Times Leader October 22nd 2010

In Search Of The Supernatural? Walk Fearlessly This Way

Eccentric but agile, the sexton of the “Old Ship Zion” church climbs its steeple, balances himself on a metal lightning ball and waves to the people of Wilkes-Barre, 125 feet below. • A harsh, disembodied voice hollers inside a Gettysburg bed-and-breakfast. Does someone want a band of ghost-hunters to leave?

Finally, rural retirees share their memories of childhood illness: Their parents took them to a woman who knew how to “powwow,” she murmured some sort of chant, and they got better.
Do these mysterious stories make you want to hear more?
Thanks to various researchers, some who pore over history books and others who carry high-tech recorders into allegedly haunted buildings, you’ll have several chances to do just that.
First up is “Paranormal Investigating 101,” tonight’s presentation by NEPA Paranormal.
Gathering at the former American Legion in West Pittston, members of the Wilkes-Barre-based group will explain how they use equipment that measures electromagnetic fields (thought to be manipulated by spirits) and temperature (believed to drop in the presence of the supernatural.)
They also have cameras that can record images with ultraviolet and infrared light – mechanic Bob Christopher, 48, assembled one for the group – and they have electronic recorders sensitive to “voice phenomena.”
One example of voice phenomena, Bob’s daughter Katie Christopher said, is the emotion-charged message she and her friend Mark Hromisin heard in Gettysburg’s historic Tillie Pierce House.
“I was yelled at in a foreign language,” she said, admitting she felt shaken by the experience. “It was very loud.”
The words were in Pennsylvania Dutch, 25-year-old Katie said, and a dialect expert from Kutztown University told her the message, though slurred, sounded as if it contained the words for “no” and “goodbye.”
Despite such occasionally unsettling experiences, the group doesn’t hesitate to visit sites people believe are haunted.
“I’m a firefighter,” member Bill Ulichney said. “I don’t get scared.”
Sometimes NEPA Paranormal detects nothing supernatural, Katie’s mom, Kathy Christopher, said. Homeowners’ tension visibly eases when they hear that
Other times, the group senses a presence – and might ask it to depart.
“Sometimes it can be done with simple coaxing,” Katie Christopher said. “We’ve had a lot of success with that.”
On Wednesday and Thursday, the group will return to the American Legion for a “mock investigation,” to show the audience how the equipment works.
During a similar event last year, Katie Christopher said, the demo quickly became a genuine investigation when the group detected paranormal activity in the West Pittston Library basement.
“I did get kind of freaked out,” library director Anne Bramblett Barr admitted.
Though the spirit seemed benign rather than angry, youth services librarian Summer Bellas said, “It was a little unnerving to go into the basement right after it happened.”
Admission to the mock investigations is $10, and proceeds benefit the West Pittston Library.