Everyone loves a good ghost story! From the time we're small, we tell them to each other, trying to out-frighten each other around the campfire, or the flashlight under the sheet, or just on the back of the schoolbus. Every town and city has its hauntings, from lights in the creepy house down the road to old battlefield re-enactments. Ghost ships prowl our coastlines; phantom hands push stalled cars off railroad tracks; some invisible thing keeps eating my frozen pizzas. My roommate swears it's not him, after all. It has to be a ghost.

Ghosts inhabit our collective awareness, literally haunting us with the possibility of their existence. The lingering spirits of the dead are common to every culture, although to be sure stories of their origin or the reason for their presence vary. Accepted wisdom states that ghosts are the spirits of people who died a violent death, or with some task left unfinished. More 'rational' minds aver that they are merely psychic imprints, a sort of supernatural photo-negative attached to a certain place. There is no real empirical evidence to back up either, or any, claims, but this does not prevent a thriving practice of ghost-hunting and paranormal investigation.

In the course of researching column material (read: type 'ghost' into Google and spend fourteen hours browsing the shiny) I discovered something absolutely enthralling: North Carolina has a paranormal investigative group! I know! I'm excited, too. North Carolina Paranormal Investigations is a group based in Gaston County, NC. They look into reports of paranormal activity throughout the southeastern US, but keep their primary focus to North Carolina and its immediate surroundings.

I spent quite some time browsing the NCPI website, and came away with the impression that this is a group more invested in establishing veracity than somehow 'proving' the paranormal. This pleased me, because I am frequently annoyed by claims of 'evidence' that anyone with a pair of brain cells to rub together and make a spark can see proves absolutely nothing at all. (I'm looking at you, Fox Mulder.) The aim of NCPI's investigations seems to be to treat each reported instance of 'supernatural' activity as false, or naturally occuring, and work from that premise toward the paranormal, rather than the opposite.

With that in mind, I got in touch with Julie, who heads the organisation, to see if I could ask her a few brief questions with regard to NCPI and its investigations. She was kind enough to indulge me, for which I would like to thank her, sincerely and publicly. Thanks, Julie! You're tops.

Have you ever looked into a case that you felt presented absolute evidence of paranormal activity?

"I have worked cases that I "felt" could be true paranormal activity. When it comes to evidence, and I use that term lightly because we are still in the infancy of paranormal research, it is still controversial, what constitutes evidence.

Most of the equipment used today, including but not limited to EMF detectors, voice recorders, temperature gauges, etc., are being used based on science, theories and assumptions. We theorize that electromagnetic fields are disturbed by spirits therefore causing fluctuations or "unexplained" readings. This is supported by taking baseline readings beforehand. Then we note any rise in the the readings that were not there before. Many factors go into taking the actual readings, but we are once again going on educated guesses and of course scientific knowledge."

In similar vein, have you ever worked a case that was quite obviously a deliberate hoax?

"No, but I do receive pictures and evps quite frequently that prove to be faked. Many of our cases do turn out to be nothing more than natural, logical explanations. Not due to trickery on the part of the home/business owner but rather misinterpretation of natural events."

Approximately how many cases do you work in a year? How varied are the claims people make/ask you to investigate? (ie: ghosts vs poltergeist, etc)?

"Somewhere between 30-50 active cases per year. We refer 10-20 per yr to other groups when we are too far away or if I feel the case needs immediate attention and we just are not able to get to it in time.

We have had many cases with reports of everything from Poltergeist activity to shadow ghosts to demonic forces."

What case has been your personal favourite to work on? What features did it present that made it your favourite?

"One of my favorites is an old Opera House that we are fortunate enough to be able to return to several times a year. This is a great find for any paranormal group. When you get suspected activity in a location you are usually limited by the amount of time your group is able to be there. In this case we are able to make return visits and improve on anything that we feel will better our chances to collect data. Many team members including myself have had numerous encounters here."

Human nature generally tends to gravitate toward the mysterious, when presented with anything that may have more than one explanation. How difficult is it to maintain a sceptical nature while investigating potential paranormal occurrences?

"It is really not difficult for me. Even though I do believe in the paranormal I am a very logic-minded person. We go into an investigation with no assumptions. We prefer to collect the data and see what we can disprove, then we work with what we cannot find explanations for."

It's so easy, working in a paranormal field, to be labelled as a quack, a weirdo, or a hippie freak (or some variation on that theme). Have you ever encountered that sort of stigma? How have you handled it in order to meet your goals on a case? Has it ever actually prevented you from doing work you'd set out to do?

"Yes, we run into that from time to time. This happens mainly at public functions rather than investigations. Generally we do not scout for cases; most are requests from the home or business owner so they of course do not have that outlook.

We run into religious roadblocks more than anything. Some people think we are running around conjuring spirits or practicing the "devil's" work.

Our practice is to do business in person whenever possible. Once people meet us they realize that we are normal people. I place much faith into the reputation of our group and believe that will open many doors."

I also asked after the possibility of tagging along on a case, if NCPI receives a request local to myself, and received a conditional 'sure!'. Therefore you, my treasured readers, may get to read a firsthand account of a paranormal investigation. Isn't that thrilling? I promise I will use my powers only for good.

I will try, at least.


(Source: NCPI)