For about two years, Sparks resident Bert Tilson, 52, has developed a hobby few people dare to undertake. He is a self-described ghost hunter.
He and other ghost hunters investigate the paranormal and try to catch a glimpse of something or someone on film or audio that might not be grounded in the earthly realm.
He and Reno resident Teri Turpin are looking to start a local group of people with similar interests.
"It's just really fun," said Turpin, a warehouse supervisor who's had an interest in ghost hunting for about 10 years. "You can talk to anyone in a restaurant or a park face-to-face, but when you can catch on tape talking to someone you can't see, that is pretty interesting and pretty intriguing."
Tilson, a security officer, said he was inspired to investigate other worldly encounters after watching the 2005 film, "White Noise," based on a ghost-investigation process called "electronic voice phenomena," which uses a detuned voice recorder to receive and record the voices of the dead.
"I know what you must be thinking: 'This guy is wacko.' But I have been doing this for about a year and have had some interesting results," said Tilson. "I'm always open to speculation. If you think I'm wrong, by all means, prove me wrong."
The first time he ventured to communicate with the dead, Tilson visited Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Cemetery in Reno. He walked around the cemetery with a voice recorder and posed this question to his surroundings: "What's it like to be dead?"
He said he didn't hear anything in the cemetery, but when he listed to his recording at home, he heard an answer.
"I heard, 'Awful,'" Tilson said.
Thereafter, his experiment became a regular hobby, and he has captured several noises that sound similar to words, such as "flowers," "thank you," and "Isn't that nice."
"I could be hearing things or (just) wishful thinking, but all I know is that I've gotten some interesting little sound bytes," he said.
"It's kind of like playing an ongoing puzzle. There are pieces, and you just have to put them together."
Turpin, 45, uses another analogy to describe the experience of being able to communicate with the dead using modern technology.
"You look at a helicopter blade when it is spinning, and you can't see it, but you know it's there," she said.
Her interest in ghost hunting was sparked by an experience a group of her friends and she had while visiting Virginia City several years ago. They were having dinner at the Crown Point Restaurant in the Gold Hill Hotel when one of her friends' fork levitated and slammed on his plate.
"It was funny because he was joking about the place being haunted, and he didn't believe -- and that's when it happened," Turpin said.
"There is nothing to fear but fear itself," she said.
She said many people are skeptical because they are afraid to believe that there is something more out there.
"It's like any religion or hobby," Turpin said. "People don't have to believe. I am a very spiritual person. I believe in God, and I believe there is a life after."
Plus, ghosts cannot harm you physically or mentally, and they can't make you do things, said Tilson, citing what he's read during his Internet research.
"From everything I've read, a lot of them have died before their times, and they are earthbound. They have unfinished business or they don't want to leave their loved ones," he said. "(People) say there is a heaven and hell, and there also is purgatory -- a holding area. Maybe that's where I am getting those voices."
Nevertheless, both Tilson and Turpin take the time to greet and thank the entities they encounter every time they visit a place that might have ghosts.
"I always surround myself with the light of the Holy Spirit so no harm comes to us," Turpin said. "We are not here to harm (them), we are here to help. It's like prayer."
However, there are places where signals from the otherworld might allude to the ghost hunters' presence being unwelcome. On those occasions, they said, they respect the ghosts' wishes and leave.
"We are just trying to communicate with something paranormal that we may not have an answer for, but we have some proof for," she said. "There is something there. I am a true believer, and there are hundreds of people that feel the same way in Nevada."
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic ... /705010317
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