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By: David Evans
Publication Date: October 10, 2007
It’s eerily quiet as we walk down the corridor that just hours ago thronged with the passing of students. The CellSensor electromagnetic field detectors begins to tick faster and our pace slows. Is it my imagination or has it just got a little colder here? A moment passes and Jason holds his hand out “If there’s any spirits that can hear me please reveal myself on my right hand…” Cameras flash and I suddenly wonder what I’m doing here late on a Friday night in the Meece Building at Somerset Community College.
The original brief was to have an independent scientific supervisor who could verify any findings. Unfortunately no one we asked was available so I selflessly agreed to step into the role of the “skeptic”. To be honest, little role playing was required. For the record, in my 29 years I have never encountered anything that I could not find any rational explanation for. I would not consider myself as superstitious in the least, believing as I do in the empirical i.e. what I have or what can be observed. I wouldn’t say that I’m totally closed to the idea of some kind of ethereal existence, just that I am still waiting to be convinced.
True to form I arrive 20 minutes late. Bill Scott and some of the other P.I.C.K. (Paranormal Investigators of Central Kentucky) members are already setting up a wide range of sophisticated monitoring equipment in the hallway outside the Stoner-Little Theatre.
After a short introduction myself and a couple of other non-ghost hunters, including Bridge instructor Stuart Simpson, are led into the theatre for our briefing session. We are introduced to some of the tools used by the ghost hunters, digital cameras, motion and electromagnetic field detectors, digital audio recorders, and, coolest of all, a laser thermometer. Bill and the P.I.C.K. members discuss some of their theories and experiences of the paranormal including cases of fully charged camera batteries inexplicably dying to the mysterious electronic voice phenomenon captured on video and audio recordings.
The members of P.I.C.K. also made it clear that they adopt as objective an approach as possible. Far from going out to prove paranormal activity their goal is simply to visit places where such unexplained events have occurred, set up their devices and when possible debunk the myths.
At this point, it occurred to me that as any good performer knows the initial presentation and anticipation of an event is critical if the act is to fool the audience. I have to admit my initial skepticism began to ebb away and I was truly prepared for anything to happen.
We break up into groups of three and four to survey different buildings within the college. I teamed up with Jason and another student and we made our way to the Meece Building armed with cameras and recording devices. It was here that I experienced first hand some of the methods used to detect paranormal activity mentioned earlier. A P.I.C.K. member stands with his hand out and calls for any nearby “entities” to reveal themselves at the site of his hand while the others photograph them. If there is anything present then it usually takes the form of an “orb” in the digital photo.
While it can be possibly be argued that there are many possible explanations from dust flecks to lens flares there are accounts of orbs being captured by multiple cameras from different angles and even appearing behind foreground objects. Alas after about half an hour and no signs of anything out of the ordinary we return to base camp outside the theatre.
One of the other parties seems to have had more luck though, having walked down a corridor in the Stoner Hall and then returned to find a previously open door closed and secured with a chair. Was it poltergeist activity or the work of the maintenance staff doing their work closing up the building? As I was not with the group sadly I was not able to witness the event myself.
We reform into teams and this time head for the library. This time we do encounter something unexplained when a metallic cracking sound is heard. Could it be the ghostly activity we’re seeking or is just the sound of the metal shelving creaking as the temperature slowly cools?
With midnight approaching we head over to the grave site across from the Stoner parking lot, where gravestones going back to the time of the revolutionary war might yet be source of unquestionable ghostly activity. This time Bridge Instructor Stuart Simpson steps in and photo’s of him do reveal some of the mysterious orbs from Jason’s camera at least.
After my night with the ghost hunters I cannot say that I am any more or less convinced as to the existence of ghosts or any kind of supernatural phenomenon. Not that I feel that I wasted my time, I genuinely enjoyed my time following the ghost hunters. I was impressed with their dedication and thoroughness performing research that some might consider borders on the ridiculous. As the classic TV show the X-Files tag-line states; “The truth is out there…”, it just doesn’t appear to be anywhere around Somerset Community College.