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Nevada students
investigate paranormal activities - 20081103
By LENITA POWERS Reno Gazette-Journal
RENO, Nev.—An unexplained cold spot in the house, voices
or footsteps coming out of nowhere and a sudden mist are believed
by some to be signs of a ghostly presence.
So who ya gonna call when things go bump in the night?
Three Reno college students who recently formed
Nevada Student Paranormal Investigation said they will check
area homes and businesses for any wraiths in the rafters or
poltergeists in the pantry free of charge.
Sean O'Callaghan, grandson of the late Nevada
Gov. Mike O'Callaghan, started NSPI earlier this year with
his friends Mike McLoughlin and Jacob Tipp.
The three 21-year-olds, who grew up together
in Las Vegas, are more phantom finders than ghostbusters.
They can't rid dwellings of any ghastly apparitions, but they'll
use their electronic gizmos to confirm their presence.
Armed with a digital camera and infrared video
equipment, a digital recorder, an electromagnetic field detector
and a thermal scanner, the trio plumbs dark places for such
spectral signs as unexplained orbs of light and electronic
voice phenomena, known in the ghost trade as EVPs.
EVPs are voices that can't be picked up by
the human ear but show up after an audio recording is analyzed,
said O'Callaghan, a political science and economics major
at the University of Nevada, Reno.
"If we see an orb or something in a photograph
or a video, we'll look at it to determine if it could just
be dust," he said. "With EVPs, the theory is that
ghosts are able to manipulate certain wavelengths of radio
waves that we cannot hear."
The NSPI crew spends hours playing what they
have recorded through a sound analysis program to filter out
ambient noises and amplify any area where they hear something
unusual, O'Callaghan said.
During a recent trip to Buckland's Station,
an old stagecoach way station south of Silver Springs, the
three men recorded the voice of a woman saying what sounded
like, 'Why are you here?'
"When you hear a woman's voice—and
there was no woman with us—that's when you know you've
got something," said McLoughlin, a UNR student majoring
in criminal justice.
O'Callaghan and his friends have detected
signs of specters at Fort Churchill and in Robb Canyon west
of Reno.
They also debunked a rumor that orange lights
in the Virginia City Cemetery were signs of a paranormal presence
after they determined they were reflections of the city's
lights off a polished gravestone.
They soon plan to check out the Goldfield
Hotel, a site know for its ghostly guests.
And they welcome any new members who want
to join the NSPI, which is an official member of Ghost Adventures,
the reality show dealing with the unreal that is broadcast
on the Travel Channel.
O'Callaghan said he believes ghostly spirits
exist, but McLoughlin and Tipp are somewhat more skeptical.
"I can't say I see ghosts, but when you
do hear an EVP, I know it's definitely something that wasn't
around us," said Tipp, a biology major at Truckee Meadows
Community College. "So I'm not convinced, but I'm getting
there."
McLoughlin said he has seen some eerie-looking
things caught on camera and video.
"But I'm not going to call them ghosts,"
he said. "When I see a full apparition, that's when I'll
be convinced."
Still, the thrill of the hunt keeps Tipp and
McLoughlin interested.
With the approach of All Hallow's Eve, one
might expect the NSPI crew to be out in force on Halloween,
but the three men say that's one of the worst nights to look
for phantoms.
"Halloween is a bad night for ghost hunting,"
O'Callaghan said. "There are too many people out and
too much noise."
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