIRITeam, explained how he started the group.
“SPIRITeam was
created for a novel I’m writing. Then I decided I really wanted to do
it,” he said.
Kelley’s topic
was case investigations, so he showed a film about his most recent one
—the Polk County Historical Museum, an old courthouse in Bartow, on
Aug. 12. Kelley’s team of seven spent a day investigating and taking
readings, and the courthouse has an interesting history. But not much
happened.
“We might had
had one EVP of a breath,” Kelley said. EVP stands for electronic voice
phenomena, when spirit speech is recorded. “It was very disappointing,
but it was fun.” The change of scenery when looking around an old
building is part of the enjoyment, Kelley explained.
The team’s
investigations often have them asking: “What is it?” Kelley
described working for one client... “He gave us a picture of a
camera that he said took a picture of itself. It was an out-of-camera
experience.”
Kelley displayed
the photo, which looked like a fuzzy image of a camera. But by pointing
out features, it became clearer that the image was an extreme close-up
of a cat, with its round ear forming the camera’s lens.
Kelley
demonstrated how a camera strap or string could appear in an image to be
a vortex or “spirit ribbon.” Likewise, orbs or “spirit lights”
could be dust or moisture on the lens. He explained how the brain tries
to make sense of what is seen and may jump to the wrong conclusion.
In an EVP
investigation, Kelley related how a woman thought her young son was
being threatened by a malevolent spirit because of a deep voice saying
the child’s name on a tape recorder he had been playing with. Kelley
explained that the tape had been slowed at one point, making the boy’s
voice sound deeper. With other examples of EVPs, Kelley played bits of
speech that were intelligible, but could not be explained.
When
investigating, Kelley said ghost hunters couldn’t have preconceived
ideas. He asked the teams present about their techniques, and said all
groups are after the same thing: trying to find knowledge.
“My approach is
open-minded, but not stupid,” he said. “I try the scientific
approach first. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll try any other
approach, like a séance.”
Dusty Smith, the
second speaker, founded The Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group Inc.
in 1997, and established it as a nonprofit organization in 1998. Since
that time, Smith said she has taken part in 6,000 investigations. She
also has set up ghost tours of Daytona Beach and is president of the
International Association of Cemetery Preservationists Inc. In that
latter role, Smith handed out cards outlining cemetery etiquette for all
visitors to graveyards.
Smith tackled the
controversial subject of orbs. While some ghost hunters regard the spots
of light in photographs as evidence of a spirit’s presence, others
point out that they can appear in photos as flaws from dust, pollen and
moisture, and digital cameras are particularly prone to showing orbs.
Smith explained
her criteria: “An orb must show movement, emit light, cast a shadow
and be three dimensional.”
As to why orbs
appear and are considered paranormal phenomena, Smith reasoned:
“Energy doesn’t die; it just changes form. One of the easiest forms
is a sphere.”
A second form a
spirit might easily take is a mist, she said. The third, and most
difficult, she said, was the full-body apparition, when the spirit takes
the shape it had while alive.
In photographs of
orbs, mists and apparitions, the person viewing them must be careful
about interpretation, Smith said.
“Brains do
something called matrixing,” Smith explained. “Brains look for
common objects in uncommon settings. You have to train your brain to
stop matrixing.”
Based on her years
of experience, Smith demonstrated photographs of orbs and explained why
some were “false positive” and some were, in fact, paranormal. With
photography in the Florida climate, she said, orbs can take shape simply
because of humidity.
History goes along
with mystery in Smith’s investigations. She has educated herself about
her city, Daytona Beach, and many other cities throughout Florida. In
Riverfront Park in Daytona Beach, Smith saw the grave of Brownie, the
town dog that died about 50 years ago. Brownie may be forgotten, but
Smith decided to try to find out if his spirit still roamed the area.
She took a photograph in the park. The picture contained an orb, which,
when enlarged, resembled a photograph of Brownie the dog.
In the Huguenot
Cemetery in St. Augustine, Smith’s photography captured a full-body
apparition of Judge John B. Stickney, who died of typhoid fever in 1882.
Other full-body apparitions Smith has photographed include a Franciscan
monk and a hanging man. These and other pieces of evidence are posted on
the group’s Web site.
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