Editor?s note: The following is a profile of a local organization that investigates reports of paranormal activity. The Daily Tribune has not extensively investigated the group?s methodology, but a University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point professor said the equipment the members use is appropriate to conduct this type of research.
Creak.
What was that?
Bump.
Who's there?
Jonathan Wood and the River Cities Paranormal Society can answer those questions -- or at least try. The group investigates ghosts, hauntings or anything that goes bump or creak in the night in the Wisconsin Rapids area.
The gang of four uses technology in an attempt to debunk or disprove the claims of hauntings and to find some logical explanation, said Wood, the group's founder and lead investigator.
"If we can't find anything logical, we look toward other avenues, such as the paranormal," Wood said.
Originally known as Wraith Watchers, the nonprofit organization started in 2004 as a hobby after what Wood called a "strange experience" at his parents' house.
"I experienced something ghostly," he said. "Ever since then, I've had the desire to explore that and find out more information about it."
In early May, the group decided it was time to change the name for several reasons.
"We wanted to make it more professional (and) a little more 'local-sticky,'" Wood said, adding that they thought the name would be easier for people to understand.
Many people don't know wraith is another term for ghost, Wood said, and by changing the name, the group hoped to clear up any confusion.
During its most recent case, the group investigated CD Pub & Grill, 2650 Plover Road, Biron.
The team first visited the business in January and just finished its second phase of the investigation at the end of May.
"Both times we were there, we experienced strange phenomena," Wood said. "We actually got some video of it this last time -- that was pretty neat."
Dave and Chris Slucas, owners of CD Pub & Grill said they started seeing signs of what they thought was paranormal activity about 17 or 18 years ago.
"Out in the bar, we had one TV that would go on by itself or turn channels by itself," Chris Slucas said, adding that some customers were convinced that someone was using a remote control, so the couple put duct tape over the television's remote receiver; however, the channel changing continued.
Even after purchasing a new television set, the channels still occasionally change without any logical reason, she said, adding that "someone or something" must like television.
"Or (it) doesn't like what you've got on," Dave Slucas said with a laugh.
The husband-and-wife team lives adjacent to the bar, something Chris Slucas said allows them to be close enough to hear noises in the middle of the night.
"Being that we have the motel next door, sometimes you think you hear noises, but you don't," she said. "Sometimes I thought someone was having a party in our bar."
Customers have also complained about feeling cold breezes even when the thermostat is set to 74 degrees, Chris Slucas said, but most of the activity happens when only a few people are around.
"It's not when it's crowded," she said. "It's only when there's a couple of people here. When it's jammed, we don't see nothing; we don't hear nothing."
Dave Slucas agreed, saying he has experienced things when nobody else was around.
"You'd be in the bar later by yourself at night; you'd feel a cold sensation and the odor of a sweet-smelling cigar," he said.
Wood said these personal experiences are common among people with claims of paranormal activity. Other common experiences include seeing full apparitions, "shadow people" or orbs as well as hearing weird voices.
After a few hours -- or an entire night -- documenting everything, the group usually spends about three or four days going through all the evidence, which can be a very daunting task, said Bill Steckler, the group's tech manager and a member of its evidence review team.
"On TV it's all glitz and glamour," said Steckler, 30, of Wisconsin Rapids. "In actuality, evidence review can be really, really boring."
The team's May 28 investigation of CD Pub & Grill did yield results, but not in the form of a logical explanation.
"We've come to the conclusion that there is definitely some sort of paranormal activity going on there, and how in-depth that will be is up to the skeptic," Wood said.
Chris Slucas said she has always been "somewhat sensitive to some things," citing how she was always able to tell whenever her cousin called, even before answering the phone.
"Do I have the sensitivity, or is it a fluke? I don't know," she said; however having the team provide evidence to support her beliefs, is something in which she finds comfort.
"I'm relieved that it wasn't my imagination," she said.
Dave Slucas agreed, saying that having the results of a scientific investigation is very enlightening.
"It's easy for people to say 'I have a haunted house,'" he said. "Now that Jon has come around with more sophisticated equipment, it's more than just 'it happened again.'"
In the same way, Wood said, he finds it rewarding to be able to tell people that their house isn't haunted and to provide a logical explanation for the occurrences.
"To disprove that for them is a great relief; it makes me feel pretty good," he said. "Some people are affected on a personal level."
On the other hand, Wood said, he enjoys the thrill of experiencing something paranormal.
"Let's say it is a ghost," he said. "We can help them understand and deal with that as well."
While Wood said he's sure there are some out there who would like to say they lived in a haunted house, he hasn't run into any yet.
Steps of an investigation
Once people submit a request on the group's Web site, an interviewer talks to them about their experiences. Then the historian does background research on the location, its previous owners and any previous claims of paranormal activity, Wood said.
Amanda Baumann, 25, of Plover is the team's historian and said most of her job includes visiting the library, searching through newspaper archives and looking up deed records.
"I was able to find the name of the owner of the property from around 1930," she said of the CD Pub & Grill case, but, there was not much additional information on the bar or any previous claims.
After doing background research and client interviews, the team sets up a time to do the investigation, which can last anywhere from six hours to the whole night, depending on the wishes of the property owners.
One of the big players in the group's arsenal of equipment, Steckler said, are electro-magnetic frequency readers, which detect high levels of EMF that can lead to feelings of dread by those in the vicinity.
"The theory is that the presence of a ghost will spike the reading in the EMF," he said; however, sometimes, spikes in these frequencies are the result, not of paranormal activity, but of other, more logical causes.
"Most of what people think is a paranormal experience can be traced to piping or bad wiring sending out these frequencies," he said. "If it's bad wiring, we tell them and save them a lot."
As the tech manager, Steckler keeps track of all the equipment, making sure all the cameras and other recording devices are set up and taken down correctly in order to ensure the team records everything that happens from multiple angles.
During the investigation, he usually sits at a computer and watches for electronic voice phenomena.
These disembodied voices are among many of the things members of the team look for during the investigations and are a major piece of evidence that they collect, Steckler said.
In addition to the EMF readers and EVPs, the team also uses a variety of devices, including a Geiger counter to detect radiation, digital thermometers and anywhere from five to 10 or more digital still and video and infrared cameras.
Debunking the door openers
"We've actually debunked some of the things going on that people were assuming was paranormal activity, but there was a hidden solution to what was going on," Wood said.
For example, during one of the group's investigations, residents thought a ghost was opening a medicine cabinet in the middle of the night.
The team found that one of the walls was leaning, which, when combined with the vibrations from a large vehicle driving past, caused the door to open. After recreating the effect, Wood said the home owners were relieved.
"They thought it was a ghost," he said. "They actually had a name for it."
At CD Pub & Grill, the Slucases said they also have a name for their supernatural visitors.
"We named him George," Chris Slucas said, explaining that they once had a fishing buddy named George who was fun and energetic.
After hearing what Wood believed to be a female voice, Slucas said she randomly chose the name Hazel.
Conducting paranormal investigations, which Wood calls an "expensive undertaking," has caused the group to go to the Internet to find most of its equipment.
"E-Bay has been our friend; let's just put it that way," he said.
Although the group does not charge anything for its services, Wood said it gladly accepts donations, and will investigate any claim on a first-come, first-served basis.
"You get on the Internet, there's hundreds of groups coming out; they're everywhere," Steckler said. "I'm against groups that are charging (money); that's uncalled for."
As far as the group's view of the recent exposure in films such as "White Noise" and a plethora of television shows devoted to the subject, Wood said he has mixed feelings.
"Some of the shows they have on TV are quite silly," Wood said, though he added some, such as "Ghost Hunters" on the Sci Fi channel, are accurate.
"What they do in the show is pretty much what we do," he said. "They also go into things as skeptics. Because of them, we actually realized that there is a field like this that we can explore."
"Most people didn't think it was an actual field of research (and) exploration."
Out for the evidence
Bob Beeken, professor and department chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Physics and Astronomy Department, said that from what he can tell, Wood's team has created a viable process for disproving claims of paranormal activity.
"It is a reasonable approach for what they're trying to do," he said. "That's about the only approach you can take on these (cases). You're not going to be able to convince everyone."
Devices such as those Wood's team uses are typical in paranormal investigation, Beeken said, and would sufficiently prove whether or not there is a logical cause for what people are experiencing. If people say they hear voices, such instruments would help determine whether or not the voices do exist.
"It might be you are hearing something because your mind hears something, and there are instruments that would prove that," he said.
However, when it comes to classifying the resulting evidence as being something paranormal, Beeken said the process becomes more complicated.
"When you get into claims of the paranormal you get into a slippery slope," Beeken said. "It's hard to convince people that science proves something," he said, explaining that some people might not trust the evidence because of the belief that equipment is not able to detect the paranormal.
Wood and his fellow investigators agreed, saying that the most important thing for them is the evidence they collect.
"We're out for hard physical evidence," Wood said, adding that if the group ever employed the abilities of a psychic, it would still compare that person's evidence to the measurements collected by the equipment.
"With a personal experience, you can't validate one way or another; then it's just one ghost story to another," Steckler said. "You have to have some sort of scientific basis to go on; it is a science."
"I'd much rather we didn't find anything (paranormal)," he said. "There are some cases that we have -- you can't deny that, but you have to remain skeptic no matter what."
Despite the results of the investigation, however, Dave Slucas said he doesn't feel bothered by the possibility of supernatural beings at the bar.
"We didn't have a problem to begin with because we felt at ease for the most part," he said. "They have their space; we have ours."
Source: http://www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com/a ... 06/WRTnews
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