By TINA BRIDENSTINE
Southwest Daily Times
Word of Mid America Air Museum's resident ghost has gotten out, and one group was interested enough to drive all the way from Topeka to investigate Colonel Tom.
Paranormal Investigators of America is a group based out of Topeka that goes on ghost hunts and investigates spirits in homes and businesses. After receiving a copy of an article about the suspicious happenings at the museum, they contacted Mid America Air Museum Executive Director Don Westfall Aug. 26.
"They contacted us and wanted to know if they could come out here, set up their equipment and investigate the situation," Westfall said.
Westfall gave them permission to come to the museum and do their investigation and even to stay overnight.
"I'm sort of glad they're coming, just to see what sort of readings they get," he said. "It can't hurt. They may determine that there's something there; or they may determine that there's nothing there. As far as what that is, I guess that depends on your opinion of whether this sort of thing can exist or not. It may be some natural phenomenon they just overlooked."
Two investigators from PIA arrived at Mid America Air Museum not long before closing time Saturday afternoon.
"We are staying here all night, which is kind of unusual for how we do things," Dustyn McCormick, lead investigator, said.
He explained that investigations normally only take about three hours, but since the drive from Topeka is so long, they decided to stay overnight.
In order to collect data, he went on to say, they video with a camcorder, take pictures with a digital camera and use electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors.
"Spirits are made up of energy, so they send off a field of that energy," McCormick said. "With EMF detectors you can stick them up to a plug in, and they'll start spiking because there's that electromagnetic field. Spirits do the same.
"Now, if you go up to a light socket and stay there, it will pop up and stay up. With a spirit it will go up and down, up and down, up and down, usually very quickly, and then it will just stop for no reason."
With the voice recorders, McCormick said, they look for electromagnetic voice phenomenon, or EVP.
Investigators will record while they ask questions, he explained.
"We'll ask questions to pretty much nobody ? nobody that we can see anyway," he said. "We usually ask if there's anybody with us, who they are, what they are, if they're male or female."
Normally, he said, they are aided in asking the questions by a member of the group who uses dowsing rods. As they ask questions, the rods will cross for an answer of yes and uncross for an answer of no.
"That makes the conversations a little easier, because it's not like you're talking to yourself," McCormick said. "Tonight, we're going to be doing that blind."
Once they get back to Topeka, they will look through the evidence they gathered. For the EVPs, they will listen to the recordings they took to see if they hear any voices.
"That can be interesting sometimes," McCormick commented. "We have one on our Web site we captured, and there's a little bit of argument about what the voice is saying. To me and my wife, it sounded like it was saying, 'Kill you.' Another guy we had analyze it for us said that it was something completely different."
They will also watch the footage they took with the camcorder and look through the pictures taken with the digital camera.
"The pictures are varied. Most of the time, you're going to find orbs," McCormick explained, "which are tricky business to deal with. Sometimes they'll be caused by dust in the air, sometimes by moisture in the air, sometimes bugs.
"What we have to do with those is we'll stick them on our computer, and we'll use the zoom function and we'll zoom into the orb. If it maintains its orb shape, then usually that's going to be a spirit. If it gets all blurry and fuzzes out, then that's something else. We're really not worried about what else it is. We just know that it's not spirit."
Orbs that show up in pictures appear to be small circles of light.
Before beginning their hunt for the night, PIA investigators explained that, should anyone want to take a picture with a flash, they should say, "Flash," so anyone watching the video would know the source of the light.
In fact, on the PIA Web site there is a series of similar rules for investigators who are on a ghost hunt.
After walking through the museum, Kim Zerbe, lead sensitive for PIA, said she had noticed some unusual things in the museum, including a presence in the chapel.
"It was somebody who had passed on," she said. "Anybody who admits the sensitivity can feel the emotion that's in a chapel. That's the thing. Everyone is sensitive, but not everyone will admit to having that. My children are. It frightens them, so they refuse to admit it."
Aside from sensing a presence in the chapel, Zerbe said she also saw a man in blue overalls walk between some of the planes.
"I told them we'd probably hang around the restoration area, because he's got his coveralls on so he's going to be working tonight," she said.
She also said there were "pretty strong vibes" by the Avenger, the airplane where most of the occurrences have happened.
"You put one hand out here, and you don't feel anything. You put your hand on this side, and it's cold and tingly," she explained.
However, McCormick said they can never tell what an investigation will turn up. In some cases, he said, they will find something, in some cases they will find nothing, and in some cases they will find nothing but feel as if they should have. Sometimes, he added, it takes a few times of visiting a place before they find anything.
"Spirits were human once. Contrary to popular belief, once you die, your personality is not going to change," he said. "Unless you're a very exuberant person, you're not going to just walk up to someone and say, 'Hey, how are you doing?' So sometimes when we go somewhere, it takes a while for them to warm up to us."
McCormick and Zerbe turned out the lights in the museum and started their investigation as the sun was going down Saturday night. McCormick said it would be about two weeks before they would contact Westfall with their results after going through all of the evidence they gathered.
To visit the PIA Web site, go to www.paranormalamerica.com.
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