Below is a copy of the article that was posted today ( Saturday July 19, 2008) in the Niagara Falls Review Newspaper.
Ghost hunters gather in Fort Erie
Saturday July 19, 2008
Posted By KRISTY WALLACE REVIEW STAFF WRITER
Carol Taylor says she was just two years old when she started waking up in the middle of the night to talk to a female spirit.
She said her parents never took it seriously until one day, when her father learned an older woman had died in the family's home before they lived there.
"I remember my father said I called her a weird name," said Taylor.
She doesn't remember clearly, but the woman's name could have been Enya. That's her earliest memory of communicating with spirits.
Because of her deep interest and connection with the paranormal, Taylor started the Niagara Area Paranormal Society last July.
The society is a group of six people from Niagara drawn together because they share a common interest in researching paranormal activity.
The society's members investigate homes and old buildings, picking up sounds and signals, taking pictures -all a part of ghost hunting.
"It's objective and scientific," said Taylor.
Before the group is called to a house or an old building, Taylor said only she will research the history. The other five members will pick up sounds using recorders, with no knowledge of the building's history.
She also said when they do house calls, which happens about twice a month, they'll first examine if the strange phenomena are happening for natural reasons.
Taylor remembers one time the group was called to a house by somebody whose fridge door always opened mysteriously.
Turned out the fridge door was just old, and the magnets didn't work anymore.
"We always see if a natural explanation can be made first," said Taylor.
For example, she said if someone feels like they're being watched the group will try and find an explanation for it before considering it a paranormal experience.
Once, she said, the group visited a house that really spooked them out.
It had been built in place of an older one that caught fire in the 1990s.
"The smell (of charred wood) was so strong in the new house," Taylor said.
The most common way she picks up energy is through her sense of smell. Or she sees something.
Shannon Delury, another member, said since her father passed away her interest in the paranormal has grown even more.
The way she connects to it is different than Taylor.
"I usually get feelings and emotions," Delury said.
For example, in a room with lots of paranormal activity and energy Delury said she'll feel pins and needles.
The two women aren't usually concerned with bringing ghosts home with them.
Taylor said she usually envisions a white light that, she says, "gives positive energy. "
Delury said she often envisions a purple light.
"It keeps everything at a certain distance," she says.
They said the believe everyone has some type of ability to communicate with the dead -some just don't know how to use it.
In a workshop the society will hold at the end of July, the group will provide tips on how to pick up sounds on recorders and how to properly mark them, take proper photos with no flash, and other little tips on how to capture paranormal activity.
The group will hold its class at the Mildred Mahoney Doll House Museum in Fort Erie.
The museum, also known as Bertie Hall, is located on Niagara Boulevard not far from the International Railway Bridge.
The house is believed to be haunted.
Constructed in the 1830s, it was owned by a wealthy family and also used as part of the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping from the United States from 1828 to 1865.
The story goes that a young slave boy drowned in the tunnel where it connected with the building's basement, said Taylor.
She said when the son of one of the owners, William Forsyth, drowned in the basement, Forsyth sealed the tunnel. Since then, no one has been able to discover where the opening is.
Delury believes it's in the cold, dark basement, in which a visitor must walk down a creeky board staircase into complete blackness.
When a light is turned on, it's easy to see where a patch in the old rocky wall is different than the rest of the wall.
"You can feel it," said Delury, sticking her hand through the small dusty open gap. "There's nothing behind here."
Taylor said the group has only visited the musum twice, but has captured more than 250 unexplained sounds in the 3 1 /2to four hours they spent in each visit.
Most of the sounds are voices that seem to say "Help me," said Taylor.
She said one society member, Rick Matthews, was yelled at by a strange female voice in an upstairs room.
"She yelled, 'What do you want?'" said Taylor.
Taylor said she and the others aren't concerned by what skeptics say.
"We're not here to convince people who are skeptical," she said. "If they're interested, they should do their own research."
The society is offering a chance to experience paranormal activity at the Mildred Mahoney Dollhouse Museum in Fort Erie. It will hold a workshop there July 26 from 4:30 to 10 p. m.
The cost is $75, and the class will learn how investigate a haunting. In addition, the society will also teach the class how members research and conduct an investigation. After learning how to contact and communicate with ghosts, the society will give the chance to investigate the dollhouse museum. The deadline for payment is Sunday. For more information phone 905- 735-9393 or e-mail naps@live.ca.
http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/Articl ... ?e=1121279
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
