Cape Cod Ghosthunter
http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/NESPI/2007/04/24/my_initiation

My initiation 04/24/07 · 8:51 am      
posted by Dave      [ Permalink ]
Cape Cod Ghosthunter
 
This is the first installment on this blog and Id like to make it clear
just how important your input is. Your thoughts, criticism, ideas and
stories are always welcome. While this is being written to entertain as
well as educate, anyone suffering the effects of a paranormal
disturbance and requiring professional and discreet help is urged to get
in touch with me immediately.  

As a member of the New England Society of Paranormal Investigators /
NESPI.net, the opportunity arises often to speak with a lot of people,
of all ages, about the other side. Most everyone I talk with believes
there is something after death.  A continuance or survival, in some
respect, of our thoughts, feelings and emotions on some level.  This
is true of myself, as well. But I never believed you could interact with
them because I have never seen a ghost!  Most people haven’t.
But I have smelled them, heard them and even spoken with them. In fact,
I was turned from hardcore skeptic to devout believer in six seconds one
summer morning in 2000.

Its about 9:00AM in late August. Im in the office which is a converted
bedroom in our home in Yarmouth Port. Our family has lived in this house
since it was built so there is nothing strange or spooky here. Im
installing a new software program on my computer named Cool Edit. The
reason for this stems from a TV show my wife, Ann, and I watched the
night before on either The Discovery Channel or The Travel Channel I
dont remember which. This show has a segment with a gentlemen standing
in a field, quite alone, in Gettysburg with a micro cassette recorder.
He asks Does anyone remember General Lee? and allows the tape to record
for about fifteen seconds. On playback you can hear the question being
asked again followed by a faint but totally discernable Yes! Im
genuinely amazed. I had always believed, or hoped, that there was some
sort of existence after this life but I was quite certain there was no
way to interact with it.

Ghosts? Talking to the dead? No way! It turns out that this gentleman
standing in the field is author Mark Nesbitt who has written several
very successful books on the Ghosts of Gettysburg. The segment following
Mark highlights a ghost hunting groups who gather these voices and
filter them through a computer program called Cool Edit. They call these
voices EVPs for Electronic Voice Phenomenon which is the capturing of
spirit voices on digital or analog recorders.  This whole thing
appeals to me even as a skeptic. Its scientific with little or no
subjectivity, its inexpensive and its easy.

So now Cool Edit is installed, I have a microphone attached to the
Line In plug on the computer so I can record right onto
the hard drive, my headphones are on and I am a real ghost hunter! 
After hitting Record, Dave, The Ghost Hunter, says there any friendly
spirit or entity that wishes to communicate? Note I throw the word
friendly in there just in case, certainly not because Im afraid. No No.
Its just for safety! I allow about 25 seconds to pass and hit Stop and
then Play.  The question is heard once more and the hiss of white
noise is all that follows. I knew it! Just a bunch of bologna and a huge
waste of time. I stomp off to the kitchen, a little disappointed, for
breakfast.

After a bagel Im feeling a little better, I decide to give it one more
chance so the fearless Ghost Hunter marches upstairs, dons the
headphones and repeats Is there any friendly spirit or entity that
wishes to communicate? I wait only about fifteen seconds as I know
nothing will be there anyway and hit Stop, then Play.

Immediately I hear myself ask the question and then I HEAR THE ANSWER!
About 6 seconds after the question is asked there is another, adult male
voice on the harddrive and he says Did anybody answer? The fearless
Ghost Hunter jumps up, the chair goes flying, rips off and drops the
headphones while simultaneously backing up across the room against the
far wall in abject terror.  You see I know that no one occupies either
of the houses abutting ours, my office windows are closed and Im totally
alone in the house. I also know that someone or something I cant see
answered me.

I went down the stairs rather quickly and the fear was continuing to
build. When I entered the kitchen the ceiling light was flashing on and
off. The microwave oven display was also flashing eights all across. I
ripped the microwave right off the counter and headed out the door
beside the garage.  I dumped the microwave and waited for my heart
rate to slow down. When I finally pulled it together I went into the
house and the kitchen light was no longer flashing but it was another 3
hour before I would go upstairs.

In retrospect I can see how the flashing kitchen light and microwave
display were most likely the product of some sort of electrical surge or
failure and completely explainable. Not so, the voice on the hard drive.
This was my initiation into the strange world of Electronic Voice
Phenomena and I was going to find out exactly how strange and addicting
a world it really is. Since that August morning, I have recorded
thousands of hours of EVP sessions, investigated may haunted buildings
with NESPI and worked with people experiencing EVP disturbances all
across the country.

In this blog I intend to share some of your stories as well as the
findings, determinations and methods of the professional investigations
of The New England Society of Paranormal Investigators (NESPI.net). We
will visit EVP work and the not quite so well known area of ITC or
Instrumental TransCommunication which involves capturing spirit faces
and figures with video equipment and a TV or monitor, an area currently
being heavily investigated by NESPI researchers here on Cape Cod.