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Who's Afraid of Ghosts?

Hunting for proof of the paranormal.

Danielle Egan 31 Oct 2006TheTyee.ca

Danielle Egan is a regular contributor to The Tyee.

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Jessie LeFrance (left) and Jan Gregory (right) of the Vancouver Paranormal club. Photo by Rafal Gerszak.

It's not a dark and stormy night. In fact, it's barely twilight when seven members of Vancouver Paranormal (VP) meet at Century Restaurant & Bar. The local, amateur ghost-hunters are milling around the main floor lounge, wearing the group's new black hoodies -- with the exception of three investigators-in-training, who've yet to earn their "VP" stripes. Soon, they'll be heading to different parts of the mansion to record examples of paranormal activity.

As many as 20 Vancouver Paranormal members get together regularly to find and document examples of ghostly activity in Vancouver, by visiting mansions, old restaurants, graveyards and people's homes. Their methods for collecting data range from private-eye-style sleuthing using an arsenal of recording equipment to "psychic" and new-agey techniques. But while many skeptics dismiss their activities as "pseudo-science" or write them off as chronic Halloween junkies, interest in paranormal research is growing and ghost-hunting groups have cropped up all over the globe.

This Edwardian building at 432 Richards Street in Vancouver is where many people take their first ghost-hunting plunge. According to the legends collected by its current owner, Sean Sherwood, it's been haunted for decades. One of the resident ghosts is a murdered bank teller. The building housed a bank from 1911 to 1951, and during that time a teller was shot there -- either by her bank manager husband or by a robber.

Finger marks

But that’s not all. “Weird things are always happening,” according to Sherwood. He says that at times, when he’s been there alone, he’s heard someone walking around or laughing. And one time, finger mark indents appeared on a friend’s laptop computer LCD screen. The downstairs bathroom is also a hot-spot: patrons and staffers have often reported hearing the sounds of a woman weeping in one of the stalls when no one is there -- at least no one visible.

There's also the tale of a carpenter doing renovations who claimed to have seen a woman walking around in Victorian dress. The carpenter tersely told the woman that the place was closed, and she reportedly shot him a dirty look in which it seemed her large dark eyes were looking right through him. It spooked him so much that he bolted from the building and refused to work there alone again.

"A lot of activity happened when we renovated," says Sherwood. "I may be delusional," he acknowledges, but says that after he chatted with a female ghost on his cell phone "about 80 per cent of the activity stopped."

VP members aren’t surprised that the alleged Century ghost is a woman. “More female than male spirits seem to hang around,” according to Jan Gregory, VP’s founder, who prefers the term “spirit” to “ghost.” “Especially mothers who seem to want to watch over their kids; dads mostly seem to leave right away.”

The hunt hasn’t officially started and Jessica, a “team leader” for VP has already used up her batteries snapping dozens of digital photos in the main floor lounge. “It’s common for batteries to drain quickly when spirits are around,” explains Gregory. Like many other paranormal researchers, she believes that ghosts cause fluctuations in electromagnetic energy that burn out batteries. They're also said to chill a room, which is why VP packs digital thermometers in its ghost-hunting kit, along with infrared digital cameras, tape recorders, compasses (which allegedly point to the ghostly presence instead of true north), and lots of extra batteries. Tonight they didn't bring their EMF reader, another controversial piece of equipment that some ghost-hunters recommend but others don't, claiming they cause false-positives.

Many ghost hunters take this kind of scientific approach to a field that's largely dismissed as quackery or "pseudo-science" by skeptics. But those skeptics haven't stopped an explosion of interest in ghost hunting, and groups have cropped up all over the globe.

In the U.S., the hobby has even led to a near-death shooting, according to recent news feeds in Paranormal Magazine. While an amateur teen Ohio outfit checked out a local spooky home, a homeowner fired off a bunch of shots to scare off the trespassers. He ended up shooting one of the kids in the head. Recently, another group in Maine caused a fire while ghost hunting at a wood mill.

No ghostly trespassing

But trespassing is against the VP rules, according to Gregory, who gets invites from local homeowners about twice monthly. Otherwise, Vancouver Paranormal's regular, organized outings include haunted hot spots like The Old Spaghetti Factory, The Vogue and Ceperely Mansion (now home to the Burnaby Art Gallery). They also run bi-monthly events at local graveyards, for which they have special permission from the city.

Jan assigns the six other investigators to scout around specific locations in Century Restaurant. Marlena, a.k.a. "The Axe," a decorative artist, and Jessica, an "Avon Lady" by day, head upstairs to do some EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) recording. Kim remains on the main floor with Gregory and VP-in-training Ranan, a mental health worker. Renata and Dave, the two other rookies, take their infrared camera down to the women's bathroom in the basement. Gregory says the basement is generally thought to be the "scariest spot," which is why she sent the trainees down there. "We like to see...how they'll handle it," she says.

The ultimate goal of tonight’s investigation isn’t just to test the rookies, but to collect audio-visual documentation of a haunting and try to “prove” the existence of a ghost. They don’t “ghost-bust” however (though they will sometimes recommend that people looking to evict a ghost contact a medium or even a Catholic priest), largely because they believe that, for the most part, humans and ghosts can and should learn to get along. Jan acknowledges that there are exceptions. “There are good spirits and bad spirits,” according to Gregory, and some members of VP have been manhandled by spirits. “Once a member was bitten and another time, a member, an big burly sheriff, was punched in the face.” Once at The Vogue Theatre, she says was shoved by “a force.” And at other times, says she’s had spirits rush right through her. “It made me feel ice-cold and kind of like an invisible pair of pantyhose pushing against me.”

Psychiatric shivers

Right now VP is in the midst of investigating the home of a west-side psychiatrist. Gregory says every time the psychiatrist tries to sell her house, something strange happens: a tree falls through the roof, or electrical devices stop working. One time, a family came in to look at the house and their young son said, 'Don't buy this house. It's haunted.'"

And Gregory says they have to tread carefully with living clients as well. One Chilliwack family reported that stools were flying around their house. "We think it might have been a poltergeist working through their young daughter."

All of the VP members here tonight have a few personal ghost-sighting yarns to spin, and some believe their current homes are haunted. But it's getting darker and colder by the second and they need to press on with their evening project of documentation. I head upstairs with Marlena and Jessie to do some electronic voice phenomenon recording. This involves interviewing the spirits with a range of polite questions while running a tape recorder -- the theory is that that responses might be inaudible in real-time, but heard on playback (a journalist's dream).

Paranormal proof

Vancouver Paranormal has a database of electronic voice phenomena recordings. While most "anomalies" seemed like background noises to me, a few raised the hairs on my head. Like one with a child's voice calling out "Don't go!" and another with a voice responding to the question, "Who are you?" with the answer, "Jerome."

Marlena starts by saying that she and Jessie aren't there to hurt anybody and expect the same treatment in return. Then asks polite questions with long pauses in between. "Is somebody here with us tonight?" "Were you ever a bank employee here?" "Can you please tell me what year it is?" "Is it possible for you to give us a sign by finding a piece of glass and tapping on it?"

After the "sign" question, Marlena and Jessie hear something and ask for a repeat performance. I hear nothing but traffic outside. After about half an hour, Marlena plays her tape back. An Exorcist-like voice seemingly speaking in tongues emits from her tape. I experience fear-based paralysis even though my fight-or-flight instinct is to bolt screaming. Then Marlena realizes that her playback is set on slow motion and that was simply her voice.

I'm spooked again as I descend the marble stairs and see what looks like the red-eyed pig-demon from the first Amityville Horror movie waiting for me at the bottom. But it's just Jan's video recorder trained on the stairwell.

Origins of fear

"I used to think people who believed in ghosts were off their nutters," admits Gregory. "Then, my cat died. I was quite distraught. The vet put her to sleep right there in my living room. Later, one of her toys -- a little mouse -- moved across the floor. Had I caused it telekinetically? I think strong emotions can cause those kinds of things, but I thought, 'Bugger this! I have to find out for myself.' So, I was walking through a cemetery talking to the darkness and I saw unusual sounds and images. I couldn't totally rule out normal activities so I thought, I'll try to do this as scientifically as I possibly can. Vancouver Paranormal was born."

Ten years later, Vancouver Paranormal has a lot of photographs of "ectoplasms" -- fog-like shapes that reportedly move quickly and sometimes have tails. They're not uncommon in paranormal investigations and most seem like dust catching light to this reporter, though there are some strange shots in Vancouver Paranormal's collection.

Each ghost hunter has a favourite story of a ghost-hunting moment. But Gregory says on a ghost hunt, she's always worried. "Is this the one where we're over our heads?"

This crosses my mind while camped out in the tiny basement women's bathroom. But four hours later, the on-site investigation wraps up with no sights or sounds of obvious paranormal activity (though VP still has to scour through their tapes and photos). "You can get nothing twenty times," acknowledges Marlena. "But when you make a hit, it's mind-boggling."

And Jan adds that it's not all just about the adrenaline-rush creep-factor. "Some of VP's best times are walking around the graveyard singing songs."

Vancouver Paranormal picked up an "electronic voice phenomena" during our investigation: a voice saying, "Who am I?" Judge for yourself by checking the "Century House Investigation" file here.

Interested in going to a VP public event or becoming a member? Contact Jan Gregory. Or check out Haunted Vancouver Trolley Tours.

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