By EDDIE GLENN
Tahlequah Daily Press
Tahlequah and Cherokee County are full of ghost stories, from ?Flo? in NSU?s Seminary Hall to the ?Spook Light? at Hulbert, to whatever spirit is constantly wreaking havoc on the computer system at the Daily Press.
But this weekend, paranormal investigators from all over the country will be converging on the Illinois River, not to investigate any strangeness, but just to talk about investigating the unexplained.
The Oklahoma Paranormal Research and Investigations is sponsoring the 2007 ?Para-Float? Friday and Saturday at Diamondhead Resort.
The event will include lectures by Patrick Burns from Court TV?s ?Haunting Evidence? series and Keith Age, whose documentary ?Spooked? deals with the allegedly haunted Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky.
According to Christy Selfridge, founder and director of OKPRI, this won?t be the first visit the Oklahoma City-based organization has made to the area - just the most publicized.
?We?ve done residentials, and we?ve checked out some of the historical places around Tahlequah,? said Selfridge. ?We take a scientific and a spiritual approach - it?s about half and half.?
If the organization sounds a little like the fictional group in the movie ?Ghostbusters,? that?s because there are some similarities.
The group uses cameras, infrared sensors, motion sensors, wireless microphones, thermometers, and even the trusty contractor?s stud finder to locate - and hopefully document - paranormal activity.
?We like to be at a location at the time activity is occurring, for example, if there?s a little girl that shows up at one o?clock in the afternoon, we?ll show up at that time to record,? said Selfridge. ?We have a pretty extensive collection of EVPs [Electronic Voice Phenomenon], and there are a lot of them that will leave you scratching your head.?
Selfridge said a lot of the structures the OKPRI investigates are, as one might imagine, old wooden buildings. There is a theory as to why those buildings may be conducive to paranormal activity.
?As wood decays, it puts out carbon, and carbon is a form of energy. The theory is that the more carbon the more energy is there.?
The same type of spirit-conducive energy, she said, may also be produced by electricity and magnetism.
Of course, testing that theory can be a difficult task, and not every member of OKPRI necessarily even believes it?s true.
?We have some really hard-core skeptics on the team,? Selfridge said. ?And then there are some of us who are believers.?
Anyone who thinks they might be experiencing paranormal activity is welcome to contact the OKPRI about an investigation, and as OKPRI case manager/investigator Anita Tallball pointed out, folks need not be embarrassed about contacting the organization.
?We respect their confidentiality,? said Tallball. ?I know a lot of times, people don?t want a bunch of other people coming around and disturbing things, or they don?t want people knowing they have paranormal activity.?
As Selfridge put it: ?A lot of times people will contact us because they just want to know they?re not going crazy.?
Selfridge said this weekend?s seminar on the river is free, but Diamondhead will be charging the normal rates for camping and floating.
A campfire will be built both Friday and Saturday nights, and the two guest speakers will begin around 7 p.m. Saturday.
Get involved
For more information about Oklahoma Paranormal Research and Investigations, visit their Web site at www.okpri.com.
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