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MPI members
try to disprove myths - 20081102
http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9211772&nav=menu192_2
WICHITA FALLS, Texas -- Night
is falling over farms along the Red River like a wet, cold
blanket. Fall arrived on a single day and now, every October
sunset feels like Halloween.
While other families gather closer to their
hearths, the MPI family is getting ready to visit a graveyard.
Organized less than a year ago, MPI _ Military
Paranormal Investigations _ is one of a growing community
of men and women nationwide who are interested in looking
at the supernatural through scientific eyes. No mediums or
psychics are involved; MPI members said they have come to
each of their nearly 20 investigations so far as skeptics
ready to disprove a myth.
"We're open to spiritual aspect but we're
strictly scientific in our approach," said Joe Eversole,
MPI lead investigator and an Air Force tech sergeant. "We
don't believe anything until it can be measured or recorded."
Eversole, his wife Celeste, Rob Wirth and
wife Misty, Jeff Jones, his wife Melissa and son Kyle, Jamie
Sampson and Jeramiah Lewis said they will investigate any
case. Because of the Air Force connection however, (Rob Wirth
is a tech sergeant, Jeff Jones is a master sergeant while
Lewis and Sampson are staff sergeants) military sites are
of particular interest.
All agree their most exciting investigation
to date was of the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
in Little Rock, Ark., built as a confederate arsenal in the
1840s. Ultimately converted to a U.S. Army installation, Gen.
Douglas MacArthur was born there in 1880.
"It was just amazing. We captured a lot
of great stuff and it was an intense experience," said
Wirth.
Closer to home, the group has gathered data
at Fort Richardson in Jacksboro and is keen to do a thorough
investigation of 10th Cavalry Creek, where it's said Buffalo
Soldiers killed in an Indian raid were buried in a mass grave
with their horses.
"We're curious whether this site has
a paranormal connection to the Screaming Sheila Bridge,' "
said Eversole, referring to another "haunted" site
nearby, where a woman was supposedly hanged long ago. "But
the evidence is what tells the story."
It's easy to see why guys who spend their
days working in instructional technologies for the Air Force
would be drawn to paranormal investigation: The gear is way
cool.
Eversole and Wirth are glad to show off their
collection of LED surveillance cameras, digital voice recorders
(sensitive enough to pick up EVPs Electronic Voice Phenomenon
_ words the human ear cannot hear) and electromagnetic field
meters (spirits are said to disturb normal magnetic fields.)
The data is analyzed by an array of special computer programs.
Practical experience, however, has led them
to use domestic tools like laser levels (even a shadow can
break the light beam), compasses and, in case a surveillance
proves uneventful, a deck of cards.
Everyone in MPI brings different skills to
the table; while some focus on detection technology others
focus on case management, historic research of sites and scheduling
investigations. In the field everyone takes part in data gathering.
All say they share a common curiosity born
of an experience or experiences that could not be explained.
Once shows like the Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghosthunters"
and Bravo's "Paranormal State" hit television, it
became evident others were looking for answers too.
"I've wondered about this kind of thing
since I was a kid," said Eversole. "Now I can prove
or disprove it for myself."
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