PPS Poem

Today we were honored when one of our clients sent us a poem she wrote about our team. With her permission I am posting this along with a link to her poetry sites carolanns poems writersnetwork.com
Thank you CarolAnn

They are the Pasadena Paranormal team
If you got ghosts, nice or mean
They’ll come running to check your home
And they tell you if you’re not alone
So ghosts or spirits all beware
Pasadena Paranormal is coming here
So run and hide they’re coming soon
Pasadena Paranormal will be your doom

carolann 11/22/09

Daily Topic 11-3-09

I ran across this article in Wired Magazine which talks about an experiment conducted by London's Goldsmith College. In the experiment a room was designed in such a way as to produce high EMF levels and prove that hauntings are nothing than the result of EMF sickness.

I'm torn on this experiment, those conducting it are very skeptical and only created it in order to debunk ALL paranormal activity. Obviously the logic is flawed, to say that all paranormal activity is the result of high EMF levels is not much better than saying that because Hollywood can create the appearance of the same activity then all videos are fake. The other flaw in their results is that they were inconclusive. They were hoping to find proof that the EMF levels would generate the same experiences for all those who entered the appropriate areas. This did not happen and some noted these feelings in areas where the EMF generating devices were turned off. Their conclusion and I'm paraphrasing our experiment did not yield the results we hoped for so obviously its because of the power of suggestion. Yes they claim that because their experiment failed that it must be because the power of suggestion is so strong and this proves that ghosts don't exist.

I do believe that the power of suggestion is strong with some people and that it can cause them to experience things that are not there. I also believe that a lot of paranormal groups do not take this into account when conducting their experiments. Luckily PPS has a rule that removes that factor to an extent, obviously it will be in all investigator's heads that something is going on or we wouldn't be investigating. We only tell our investigators what they need to know and not all claims, the leads will know all about the property and maybe a select few of the other team members. Doing this allows our team to NOT focus on a single area but on the entire location as a whole. If someone on our team reports an experience in a location that has a claim then it gives more support for that claim. We also don't want our team to be focusing on one spot while some kind of activity is happening somewhere else.

Now the reason I'm torn on this article is that I think it could be a great experiment if done properly. The individuals who conducted it had an agenda and skewed the results to mean what they wanted it to mean. I would be interested to see what the results would be if they used several different groups of people, those who were told that paranormal activity happened and those who were told to simply note everything they observed. I also think it would be interesting to see at what levels people started to feel the effects of the EMF levels.

Maybe PPS will conduct a similar experiment in the future.

Happy Halloween

PPS wishes everyone a happy and safe Halloween!

For today's question I'd like you to share your favorite Halloween tale, this can be real or fiction or tell of any traditions you have.

Daily Topic 10-23-09 Activity

Today's topic is a general question to anybody.

The level of paranormal activity seems to be very high these days, do you think that it is truly more active or is it the same as its always been and it seems higher because of all the media attention? Do you think there are more believers today than there were 10,20,50 years ago?

Pasadena Voice Article

Paranormal Society Explores Pasadena’s Unknown

By: Hayley Gable

 
 

      As many people know, the grounds of Pasadena possess a vibrant past, dating back in time to 1733 when William Hancock, Sr. first became associated with the Bodkin Creek property that is today known as Hancock’s Resolution. With the rich amount of history that exists in the area, much of the community believes that there is more of a story behind the reportedly strange sounds and sites that have plagued certain homes and neighborhoods throughout the past.

      One such group that is dedicated to this type of investigating is The Pasadena Paranormal Society. Founded in the summer of 2007 by Pasadena residents David Schmincke and Brian Scott Duncan, the idea for the organization came after the pair had discussed several personal experiences they had each had with the paranormal. Additionally, the untimely death of Schmincke’s brother-in-law, who passed away at the age of 30, propelled the group’s start-up as it left Schmincke with many unanswered questions about the afterlife.

      The society, which currently has 13 active members, is based in Pasadena but travels all around for investigations, sometimes even traveling to sites in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania and Broad Channel, New York. David Schmincke, the group’s lead investigator, stated that each investigation the group has conducted thus far has netted appropriate evidence for paranormal activity. “Much depends on the physical make up of the site, as areas dense with limestone deposits or accumulations of water seem to retain more impressions of the past. We have garnered such volumes of audio evidence that we are working on a theory that spirit voices may not be site-specific, but are everywhere,” he said.

      Such “audio evidence” that the group collects during their site examinations is done with a basic digital voice recorder, a device which Schmincke says will pick up disembodied voices that are not heard at the time of recording. As most of their evidence comes in the form of audio evidence, there are many times during investigations when the group feels that nothing is going on. However, their audio evidence proves otherwise. “Our most prolifically viewed evidence on our website is a clip of an Electronic Voice Phenomena captured at the Cedar Hill Cemetery on Ritchie Highway of a little girl singing,” stated Schmincke. “Ironically, we were recording in the children’s burial section.”

      Aside from using audio recorders to track down any ghostly activity, the Pasadena Paranormal Society uses a variety of tools for their research, including infrared thermometers, an eight-camera digital video system that can record in complete darkness, and electromagnetic field detectors. “These high levels can cause a range of symptoms from paranoia to dizziness to nausea and skin irritations. We have ruled out a number of claims due to high EMF levels,” Schmincke said.

      Prior to any investigation, there is plenty of research that must be done by Schmincke and his team. “We take every aspect of the investigation into consideration before we give the client our findings on their site - the history of the site, the psychological state of the residents, and a thorough debunking of all reported claims,” he said. “We then meticulously analyze the video and audio evidence we have obtained, along with any personal experiences of our investigators and then review and present our findings.” An average investigation for the group involves approximately 20 hours of prep work and interviews, 5 to 10 hours of onsite investigation and several weeks of analysis.

      Pasadena certainly has its share of ghost stories, such as George Fox Middle School’s apparition of a former principal that allegedly roams the halls. The society is currently conducting an ongoing investigation on a Bodkin Avenue home in the Lake Shore area, which the group says has exhibited a tremendous amount of audio evidence where a child is calling for its mother. “A history of the site’s prior owners revealed a female relative of the owner had passed away at the age of three,” Schmincke stated. “The residents have a video of what appears to be something invisible running across their bed with a solid mass. We have had two investigators touched in the attic of this property at the same time as if something was moving past them.”

      When the group is not investigating, they are conducting experiments, testing out new techniques and questioning the validity of existing theories to help improve the paranormal field as a whole. “Our clients are looking for an explanation of what is happening in their homes and businesses. It is our responsibility to find the truth, whatever that entails, and help them to understand and cope with what they are experiencing,” Schmincke concluded.

Return of Daily Topic

Earlier this year I was posting daily topics that were open for discussion with the intent of posting something new everyday. I'm going to re-attempt this with a different approach, instead of sending out an email each day to our team members and posting their responses. I will simply make a post and allow anybody to comment on the website/blog/facebook page since all 3 will update simultaneously. Sometimes I will post a question to our team other times it may be a general question to all of our site visitors. Please post any comments to the site or the blog.

Today's question is directed at the members of PPS.
What separates PPS from the groups seen on TV?  ...besides the paycheck.

NY Investigation Added

A new investigation has been added to our upcoming investigations page, see link to the right or click here
This should be an interesting case, Dave has been in contact with the client for several years through the AAEVP website. The case has been investigated previously on the TV show Paranormal State and the client would like another opinion as to what is happening in her house.

The team will be traveling to New York on October 10th to investigate this house and will have any results posted once all of the data is analyzed. So keep checking back for updates.

Amateur Ghost Hunter Falls To Her Death

TORONTO — A 29-year-old woman is dead after falling three stories while exploring a building in downtown Toronto.

Toronto Police initially said the man and woman were looking for ghosts because they thought the building was haunted but by Thursday afternoon would only say the pair were exploring the historic, gothic-style, building on the University of Toronto campus.

Police — who have now labeled the incident “death by misadventure” — said the man and the woman entered the building around two a.m.

The pair, who were on a first date after meeting on the Internet, made it to a third floor roof and were trying to cross to another section of the building. The man successfully made the leap but as the woman tried to crawl across she fell, according to police.

“It has no support,” said Toronto Police Constable Tony Vella. “So as soon as she put her body weight on the wiring system it collapses.”

Constructed in 1875, the building was originally the home of Knox College before becoming the Spadina Military Hospital during the First World War and then a laboratory.

It currently houses offices, art studios and parking services.

In January, 2001, fifty-year-old David Buller, an artist and visual arts professor was found stabbed to death in his office in the building.

The case remains unsolved.

Richard Fiennes-Clinton, a guide with Muddy York Walking tours said ghost tours are popular on the U of T campus. Stops include Trinity College, Massey College and University College.

“We don’t go to 1 Spadina Crescent,” Fiennes-Clinton said, in reference to the building the pair entered. “There’s really no ghost stories there.”

Matthew Didier, who runs the website Torontoghosts.org said he has not received any reports the building is haunted.

“I honestly believe that this was a sad case of thrill seekers,” Didier said noting his group does not condone late night investigations that involve trespassing.

Mariyah Rahman, a second-year exchange student who has a class in the building said she understands the appeal of exploring it but has never heard the building was haunted. “It’s an attraction because it looks like a castle,” Rahman said. “It looks creepy.”

An autopsy is scheduled for Friday and police are trying to contact the woman’s family in the United States.

The pair were not students at the U of T and the building was locked, a spokeswoman for the university said.

No criminal charges are expected to be laid.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

Williamsburg Ghostwalk

I previously posted about a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia with the promise that I would post a review of the Ghost walk as well as any evidence captured. 

Tavern walk ghost tour.
The tour started out at Shield's Tavern in colonial Williamsburg and we were informed by our tour guide that we would not be hearing old ghost stories, that the stories she was telling happened within the past 10 years. As earlier posts suggest the popularity of the paranormal field can have its disadvantages, in this case it resulted in about 50 people on this tour.

At Shield's Tavern we were given a brief history of the site including the renovation/restoration process, this was to setup the first story. Apparently to turn the original building into a tavern with a full kitchen while keeping the historical accuracy of the site required building the kitchen underground along with a tunnel system to the street behind the tavern. So the first story involved a former manager who was locking up for the evening when she got through the tunnel turned around and noticed a light was on in the upstairs office. She thought nothing of this and went back up to turn the light off, when she got back outside again she looked up and guess what, the light was back on. There was another worker waiting for a ride, she confirmed with him that she just turned the light back off, at this point she dragged him back into the tavern. When she reached the office again she noticed that the entire room was in disarray after cleaning up she turned the light back off and said out loud I'm tired do whatever you want but leave the LIGHT OFF! She gets back outside and looks up again to see that the light stayed off but her and her co-worker noticed the silhouette of a man in a tri-cornered hat.

After hearing this story our tour guide proceeded to tell us that historical records showed that the original tavern was owned by a man named Marot. Mr. Marot was murdered and a friend of his was indicted and eventually acquitted of the murder. After a few more tales about apparitions and cold spots we were informed that a few psychics had been on the ghost walk previously and confirmed that Mr. Marot was still hanging around in the building.

Our next stop was the Brickhouse Tavern which is also used as a hotel where visitors who want the full colonial experience can stay. Here we were told about 2 sisters who visit yearly and during their first stay at the Brickhouse tavern experienced some paranormal phenomena. It started out with a faint smell of tobacco, one sister knew it was tobacco since her husband smoked a pipe and was familiar with several different brands. During their first night one sister wakes up hearing a thumping sound near the foot of the bed then it gets closer and she feels a pressure on her chest and cannot move. Eventually she forces herself awake with a scream and the pressure goes away.

After hearing this story I started to loose some of my enthusiasm. This story is a textbook example of Sleep Paralysis:

A sleep disorder where a person half-awakens during the night. This causes the brain and the body to be out of sync and renders the individual paralyzed. Commonly those who experience sleep paralysis get the feeling of pressure on their body, as if some force was holding them down. Hallucinations often occur, mainly auditory but those who can open their eyes often see beings trying to attack them. Old superstitions used to call this 'the witch on your back' before science found an explanation.

Having experienced this first hand I know that it can really have an effect on a person and I can understand how it can make someone feel as if they had a paranormal experience. I decided to keep my feelings to myself but do feel that the tour guides should do a little research into some of the claims. Without doing the research you lose some credibility making it harder to believe the other claims.

We ventured on to the "most haunted building in colonial Williamsburg". Here we were told the story of a security guard that was making his rounds and never checked back in. When the security team went to his last know whereabouts they found him crouched in the basement holding his gun in a cocked position. He never mentioned what he saw but whatever it was caused him to quit on the spot. He now works at the University of Virginia and still won't talk. We were also informed that this site is famous for generating photos with anomalies specifically "an intense ball of light called an orb, that's what a ghost looks like in a picture."

Well anybody who has visited this site before knows how much the members of PPS LOVE orbs. Ha ha, yeah right, if you haven't read our post about orbs or think they are really the manifestation of a spirit please click here We were also told that once during the ghost tour one of the tourists spoke up and pointed out a black mist coming out of the keyhole, at this point someone in our group said "its pitch black over here, how can you see a black mist" those were my thoughts exactly.

We had one more stop on our tour which had an interesting story about a young hostess and a romantic ghost who really liked her.

Overall I did have fun, the stories were interesting and the tour guide did a good job. She was entertaining and knew how to tell the stories she was told. During the tour I kept my mouth shut to those around me, I didn't want to ruin their fun which is why I waited until now to offer my thoughts. I really don't recommend going if you belong to a paranormal group, unless you believe in orbs.

So to the company sponsoring this ghost walk or any ghost walk for that matter: Please do some more research into the claims before repeating them to your tour groups. When you speak about these things as absolute truth and someone can find a logical reason immediately you lose credibility with the rest of your stories.

After the tour was complete I walked back to Shield's Tavern where we began the tour, luckily everyone else had left and I had my recorder running. I snapped a few pictures before returning to the hotel and I was very surprised to see an image in one. Click here to be taken to our images page, the picture in question is the first one on this page the second and third pictures are the same just zoomed in and highlit.

Williamsburg

This past weekend I visited Williamsburg Virginia, while I did not go as an investigator, I did take my recorder.

We spent most of Saturday at Yorktown first visiting the battlefield and ending up at Yorktown settlement. From Yorktown we went to colonial Williamsburg for the rest of the day. That night we returned to colonial Williamsburg to take part in the Tavern Ghost Walk.  I used my recorder at each location and kept it running for the duration of the ghost walk.

Over the next few days I will be analyzing the audio files and pictures for any anomalies and will post them on the website along with a review of the ghost tour.

ParaAbnormal

I was reading some updates from some of our twitter followers today and found the following video. This is from a group called ParaAbnormal, they are based out of Ellicott City, MD and are about to start their own web series starting September 1st. Keep in mind that the name of the group is ParaAbnormal and anyone who is a fan or at least seen any of the popular Ghost Hunting shows will find this very funny. There are 3 clips available on youtube as a sneak peak and here is the first:

Case 01 - Part 1: ParaAbnormal Sex Tape - SNEAK PEEK

Gravity Hill Experiment

We conducted a series of tests on a reported Gravity hill over the weekend. The results can be found on our experiments page under urban legends. Or directly link from here http://www.pasadenaparanormal.com/exp.php?title=Gravity%20Hill%201

4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Of course the 4th of July has significance to every American, but it has extra meaning to the members of PPS since our group was founded on the 4th of July.

So Happy Anniversary PPS!

K2Comment and response

We received the following comment regarding our k2 experiment:

"If you think getting 20 feet out of an FRS walkie setting off a K2 is good, how far do you think a transmitter from a police, ambulance, business or Ham radio running several THOUSAND times the power would get? Then multiply that by 10 if they point a yagi your way. It's not just your equipment that can set off a K2."

Our response:

Thanks for the comment, the whole point of this experiment is to find out what can cause false hits so that we can try to rule it out in the future. We are not like most groups in that we don't take k2 hits or emf spikes as definite proof of paranormal activity, rather we document it to see if it correspond to other evidence/experiences we encounter at the same time. If this is the case then we feel it supports the emf/paranormal theory. I'll try to find a way to test your other theories.

Experiment Posted

The results for our K2 false hits experiment have been posted to the Experiments page. Go to the Experiments tab on the navigation menu and select Equipment or click HERE

Hunt Ghosts with Nintendo DSi

Want to hunt ghosts on your Nintendo DSi???

"A Different Game", a Swedish game developer has begun porting the augmented reality game "Ghostwire" to the Nintendo DSi. "Ghostwire" was originally developed for smart phones as part of the Nokia N-Gage Mobile Games Innovation Challenge in 2008 and has since been in development for other handheld devices.


"Using the DSi's built-in camera and microphone, the game allows you to find and hunt ghosts seen through the camera lens and projected onto the real world.... Ghostwire is a collection- and adventure game, where you use your handheld device to communicate with ghosts. Your portable device is used as a portal to the astral plane, and helps you find and collect ghosts that exist all around you. In your quest you use real tools, such as the built-in camera and microphone, as well as abstract ones like a "frequency modulator" for tuning in ghosts. Once you find the spirits, you document them and find out why they haunt our world. They can also give you riddles to solve. Ultimately, you can help them to find peace." -ghostwiregame.com

For more information, please visit: http://www.ghostwiregame.com

5/18/09 Site Update

There is a new feature coming to the PPS website, an Experiments section. While the pages are currently empty we will be conducting experiments in the very near future to fill them. We hope to prove or debunk some of the claims that are commonly associated with the paranormal field. The experiment pages have been broken down into 3 main categories:

Theories, which will attempt to prove the specific theories that we have heard or developed ourselves.

Equipment, here we will attempt to find the most accurate way of using our equipment by testing for limitations or false positives.

Urban Legends, these will be more rare as most urban legends have been retold so many times it would be too hard to verify any validity of the original story. Some though, may have roots here in Maryland's history and hopefully we can find out what really happened to cause the legend to appear.


Once we conduct the experiment we will post the results and all data gathered along with a youtube video documenting the experiment.

We hope that you enjoy this new addition to our site and if you have something you would like us to test out please let us know by sending an email to help@pasadenaparanormal.com.

Daily Topic 5/1/09 Direction

If it was your decision, what direction would you take the field of Paranormal Investigation? or How would you like to see the field evolve in the future?

Dave: As with any field, there are numerous sub-factions of paranormal investigators. You have: serious minded individuals and groups whose focus is strictly research, groups that deal primarily with helping clients with purported hauntings, and groups as we tend to do, attempt to do both.

Then you have the thrill-seekers. The kids with a new toy that make it virtually impossible to advance the field without cutting through the stigma they cause. If it were a single thing I could change, it would be to cancel all the TV shows and let these people go back to their Dungeons and Dragons game, leaving those with focused attention in contributing to the study; do so without their "muddying the waters".

From the standpoint of the research arm of the paranormal, I'd love to see researchers combine their efforts to support, debunk, or amend the theories that currently exist. From a combined effort, replication of test results may induce other researchers who dismiss these studies currently to contribute. We are developing our own spins on currently accepted theories and hope to offer the paranormal community, something to consider.

James: I would like to take the world of paranormal investigating to the fore front. Make it a more respected science than as some people treat it as. With the technology we have the sky is the limit in our investigative techniques. Helping out our clients with troubled entities to helping the police with possible evps at a crime scene. I know it sounds unusual but if it were my way, the world would respect paranormal investigation a lot more.

Rex: For me I'd like to see a clear set of standards that would need to be followed by all paranormal groups. Any skeptic will tell you that the reason people don't take this field seriously is because the claims and theories can not be replicated on demand. If all evidence was held to the same standards I believe it would grant more credibility to the field even if the results could not be replicated. The problem is that each group out there has their own way of doing things and most disagree on what should be counted as evidence. At PPS we do not use personal experience as evidence and rarely use photographs, this is because they can be taken out of context and only those involved with the situation can speak to the validity. I know we are a long way away from being accepted with open arms into the mainstream scientific community but I would like to at least be acknowledged.

Pasadena Investigation Revisited

Tonight we head back to our most recent investigation site in Pasadena. This time we will not have the rain to deal with which should make analysis a lot easier. We will follow up on some of the answers we received from our EVP sessions and other questions that were raised. Also on this time around we will be doing something we have never done before, involving the homeowners. After our main investigation is complete we will retire to the tech center and allow the homeowners to go to bed, we will monitor the cameras to see what happens during their normal nighttime routine.

Since this is a follow up we may include some of our lesser used equipment for experimentation. I am looking forward to tonight, this will be the first time I get to lead the entire investigation, so keep checking back to see the results.

-Rex

Daily Topic 4/23/09-Improvements

As a group that is always analyzing and trying to better ourselves I posed this question to our team:
In what areas do you think PPS could improve?

Dave: As a relatively young group, there are still trial and error corrections being made with each investigation. While there are many books out on paranormal investigations, none cover every scenario the investigator will encounter. In this light, we chose to develop our own methodologies. Whether they are superior techniques or not remain to be determined.

I personally would like a better turn around time on evidence analysis. We are extremely meticulous in our analysis of recorded data. Looking and listening for every anomaly and often with duplicity of review can take weeks after the close of the physical investigation. What are weeks to us is an eternity to the client. As professional as we strive to be, isn’t very apparent if we do not report our findings timely.

We are making moves to improve this segment of our investigation by adding members who we feel would excel as analyzers. I don’t think the "mother hen" mentality I have will ever allow me to fully delegate this function off to others, but in the interest of the client, we need to shorten this cycle time dramatically.

As this field of study continues to advance with newer technologies and discoveries, I am sure that our procedures and methods will continue to change and improve as time progresses.

Rex: I think we have come a long way from where we started from, we've upgraded equipment enhanced the website and figured out some different techniques as far as debunking and investigating. Since Dave pretty much covered the analysis portion I'll add getting more content on the website. I've added this daily topic and it seems to be getting some positive response, even if nobody is really posting them. But I want to add more "meat" the stuff you really want to see, we have hundreds of evps to listen to but due to the span in between investigations and analysis time, it can take a while before new ones are posted. One thing PPS will be doing this summer will be some experiments, Dave spoke briefly about it a few posts ago, these will allow us to update the website with interesting content in between our investigations. We will be looking into some of the theories about the equipment we use and even trying to debunk some of the skeptics claims. We will make videos of these experiments and post them here and on our youtube channel. If you have any suggestions about a theory or an experiment or something you want us to look into, send us an email at help@pasadenaparanormal.com

Daily Topic 4/22/09-Skeptics

How important is skepticism to paranormal investigation and far should one go as a skeptic when debunking?

Dave: I think skepticism gets a bad name. It is often associated with a doubting, unalterable opinion based on predisposed beliefs. But skepticism, properly dispensed, is the basis of all discovery. Without the need to prove something, experimentation is fruitless. If everything is taken at face value without debate and investigation, than we fall under a belief structure based on blind faith.

We approach every investigation as believers in the continuation of the soul. But this belief is based on past results and experimentation, not a rubber stamp of activity on the current case. Our jobs are to prove, or disprove activity at the client's site after exhausting all possible earthly causes. By proof, I mean the lack of dispute for the claims made and evidence gathered. As we may never have concrete proof of the working of the ethereal realm, best educated guesses may be as good as it gets.

Every group needs to keep a certain air of skepticism in play throughout the entire investigation. This includes analysis. I have been so excited by an EVP hit, that another team member will later disprove as an EVP and rightly so. So to jump to conclusions without review and group agreement does a disservice to the client and the field of study as a whole.

Can someone be too skeptical? I absolutely believe so. We call this the "Andy Syndrome". Most readers will know what I mean by this. These people try way too hard to disprove the paranormal. Their explanations can develop to the point where their earthly explanation is almost less believable than the activity reported. We try to bring in members that have a good balance between belief and skepticism, coupled with a deep desire to know the truth. With this mix, we feel very confident that we have delivered the best product we can to our clients.

Rex: There are extremists when it comes to the paranormal on both sides, skeptics and believers. Those labeled skeptics by the paranormal are usually on the extreme side, where they just deny anything paranormal without any investigation or study at all. Their main argument is "____ doesn't exist" which basically applies to anything they deal with. On the opposite side are the believers that just accept everything anyone tells them without question.

We approach our cases as believers who are skeptical about each claim given to us. We aim to prove the paranormal by making sure that we cannot debunk the claims. Debunking is a major part of our investigations, we look for things (within reason) that could cause these things to happen. Once all natural phenomena are exhausted we can look to the paranormal. The "Andy Syndrome" that Dave speaks about is when the ridiculous is considered as an explanation. For example a claim may be that a client hears loud banging coming from their attic after we rule out the possibility of squirrels and raccoons or tree branches blown and the only explanation possible would be if someone dropped a Buick from 100 feet onto the house, the Andys of the world would accept this.

4/20/09 Hauntings vs Paranormal Activity

A lot of times we determine that a house is not necessarily haunted but does have paranormal activity going on, what is the difference in a house/location that is haunted and one that just has paranormal activity?

Dave: Unfortunately the word paranormal and ghosts have become synonymous with each other. Ghosts and hauntings are an example of paranormal activity, but the word paranormal basically means "beyond normal". Beyond normal encompasses anything that cannot otherwise be scientifically explained. This includes: psychokinesis, ESP and telepathy, cryptozoology, UFO's, etc. One example of a non-entity paranormal event was recently discussed in our Daily Forum when Rex defined what "Poltergeist" activity encompasses.

A true haunting exists when all attempts to explain reported activity as originating from earthly causes fail, and recordable confirmation of spirit activity is captured. The term "earthly causes" encompasses non-human origination, (High EMF caused paranoia, raccoon caused footsteps in the attic, etc.) and human caused events such as unintentional telekinetic episodes. PPS will never run the haunting flag up the pole unless we have quantifiable evidence of various types, (audio plus video, audio and personal experiences backed-up by recordable measurement equipment findings, corroboration of client findings without successful debunking, etc.).

As a haunting may be either an intelligent, or a residual event, even a confirmed finding of a haunting takes on different courses of action. In either case, or if something non-entity driven is taking place, bestowing the client with knowledge and confirmation are the best and perhaps the only resolve.

Daily Topic 4/17/09-Artifacts

This week's episode of Ghosthunters revolved around a traveling Titanic exhibit, currently located at an Atlanta aquarium, the exhibit contained items pulled from the wreckage and stories of paranormal activities followed it from city to city. The question for today is, can personal belongings be the source of a haunting?

Dave: As part of our pre-investigative interview, we will ask if the client can remember bringing either an antique or yard sale item into the home around the same time activity was first noted. If the client can remember bringing such an object into their homes, we ask them to remove the object for a period of time to see if the activity ceases.

Why would an entity follow an object from place to place? I'm not a big fan of believing that an object traps a spirit within it, I would lean towards the object having played a very significant role in the entities life. I fully believe that when I transition my TV remote will be haunted like a big dog. This may explain the many reported cases of haunted dolls and musical instruments. If this premise is true, it would explain why the entity is mobile. It is a "Hey, where are you taking my _______?"

In the case of Wednesday night's "Ghost Hunters" episode, I did not finish watching the episode, but saw enough to know that the objects on display where mostly money and articles of clothing. These are hardly items that would fall under the "beloved objects" aspect of this theory. I will have to defer my opinion of whether there were Titanic victim entities present until after I watch again.

Rex: There are lots of documented cases where objects have paranormal activity surrounding them. I am another one who doesn't think that a spirit is trapped by or within an object but follows it as it holds some significance with a spirit. Who's to say what can be a significant item that would be worth following around. As for Wednesday's Ghosthunters, they could not determine that the activity was linked in any way to the Titanic based on the evidence captured. The items in the exhibit may have only been trivial things but for a tragedy like the Titanic, they may have been the last personal possessions that they had when the ship went down. I think it would be interesting to see if any other exhibits around the country, that contain items from a specific event, have paranormal activity.

Daily Topic 4/16/09-Minibox

Is the mini box (aka ghost box or Frank's box) a reliable tool for paranormal investigators, or is it still too new to be used for more than experimentation?


*if you are not sure what the mini box is check out the website's equipment page at the very bottom. We also have a pretty good positive result from one of our big circle recordings:

Pasadena Paranormal Radio Sweep



Dave: The "Mini Box", "Frank’s Box" and other similar configurations of radio band sweeping devices are tools used in ITC (Instrumental Transcommunication) research.

ITC research covers experimentation in both audio and video attempts to communicate with the spirit world. The premise of Radio Sweep equipment is that by using a device which sweeps a radio band (AM, or FM) without pausing at a particular frequency, an entity will use the available noise to form words.

PPS has a Mini Box which we use during our ITC experiments. We haven't used it extensively at investigations as the results of Mini Box experiments are subject to debate. Many opponents feel that the words recorded are merely snippets of words being said on the stations being scanned and those sentences, or groups of words are random and pure chance. Proponents believe these are indeed "voices from beyond". We listen for a predetermined length of time following the question, usually six seconds is the cutoff, and we listen for relevance to the question posed. As PPS hasn't fully embraced this method, we never base any results from its use as "evidence".

We have had a few compelling recordings using the radio sweep technique as Rex stated in the question. If anyone is interested in starting ITC experiments, I recommend joining the AAEVP (American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena). They have very minimal yearly dues and have groups all over the world that share the experiments they are conducting and are very happy to assist those new to the field with getting their start. Their website is http://www.aaevp.com/

Until then, watch our website for an upcoming section devoted entirely to PPS experiments with ITC coming in late summer 09.


Jake: I hate the mini box! Not because I think it is without use. Not because I have yet to experience anything paranormal using that machine (though I've only seen it once). I hate it because it freaks me out! I don't know if I could handle hearing a disembodied voice speak to me clearly using radio waves ... the good news is that there are fewer commercials than FM radio. The down side is that I always need to remember in the future to pack an extra pair of drawers.

Rex: I think it is still too new to be used as a primary tool to capture paranormal evidence. On one hand the box continuously scans radio frequencies and radio stations broadcast programs on those frequencies which already puts labels voices caught as questionable. However if used properly and sticking to a clearly defined set of rules on how long you will wait (for us its about 6 seconds) for a response I believe it could, in time be very valuable to investigators.

If you watched the clip at the beginning of this post you will know that I personally have first hand experience with a positive result. We were conducting a "Big Circle" session and one of the first questions Dave asked was for a spirit to say the words "HI REX" immediately we heard what sounded like the word "HI" and we respond to it. As we were talking it said "HI" again and then "REX" which we comment about in the clip, then we got a clear voice saying "HI REX" at the end. The words HI and REX are said by the same voice as if in one continuous statement, if this were a case where the minibox was just picking up an actual radio broadcast it would have been 2 different voices and most likely broken up due to different frequencies.

Daily Topic 4/15/09 Protection

From garlic to burning sage to wearing tin-foil hats and rings of salt there are a lot of items people claim can protect you from evil spirits. Do any of these items actually work or do you have your own theory on protecting yourself against harmful entities?

Dave: I don't know if I can answer this question with any level of expertise. As we elected from our inception, PPS will not subject its members to possible demonic cases.

Our game plan was to direct the client to contact their clergy, or to arrange for a clergy visit to address their needs. As such, I haven't educated myself fully along these lines.

My first suggestion would be to not invite these entities into your home to begin with. Dabbling in occult type rituals, Ouija Boards, amateur EVP recording efforts, etc., can open a door to something the person didn't desire. I don't believe entities; either good or evil perform drive-by hauntings. The conditions need to be favorable for the entity to take hold. This could be: an abusive home, a home filled with consistent anger, or one completely devoid of God's love.

As far as my personal choice for preventing evil from entering my home is to fill it to the rim with love. Love for my family, for my Lord and for all my blessings.

There just isn't any room for evil.

All paranormal researchers are involved with the unknown and are subject to the dangers of such. This is what frightens me when I see the proliferation of "Ghost Hunter" wannabees treading into a world they haven't educated themselves about or taken the proper precautions. Herein lies the dangers of all the "reality shows" Rex mentioned yesterday. This isn't "The Bachelor", or "Last Comic Standing". There are real dangers associated with the ethereal realm and to place both those chosen by a casting agent, or inspire your audience to place themselves in these situations is both very dangerous and irresponsible.

I implore anyone interested in investigating the paranormal to do so through the guidance of a serious-minded, experienced group. Do your research first and be certain the team you choose to solicit is a viable, established and focused group. Learn as much as possible on your own about both paranormal research and hauntings before soliciting a group. If you are just looking for thrills, or a good scare, wait for Halloween and go to a haunted house instead.

Rex: Most of the items people claim provide protection have some religious significance to it whether Christian, Pagan, Native American, Voodoo or Wiccan. The danger is that if there actually is an evil entity are you using the correct talisman? I recall one of the only episodes I watched of Paranormal State where a demonic spirit was attacking a family in a trailer park. The investigative group brought in clergy and demanded the spirit leave by quoting biblical verse, they mentioned that they wouldn't say the name of the demon but flashed the name several times across the screen in jumbled up letters. Using a bit of logic and research I was able to find out the name of the demon was from Judaism and I'm not sure but I think bringing in a Catholic Priest to cast out a Jewish demon would probably do more harm than good.

I'm not a superstitious person, I don't personally believe that any of the items most use as personal protection talismans will actually do anything. I do believe in the power of positive thinking and that sometimes all a person needs is some reassurance that everything is going to be ok. If a crystal or bottle of Holy water is what it takes to make you feel better than that is fine but be aware of what you are getting into. I know the dangers involved in this field and I approach it cautiously and accept responsibility for whatever happens to me. I also know that nobody on our team would do anything to endanger the rest of the group or our clients. As Dave said on the demonology post "We at PPS, since our inception have a firm policy of not becoming involved with any investigation where the possibility of a demonic event is occurring...we do not have enough knowledge or experience to effectively deal with something of this magnitude."

As far as garlic or foil hats:
1 Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2 Peel away the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact. Using a knife, cut off 1/4 to a 1/2 inch of the top of cloves, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.

3 Place the garlic heads in a baking pan; muffin pans work well for this purpose. Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, using your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed.

4 Allow the garlic to cool enough so you can touch it without burning yourself. Use a small small knife cut the skin slightly around each clove. Use a cocktail fork or your fingers to pull or squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins.

Eat as is (I love straight roasted garlic) or mash with a fork and use for cooking. Can be spread over warm French bread, mixed with sour cream for a topping for baked potatoes, or mixed in with Parmesan and pasta. (from www.elise.com)

Daily Topic 4/14/09-TV

Since the paranormal is a hot topic right now it seems that every tv network is jumping on the bandwagon with at least 4 new shows starting within the next 6 months.

1. E! is adding a show where cheerleaders are put into a haunted house, filmed with the camera mounted facing them so that their reactions can be seen.
2. Cartoon Network is adding a few live action reality show including a paranormal one where a group of teenagers hunt ghost after school with the help of their moms for transportation. This is also filmed in the same style as the show on E!
3. Ghost Cops is about a group of Chicago police officers who investigate the paranormal, filmed COPS style, not sure which network.
4. Steve and Tango from GhostHunters are getting their own show where they travel around the country to different colleges and "teach" students how to become investigators. I'm thinking Ghosts Gone Wild! here
   

Actually there are more, I've seen casting calls for a number of other shows that have yet to receive a greenlight including my favorite in which they are looking for a "paranormal investigator/demonologist" that hunts ghosts with the help of his or her dog.

My question is: What would you do if approached by a TV network wanting to give PPS their own show? What would the conditions have to be in order to accept?


Dave:Ahhh the lure of fame and fortune! Here is the problem with having a televised show of your own; "your own" doesn't apply any longer. You are now an employee. The show may begin with the stars being autonomous, but with success or failure being one rating away, the control and direction become the producers'.

Who wouldn't want money for better equipment, a career doing what you love, and a little notoriety? Anyone who still takes the subject seriously and wants to have their team calling the shots.

Let's face it; most investigations are 80 hours of prep, investigation and cumulative analysis time with about 40 seconds of thrills. That will never bring in the ratings. Next thing you know, we’d be studying a script. "Okay, Jake flushes the toilet upstairs and Rex yells 'what the frig' while I look left, no, right with a startled expression". No thanks.

Now if an organization doing a documentary about paranormal investigations solicits our group to show what an actual investigative process entails; we may be interested. And by actual, I mean: No music / sounds effect overdubbing, no retakes due to botched camera angles, and no staged responses to generate excitement of the viewer. Since that isn't going to happen, you can always watch us every Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern by looking through our living room windows.

Rex: The problem with all of the tv shows out there is that they came to be about money and ratings rather than furthering the paranormal field. The only possible way I would even consider it would be if it was stated in a contract that we are able to do it OUR way. That means we conduct our investigations the way we always do using the team members that we choose and NO SOUND EFFECTS. I would also demand that the people on the production team be team members themselves that way no outsiders could create fake noises or evidence. But since Hollywood won't buy a reality show that is actually real, I guess that will never happen.

Daily Topic 4/11/09-Evidence

We have captured lots of EVPs over the course of our investigations but our video and photographic evidence is almost nothing. Why is it so rare to get images (whether video or photos) that can be presented as evidence?

Dave: This question ties in nicely with one posed earlier pertaining to the availability of ethereal voices. It is true that EVP evidence has been prolific at all our investigations, while video evidence is virtually non-existent. Which way do we lean in explaining this?

1. We suck at getting video evidence.
2. Entities choose not to reveal themselves to strangers.
3. Entities are able to speak ‘way’ easier than they can appear.
4. The voices are not coming from the site being investigated.

Ok, I'm not a big fan of #1, but I believe the remaining three hold water. Do entities not want us to see them? We have volumes of EVP evidence that say, "Hide", "Run", "Shhhhh", as if trying to elude our team. It is the equivalent of hiding in the closet, or under the bed if an intruder is in your home. Perhaps a familiarity with the home’s residents makes them feel comfortable in interacting visually. We are actually testing this theory on our next investigation by using a portion of the investigation time to allow the homeowners’ normal evening activities to be observed without Investigator interaction. Keep your fingers crossed!

Can entities speak easier than they can appear? It is believed that spirits require significant energy to manifest, yet are able to use ambient sound sources to form words. As EVPs are not audible at the time of recording with our Human ears, I assume much less energy is required for verbal contact than visual. Obviously they never remember that entities should be seen and not heard. We have had minute video events, but none conclusive enough to confirm a paranormal source.

Are the voices we record originating elsewhere? This is my personal favorite theory. Believing that EVP evidence could originate from a non-resident, intelligent source "screws-the-pooch" as far as authenticating a localized paranormal event. As our case load settles down, we intend on testing this theory by recording at locations which have no reported paranormal activity. Should we amass enough positive EVP hits at these locations, this theory may have some credibility. We will provide the experiments results on the web site.

Which ever reason keeps the elusive entities in hiding, we will continue looking for the "Holy Grail" of paranormal research.

I wish everyone a Blessed Easter!


Rex: I agree 100 percent with Dave on the reason we don't catch much in the form of photographic or video evidence. I would like to add that there are a few other reasons as to why we don't present what we do catch as evidence. Mainly the anonymity of our clients is very important to us, and if a client does not want us to post pictures or videos that could identify their house we will not. Another reason for not displaying pictures is that they are almost always taken out of context, its easy to mistake a normal picture for a paranormal one if you don't know what happened before and after the picture was taken. For example what may appear to be an unexplained mist may just be somebody's breath on a cold day which you wouldn't be able to tell if there were no people in the shot. Video provides more context allowing viewers to see the events leading up to the paranormal activity, which is why video is much more rare than photographic evidence. In reality though, video should be easier to catch since cameras can be fixed in multiple locations at one time and record for several hours, where still cameras pointing at a random location and taking a picture would provide a smaller amount of probability to capture something. Even a photo taken when somebody experiences something paranormal(cold spot, touch, sound) the picture is taken after the event happened.

From time to time we get photos, evps, videos sent to us for analysis from our site visitors. If you would like us to analyze something you captured we would be more than happy to help. Just send an email to help@pasadenaparanormal.com We also would like to invite you to send us your questions, comments, stories so that we may discuss them on this blog.

Daily Topic 4/10/09 Google Ghosts

Today's post is a response to the number of "ghosts" that have been spotted on Google Maps' street view. One of the more popular pictures being circulated right now is this one from Cardiff Wales.



A UK paper is reporting that the woman is wearing clothes not seen in today's fashion, basically she is dressed like Mary Poppins, hovering above the ground without legs and the odd effect on the bottom of the picture is actually ectoplasm.

This of course is not the case as you can see in this picture.



Google's street view is created by a camera mounted on a vehicle which takes 360 degree digital pictures and then put back together again by their street view program. Sometimes a picture may be missing or slightly different than the one before causing an overlap when put back together. This is exactly what happened here causing this poor woman to briefly lose her legs.

Another picture going around is this one from Toowoomba, Australia




The reported ghost is the odd shape in front of the left window. The homeowners themselves believe this to be a ghost and reported their findings to an Australian paper


This is a different but very common type of glitch caused by Google Maps. Due to privacy concerns Google added an automatic blur feature that would try to recognize things like faces and license plates. Since faces are very tricky to auto-detect sometimes it blurs out things that are not faces at all. This is what I believe is happening here, their program thought that this window should be blurred out and the part of the window that divides the panes(muntins) changes into oval shaped blurs.


I know these aren't the only cases and probably won't be the last, as more and more streets are covered by the street view program I'm sure we'll see many more reports.


-Rex

Daily Topic 4/9/09 - Investigation Time

This is a question we get asked often, why do you investigate at night?

Dave: There are many trains of thought on what time of the day we are best able to witness spirit activity. Many prescribe to the belief that the 'witching hour' of 12:00 am is the best time, although practicing witches do not acknowledge a single hour but a division of 12 planetary hours. Many prescribe that evil spirits are most prevalent at 3:00 am, which is the polar opposite of 3:00 pm; the time Christ was believed to die on the cross.

PPS believes that the haunting that is being studied should be investigated at whatever time the client reports the most activity. If we have a case where the client reports hearing footsteps and doors slamming at 4:00 pm every day, why would we wait until it is dark? We aren't just going to investigate at night because that's how all the TV shows do it. Most activity we have had reported to our group indeed happens at night, usually noted after the clients have gone to bed.

Probably the most beneficial reasons to investigate at night are that the site's surroundings are quieter and less active. This affords the investigator less noise to filter out of audio and less movement in the area for video analysis. Subtle shadows and light events are more readily visible if there is less competing light and action; ergo the reason to investigate in as little ambient light as possible.

PPS, unless a daylight hour is cited as the most active, will schedule our investigations usually between a start time of 9:00 pm and leaving an end time open depending on the activity level observed and the amount of coverage completed. We need to remember that oft-times we are displacing family’s lives by investigating at night and to 'kick a dead horse' seems foolish. So when we fully believe we have completed our case objectives, we wrap up the equipment and head home.


Rex: There are a number of reasons the simplest one being the schedules of our clients. Of course we want to be there during the time that occurrences are reported to happen; but if you think about it, when are people home? mostly at night or later afternoon hours. If nobody is home then they can't possibly witness any paranormal activity. As I said there are other factors including less human activity in the area (which makes evidence review a lot easier) and light sources being easier to identify. I think a lot of groups who base their entire investigative process on how its done on tv think that it has to do with some sort of magical nighttime element. Others are just looking for a thrill, and lets face it the dark can be pretty creepy. We listen to the claims of our clients and when the activity seems to occur and schedule our investigations around that time whether day or night.

Daily Topic 4/8/09 - Paranormal Conditions

On the right side bar of our web page we have a section for paranormal conditions including the phase of the moon and the solar x-ray. Today's question is "In your experience does the phase of the moon or solar activity really affect a paranormal investigation?"

Dave: We have a pending case that states that increased activity occurs in relation to a full moon. There are many schools of thought on what geomagnetic parameters supply the necessary fodder for optimum paranormal activity.

We at PPS do not heavily rely on these conditions, as studies into the correlation or lack thereof are ongoing and inconclusive. We use the indicators supplied by the property owners as a better gauge of optimal paranormal activity (i.e. every time we have an argument, between 3 and 4 am every night, etc.). Is the availability of naturally occurring electromagnetic chow beneficial for intelligent (non-residual) haunts to be more active? I think that is a fair statement, but as we have learned, spirits seldom respond on cue, fully juiced or not.

There are proponents that believe that using a sidereal time component is a better indicator of primetime paranormal activity. Sidereal time is a determination of the earth’s position in its axis as opposed to the position of distant stars and instead of being a 24 hour day, lasts approximately 23 hours 56 minutes and 04.0905 seconds in duration. That is way too much math for me. There is a duality in our objectives for PPS investigations. Learn and advance studies in paranormal research and assist property owners with the phenomena they are experiencing, leaning heavily toward the latter. As our knowledge as a group grows, I am sure we will be better positioned to contribute to the findings of the research arm of paranormal studies. Until then, we will probably rely more on gut feelings (no jokes here guys) than inconclusive data.


Rex: For me this still goes under the category of an unproven theory. As with anything else we come across during our research we will document the current phase of the moon, solar activity and any weather conditions so that we can trend the data for common results. The moon has always been seen as a mystical force on nature affecting the tides and people's behavior, because of this we cannot discount this theory. Hopefully we or another group may be able to draw a definitive link between the phase of the moon and the paranormal but until then we will continue to record our findings.

Daily Topic 4/7/09 Animals and Kids

A lot of people believe that animals and children have a heightened sense when it comes to the paranormal. Do you believe this is true or are people just reading way too much into things our pets and kids do?

Dave: I thoroughly believe that children and animals are able to sense more than adults. I lean towards not thinking they possess a heightened sixth sense, but I believe their other five senses are so much keener. Children haven't learned to take things for granted. Their natural inclination to learning their world is to see (and touch) everything. Animals can be entertained easily; dogs are fascinated by blowing leaves and a laser light will keep a cat busy for hours. Animals are not predisposed to analyze everything they sense and experience as adults are.

Part of our pre-investigative work is to ask about the activity of children or pets in the home. Often there will be marked responses from both in, or near areas of activity. It would be ideal to be able to as investigators, turn off our adult senses and get back to a more child-like state. But then we'd probably just can the investigation and watch Sponge-Bob instead.

Rex: We've all seen news stories about how animals act strangely just before a major natural disaster. Why wouldn't this extend beyond weather or geological events and into other aspects of the paranormal? We get lots of reports about dogs/cats that won't enter certain rooms of reported haunted houses or that they will follow or look at something that isn't there. The problem is that we can't ask our pets what they are looking at, well we can but we won't get an answer.

Kids on the other hand can tell us what they see, if they are old enough, but this probably gets labeled under the "imaginary friend" phase and we ignore it. Being a new parent myself I am interested to see how I react when my daughter tells me that she has a new friend that only she can see. Will I patronize her and play along as if it is an imaginary friend or will I break out my camera, voice recorder and K2 meter. I guess only time will tell, and I have a few years before that happens.

Daily Topic 4/3/09 Who's Watching

Even though this was talked about as a joke on the April Fools day post, do you think that ghosts are around us all of the time? Could they be everywhere or just in "haunted" locations?


Dave:This is a great topic for debate. As stated in a previous topic concerning evps, I am a proponent of the "spirits are everywhere" belief. If you ask anyone where Heaven is, they'll most likely look upwards and conversely down for Hell, but who is to say that Heaven and Hell are places and not just states of being. We are dealing with entities that are no longer in the physical, yet we continue to assert that they are in physical places with physical limitations. If, as many paranormal researchers believe that the soul lives on but just in a different frequency or state of consciousness, why couldn’t they be, not only all around us, but also within us?

That may explain the "chills" we feel internally on a hot day.

We have several evps that answer in an affirmative when we ask if the entity is in Heaven. Is whoever that is responding lying? Are entities able to communicate from Heaven, wherever that may be? Is heaven here around us? Who knows?

Physical life is all about choices; where we live, where we go, what we do. The same may hold true for the ethereal. If an entity remains within the area they occupied in life, it may be by a conscious choice to do so versus the inability to ‘move on’. We will probably never know for certain until we ourselves enter that realm.

Rex: I think we all have those moments where we get unexplained chills or the feeling that we are not alone, could this be because we are not, maybe. The amount of evps we have recorded in various locations with different levels of activity certainly seems to suggest that even if they are not around us all of the time, they could possibly come and go as they please. Of course this is still a theory and a hard one to test out due to the inability to command a spirit's actions. Some believe that there are gateways to the next plane of existence in different places all over the world. If this is the case then maybe in those situations where we determine that there is no haunting but some kind of activity is present, maybe its just spirits passing through.

Daily Topic 4/2/09 Native Language

Today's question was inspired by Barry from Ghost Hunters International. If you don't know who he is, he is the one who speaks every language ever spoken.

Does it matter if you speak to a ghost in their native language? is it necessary to use only words that they would have known when they were alive?

Dave: I don't know if I can answer this question with any firm belief. I hate to use other group's theories without being able to substantiate their claims. So let me prefix that these theories are not necessarily those of PPS and by such we do not necessarily agree with them.

So here are some of the theories I have heard on the subject. There are schools of thought that believe that the verbal communication is not required from the spirits end. A telepathic type communication exists and even though we speak audibly, it is the thoughts we generate that are received by the entity. In this case, language is irrelevant.

There are more trains of thought that believe entities who have not moved on will respond to familiar language, people and events as they would have done in life. In that case, language differences may be a barrier to question and answer results. I would think this would more of a problem with entities which lived a long time ago as English was not as prevalent as it is today.

We, I don't believe, have heard any language other than English on our recordings. We have had quite a few that had distinct British accents. That would lead me to believe that communication from the ethereal does retain aspects of their life. As we have not visited any locales that weren’t stateside, I guess we'll never know until PPSI gets a show.

Rex: Logically it would make sense for a spirit to speak the same language after death. That does not mean that they still can't communicate with you if you don't speak a language that they are familiar with. The most common type of haunting is a residual, so odds are that whatever you are trying to contact may not even know that you are there. Residuals are basically just replaying the same set of events over and over again, and whatever was said during that event will continue to be said until the imprint is gone. We have tried numerous times to interact with spirits in a way that they may be accustomed to. At the children's section of Cedar Hill we placed toys and spoke as if we were speaking to a child. We try to refer to our recorders as a "device" since a spirit may have lived in a time where recorders didn't exist. Our case manager Jake even got on all fours and made cat calls to try to communicate with a possible cat entity on our last case.(your welcome Dave, that was for yesterday) We really have not had any conclusive evidence to prove that this method makes a difference, so for now we will continue to test this theory. Meow! Meow!

Daily Topic 4/1/09

What is it about ghosts that is so interesting?

Dave:I'm not certain that I find this fact more interesting than I do disturbing. The one topic that seems to be excluded from paranormal research, (and we at PPS are guilty of this as well) is what appears to be the spirit world's interest in watching the living.

This may be more unsettling for some more than others, but entities like to watch. We have numerous evps which indicate entities watch us shower, use the toilet and more than anything laugh at us in our bedroom activities.

This is not just a PPS theory. Of the four organizations that PPS is affiliated with, all four agree that we the living are entertainment for the spirit world. That means that 46 separate paranormal investigation teams have garnered evidence supporting the theory that nothing is sacred when it comes to entity intrusion into our private matters. That means 100% agreement on groups from the east coast to as far as the Mississippi River and two Canadian groups. We have heard evps which clearly made fun of the homeowner’s rather small genitalia and another from a group in South Carolina that described the client falling asleep on the toilet.

Is the ethereal world nothing more than a peep show, or an 'Ethereal Funniest Videos'? I don’t think so, but to think that entities who know no physical limitations aren’t watching us in the bathroom would be naive. So how would I advise anyone who is disturbed by this? I guess I would say to suck in your gut when you are alone too, because you never know who is watching.


Jake: What interests me about ghosts is the idea that after a human being has died, there is a chance of him still communicating with those still walking the earth. Maybe it is simply a shadow from a car's headlights that we think is a ghost. Maybe it is just the way the wind blows that makes us think someone of the paranormal world was calling our name. It's strange to think of what waits for us once we are done on this earth ... or once the economy finally tanks ... whichever comes first.

Some of the theories surrounding the paranormal are interesting as well. My favorite, I think, is the theory that spirits can communicate better with those who are bald. The idea is that because there is such a glare off the bare head of a bald person, any light (whether it be from flashlights) or energy sources can refract off the skull and allow entities to draw that energy to either produce sound or even, though rare, show themselves in the form of an apparition.

PPS is lucky to have David Schmincke as our leader and co-founder, because David has suffered from what doctors actually refer to as "barebones skullapnia," which is essentially male pattern baldness. (And the pattern is actually a horse shoe.) It's very strange. But the payoff is that PPS has caught dozens of EVPs and possibly a few disembodied voices because of the energy that reflects off his bald head. The experiments that numberless paranormal investigation groups and scientists have performed have backed up this theory that was actually discovered nearly 45 years ago.

Einstein had E=MC2 ... PPS had David Schmincke and barebones skullapnia.


James: Ghosts are quite interesting because of their profound ability to annoy you if they don't like what you're watching on tv. I had an encounter at my friend's house when everytime we took the tv off of espn, the lights would flicker on and off and an apparition would start walking towards us. I googled it and turns out quite a few people have experienced what I've gone through. From Family Guy being turned off, to reruns of sandford and son. So next time you're surfing the channels and the house starts to shake, maybe you should stay on Three's Company before you start thinking about moving. You'll be amazed at what you find.

Rex: I think the most fascinating thing about ghosts is that the human element still shows through. Ghosts were once living people and like those living they are still motivated by the same things: money and power. Why else would the groups with the more expensive equipment be able to capture images and audio of ghosts. Its not because the equipment is better or more in tune to the frequency that the spirits reside on, but because they know how much it costs and want to be around the owners of such equipment. The more expensive "ghost hunting equipment" you have the better your chances are of capturing something. Look at the places that are generally haunted: old mansions, lavish hotels, southern plantations; ok you may be thinking but Rex what about Eastern State Penitentiary? Well look at the most famous prisoner who stayed there Al Capone, with his book keeping you know he had money.
I think we all need to take a different approach to ghost hunting and stop buying expensive equipment that can only be used on investigations, we should take this money and buy things like PS3s and plasma screen tvs. This way we can still draw out the ghosts but this way we can challenge them to a Madden tournament or have them join in on "sweet emotion" while playing rock band. Oh and the little boy from The Sixth Sense was right, you know that prickly feeling on the back of your neck, it is them but they are trying to pick your pocket.






APRIL FOOLS!
Hopefully you realized before getting to this point that we were not serious about any of what was said today...
although the ghosts do seem strangely attracted to Dave's bald head.

Daily Topic 3/31/09-Demonology

A lot of groups have labels for their members such as Psychic/Medium, Skeptic and sometimes Demonologist. What are your thoughts on groups that claim to have a demonologist on their team or on the field of demonology itself?

Dave:It never fails to amaze me how comfortable people are at affixing titles to their name without any basis. Demonology is one of the highest orders of Orthodox Theology. I am not certain if there are any true Demonologists alive today. For someone to read extensively on the subject doesn't make them a demonologist anymore than studying 'Grey's Anatomy' makes you a doctor.

Even though demonology involves the study of both benevolent and malevolent non-humans, society has labeled the subject to deal solely with evil spirits. As with yin and yang; if we believe in good, we must also believe in evil, both physical and ethereal.

We at PPS, since our inception have a firm policy of not becoming involved with any investigation where the possibility of a demonic event is occurring. Not that we turn our backs on anyone who needs help; that would never happen. It is simply this: we do not have enough knowledge or experience to effectively deal with something of this magnitude. Any group who claims to have either is both full of crap and setting both the client and their team members up for disaster.

Should it appear that something so vehemently evil exists in a property, we would so advise the client, and would assist in finding the proper channels to deal with the situation. To state that we are able to help them directly would be an extreme disservice and an outright lie.

These groups seriously need to re-evaluate who and what they are. As I have said in the past, paranormal research is one of the few studies where there are no regulatory bodies. Anyone can hang that shingle at their doorstep and pretend to be an expert. If anyone truly believes what they are experiencing is caused by an inhuman agent, do not trust in a group who claims to have a staff demonologist. Immediately seek the assistance of clergy, who albeit will need to go through additional channels to seek assistance, are a much better option.


Jake:I am hardly a scientist, but I try to think with an open mind and a I think that anyone who claims to be a skeptic is a smart person. We should all be skeptics ... never take any information at face value. Everything should be researched and anything that cannot be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt should be taken with skepticism for sure. (That's how O.J. got off the first time)

But as far as demonologists and psychics go, it's all a bunch of people who seek attention and since they cannot get it from the earthly beings, they are stealing it from the dead. It's perverse in my opinion. If a spirit wished to speak with any of us, I'm sure it will find a way to do so, but it won't be just to specific people, appearing out of thin air like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Not a sermon, just a thought.


Rex:This brings us back to one of the older posts about the problems with the paranormal field, it seems that anybody with a flashlight and a $40 recorder claims to be a paranormal expert. Worse yet some think that because they've seen the Exorcist that they are a demonologist. In reality there has only been one lay person who was ever recognized by the Catholic church as a demonologist, his name was Ed Warren. He and his wife Lorraine are pretty well respected in the field having over 50 years experience and 10,000 investigations under their belt. We as a group know our limitations and would not think of trying to pass off one of our members as something they are not. There is too much of an unnecessary risk to homeowners and a group's members to take on something that they can not fully understand. I advise anybody out there that is starting or that belongs to a group, DO NOT venture into this dangerous field unless you have decades of first hand experience dealing with these entities.

Daily Topic 3/27/09 Evp Quantity

We had the reveal for the Bodkin investigation on Tuesday and posted the evidence last night which consisted of over 20 evps, bringing me to todays question. Why do you think we get so many evps on our investigations?

Dave: I have often wondered why we as a group end up with a veritable plethora of EVP hits at normal venues when some famous groups may have a total of two at some of the most famous haunts around. The twenty we presented at our last case were the best quality ones we captured, however in total we had a library of 105 class c or better. So are we just fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time? I don't believe so. The amount of audio we acquire at every locale is staggering.

To analyze why we have such prolific audio results I often compare our methods with those of other groups (mainly those that are televised). I have found that PPS's method of "recording as soon as possible for as long as possible" allows us to audibly observe an area during not only the investigation, but during a portion of set-up and tear down. Some of our most intriguing audio has come during set-up. To believe you should activate recording only during an EVP session limits the ability to observe activity during periods when the observation area is quiet. To believe that entities communicate only when spoken to is fool-hardy.

I also lean towards our painstaking evidence analysis efforts. This is the time when I feel we constantly need to apologize to the homeowners for the length of time it takes until the reveal. We will spend hours reviewing minutes of audio footage. The subtleties of many EVP can be easily missed by either the untrained ear, or an impatient investigator. The time we dedicate to intent, focused listening consistently provides copious results. If we are asking for an entity to communicate with us, shouldn't we learn to listen?

Whatever the reason, it is always rewarding to watch the faces of the clients when they have confirmation that someone they believed they were imagining are indeed speaking out, and have a lot to say.


Jake: I agree with Dave, that if you stand still in one place long enough with a voice recorder taping, you will catch an EVP. There have been so many people that have lived before us, it would be naive to believe that unrested spirits aren't just roaming and looking for someone to talk to.

Rex: Some groups, even those with their own tv shows seem to only have their recorders running while doing evp sessions or during their "dead time". We saturate the house/business with recording devices(digital recorders, wired audio, wireless audio) and start recording even before setup. This and the amount of time we spend on analyzing the audio(double coverage on all audio) gives us a lot of positive results. We also have a theory that these entities are all around us at any given time allowing their voice to be captured on our recorders. Given this, we can't necessarily say that a location is haunted when the only evidence is evp.

Daily Topic 3/26/09-Pasadena Investigation

Today's Post will be dedicated to the opinions about our Pasadena investigation.

Dave: This was a very interesting case. The homeowners had performed some investigative work on their own before calling paranormal groups. They recorded on a Sony camcorder with infrared capabilities. While we informed them that we could not treat their recording as evidence, (strict PPS rule) we would review the footage. Rex cleaned the video as best as he could and one sectioned intrigued the group. Our preliminary investigation had sufficient, clear EVP to warrant a full investigation.

Even though the night was disastrous for audio, (down pouring rain) we did receive several good names to work on and enough audio evidence to ask the homeowner for a return investigation. I am holding off on my impressions of the activity until after the conclusion of the second investigation, but with our decision to involve the homeowners in the second round, I hope to add some video evidence to the volumes of audio we have collected so far.

Jake: Wow! Bodkin was such a great case to serve as my second with PPS.

First off, it was great that the residents of the home are inquisitive, yet rational, people who took the initiative to "investigate" a bit on their own before contacting us. They catalogued the times of the day/evening when activity reached its peak. They used their personal mini DV recorder to capture some activity that turned out to be very helpful to the PPS investigation. I think it is fair to say that it cannot be stressed enough that anyone who may be thinking of contacting PPS for a possible investigation should spend a few days/weeks keeping a journal of what times activity occurs in the residence/office and what types of activity is taking place. That kind of information can go a long way in either debunking or validating anything PPS catches during an investigation.

Regarding the evidence captured at Bodkin, we ended up with so many good EVPs (and yours truly even experienced a disembodied voice). The research that accompanied the evidence validated a few pieces of evidence, and brought up many more questions regarding the possibility of more than one or two entities still taking up residence in the home. I enjoyed participating in my first evidence review session with David and Rex as it opened my eyes to how tough it is to complete an investigation from the preliminary interviews all the way to the reveal. Not to brag, but I thought that PPS did a great job and we definitely enjoyed meeting the residents of the home.

James: For my first investigation I couldn't have asked for a better place. Very small yet plenty to search. The evidence was awesome. I'm glad we have a chance to go back.

Rex: This was a great investigation, the clients were very cooperative, not only documenting their experiences but recording some. It was raining during most of the investigation which made audio analysis difficult but we were still able to get several good EVPs. Unfortunately there was no picture or video evidence. We did have a few personal experiences Jake heard a disembodied voice, which he originally thought was Colleen. Audio evidence verified that it was not her voice. We also got a response when Crystal asked for a spirit to "knock three times". I was in the doorway of the bedroom and immediately after the request there was a loud slam right outside the room. Upon reviewing the audio we heard 2 more knocks, this audio clip can be heard on the EVPs page Here. I want to thank our clients and say that I look forward to the follow up investigation we have planned.

Daily Topic 3/25/09 Shadow People

A lot of groups talk about shadow people what do you think they are, paranormal entity or just your eyes playing tricks on you? And is there a difference between shadow people and full body apparitions?

Dave: Just the term "Shadow People" suggest that this type of phenomena has its own genre in the paranormal world. There are those who believe that "shadow people" actually exist in a parallel universe and have found our world through a portal into their world. Others feel that these occurrences are entities unable to fully materialize, yet are able to block out light in a human-like form.

I have witnessed what I believe to be movement caused by something with enough density to block out available light. I also have been temporarily stunned by witnessing a moving shadow that turned out to be a very non-moving door frame. Any investigator worth their salt will debunk their experiences as intensely, or more intensely than they do the clients claims.

The difference between a full body apparition and a "shadow person" is that the full body apparition will have well defined features that are unmistakably human. The shadow type apparition may, or may not even exhibit extremities and are a more two dimensional apparition that simply blocks out background light of is devoid of coloration.

Jake: The term “shadow people” freaks me out a little bit. It evokes ideas of little shadow people colonies, kind of like the movie Willow, but with shadow people.

I think the phenomenon is most likely a combination of one’s eyes playing tricks on him/her, and a legitimate haunting. The idea I have is that an entity is trying to show itself but can only muster enough energy to show its shadow without features. (Incidentally, these may be the entities that can only lift 10 pounds) Maybe certain people die and are just banished to an afterlife as a shadow person, never to be able to claim their earthly identity. Strange theories I know, but it’s not like I’m using dowsing rods!

One must consider, however, that some reports of shadow people could very possibly be related to our eyes playing tricks on us. I truly do not think that we fully consider how our eyes work, and when something as simple as a slight ripple works across your eyes, it could trick you into seeing movement, and if there is already a shadow anywhere near, of course it could be misconstrued as a shadow person.


Rex: I think when shadow people are concerned, it has to be taken on case-by-case basis. When somebody sees something out of the corner of their eye, most if not all the time this is just your eyes playing tricks on you. However if its something standing right in front of you or blocking out a known light source then we can look into the possibility of a "shadow person". There are a lot of theories as to what they are from ghost to inter-dimensional being its hard to verify since they won't stay around long enough to talk to you... Wait do shadows even have mouths?