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To request or join an investigation, search "Ohio" at www.paranormalsocieties.com.
Do you believe in ghosts?
Nearly 40 percent of Americans do, according to Harris polls, and about 20 percent claim a ghostly encounter themselves. But how to prove it?
In the Miami Valley, at least 18 ghost hunting organizations can help.
Robin Albright, president of the 9-year-old Dayton Ghost Hunters Society, says her group attracts people from all walks of life who are looking for answers.
When reports of unexplained noises, temperature changes, voices, etc., come in, the society sends six people to the site with no information — just scientific recording equipment. Once the remote cameras and electromagnetic field detectors are in place, energy-sensitive people walk the property, writing their impressions down.
“We go through the usual ghost hunting group process, which is debunking,” Albright says. “Are there windows that aren’t tight, what natural things could have caused it?”
Afterward, the team gathers to compare notes.
“Neat possibility”
“Most times, you go out and gather data, nothing happens,” she says. “When we realize we have a funny reading at the same time someone psychic picked up something, that makes it more exciting.”
That’s usually where the investigation ends.
“Most people, I would say 99 percent we’ve investigated, have not been afraid of what’s happening,” Albright says. “I’ve had people whose children were scared, and I suggest they tell the energy, ‘I don’t want you scaring my children. I don’t want you showing up in their bedrooms,’ and the activity stops.”
It’s when the activity doesn’t stop that a different team of experts may be brought in: spiritual and religious authorities.
“We don’t go ‘ghost hunting’ in the traditional sense,” says former minister Brenton Buckner of Dayton Paranormal Investigators. “We don’t go into graveyards or abandoned buildings. We don’t get involved at all unless people — real, living, breathing ones — ask for help.”
Unwelcome guests
Buckner’s group, part of the nationwide Christian Paranormal Network, works with scientists, psychologists, animal control specialists, even building inspectors to find a rational cause for strange experiences. But when science fails, Buckner takes a spiritual approach.
His team models how to use “words, and faith that God will back your words up with power,” to help clients be rid of their problem.
“To have someone come in and do a ceremony will help you for a time, but eventually it’s going to have to be you,” Buckner says. “You have to take a stand and reclaim your house, your family, you have to get angry enough to, by force of will, make them leave.”
Brian Clark of the Ohio Angelic and Spirit Investigation Services takes a similar approach. After ruling out natural phenomena through data collection and interviews, his group helps people remove “demonic presences and poltergeists.”
Before you hire ...
Ghost hunters recommend caution with any group that charges for investigations, clearings or follow-up care, and to make sure their goals and values line up with yours first.
“We’re searching for something that may not exist,” Albright says. “We may feel like it exists, but there’s no proof. People who are intuitive will tell you that they know there’s life after death. It’s the same thing with religions — they know because of faith.”
Contact contributing writer Ria Megnin at ria@riamegnin.com.
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