|
Aquarium -
Could Titanic have ghosts - 20081103
Do spirits swim with Atlanta’s fishes?
Are specters now among the many species that
inhabit one of the world’s largest collections of sea
life?
Is the Georgia Aquarium haunted?
Aquarium workers and officials seem to think
there’s a possibility, with hundreds of century-old artifacts
of the “Titanic Aquatic” exhibit occupying the Georgia
landmark’s northwest corner.
“I think it’s the lost souls from
the Titanic,” said aquarium volunteer Margarit Mourino,
who reported having a ghostly encounter around the exhibit
containing artifacts from the ill-fated 1912 voyage. “I
could feel like this hand moving over my head and through
my hair.”
“We’ve had a number of volunteers
report strange encounters when they were working the Titanic
exhibit,” aquarium spokeswoman Meghann Gibbons said.
The aquarium brought in Roswell Georgia Paranormal
Investigations this weekend to try to shed some light on what
could be causing the incidents. Guiding the official decision,
Gibbons said, was “of course” the proximity to Halloween.
There also have been stories about ghostly encounters that
have followed the exhibit.
The investigators were rewarded with purported
recordings of ethereal voices and sightings of shadowy figures
roaming darkened corridors. They concluded that not only was
the Titanic exhibit a spirit dwelling, so was at least one
other part of the building.
Not that the spirits are always cooperative.
The Titanic exhibit’s last stop before
Atlanta was Miami. Were there ghost sightings there? Miami
Museum of Science spokesman Tony Lima responded in an e-mail;
one could hear his sigh: “I wish.” But he rebuffed
any ghost stories during the exhibit’s South Florida
stay.
Dianna Avena, who founded Georgia Paranormal
and is its head investigator, was quick to acknowledge before
the start of the ghost hunt Friday night that among her team’s
goals is to debunk unfounded suspicions of hauntings. Only
about 10 percent “of the places we are called to actually
have paranormal activity,” she said.
Avena said her team uses scientific methods
—- along with a bit of their own mysticism, like psychic
or spirit-sensitive team members —- to detect ghosts.
Special meters measure electromagnetic changes
caused by supposed paranormal activity. Thermometers detect
a temperature drop when specters are near.
Late Friday night, Avena pressed through a
list of questions for ethereal souls who may have been listening.
“How did you die?” she asked, seemingly
of the air. “Why are you still here? Do you want us to
go?”
One recording device purportedly picked up
a high-frequency response inaudible to human ears, but audible
when passed through the team’s equipment.
The equipment recorded team member Claudia
Lee asking where to place an electromagnetic meter: “Where
do you want me to put it?”
“Down,” came a whispered voice very
close by. It wasn’t Lee’s.
Ghost “hot spots” were determined
after two separate teams spent time in each of the rooms of
the exhibit testing for activity.
When they conferred with one another, they
had the same results, Avena said: An elderly woman haunted
the First Class cabin replica of the ship. A young worker
was spotted in one of the last rooms containing preserved
dishes and clothing from the Titanic’s wreckage.
“It just makes sense that, especially
with the Titanic exhibit, there would be residual [paranormal]
energy,” Avena said. “When you have a strong emotional
imprint, there could be some energy attached.”
As for non-Titanic apparitions, team member
Bob Sturgess, a “sensitive,” said a Native American
man was in a corridor behind the Cold Water Quest area, where
new construction has begun.
“The old woman stayed away from us, but
didn’t leave,” Sturgess said in his report. “The
crew member was very interactive and actually touched my right
shoulder after being asked to. The Native American did not
want his picture taken and ran circles around us.”
Visiting Atlanta’s exhibit Saturday afternoon,
Titanic enthusiasts Aaron Henley and Terri Cobb, both from
Atlanta, admitted the prospect of ghosts from the shipwreck
roaming the aquarium enhanced their appreciation.
“There’s a reverence,” Cobb
said, “especially after reading those stories of people
having odd occurrences that brought them to be on the ship
beyond their plans.”
Henley found irony in the chance the exhibit
could be haunted.
“Souls could still be at unrest,”
he said. “The fact that they bought tickets to see loved
ones, and those plans were never brought to fruition —-
that’s what haunting stories are made of.”
|
