Going bump in the night
30 ghost hunters converge on Tamaqua Elks building
By DONALD R. SERFASS
dserfass@tnonline.com
DONALD R. SERFASS/TIMES NEWS Ghosthunters Chad Leisenring, Shamokin, Con Groner, Freeburg, and Cory Reigel, Northumberland, examine sensitive audio equipment positioned on the third floor of the Tamaqua Elks building late Saturday as part of a 30-member ghost hunt. http://tnimg.us.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?[img]Site=TN&Date=20060327&Category=TN_NEWS&ArtNo=103270013&Ref=AR&Title=2&MaxW=227[/img]
The Superbowl of ghost hunts took place Saturday in Tamaqua when over 30 experts in the paranormal explored the darkened upper floors of the Elks Lodge building.
The ghost hunters represented three organizations, making the hunt the largest held at the site since the building was first explored in December 2000.
"Yes, it's quite a large group," said Kevin Tersavige, Bloomsburg, director, Central Pennsylvania Paranormal Research Association (CPPRA).
Tersavige organized the event along with Josette 'Kristeen' Reynolds, Danville. Reynolds is a 'sensitive,' somebody able to detect and feel energy beyond the scope of ordinary people.
Unlike a psychic, who predicts the future, a sensitive is regarded as someone who can look at a total stranger and describe elements of their life in real time. For example, a sensitive might surprise you by revealing what you did yesterday, or perhaps by telling you about something that impacted your life today in some special way. Reynolds can do this with uncanny accuracy.
The hunt included members of the CPPRA as well as the Ghost Researchers Foundation, Bedford County, and the Center for the Anthropological Studies of the Paranormal for the Eastern Region (CASPER), based in Mahanoy City.
Members of the groups performed sophisticated audio and visual tests and continued to gather data to scrutinize.
Their equipment included infra-red lights, black lights, night vision apparatus, cameras, audio mixers and other measuring and recording instruments. The equipment is important to conducting EVPs, or an electronic voice phenomenon, said the crew. Ghost hunters say the equipment can sometimes detect an ethereal presence in a matter of seconds. Even better, they said, is when sounds are recorded.
"We're setting up audio equipment in the hopes of catching a voice," said Cory D. Reigel, Northumberland.
Other times, they try to uncover glowing ectoplasms, a surreal substance in which psychic phenomena may manifest themselves.
The studies focused on the second and third floors of the brick Classical Revival structure that has been returned to its early grandeur by ambitious Elks volunteers. Dedicated on Aug. 8, 1906, the building features large rooms and high ceilings. The third floor alone contains 10 rooms, some of which have been the location of strange events reported over the years.
In addition, at least two suicides reportedly took place in the building, including one in the main stairwell.
Saturday's hunt attempted to detect energy which the ghost hunters said can relate to earlier days. As in the past, the ghost hunters uncovered orbs of light.
"I'm amazed we pulled out this much this soon," said Scott Crownover, an Altoona native who co-founded the Ghost Researchers Foundation. Crownover has investigated many sites, including the North Carolina Capital Building in Raleigh, a hunt done at the invitation of Governor Easley.
Crownover said the Tamaqua Elks building exhibits a great amount of paranormal activity.
Hee set up black lights in the third floor hallway, a procedure that created an eerie purple glow.
"Black light acts as a barrier. They can prevent electromagnetic energies from passing," said Crownover.
That can be important, he said, because orbs of light that stop above the light can then be documented and measured.
Ghost hunter Don Groner of Freeburg, Snyder County, said detectable feelings inside the Elks building are strongest on the top floor.
"I can sense a presence on the third floor. It caused nausea and headache. But it went away when I walked the hallway," explained Groner, co-director of the CPPRA.
Tammie Kelley, another CPPRA member, concentrates on photography and isn't satisfied with capturing orbs of light. That's because she snapped a photo of a ghostly figure a few years ago near her home and hopes to hit paydirt once again.
"I captured a black figure or shadow of a woman in a long black dress," said Kelley, explaining that the mysterious figure appeared at the Iola Hotel in Millville. "So I keep hoping for figures."
International ghost hunter John Sabol also was on hand, making his first visit to the site.
Sabol conducts ghost hunts in Gettysburg and has done the same in England, South Dakota, New Mexico and other locales. He used the Tamaqua hunt as an opportunity to try and figure out if the Elks hosts a residual haunt, such as the sound of footsteps, or an interactional haunt, which is a spirit or apparition that reacts to activities.
"I think there are interactional ghosts here. Tonight is just the preliminary stage," said Sabol, a native of Mahanoy City.
Sabol is trained in archaeology and holds a master's degree in Cultural Anthropology. He said his goal at an initial hunt is to create almost a theatrical scene in order to develop a hypothesis.
"I find the hot spots, combine it with historical research and try to get the spirits to react. I'm trying to communicate with them on their level," said Sabol, whose studies combine culture, ethnicity, archaeology and ghosts. Therefore, he describes himself as an ethnoarchaeoghostologist.
He said he enjoys the field because he's able to become part of how people lived many years ago. For that reason, the work is special to him and he treats it with utmost care and dignity.
"It's interesting, and it's also respectful of the dead."
Sabol and a few of the ghost hunters, such as Crownover, are authors with books already published or in the works.
Ghost hunts inside the building take place through the cooperation of Elks Lodge members who've grown accustomed to the notoriety. In fact, Elks members conduct their own 'Halloween haunted house' at the site in late October, a popular event.
Saturday's hunt spawned much activity along West Broad and Nescopec streets late into the night as newspaper, radio and television media covered the story.
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