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Paranormal
experts share ghost tales - 20081103
By Lerone Graham
Local experts in the paranormal admittedly
have a fascination with paranormal activity but say their
approaches are more focused on scientific evidence than ghost
fanaticism.
"We actually go into an investigation
not to catch a ghost -- but to debunk paranormal activity,"
said Wildie Wilson, a founding member of New River Valley
Paranormal Research Society.
Wilson's group and Southwestern Virginia Paranormal
Investigators are nonprofit organizations that study paranormal
activity in the New River Valley and other areas of Virginia,
as well as some parts of West Virginia.
Most investigations occur when a resident
solicits their help in determining mysterious activity in
their homes or other buildings. Jason Sanders, a founding
member of Southwestern Virginia Paranormal Investigators,
said everyday sounds such as rattling pipes cause alarm to
some people.
"It could be a million things,"
Sanders said.
When undergoing investigations, both groups
use various equipment to detect paranormal phenomena, including
digital cameras and camcorders, digital video recorders, voice
recorders, electromagnetic field meters, infrared thermometers
and thermal imaging cameras.
With Halloween season in full swing, these
groups say interest in the paranormal increases, which may
result in more demand for their investigations.
In honor of the season, the groups shared
some memorable encounters with the paranormal in the New River
Valley, as did a local woman volunteering at a haunted house
in Pearisburg.
Giles County's Pearis Cemetery is named after
Capt. George Pearis, a Revolutionary War soldier buried there.
It was an area of interest for one investigation
by the New River Valley Paranormal Research Society.
The group had received reports of mysterious
shadows darting about, unexplained voices and sounds and eerie
feelings of being followed.
So the group members decided to verify these
reports by conducting an investigation of their own.
Usually the group will start an investigation
about 8 p.m., and it can last until 2 or 3 a.m., depending
on the findings.
After the group had been set up for a while,
Wildie Wilson, a founding member of New River Valley Paranormal
Research Society, sat on a bench to write down investigation
notes because they were "too poor for laptops at that
time."
Since it was pitch-black outside, Wilson had
a flashlight tucked under his chin so he could see what he
was writing.
As he was recording his findings, Wilson noticed
someone standing about 2 feet in front of him.
"I'll be with you in one second,"
Wilson said to what he thought "was one of the new investigators."
After finally recording his notes, Wilson
shined the light where the person was standing, only to see
no one there.
Thinking it strange that the person wasn't
there anymore, Wilson traveled through the cemetery in search
of the investigator.
Though it was dark, he remembered what the
person was wearing when he shined the light. So when he came
across team members he would make note of their outfit to
see whether it matched what the person he saw had been wearing
-- "some type of work Dickies" and light brown leather
shoes.
He went to every group member, but no one
had on anything that even resembled the outfit he saw.
Then it hit him.
"One person that had passed away there
was a party in the Revolutionary War," he said.
The pants and light brown, dingy leather shoes
bore a striking resemblance to the uniforms worn by soldiers
at the time. This occurrence confirmed for him that Pearis
Cemetery is indeed a hotbed for paranormal activity.
"We've been there a couple times, and
it's always odd," he said.
"Most of the evidence we capture is audio,"
said Wildie Wilson, a founding member of New River Valley
Paranormal Research Society.
The standard procedure is to set recorders
up in an empty room, allowing them to run for the duration
of the investigation.
Later, they can go back and analyze the sounds
picked up, known as electronic voice phenomena, to see whether
it warrants categorizing a location as haunted.
When searching a local residence that had
been abandoned since the 1980s, the group noticed paranormal
activity before the investigation even began. Group members
had been conducting their preliminary investigation so they
would know the best locations to set up equipment and where
to focus the most attention.
Walking through the house, they suddenly heard
something move and noticed that a chest of drawers had slid
away from the wall about 3 feet and stopped.
Later that night, they went back to the location
to investigate. They noticed large spikes on their electromagnetic
field meters, which can be an indication of paranormal presence.
When the investigation was over, they replayed
audio from equipment that had been set up in an empty room.
The most distinguishable sound picked up from the recorder was
a deep, raspy voice uttering, "Get out."
In another investigation, the group responded
to Blacksburg residents who thought their house may have a
ghost.
Throughout the night, the group would speak
out loud, hoping to pick up EMF readings from a ghost based
on what they say in a method called "provoking."
"What can we do to help?" they asked
the spirit, hoping to get a reading on their EMF meter that
can be interpreted as a response.
Once the investigation was concluded, they
played back their findings from the audio equipment. What
they found was the voice of what sounds like an elderly man,
whispering, "I am stuck in here."
When the group played back the sound bite to
the family, they said that the voice sounded familiar and thought
it to be a person they knew who had died in the house.
The Southwestern Virginia Paranormal Investigators
knew a Radford couple who noticed the appearance of orbs in
various photos they had taken.
They also complained about strange noises
waking them up in the middle of the night and that their child
would often be in her room alone but appear to be talking
to someone. This preliminary conversation with the couple
peaked the group's interest and prompted them to take on the
investigation.
This would be the first ghost haunting experience
for Beth Wallen, the fiancee of Jason Sanders, a founding
Southwestern Virginia Paranormal Investigators member.
"I only did this because he did it,"
Wallen said.
Though she was just tagging along, the investigation
would provide enough excitement not to disappoint her.
As four crew members crowded into the child's
bedroom, they asked questions out loud, hoping to pick up
electronic voice phenomena.
Though they would later check their audio
equipment for any EVP, what they described as the "main
event" occurred during the investigation.
With the crew gathered in the pitch-black
room, Sanders noticed someone sitting in a corner that none
of the crew members were near.
The person slowly stood up, appearing about
3 12 feet tall, walked to the middle of the room, leaned over
the bed, stood back up, walked straight to where Wallen was
seated and sat on her lap.
This small, shadowlike apparition had a black
outline and solid structure. With its small height and childlike
movements, the group thought it to be the ghost of a kindergarten-age
boy or girl.
The crew members remained quiet and stared
in awe for about three minutes, until finally Sanders whispered
in the ear of his "tech" guy to turn the lights
back on.
When everyone's eyes refocused, they noticed
that the ghost of the child was gone, but in its place on
Wallen's lap was an imprint, including two small handprints.
The most personal paranormal experience for
Jason Sanders, a founding member of Southwestern Virginia
Paranormal Investigators, occurred while working security
at a hospital in the New River Valley.
Since it was late at night, much of the hospital
was deserted.
Periodically, Sanders would make his rounds
to different floors -- including the third, which the hospital
no longer used and was where his grandfather died years earlier.
"Everybody was petrified of that floor,"
Sanders said.
He has spoken to janitors, custodians and
night shift nurses who say they have experienced strange activity
whenever they venture to that floor by themselves at night.
Nurses were so afraid that they would always call security
to walk up to the floor with them, he said.
Sanders had his own reservations about that
floor.
"Many nights I'd walk down the hall,
to hear kids walking and running around, laughing," he
said.
Upon hearing these sounds he would walk to
the end of the hall, which is a dead end, and find nobody
there.
One night, he was patrolling the hall and
walked past the room where his grandfather died.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the nurse
call light go off. Since no equipment was supposed to be hooked
up, Sanders chalked it up to a co-worker's prank.
He would go back up to patrol the third floor
hourly. As soon as he went up the steps, he again saw that
the call light was flashing. This time, he examined the light
and noticed that it was unplugged.
"This could just be debunked as electrical
interference," Sanders later said, although he doesn't
rule out a more paranormal reason.
For the next events, however, Sanders still
has no explanation.
To his surprise, he heard a TV playing and
water running from his grandfather's room. When he opened
the door, he didn't hear or see anything.
As he stood in bewilderment, he suddenly felt
a person's hand rest on his shoulder. When he whipped his
head around to see who was there, he saw nobody.
Though he isn't able to explain the events
that happened that night, he can't say for sure whether the
spirit he encountered was his grandfather.
"But it was kind of odd that it happened
in that exact room," he said.
Rich Creek resident Amy Buchanan says she
has a unique gift people may not believe.
"People kind of hesitate when I tell
them what I've seen," Buchanan said.
For as long as she remembers, Buchanan has
had the ability to see and communicate with ghosts.
She said that while some presences are more
distinct than others, she can see and hear these beings "as
clear as day."
Buchanan said both she and her identical twin
sister share this gift. She also said they have a mental link
with each other via extrasensory perception.
"I know what she's thinking and she knows
what I'm thinking," Buchanan said.
Most recently, Buchanan has volunteered her
time at the Pearis Theater in downtown Pearisburg, setting
up a haunted house that will serve as a fundraiser for the
Old Pearis Theater Playhouse group this Halloween season.
She stepped into the theater for the first
time the weekend of Oct. 11 to set up for the haunted house.
As she walked through the building she saw
a "very nice older gentleman" standing in a corner
wearing a brown suit. His hair was parted on one side near
the front and he had his arms crossed "like he didn't
know what to think."
She asked Karen Letts, a coordinator for the
project, who the man was. She was told that he fit the description
of "Mr. Reel," a man who used to help operate the
theater.
Buchanan also said that she has seen a little
girl who appears to be 8 or 9, wearing a "Little House
on the Prairie"-type outfit with long, brown hair.
"She's as cute as can be," Buchanan
said.
Buchanan said she often has conversations
with Mr. Reel. The first time she spoke with him, when he
wore a puzzled expression, she said he asked her what was
going on and why "all of these people" were in the
theater.
"When I told him that it was to raise
money for the building, he was OK with that and smiled,"
she said.
While Mr. Reel is easy to pinpoint, the little
girl is often playing and hard to keep up with, Buchanan said.
Buchanan often hears her laughing and playing
throughout the theater, but she moves so much that it's sometimes
hard to keep track of her.
"She has too much fun down there,"
Buchanan said.
Buchanan said two volunteers heard inexplicable
giggling in the basement and, terrified, ran upstairs to tell
her what they had heard.
She told them they had nothing to be worried
about, and even suggested they talk to her.
"She's a little girl; she wants to play,"
Buchanan said.
With the theater expecting a large number
of people for its Halloween haunted house, Buchanan said she
wouldn't be surprised if both ghosts made an appearance that
night.
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