Who goes there?

[Carol]

Restless spirits may cause sleepless nights but this group will look into 'haunted' houses

By Erin Gibson Allen
Does your house make peculiar creaking noises late at night? Do garbled distant voices call out to you? Do you suspect that your house might be haunted?

What to do? Who are you going to call? (OK, say it: Ghost Busters!)

Residents in the South Hills have a new group to contact if they are concerned about unexplained activity. Don Wagner, 42, of Finleyville, Washington County, recently founded the Peace of Mind Paranormal Society, at 3045 W. Liberty Ave., Dormont, to help people with concerns about things that go bump in the night.

And he doesn't mind Ghost Buster jokes.

"More than likely the noises are natural occurrences, like the house settling," said Mr. Wagner, who has been active in paranormal investigations for eight years. "For the other ten percent of cases, we try to help people understand what is going on."

The society's services are free. When someone asks for an investigation, the group has a standard procedure. Members interview the individual and then tour the home or location where the questionable activity has been occurring.

Mr. Wagner said that in his experience, he finds that most spirits make their presence known between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 2 a.m. So investigations are done at night after the group sets up its equipment, which includes temperature gauges and recording devices. The amount of equipment required for spiritual surveillance is extensive, Mr. Wagner said. When not in use, the society's devices fill his entire living room.

The group then asks the client if he or she wants to be involved in the surveillance. "Whatever is happening is more likely to let itself be known with the client there," Mr. Wagner said. He added: "not everyone is comfortable being there for an investigation."

After a full night of surveillance, the team then spends about a week reviewing the evidence collected, including electromagnetic field readings.

Pat Pettijohn, of Pittsburgh, recently joined the society, and said that she is looking forward to investigations. She believes the Dormont area house that she grew up in was haunted and this sparked her interest in paranormal activity.

"Normally I'm a skeptic, I need to see for myself," Ms. Pettijohn said.

She said that many are surprised, even shocked, to learn of her interest in looking for proof of the spirit world. But, she descries her self as "an average person'' who has an interest in the paranormal. "I am a Catholic, and we are not in league with the devil," she said.

Kaity Conrad, of Sharpsburg, also recently joined. At her first job, done at a South Hills business, she said "we heard unexplained footsteps, but we are still reviewing.''

Other members of the team include Mr. Wagner's wife, Jackie, and son, Matthew.

While headquartered in Dormont, the group travels throughout the tri-state. This month members are working at an old mansion in Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland County, and at a restaurant in Penn Hills.

What happens when the society determines that there is paranormal activity at a location?

"We try to communicate with the spirit to see what it wants," Mr. Wagner said. Often, he said, the spirit is that of a deceased relative who feels tied to the living relatives. Through communication, the society works to get the spirit to move on, Mr. Wagner said.

Other times he advises clients to just ignore the activity. "If you don't confront it that helps," he said. "The theory is that spirits feed off this negative energy."

The group does not seek to remove spirits, as in the movie "Ghost Busters," Mr. Wagner said. "If a person wants to, we can get their church involved to have their house blessed," he said, "but we don't try to remove spirits."

"People think we're crazy at first, but when they see the work that we do, they take us seriously,'' Mr. Wagner said.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08094/869935-55.stm