http://www.cdispatch.com/articles/2007/09/06/local_news/local03.txt

Ghost hunters converging on downtown's Princess

By Kristin Mamrack
kmamrack@cdispatch.com

Built as a vaudeville house in 1924, the Princess Theater likely has plenty of ghosts, with lots of stories to tell.

This weekend, hunters from across the country will converge on the former movie theater hoping to coax out some of the history.

But they won't be typical camouflage-clad, weapons-wielding sportsmen.

“We have ghost hunters coming from several states to join us and investigate the Princess Theater,” Jeff Harris, a parapsychologist and member of The Cemetery Surfers local music band, said of the Ghost Hunters Convention to be held Friday through Sunday at The Princess Theater.

“Everybody's got college degrees. It's not a bunch of nut cases wearing black clothes, waving sticks around and doing magic,” Harris said.

“We're holding classes for beginning ghost hunters and tours,” he added. “It will be everybody sharing knowledge. Mostly, it's just going to be a lot of fun.”

The convention begins Friday at 6 p.m., with a meet-and-greet session, ghost tours, beginners' classes and ghost hunting until about 1 a.m.

Seminars, classes and demonstrations will be held Saturday, beginning at 6 p.m. with ghost hunting continuing throughout the night.

The convention ends Sunday with a “reveal” from 9 a.m. to noon, when the ghost hunters review and discuss evidence accumulated.

“There's lots of lecturing back and forth,” Harris said of the convention, encouraging first-time hunters to join the lectures. “We'll have entertainment also and will be showing movies. We'll have a safe room, which is where everybody can kick back when they're not doing investigations or learning investigation (techniques).

“It's usually about three hours of (slower activity), with about three minutes of intense excitement,” he added, referring to ghost hunting or attempts to record phenomena deemed paranormal. “I've seen football players run out screaming, but there's nothing to be afraid of. No one has ever been killed by a ghost.”

The theater, which is now used for live performances and concerts, was recently purchased by Dr. Mark Burtman, a local obstetrician/gynecologist.

“This is how I met Dr. Burtman,” Harris, who wrote “The Ghost Hunters Field Guide,” said. “I took him ghost hunting. He was a skeptic, which is great. I love skeptics.

“Ghosts are not a thing,” Harris added. “They're an event, so they're difficult to reproduce. But we have tons of evidence.”

Harris is both a parapsychologist and a paranormal investigator.

“Technically, there are ghost hunters, paranormal investigators and paranormal psychologists,” he explained. “Whenever someone complains something is haunted, I investigate. Ninety percent of the time it's an open water main or a heater vent or light reflecting off something outside,” he continued.

“There's a million things that happen that people consider haunted. We consider any event paranormal that's beyond normal.”

Using tools like infrared scanners, ghost hunters practice their trade.

“The fact is, if there's something there, we can measure it,” Harris said. “We can measure something coming through and moving across an electromagnetic field on its own, which, according to physics, can't happen. Using digital recorders, we actually record voices when there's nobody in the room.

“We've picked up a lot of that in The Princess since we moved there,” he added.

A local band, The Cemetery Surfers, which features Burtman on bass and Harris on guitar, was formed in 2005 by a group of parapsychologists and ghost hunters.

Tickets for each night of the convention are $10. The theater is located at 217 Fifth St. S. in downtown Columbus.