Ghost stories around the campfire are where most people's interest in the paranormal stops. For Becky Ray, those stories were just the beginning.
The Grain Valley woman became interested in ghosts when she was a child. In college, she started researching paranormal activity across the country. She's visited places such as a sanatorium, a jail and a former nursing home.
'I kept putting myself in places because I wanted to see ghosts,' she said. 'I wanted to do it to prove it to other people. Then I finally had a really cool experience and thought, 'I don't care about proving it to other people, I know what I saw.''
Ray, a freelance writer, joined other local ghost investigators recently at the Alcott Arts Center in Kansas City, Kan., to talk about their passion. The night was sponsored by the Paranormal Encounter Documentation and Research Organization, or PEDRO. Other local groups included Paranormal Activity Investigators and the Southern Platte Inter-Dimensional Research & Investigation Team, or SPIRIT.
The SPIRIT Web site describes its mission:
'It is our main goal to collect evidence of the paranormal that can be observed, measured and documented using scientific techniques.'
The investigators use tools that aren't made especially for researching ghosts, like motion-activated cameras designed for wildlife photographers. The investigators place a camera in a room and hope something paranormal activates the camera.
Some of the things that show up are called orbs. An orb is an anomaly that some people think are ghosts or spirits. Others think the orbs are caused by dirt on the lens.
The investigators do not use digital cameras - they use film, which drives up the cost. But film adds credibility, because people doubt pictures from digital cameras more.
'When you use 35mm you don't have immediate results, but you do have the negatives and you don't have those questionables,' Ray said. 'If something odd does so up in it, you can send your negatives to either Fuji or Kodak and they can tell you what went wrong or what didn't go wrong. It is always great to hear them tell you that they don't know what it is.'
Jennifer Tarwater, a member of PEDRO, said her group bases its research on science.
'It is all about matter being neither created nor destroyed,' Tarwater said. 'When you die, energy is released. You get orbs because the center of gravity forces everything in a round formation.'
Tarwater, a librarian from Kansas City, Kan., has a background in science.
'I was pre-vet before I changed my major so I've had three years of physics and five of biology and chemistry,' she said.
Ray said the investigators use a scientific basis to overcome stereotypes that the public has because of 1-800 psychics and bad press.
'There is a lot of bad stigma that has really given the paranormal a black eye,' Ray said. 'I think the biggest hurdle is trying to get people to take us seriously.'
Ray said new paranormal groups are popping up and more people are accepting the idea of ghosts because of TV shows like 'Ghost Hunters' on the Sci-Fi Network.
Ray isn't thrilled with the term 'ghost hunters.'
'When I think hunter, I think that means you are going to catch it,' she said.
But the TV show does serve a purpose.
'It is something a lot of people look at,' Ray said, 'and when you say what you do, they don't look at me like I have five heads.'
Ghostly encounters
Paranormal investigator Becky Ray has a Web site, ghostsagogo.com, where she describes some of her experiences, including a 2004 visit to a sanatorium in Kentucky:
'Four of us happened to be looking towards the hallway windows and doors as a blond woman in a gown holding something over her mouth passed in front of one of the windows. She appeared to have a glowing effect to her, but what threw me the most was that she only passed in front of ONE of the windows, not the doors, or any of the other windows. All of us immediately commented, 'Did you see that?' and one of our group ran to the hallway to find her, but there was no one there. None of us had our cameras at the ready, it happened so fast, but it was the kind of thing that I don't need to prove to anyone. I know what I saw.'
http://www.topix.net/content/kri/417080 ... 1347638780
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