So last Saturday evening, I was in the same room with a ghost on four different occasions ... at least, that's what the psychics said.
When the SouthEast Michigan Ghost Hunters Society came to town to check for paranormal activity at the Cromaine District Library, the Hartland Music Hall, the local museum and the cemetery, I tagged along to observe.
Roughly 20 ghost hunters from the society showed up to check the four locations all at one time. They brought an array of equipment, including motion sensors, electromagnetic field (EMF) detectors, night-vision video cameras, tape recorders, heat sensors and directional microphones. Several members of the group claim to be psychic, as well.
At the end of the night, Brad Mikulka of Lansing, the head of the ghost hunters, said it had been a productive evening. While it will take two to three weeks to analyze all the information, he said it is likely his group will conclude there was "activity," meaning "spirit activity," at the library, the Music Hall and the museum.
For my part, I saw nothing supernatural.
I heard nothing and felt nothing ghostly. Despite the fact one psychic said the spirit of "an angry man" was standing right next to me at one point, I felt no peculiar sensations, experienced no feeling of dread or even general creepiness.
In fact, I saw nothing terribly un-usual ... other than a bunch people running around claiming to see ghosts, which I guess is pretty unusual in and of itself.
Inevitably, whenever ghosts were supposedly present, it required psychics to spot them for us nonpsychic types.
When ghost hunter Brenda Mikulka, Brad's wife, spotted the spirit of a man climbing a ladder in the organ chamber at the Music Hall, none of the three non-psychics in the room could see a thing.
And when the "angry man" ghost was walking around in the back room, upstairs at the museum, I wouldn't have known it had the psychics not told me.
They did say some things that can be checked against history in Hartland. For instance, the psychics said they believed the angry man had lived there. But local historian Nadine Cloutier said the museum, which used to be the Hartland Town Hall, was never used as a residence.
Brad Mikulka also got a lot of psychic impressions in that same room. He said he saw bodies laid out on the floor, and he thought the room may have been used as a temporary morgue at one time, perhaps from a flood.
But a member of the Hartland Historical Society was present and said while there have been floods in the area, more often around Parshallville, he was unaware of any casualties from them.
Hearing this, Brad suggested maybe it was a train derailment. Hartland has never had a railroad track.
Interestingly, though, Cloutier said there may have been an incident back in the 1920s or '30s in which the building was used as a temporary morgue. Such things were not unusual in small towns back in the old days. And historians know there was a funeral for a homeless man there in 1899. Still, Cloutier said, the back portion of the building, where that room is located, wasn't added on until the 1940s.
Our ghost-hunting psychics also claimed they "picked up the name Florence" in the library, from a spirit that likes to frequent the old portion of the building and the director's office. Florence Dearing was the library director from 1934 to 1960, so they believed that was her ghost.
At the same time, it wouldn't have been difficult for them to pick up the name Florence in a nonpsychic way in Hartland. After all, her name is written over the door of the Florence B. Dearing Museum, where the ghost hunters were spending so much time.
The society will be back in Hartland on Oct. 26 for a special presentation of their findings for a gathering at the library. As Brad Mikulka already said, it is likely they will conclude we have ghosts in Hartland, and apparently quite a few.
But as one who was present while they were gathering their "evidence," I'll be unconvinced.
It can be considered a nice ghost story just before Halloween ... but nothing more.
http://dailypressandargus.com/apps/pbcs ... 14/OPINION
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