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NCPI: Ghost hunters, not a CBS show of the week.
Nadine WilsonI am: demiurge, incipient storyteller and honorary mamacat. Not entirely married. Occasionally acid. Prone to biting. Given to bouts of TMI (you've been warned). Language is important. Words are important. Use them well, please.View all articles by Nadine Wilson
In which I briefly poke NC's own ghostbusters.
Everyone loves a good ghost story! From the time we're small, we tell them to each other, trying to out-frighten each other around the campfire, or the flashlight under the sheet, or just on the back of the school bus. Every town and city has its hauntings, from lights in the creepy house down the road to old battlefield re-enactments. Ghost ships prowl our coastlines; phantom hands push stalled cars off railroad tracks; some invisible thing keeps eating my frozen pizzas. My roommate swears it's not him, after all. It has to be a ghost.
Ghosts inhabit our collective awareness, literally haunting us with the possibility of their existence. The lingering spirits of the dead are common to every culture, although to be sure stories of their origin or the reason for their presence vary. Accepted wisdom states that ghosts are the spirits of people who died a violent death, or with some task left unfinished. More 'rational' minds aver that they are merely psychic imprints, a sort of supernatural photo-negative attached to a certain place. There is no real empirical evidence to back up either, or any, claims, but this does not prevent a thriving practice of ghost-hunting and paranormal investigation.
In the course of researching column material (read: type 'ghost' into Google and spend fourteen hours browsing the shiny) I discovered something absolutely enthralling: North Carolina has a paranormal investigative group! I know! I'm excited, too. North Carolina Paranormal Investigations is a group based in Gaston County, NC. They look into reports of paranormal activity throughout the southeastern US, but keep their primary focus to North Carolina and its immediate surroundings.
I spent quite some time browsing the NCPI website, and came away with the impression that this is a group more invested in establishing veracity than somehow 'proving' the paranormal. This pleased me, because I am frequently annoyed by claims of 'evidence' that anyone with a pair of brain cells to rub together and make a spark can see proves absolutely nothing at all. (I'm looking at you, Fox Mulder.) The aim of NCPI's investigations seems to be to treat each reported instance of 'supernatural' activity as false, or naturally occurring, and work from that premise toward the paranormal, rather than the opposite.
With that in mind, I got in touch with Julie, who heads the organization, to see if I could ask her a few brief questions with regard to NCPI and its investigations. She was kind enough to indulge me, for which I would like to thank her, sincerely and publicly. Thanks, Julie! You're tops.
Have you ever looked into a case that you felt presented absolute evidence of paranormal activity?
"I have worked cases that I "felt" could be true paranormal activity. When it comes to evidence, and I use that term lightly because we are still in the infancy of paranormal research, it is still controversial, what constitutes evidence.
Most of the equipment used today, including but not limited to EMF detectors, voice recorders, temperature gauges, etc., is being used based on science, theories and assumptions. We theorize that electromagnetic fields are disturbed by spirits therefore causing fluctuations or "unexplained" readings. This is supported by taking baseline readings beforehand. Then we note any rise in the readings that were not there before.Many factors go into taking the actual readings, but we are once again going on educated guesses and of course scientific knowledge."
In similar vein, have you ever worked a case that was quite obviously a deliberate hoax?
"No, but I do receive pictures and E.V.P.s quite frequently that prove to be faked. Many of our cases do turn out to be nothing more than natural, logical explanations. Not due to trickery on the part of the home/business owner but rather misinterpretation of natural events."
Approximately how many cases do you work in a year? How varied are the claims people make/ask you to investigate? (ie: ghosts vs. poltergeist, etc)?
"Somewhere between 30-50 active cases per year. We refer 10-20 per yr to other groups when we are too far away or if I feel the case needs immediate attention and we just are not able to get to it in time.
We have had many cases with reports of everything from Poltergeist activity to shadow ghosts to demonic forces."
What case has been your personal favorite to work on? What features did it present that made it your favorite?
"One of my favorites is an old Opera House that we are fortunate enough to be able to return to several times a year. This is a great find for any paranormal group. When you get suspected activity in a location you are usually limited by the amount of time your group is able to be there. In this case we are able to make return visits and improve on anything that we feel will better our chances to collect data. Many team members including myself have had numerous encounters here."
Human nature generally tends to gravitate toward the mysterious, when presented with anything that may have more than one explanation. How difficult is it to maintain a skeptical nature while investigating potential paranormal occurrences?
"It is really not difficult for me. Even though I do believe in the paranormal I am a very logic-minded person. We go into an investigation with no assumptions. We prefer to collect the data and see what we can disprove, and then we work with what we cannot find explanations for."
It's so easy, working in a paranormal field, to be labeled as a quack, a weirdo, or a hippie freak (or some variation on that theme). Have you ever encountered that sort of stigma? How have you handled it in order to meet your goals on a case? Has it ever actually prevented you from doing work you'd set out to do?
"Yes, we run into that from time to time. This happens mainly at public functions rather than investigations. Generally we do not scout for cases; most are requests from the home or business owner so they of course do not have that outlook.
We run into religious roadblocks more than anything. Some people think we are running around conjuring spirits or practicing the "devil's" work.
Our practice is to do business in person whenever possible. Once people meet us they realize that we are normal people. I place much faith into the reputation of our group and believe that will open many doors."
I also asked after the possibility of tagging along on a case, if NCPI receives a request local to myself, and received a conditional 'sure!'. Therefore you, my treasured readers, may get to read a firsthand account of a paranormal investigation. Isn't that thrilling? I promise I will use my powers only for good.
I will try, at least.
(Source: NCPI) |
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| Carey Christie spooks her group of costumed Seattleites on the Pike Place Market Paranormal Pub Crawl Wednesday night. |
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Life in the City: Ghosts of Pike Place Market
"Dead -- I say? There is no death. Only a change of worlds."
-- attributed to Chief Seattle, in a speech to his people in 1854
The participants in Mercedes Yaeger's Paranormal Pub Crawl looked around Pike Place Market Wednesday night and saw things differently.We didn't notice crosswalks or street signs. No bus routes or rushing crowds. Just cold leaves, old buildings, the capes and makeup on our own bodies and the breezy, pensive stillness. We looked up and saw -- really saw -- the windows above the market. And unlocked by stories of listless ghosts, hotel murderers and bodies floating down the Sound, we pictured figures in those windows. We wondered who they were.
It was the drinking that did it. The orange-pink lights in the Zig Zag. Bumping into masked strangers in the cobwebbed caverns of the Can Can Cafe. It was the company, too. We spotted cowgirls and pirates. Hunter S. Thompson. Ronald Reagan. Dr. House.
Dressing up made us aware of who we are. Hearing about the dead made us know we were alive. But mostly it was the dazzling, playful electricity that can only come in a place as aged as the market, on a night as wild as Halloween. We had changed worlds. "Within the past couple of tours, I've started to have a tingling up the side," Carey Christie, our guide, told me. A friend of Yaeger's who worked on the controversial documentary "Zoo," she was dressed as a Lithuanian doll -- her red hair complemented by a red skirt and bright red earrings. She's been giving tours since September.In front of the old Butterworth Mortuary on 1st Avenue -- considered by some to be among the most haunted places in Seattle -- she tells me it's no act. And it's not about the ghosts. It's about death. It's on her mind more and more, and sometimes she wishes it wasn't. She apologized. She'd really rather not talk about it here."I feel I'm watched and listened to by the people I'm talking about." Among the ghosts mentioned on the tour:
- At Kell's Irish Bar, some have reported seeing a little girl, about eight years old, with blond or red hair (here's more on the market's haunted restaurants).
- At the Alibi Room, three ghosts have been reported, included the ghost of a "kept woman" and a man who cleans up after the staff.
- At the Market Theater, performers have heard the laughter of children, believed to be the ghosts of orphans who once worked at the market and died in droves from disease.
- At an market hotel, murderer Linda Hazzard killed her "patients" by convincing them that starvation, among other crazy methods, was the best path to health. (HistoryLink.org)
- Princess Angeline, Chief Seattle's daughter, allegedly haunts the market, too (HistoryLink.org).
At Il Bistro, we got a gift -- a dark heavy bead on the end of a black string Yaeger said can be used to contact spirits and ask them questions. In the barely-lit bar, Yaeger handed them out and showed us how to use them. Watch the demonstration here:Like everything else about the night, even those that didn't believe in ghosts and hauntings were open to the possibility that some supernatural power was at work. Minutes after the demonstration, many were still concentrating on those beads, dangling them in front of their faces.After all, everyone likes a good story. Whether it's true or not only matters to the unimaginative. Jen Shin, 22, said she'd always had an interest in the paranormal. She'd already been on a ghost tour and felt things like this connected her to the city. Another woman, Tabitha Roemish, 24, said she doesn't like going to bars, but liked to hear about ghosts. "I thought it'd be cool to see one," she said. At the Can Can, a woman named Kim sat by the wall dressed as a pirate. She doesn't believe in any of it, she said. "But I like a good yarn," she said. "Yarrrrrr."
P.S.: Read our 2005 story about Yaeger and the ghost tours by P-I reporter Kery Murakami.http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/124893.asp |
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| SHEDDING SOME LIGHT: Records at the Powell River Historical Museum and Archives confirm the darkroom in the basement of the Rodmay Hotel was the constant haunt of Frank Dixon. Dixon was born in Shanghai, China. His father moved the family to Hong Kong. Dixon came to Vancouver in 1925, and then to Powell River. He worked for the Powell River Company, the owner of the mill. Dixon was an avid photographer and had his darkroom down in the basement of the hotel. Dixon, or "Dixie" as he was known, lived in Powell River until he died in 1989. |
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Rodmay Hotel is Ghost Haven
Five separate specters reputedly make appearances throughout the facility, apparently supportive of and happy with the owners.
Turning the key in the lock, Joan Campbell slowly opened the door at the top of the staircase. "This is the third floor," she said. "It's very much the same as it was in the 1950s. No renovations here yet." A long corridor stretches forward, lit only by what sunlight can spill through from long-abandoned rooms.
"As far as I know," said Campbell, "there are five ghosts in the Rodmay. Maybe more.
Construction in the Townsite began with the mill, the doctor's house, the mill manager's house and the hotel. The Powell River Hotel, later the Rodmay, opened in 1911. It was added onto in the 1920s and 1930s, and still retains its personality and its secrets.
After being closed for several years, the Rodmay has been undergoing renovations and remodelling since 2005.
Campbell is one of the new owners. She's examined the building from top to bottom. She loves it, and sees a great future for the old hotel. But in her travels, she's made some startling discoveries.
"Now, I want to say that I'm never, ever afraid in this building," said Campbell. "I've been up here on the third floor measuring and making plans so late it's become completely dark. I was working by flashlight. I've never felt scared." Campbell's tone is convincing. But walking through the corridors and past the derelict rooms, with the emptiness and disrepair, the old fixtures and eerie stillness, it would be very easy to be spooked. Campbell walked into a room. "Oh yes. Here we are again," she said. "I always check that the windows are closed up here. And each time I come up, there are a couple of them open." She pulled the window closed and latched it.
"There are two ghosts up here on the third floor," said Campbell. "One of them is a little girl. A boy saw her. He said he saw a little girl in old fashioned clothes." Campbell stopped in the hallway. "And staff on the floor below have often heard footsteps running overhead where this hall is. Quick steps. Just like a child." Campbell says there's no story to go with this child ghost. Nothing in the history of the place that would answer the questions about why she lingers.
"But we think we know something about the other ghost up here," said Campbell. The other inhabitant of the third floor is a man in a suit. He wears a hat. "A fedora," said Campbell. "Some who've seen him say he looks like a gangster. But I don't think so. In the early days of Powell River, there are stories of some goings-on. Maybe even rum-running. I think he was a federal agent. A kind of Elliot Ness."
Campbell thinks he was caught up in an accident or maybe a raid. "He certainly wouldn't harm anyone or try to scare them," she said. "But he's not happy. He still seems to have issues that need to be resolved."
There are other unresolved issues in the hotel. Although ghosts have not been seen on the second floor, there have been a few traces of their presence. "Every once in a while," said Campbell, "there will be a depression on a freshly-made bed. Just as if someone sat there." She smiled. "We get a lot of little pranks played on us."
On the main floor, there are many stories to tell. And one of them is very real to Campbell.
"There's a woman in the lounge. I saw her. She's tall. When we first took over the hotel about two years ago, I walked by the lounge and saw her at the end of the bar. I thought it was a real person. So I went in to talk to her. But it was a silhouette. She had high hair and a long dress with a high collar. She vanished." Campbell has seen this woman twice. "She's very dignified," said Campbell. "I don't know who she is, and we don't have a story about her that would explain her presence. But she seems to want to see grace and dignity in the lounge. Very Victorian."
There's a café on the main floor that is still being remodelled. There are booths and tables in the room, and a long, angled counter with wooden swivel chairs. This is a favourite haunt of one of the most popular ghosts of the Rodmay Hotel. "Ah yes," said Campbell. "Charlie." There have been many experiences of Charlie. "Charlie, as we call him, was a Chinese cook," she explained. "His real name may have been Chan, but he's long been known as Charlie." Charlie was one of the Chinese employees who worked in the hotel and lived in the basement. "We'll go there next," said Campbell, "after I show you what Charlie gets up to." Campbell says she's heard Charlie was quite a personality. He was a gambler. He'd tease and play jokes. He loved giving marbles to children. Charlie isn't reluctant, apparently, to make his presence felt. Campbell opened the door to the empty café. "Aha!" she said. "See? This happens all the time. We'll line up all the chairs, and then come in and one will be turned. And it's not always the same one." Charlie plays any number of tricks. And he travels through the hotel, sometimes allowing himself to be seen.
Alea Newport is another owner of the Rodmay. In the newly renovated McKinney's Pub, she sat down for a moment to talk about her encounters with the hotel's favourite ghost.
"Oh yes," she said. "I've actually seen him." Newport was working in a shop on the lower floor of the hotel. "My husband was working in one room. He was up on a ladder fixing an electrical fixture in the ceiling. I was in the little hallway between rooms cutting some wood on the floor. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a short man walk right through and into one of the front rooms." It was so real, Newport wasn't even startled. She simply thought someone had walked through and she'd better go see who it was.
"My husband said no one came in. I went into the front room, expecting to find someone there. The room was empty." Newport smiled. "It was Charlie. It had to be. I know I saw someone." Newport knows about Charlie's fondness for giving marbles to children. "I've found marbles around when I've been working on renovations," said Newport. "He's here."
There's another ghostly presence on the main floor. This one is described as being like a barmaid. "In the early days on the coast," said Campbell, "there weren't many women around. It was mostly men building the settlements and working the mills. Sometimes women of ill-repute visited the hotel." Shortly after the recent restoration work began a workman was heard talking to someone. He was alone in the room. "I asked him who he was talking to," said Campbell. "He told me he was chatting with a woman who came up on the boat a long time ago. He described her as looking like a barmaid." Campbell says this ghost has a cheeky attitude. "She knocks glasses off the shelf once in a while. And she unscrews lightbulbs." Newport agreed. "I've felt a push on my shoulder and turned around. But there was no one there. Then I felt another push," she explained. "So I just decided to work in another area for a while." Both agree this spirit isn't frightening. "She just has an attitude," said Campbell. "But we also believe she's very protective of the staff in the pub, and is hanging around to make sure they're safe."
Descending to the basement of the Rodmay is entering another world. A world with more mysteries and secrets.
In the early days of the Rodmay, the Chinese cooks and staff, including Charlie, lived below. "It wasn't very nice for them down there," said Campbell. "We know they loved to gamble, playing poker and mah-jong. And we understand there was opium."
The story is that Charlie was killed in a poker fight. "It's easy to imagine, really," said Campbell.
The basement has its own network of rooms and corridors. An old, grimy door still has the number 9 attached. "This is just one of the workers' rooms. Might even have been Charlie's. It was a hard life here," said Campbell.
Rooms are abandoned, filled with decades of accumulated bits and debris. Things that made sense at the time. Things that are only mysteries now. "This was a darkroom," said Campbell. "The sign is still on the door, and there were chemicals in here for developing pictures. We still don't know what that was all about." She walked through to an area with old bits of lumber and metal. Cement is heaped against one wall. "There were tunnels here," she explained. "It's my understanding that in the early days of the Townsite, the mill pumped steam through pipes here. And there were tunnels connecting the hotel to the mill, and up to the Patricia Theatre. You could walk through them." Campbell says there are rumours rumrunners used the tunnels. "It's all cemented up now, but . . ." Campbell gave a questioning shrug. Then she set off again into another room. "I've saved the best for last," she said. "Do you want to see the secret room?"
In a far corner of the basement, a cabinet with doors is pushed up against a wall. Campbell explained her discovery. "I was down here clearing things and seeing what was what," she said. "I found this cabinet and I wanted to move it. I struggled and struggled but I just couldn't budge it." After more time and frustration, she found an answer. "I'm not going to reveal the solution," she said. "That is a mystery that stays with me. But I can tell you how surprised I was when the cabinet moved away from the wall." An opening led to an unexpected room. "The first time I did this I could hardly believe it," she said. "It's a hideaway." The secret room is small, and lit with daylight from a frosted window. "We have no idea what this is all about," said Campbell. "Who was hiding in here? And why? But take a look at this. This is the final mystery." She pointed to a small bathroom off the secret room. There's a tiled area with a toilet and bathtub. Campbell smiled. "I know it sounds dramatic, but we call it the tub of blood." The tub has a few inches of bright red, murky water in it. "The water is there all the time," she said. "And it's always red." Again she shrugged. "Amazing, eh?"
Back on the main floor, in the grand lobby, Campbell looked around, taking in the details of construction and décor that have travelled through the decades. The place has a solid, satisfied feeling and a true sense of its history.
"The hotel was completely shut down when we bought it," said Campbell. "There were tangled blackberry vines everywhere. The basement was flooded. It had broken windows. It was sad and neglected and abused." Campbell thought for a moment, looking into the lounge where she first saw the tall lady in silhouette. "I think the ghosts are here because they want to be," she said. "I feel they've been supportive and happy that we're taking care of the place. I hope they'll stay with us." |
WCU's haunted history; ghost stories from within
By: Rae Dunbar
Posted: 11/5/07Like many schools, West Chester University has its own ghost stories and legends about parts of campus that are haunted.
These stories have been passed down from class to class, although the story may be altered and the legends continue. Some of the buildings include Hollinger Field House, Ramsey Hall, Francis Harvey Green Library and Philips Hall.
In the early 1920s, a student, Drutz, hung himself in the fourth floor stairwell in the Hollinger Field House. He did it the weekend of homecoming. Rumor has it that Drutz comes back each homecoming weekend to haunt the gym.
Dorothy Ramsey was an English Professor years ago. Ramsey Hall was named after her. The hall has a plaque dedicated to her that states the wrong date of her death. The plaque claims she died on April 31, 1974, a day that does not exist. She haunts the dorm because the date has not yet been corrected.
Rumor has it that Dorothy died in Ramsey. Some say that she committed suicide there. The sixth floor is supposed to be the most haunted floor as it is said that is where her life was taken.
It is not just the old buildings that are haunted. The Francis Harvey Green Library is believed to be haunted as well. Supposedly, the top floor is haunted. The story behind this is unknown. Be aware the next time checking a book out or using the resources.
Philips Hall is believed to be haunted by ghosts that want to perform on the stage. Outside the building, the archways on either side of the building are known for people whispering in the arches. Two people can whisper to each other by standing on the same entrance to the archway, but one on either side of the same arch. Try it one day, it really works.
According to a source, other hauntings in the town of West Chester involve people seeing ghosts and unexplainable events.
The Ground Round restaurant is haunted by a girl that choked to death inside of it. Now there are reports of objects being moved and the lights going on and off mysteriously.
The Chester County museum was built on and near a graveyard, as well as on the site of an old Underground Railroad station. Visitors of the museum claim to have seen ghosts there. It is thought that the ghosts are the victims murdered in the Underground Railroad.
These are some of the legends that have occurred throughout West Chester as a campus and a town. There may be even more stories and more to each of the stories to be told.
There are many ghosts that are believed to be haunting the campus of West Chester, from students, to professors, to the rest of the dead who come back for a purpose.
There are different versions to the stories and some are still a mystery. Some people would love to see a ghost, and for others simply hearing stories is scary enough.
Rae Dunbar is a first-year student majoring in English. She can be reached at RD655287@wcupa.edu. |
Spooky fort is a scary prospect
NOTHE Fort in Weymouth has been named as one of the top 10 spookiest locations across the UK.
The fort, which was built in 1860 as part of the defence of Portland Harbour, has been ranked fourth best place for ghost hunters in a survey by the National Lottery.
It was beaten only in spookiness by Muncaster Castle in Cumbria, the Tower of London and Oxford Castle.
The list, which ranks the most haunted Lottery-funded locations, puts Nothe Fort ahead of Scotland's historic Tolbooth in Stirling and the RRS Discovery ship in Dundee, and Wales's Dyffryn Gardens in Vale of Glamorgan and Ruthin Gaol.
It is also said to be more haunted than Castle Espie Wetland Centre of County Down, and Springhill House of Moneymore, Northern Ireland.
The survey found that more than a third of people questioned said they believed in the supernatural and, among the believers, 37 per cent said they had seen a ghost.
Castles and stately homes were named as the places most likely to be haunted - according to those who believed in ghosts - with other prime spots including old buildings, old pubs and graveyards.
With more than 70 rooms on three levels, Nothe Fort was originally designed and constructed by the Royal Engineers to house a 12-gun battery of massive cannons.
It was later adapted for modern guns and remained in active service until 1956 when coastal defence was abandoned.
In 1961 the fort was sold to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council and restored and opened to the public by Weymouth Civic Society, and earlier this year it reopened again after a £2.4 million conservation programme Chairman of the civic society, Derek Cope, said: "Personally, I'm not a great believer in ghosts, but it has enormous at-mosphere and I could believe it.
"Many people come back more than once. The feeling of great presence is stimulated by the sheer history of the place - the history of how this country defended itself over the last 200 years against all-comers.
"They say a gun never fired in anger from the fort. The sheer presence of coastal defences such as Nothe Fort has been an enormous deterrent and why we stayed free for many years.
9:34am Monday 29th October 2007 |
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