Paranormal State: My Journey into the Unknown

by Stefan Petrucha

  Given my bad experiences with psychics, I thought it would be interesting as an experiment to invite a lot of local psychics into the bar. We could record each reading, then do a montage showing if they contradicted each other or agreed. Unfortunately we couldn’t schedule enough people.

  At the end of the first day, I gave our trainees a little crit session. I was very happy with the way they handled Janet, but disappointed they hadn’t tape-recorded any of their interviews. Serg pointed out that they should have asked Brian about his divorce, which was pretty traumatic. What was the relationship between that and the start of his paranormal experiences? Overall, though, they were doing well.

  Splitting the team wound up being a little odd socially. At dinner, Heather and Katrina felt they had to stay apart, so they sat on their own and kept quiet. They did have an idea for a great experiment.

  With all the breaking wineglasses, they decided to put baby powder under two for the night. Any movement by the wineglasses would show in the powder. Most important, setting up the experiment gave me the opportunity to whack Serg in the face with a rag full of baby powder. I immediately apologized, of course, but only to lure him around a corner where Eilfie happily whacked him again. He has yet to get back at us for that.

  Many paranormal researchers have noted that when you set up this sort of experiment, it’s as if the ghosts enjoy playing with you. Janet had also reported her sense that Charlie enjoyed messing with people. The next morning, the wineglasses were still in the same spot on the table where they’d started, but on one table there were streaks in the baby powder, as if the glass had moved one way, then moved back to its original spot.

  Unfortunately, in another trainee oversight, there were no cameras pointed at that table. From the cameras we did have, I knew that no one entered or left, but any actual movement of the glasses was missed. To be fair to Heather and Katrina, placing our cameras has been a learning process. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate all the blind spots, and we’re always working for wider coverage. I think it’s interesting to note, however, just how odd it is that the only area not covered by cameras is the area where the wineglasses moved. Coincidence?

  There were those streaks in the baby powder, though, which we tried to explain naturally. We bumped the tables, stomped by, and so on, but the glasses didn’t budge. There is a train station nearby, and some have theorized that the vibrations from a passing train caused the movement, but I’ve been at Katie’s Bar four times now, spent the night, heard trains pass, and never felt a single vibration. And if there were vibrations, even on a minimal scale, we’d have seen the cameras shake. The trail in the powder also indicated that the glass moved forward and back to the same spot. That’s an incredible coincidence if it were a natural force.

  Given Janet’s intuitions about Charlie, Heather contacted the local historical society. The next day, she and Katrina met with town historians Brad and George, and Cathy, a librarian, to piece together some of the building’s history.

  They had photos of the building from 1906, when it’d been a hotel, and they knew it hadn’t become a bar until the seventies. When Katrina asked about the name Charlie, Brad nodded and told her the story of Charlie Klein, who’d worked at the hotel during Prohibition. His wife passed away and soon afterward an IRS agent walked in, undercover, and asked for a drink. Apparently, when Charlie pulled out the booze, he was arrested. According to the story, between his grief over his wife, humiliation, and a likely jail sentence, he shot himself dead while in the hotel.

  Smartly, Katrina asked if the story was common knowledge. If it was, Janet the psychic could already have heard the name. But Brad and George felt certain it wasn’t, and Cathy hadn’t heard the name or the story before that day.

  While Heather and Katrina were at the library, our counselor, Jamie Hernandez, interviewed Brian in the basement of Katie’s in what turned out to be one of the most interesting and exciting sequences in the first season.

  She asked, as a standard question, if Brian ever had violent thoughts.

  “When my wife took off with a customer, I wanted to kill him,” he said.

  If you watch the sequence, that response brings an almost palpable tension into the air. Not that we felt Brian was dangerous. He struck me as a guy who could handle himself in a fight, but who also had heart. During one of our PRS Field Trips (where we go back to some of our more famous locations with fans for an educational and entertaining weekend), he let me hop up on his motorcycle with a girl who propped her legs up around me and put her boots on the bike, scratching the finish a little. Brian had to take a little walk, I assume, to blow off steam. It was perfectly understandable, but an indication his emotions might have the sort of excess energy that often plays into a haunting.

  Shortly after, Jamie asked what his worst fear was.

  “Losing everything.”

  At that moment, on the soundtrack, you can hear a wineglass break. It was an absolutely real moment. The breaking glass plays almost like the release of building emotional tension.

  I didn’t think this at the time, but looking back I see some parallels between Brian and Charlie. Charlie lost his wife, his business, and his life. Brian lost his wife, his house, his motorcycle, and with the bar doing badly, was on the verge of losing that, too. It’s possible this was like “The Cemetery,” where the spirit may have been re-creating its own situation before death. Or, maybe, as in “Sixth Sense,” Charlie simply felt a kinship with Brian. But after the glass broke, the entire atmosphere changed.

  Brian said, “Right now it feels a little creepy down here, so I hope you guys find something.”

  He wasn’t alone. Jamie felt it too, big time. She couldn’t breathe.

  “I don’t want to sound weird, but I don’t think I want to do this interview,” she said. Then she excused herself and quickly left the building. I’d never seen her react like that to anything.

  This was more than interesting. Serg had already told me he’d experienced a heaviness. I soon learned that two production people, in the basement on separate occasions, felt something touching or squeezing them around their chest and back. That made four people from our group in one day.

  I decided to do some investigating before Heather and Katrina got back from the library. Gas leaks can cause a variety of symptoms, but we ruled that out. Next, I took out the electromagnetic field detectors. We got some very high EMF readings. It may seem as if that’s an indication of a ghostly presence, but in fact, excess EMF can actually cause hallucinations, dizziness, tightness in the chest and feelings of paranoia.

  It is true that once you’ve eliminated those possibilities, a high EMF can indicate the presence of paranormal activity. In the basement, though, there was a DJ booth and a small dance floor with a lot of exposed wiring. Here, the high EMF was, without a doubt, electrical.

  But, between the breaking glasses, the heavy feelings, and the historical information, things were much more complicated than I originally thought. While the experience during Jamie’s interview with Brian seemed invoked by emotion, the others came and went without any pattern I could detect.

  Deciding I didn’t want to risk missing an opportunity to capture some real activity, when Heather and Katrina returned I took the reins back—much to their relief, it seemed.

  That night’s Dead Time was more of the same, only with the lights off. We heard creaks and rattles; a wineglass moved; the temperature dropped. As I investigated the stairs, another wineglass broke. Since the stairs seemed the center of the activity, we gathered there to try to flush Charlie out, calling to him, asking him to show his presence, but no luck.

  As an investigator, I know I can’t look for closure with every case—reality doesn’t work that way. Here, on the final day, though I didn’t feel it would resolve the activity, per se, I invited a priest to the bar to perform a general blessing. Jamie, feeling better, returned and spoke to Brian again. She advised him to take all his energy and feelings for the ba
r and try to exude a positive attitude, to tell himself he’d succeed no mater what.

  My final voice-over for “Beer, Wine & Spirits” says something to the effect that we may have loosened the spirit’s grip, but that wasn’t everything. The bar remained haunted, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “The Woman in the Window” was an instance where the clients were fine with the ghosts staying. Here, Brian turned his problem into a solution. Now people come to Katie’s because it’s haunted. His business is thriving. There are different ways things work out.

  Unlike some of our other cases, there was no teary good-bye, no “Thank you for saving me!” Brian christened the bar and we toasted the place. It was a great time, a great adventure.

  As for Heather and Katrina, having been with us for just two months, I think they were terrific. In the end, I was happy to promote them from candidates to senior trainees and give them our official PRS T-shirt.

  Despite the fact that I felt uninterested in this case when I was first approached about it, by the time we left I felt that it was well worth our trip. It gave us a chance to investigate a location that was different from the family homes we were used to dealing with and allowed growth for Heather and Katrina. It also goes to show that even seasoned investigators such as myself can underestimate paranormal claims. I’ve been back to Katie’s Bar three times now, and I can safely say that something strange is definitely going on inside the bar at night.

  As for the high EMF, we suggested Brian contact an electrician immediately. The readings we got were off the charts, and prolonged exposure could be harmful. Whether it acted as a battery for the spirits, or was simply causing some of the phenomena (like the tightness of the chest and inability to breathe), we’ll never know.

  TYPES OF HAUNTINGS

  It’s believed that some places simply record old events, voices, apparitions, and play them back over and over, like a videotape. This is called a residual haunting. If true, in those cases where people report hearing their own voices, it’s possible the current residents have been “recorded” and are actually haunting themselves.

  An intelligent haunting is the more recognizable type, where the spirit seems to have a free will and intent, sometimes responding to the presence of others, and even answering questions. They are conscious entities that the living can interact with. Hauntings can be location-based, or spirits can become attached to specific objects. In rare cases, spirits become attached to a particular person and remain with them from location to location.

  Portal hauntings are the most controversial, and to be honest, I’m not sure how much validity I give this phenomena. I believe it’s possible, but that people use the term too loosely. In this type, or so some believe, a door has been opened between this world and the next, possibly through repeated human efforts at contacting spirits via EVPs, the spirit board, or the 100 Candles game. Once the portal is opened, various spirits can enter through the rift until it is sealed.

  TYPES OF GHOSTS

  Poltergeist, though sometimes translated as “playful ghost,” is from the German for “rumbling” and “spirit.” They make their presence known by moving, even hurling, objects. Poltergeist activity often occurs in the presence of adolescent girls. It’s believed their excess emotional energy either causes the events or is borrowed by the spirits. The theory most widely accepted by paranormal researchers is that poltergeist phenomena is caused through psychokinesis. An individual, such as a teenage girl, acts as the conduit or agent, subconsciously causing the phenomena.

  There have been several serious attempts to study poltergeists during the twentieth century, most concluding that unlike ghost phenomena, this activity is chaotic, meaningless. Furniture may be knocked over at random, as opposed to a ghost haunting, where a moving object usually has some connection to a spirit, like a photograph, or a rocking chair that used to belong to them in life. Those who suffer from poltergeist phenomena are also usually experiencing deep personal trauma, emotional duress, abuse and/or a psychological disorder. Once they receive proper care and treatment, and the trauma is taken care of, the phenomena stops.

  Orbs are usually small spheres that appear on video or still photography, but can very often be easily explained. Modern digital cameras tend to resolve blurry shapes into geometric objects, refining things like dust, rain or small passing insects into spheres or rods that many people mistake for evidence of the paranormal. I can’t begin to tell you how many times someone has run over to me with their orb photos, only to have me disappointingly say it’s a reflection, dust, or some other natural occurrence. The bottom line is, take enough photos with your digital camera and you will capture an orb. Does that mean it’s a spirit? No. There are some small, rare cases of true orb phenomena, glowing, spherical objects that float in midair and have no explainable source (such as a car passing by), but they are seen with the naked eye. If you capture a little gray orb in your photo, don’t get excited, and please don’t send us any more orb photos.

  Shadow people are popular as urban legends as well as in ghost hunting. These types of spirits, generally considered malevolent, appear as humanoid shadows, usually just in the periphery of vision, only to vanish when the person turns to face them. There have been instances of shadow people caught on video.

  Demons, which appear in various religions throughout history, are powerful, malevolent spirits who seek to do harm, sometimes possessing victims to do even more damage, or to drain their energy for their own purposes. Some Christians believe that since the human spirit winds up in heaven or hell after death, any earthbound spirit must be a demon acting on behalf of Satan (see additional sidebar on page 148).

  HEATHER TADDY

  What’s your favorite first season episode?

  “Mothman,” which dealt with a legendary creature I’d read about as a child. Searching through the woods for a six-foot-tall bird-man was definitely my idea of adventure. I enjoyed trying to figure out why it was attached to that particular town. Was it the Cornstalk Curse or was Mothman some weird accidental creation? I also had a great time filming the townspeople and hearing their stories.

  What’s the one thing you’d like people to know about you?

  I laugh and am a total goofball. On the show I come across as being superserious and shy. I’d also like them to know I have other interests, such as music, film, and fashion.

  What’s the one thing you’d like people to know about PRS?

  I don’t think our personalities come across. We love to laugh and make jokes.

  When you started working with PRS what interested you most about the paranormal? Has that perception changed since?

  It started when I was a teenager with a Ouija board and kept expanding since. I still have a strong interest in Ouija boards, especially the way things can change for some people if they use it.

  Life on other planets is something I’ve also been reading about lately. When I was in third grade and first reading about UFOs, I told people I was an alien. I think I still believe that a bit. In this crazy world, anything’s possible.

  What was it like taking over for the “Beer, Wine & Spirits” case?

  When Buell broke the news, I thought it was one of his clever jokes. Then I realized it was the real deal and started scrambling to remember everything I’d observed.

  It was tricky completing an investigation with two people. We did forget some key points, but overall I think Katrina and I did all right.

  What’s the one unanswered question from the first season episodes you’d most like to have the solution to?

  There are many unanswered questions and I like it that way. If every question had an answer, the mind couldn’t wander. If I had to pick, I would like to know why some see and experience things that others don’t. Why did Savannah, from “Vegas” or Matthew in “Sixth Sense”? It just seems so crazy that only some individuals have that ability.

  EILFIE MUSIC ON “BEER, WINE & SPIRITS”

  When Heather and Katrina took over
the case, I observed them as they did tech (which took forever) and conducted interviews. It was a great case, but I was bored since I couldn’t really do much other than watch their joined-at-the-hip investigating.

  The one thing that I regret, which seems to happen often, is that we had a camera on one of the wineglasses set out for the spirit to move. At the last moment, we moved the camera to a different wineglass. Of course, the wineglass that originally had had the camera on it was the one that moved. It sometimes seems like the ghosts know where the cameras are and stay out of range on purpose.

  Chapter 11

  Our First Controversy

  “I sense there was a girl that recently walked away?”

  “No.”

  “Watch for it.”

  After “Beer, Wine & Spirits,” we were due for one final case on our road trip. On a cold, snowy January day, exhausted from having investigated for eight straight days, we drove for six hours up to Leominster, Massachusetts. We were all drained and not feeling at our best. Our “break” off for Christmas had been just one week. For me, that meant a twelve-hour drive to South Carolina to visit my family, and then another twelve hours to New York City for shooting. Looking back, I think what kept us going was that we were on the final stretch. After this case, we’d get a week off in State College to relax and prepare for the final five cases.

  This case, “School House Haunting,” wound up being surprisingly controversial when the client, Shannon Sylvia, later became a trainee investigator on another show, Ghost Hunters International. I also had a chance to debunk a psychic in this one.

  Throughout the first season initial contact with clients often came from our producers’ efforts. It wasn’t like the days before the show, or even more recently, when we’ll receive an e-mail saying, “Please help us.” More often production worked hard on following up leads, handed us the client name, e-mail, and address and asked if we were interested. That’s how we met Shannon.