Several young men have checked out sites near Salem, and you might be surprised by what they say they have found
By Capi Lynn
Statesman Journal
October 31, 2006
Halloween conjures up tales of ominous shadows and spirits, and as many as half of Americans believe in ghosts, according to various polls.
The fascination with things that go bump in the night reaches a crescendo today, but some are compelled to ponder the paranormal the remaining 364 days of the year.
Several local young men are doing more than just pondering. They have launched a business called Salem Paranormal Inc., and their mission is to research and investigate paranormal activity at area homes, businesses and cemeteries.
They are not the Ghostbusters, owners Kent Rasmussen, 22, and Chris Califf, 20, will tell you. They are ghost hunters, pursuing a field glamorized by Sci-Fi Channel's popular television series "Ghost Hunters," about a team of investigators who travel the country to capture evidence of the paranormal phenomena.
Rasmussen, Califf and the rest of their team are big fans of the stars of the show, The Atlantic Paranormal Society. They even e-mailed some of the evidence that they gathered to TAPS, including a photograph from a Salem cemetery that piqued the interest of the Rhode Island-based group.
The image shows what is referred to as a plasma stream, or a streak of brightly colored light, coming out of seemingly nowhere above the ground.
"They said for it being our very first investigation, they were shocked to see the results we got," Rasmussen said.
Salem Paranormal has investigated three local cemeteries, Engelberg Antiks and Thompson Brewery & Public House. Next on the list is Mission Mill Museum.
The group has been on the hunt about eight months, moonlighting from day or night jobs. Rasmussen is the graveyard-shift manager at a fast-food restaurant and a volunteer firefighter for Marion County District I. Califf also works at a fast-food restaurant. Two of the team's other investigators are Joel Baker, 22, who works with computers, and Chris Ong, 20, who works at a convenience store.
They do paranormal research pro bono but will accept donations to cover the cost of equipment.
"We're not in this for the money," Califf said. "We're in it for the science."
Members of Salem Paranormal have had no official training, just personal experience. Each, at a young age, had a paranormal experience that had a profound effect.
Califf remembers spending the night at a friend's house when he was about 8 and waking up on the couch with a tall, lanky figure hovering just inches from his face.
Rasmussen was about the same age when he woke up in an upstairs bedroom of his aunt's house and saw a woman standing over him and stroking his head. When he told his mother about the experience, she said it must have been his great-great-aunt, who reportedly died in that room.
"We all have our own collective stories of ghosts, ghouls and goblins as to why we're in this field," Califf said.
When they enter an allegedly haunted location, they are armed with digital cameras and audio- and video-recording devices, hoping to document paranormal existence.
Sometimes, they emerge with photographs of orbs and tapes with previously unheard voices of the dead, called electronic voice phenomena. They claim to have EVP from a cemetery with the voice of a child saying, "Where's my daddy?" It was recorded near the grave of a little girl who died of an appendicitis when she was 5.
Other times, their investigations reveal nothing.
"You're not always going to find stuff," Califf said. "We go in to try to disprove the place is haunted."
After each investigation, they begin the painstaking process of analyzing countless photographs and hours of audio- and videotape, then report back to their client.
"We come in and show what's there," Baker said. "They can leave it to themselves whether they want to believe."
Justin Riedl, the former manager at Thompson Brewery, isn't a believer. But he nonetheless gave Salem Paranormal permission to investigate the premises in South Salem. The brewery is in an old house that is thought to be haunted by Franklin Thompson, a Civil War soldier and the original owner.
"Reports from the waitresses say he likes to swing on the chandelier and pull chairs out for the ladies," Rasmussen said.
Several employees and customers have reported encounters with the elderly man, but Riedl never did in more than a year and a half working there. He didn't let that sway his decision to open the doors for the rookie ghost hunters.
"They're trying to make a name for themselves," said Riedl, who now is the manager at another McMenamins pub. "They were very curious and respectful."
Salem Paranormal gave Riedl a disk of photographs taken during the investigation, including the before and after of a large supposed orb hovering outside the brewery.
"It was kind of spooky," Riedl said. "It was interesting, for sure."
An orb is believed to be a mass of energy transferred from a source -- such as power lines, batteries or people -- to the spirit so it can manifest. The vast majority of these spheres of light, most experts agree, are airborne particles, such as dust and pollen, or moisture in the air.
Rasmussen and Califf are quick to point out in their photos several examples of what they determined to be nothing but dust. But they haven't been able to explain the orb in the photo taken outside the brewery. At first glance, it looks like a full moon. But in the photo taken about 12 seconds later, it is gone.
Califf said it couldn't have been a full moon because the night they investigated, there was a phase 8 moon, or a waning crescent moon.
"That is a first-class, no-B.S., honest-to-God orb," he said. "There is no possible way to debunk that."
Around Halloween typically is a busy season for ghost hunters, both professional and amateur.
Dave Oester and Sharon Gill, the founders of the International Ghost Hunters Society, are former Oregon residents who travel around in their RV investigating some of America's most haunted locations.
They say their newsletter reaches more than 20,460 people in 89 countries, including several subscribers throughout Oregon, and they offer educational courses for people who want to delve into ghost hunting.
"Many are interested in life after death, and we teach that ghosts are the evidence of life beyond the grave," Oester wrote in an e-mail to the Statesman Journal. "Others are interested because their homes are haunted by one or more ghosts. Some like the excitement of being a real-life ghost hunter."
The latter seems to appeal to Salem Paranormal.
"It's the thrill," said Rasmussen, the volunteer firefighter. "Like rushing into a burning building."
Rasmussen and his colleagues follow what they call "EVP protocol" when they begin an investigation, setting the stage by asking questions such as, "Is anybody here?" and "Can we try to talk?"
"We send a message that we're not there to provoke," Califf said.
There are times when they get spooked and have to leave a location before completing an investigation, which is what happened a few months ago at a local cemetery when the investigators felt unwelcome by a presence there.
They have yet to investigate a residential location but are seeking opportunities.
"If anyone's got a ghost," Califf said, "give us a call."
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