Category: Organizations

It’s no secret that I have the internet organizational equivalent of a bromance with the Northern New York Paranormal Research Society. I wrote quite the love letter to them last year in anticipation of their first expo, so I’m not going to rehash it all now because you can just read it here. (Besides that, it’s mushy and I have a reputation to uphold.)

One of the big hits of the expo was the NNYPRS displaying and discussing the assorted tools and technology they use to investigate paranormal claims. I was lucky enough to have a corner behind their booth to rest at and while there I would watch all the people gathering around to learn about all the widgets they had out on display. I was impressed at how good they were at explaining what each thing did, how it did it, and why it mattered. I know that a lot of folks that read The Magical Buffet belong to their own paranormal investigation groups and/or have serious interests in investigating the paranormal, which is what has brought about the article you’re about to read.

Brian Leighton, the head of the Northern New York Paranormal Research Society’s Tech Council, has agreed to share information about some of the tools (many of which are custom made) that he and his teammates use to investigate the paranormal. And he’s letting Buffet readers help him and the rest of the Tech Council decide what to discuss! Here Brian introduces himself and shares some quick thoughts with you. If there is anything you’d like to learn about, or have a tech question you want answered, just post it in the comments.

Well, I guess this is where I introduce myself. My name is Brian and I am the team leader of NNYPRS. I am also the head of our illustrious Tech Council. You may ask, “What is the Tech Council?” The short answer is it’s a bunch of big kids that love to let our inner geeks out to play. The long answer is basically it consists of several of our investigators who discuss theories related to the paranormal, and ways we can build or modify gear to test these theories.

Now the Mistress of the Magic Buffet was crazy kind enough to allow us to contribute to her awesome site. So what are some of our theories? Well, one that we are actively working on is a better way to catch EVP’s. For people that don’t know, an EVP is an Electronic Voice Phenomenon; something that is caught on tape that isn’t heard when the recording was done. This is by far the most common form of evidence we collect while on investigations. Anyone can go out and purchase an inexpensive digital or analog recorder and with very little effort catch what may sound like an EVP. However, the big question is whether it really is an EVP.

There are several ways that we can verify an EVP. They begin with the start of the actual session that we are recording. We take careful steps to eliminate any false positives by not allowing whispering. They end with careful review using software to view what frequency the recording took place in. Was it infrasonic (below the human levels of hearing) or ultrasonic?

Here is a theory for you to ponder. Animals supposedly have the ability to sense the paranormal; their hearing also allows them to hear infrasonic sounds (lower than 20 Hz). Is there a connection? Animals can also hear ultrasonic as well. This is one connection we are trying to validate with our group.

If you would like to learn more about the paranormal, please feel free to check out our website. Also, mark your calendars for October 16, 2010 to visit our annual Paranormal Expo in Plattsburgh, NY where our Tech Council will have our tools on display for all to see. Until next time, SEEK TRUTH!!!

(Hey, Rebecca here. First, the NNYPRS motto is “Seek Truth”. That ending is way better now, right? Also, The Magical Buffet will be at the expo, and by Magical Buffet I mean me and my husband. Regardless, if you’re in the area you should stop in and say “Hi”. Lastly, I can’t help but point out that David Pitkin, first ever guest author on The Magical Buffet and A Magical Buffet of Authors participant, is going to be at the expo. As you’ll see if you attend the September event, Pitkin is great in person. If you can’t make the Magical Buffet of Authors event, you should definitely try to make it to the expo to see him. Heck, even if you see him in September you should see him again in October, he’s just that good. For reals yo. I’m outtie.)

Submitted by the members of the Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes

Our group is made up of family members and a few good friends. We are interested in the paranormal for several reasons, one being our grandmother who was sensitive to “spirits” from the other side. She would tell us ghost stories and how she could communicate with what she referred to as her spirit guides which always left us all amazed and intrigued. We also all have had some experiences when we were younger that led us to become very curious about the paranormal. That is why we decided to form a paranormal group. It was not long before our website was created and we started purchasing equipment which enhanced our ability to investigate some pretty cool places. We started investigating houses, inns, pubs, etc. that had reports of paranormal activity. Now we have stories of our own that we can share with our grandkids. Here is just one of the many places that we have investigated.

This is a summary of an investigation we did in a house built in the 1800’s located in upstate New York. It was converted from a church many years ago and had a lengthy history of paranormal activity. There were three investigators present the night of the investigation using digital cameras and digital voice recorders. We also used several night vision cameras as well as EMF meters and thermometers.

We first heard of this house from a story that was submitted to an online newspaper. There were reports of doors slamming, balls rolling around by themselves and disembodied voices coming from the rooms. It is believed that a man accidently drowned in a well on the property. Other claims were of a man that was pulled off a ladder by some unseen force while working next to the house as well as lights that would come back on by themselves during the night for no apparent reason.

We took many readings with our EMF detectors and thermometers and nothing out of the normal was found. There was also nothing found on our IR video cams taken that night. We did however capture some interesting EVP’s that night.

The first EVP that we captured was while walking upstairs with another investigator, I asked the question “is anyone here with us?” My digital recorder instantly received a reply from an older female sounding voice mimicking my question “is anyone here with us “and then she cursed at me using obscenities. This was the first time I have ever been cursed at by a ghost. The next EVP came from a bedroom upstairs. As soon as we walked in the bedroom I instantly had a headache. It was a sharp pain. I could feel the tense pressure; I felt something was going on. I then put my recorder down in the room and left it there. When I played it back the next day I could not believe what we had recorded. There was a man and a woman arguing in the room. The man sounded angry and there were noises like he was hitting her. She sounded like she was crying and was yelling obscenities back at this man.

The next EVP captured came from the downstairs. We had just come from the attic and discovered a small dead dog there. We were trying to figure out how a dog would have gotten in to the house never mind the attic area. When doing some more EVP work we heard a dog’s faint bark from a distance outside the house and I commented on it. One of our investigators had a digital voice recorder placed on his knee at this time. After reviewing the recording we heard the very loud sound of a dog barking that was coming from right next to the recorder. It was very loud and echoed in the room. The barking sound on the recorder started right after we made the comment about the dog barking off in the distance. It actually seemed to be responding to the barking of the other dog. There were no dogs present inside the house at any time we were there. It seemed odd to think that while we were listening for voices that a “ghost” dog may have been sitting right there with us. Our thoughts lingered back to the deceased dog that we had found in the attic.

While in the kitchen, we noticed a cabinet door was open even though upon our first inspection they had all been closed. We tried the cabinet doors and they closed very tightly. We could not prove this to be paranormal but we knew none of us opened the cabinet door. We wished that we had left an IR camera there to catch any proof of this movement.

What seemed like a fairly quiet night of investigating quickly changed while listening to our digital voice recorders the next day. The quiet house we investigated came alive with voices and even barks from a dog when we played them back.

To learn more about the Ghost Hunters of the Finger Lakes, visit their website.

Note: This is the text from the reports submitted for this investigation. To see photos and listen to EVP recordings, visit this investigation’s page on their website.

Name: RMS Queen Mary
Location: Long Beach, California
Case# B-216
Date: 01/24-25/09
Weather conditions: Calm and overcast
Outside Temperature:64
Humidity: 32%
Wind: 0-3 mph
Moon: Waning Crescent
EMF Spikes: to 4.5
Geo. storm activity: normal
EMF baseline: 1.2
Time of arrival: 3:30am
Time of departure: 5:45am

Investigators: Frank Madrid, Lori Marshall, Gino Madrid, Randy Arbogast, Todd Bates, Michael Chappell, Brian Simpson and Matt Schulz.

Reason for investigation: Validation of reported Paranormal Activity

General Impressions:
When I walked into the 1rst class swimming pool area with just our team and without the addition of other people, it gave me kind of an eerie feeling as I looked around the room. Maybe it was the low level of light, maybe it was the quietness of the room when no one spoke or maybe it was the way our voices echoed when we did. Either way, the feeling accompanied me where ever I went. The swimming pool must have been a sight in it’s day. The ceramic tile and color scheme was beautiful as was the incredible mosaic tile on the ceiling. The changing room was dark and the stalls were small and intimate. The sound carried different in there and when you stand in a stall being very still and quiet, you begin to get an anxious “you’re not alone” feeling that makes you want to go back to the pool room.

I loved this place and wanted to get to work as we didn’t have much time. All equipment was set up very quickly and we proceeded to investigate. We had our custom made experimental energy emitting equipment and the HVI team had some as well, so it was a brief field testing investigation that we undertook.

What an opportunity we all had and we appreciated every second there.

Frank Madrid

Investigation Report

The Arizona Paranormal Research Society team, along with Todd, Michael, and Brian from Haunted Voices Investigations, and Matt from San Diego Ghost Hunters, arrived in the pool area about approximately 3:30am. We set up the TAzPRS energy emitting devices and turned them on while we finished getting our personal recording devices. Perhaps it was due to the salt water surrounding the ship, or maybe the spirits in that area didn’t need much energy, but within a few minutes I noticed a shadow running around on the upper deck. I turned to say something to the rest of the team, but when I did I saw everyone else looking up and pointing at the upper deck because they were seeing what I was seeing. Frank started an EVP session, so we were all doing our best to be still and quiet, but I couldn’t help myself from going upstairs where I had seen the shadow. After I got upstairs, I looked across the pool to the other side and saw the shadow walking across. I was taking pictures as fast as my flash would allow me, but it seemed that wherever I went, the shadow would be across from me walking across the deck. I called to Randy to come up and we stood shoulder to shoulder snapping pictures in all directions. It was decided to take a break since one of the team had to leave in order to catch his flight home, but before we left, Randy and I placed our video cameras on the ground and left them recording. Unfortunately, my camera, for some reason, didn’t focus properly, so all I got from that was a dark picture. When we got back, we did more EVP sessions, and from that point on I didn’t see the shadow anymore. We investigated for about 2 hours then packed it up and returned to our rooms.

Side notes: During the day, Michael, Brian, Randy and I went exploring. Although the ship has a way of making you feel very small, I didn’t get any feelings of anything paranormal. That is, until we went into a small room that encompassed one of the propellers. The room was added to the side of the ship and there was sea water in it. As soon as we entered that room, my heart started beating really fast and I started shaking. The room was not overly small, and I have never been claustrophobic in the least. Yet there I was, shaking and sweating. It was overwhelming. Randy, Michael, and Brian also reported feeling strange in that room, and Randy even told me to get away from the rail I was leaning on. I asked him why and he said, I don’t know, but I think you should get away from it. I definitely think that room deserves more attention next year.

Also, upon returning to our room, Frank got dizzy and nearly fell on the floor. Luckily he made it to the bed. Randy grabbed the Geiger Counter off of the table in the center of the room and got a reading of 1.5 rads. NEVER, have we gotten a reading on the Geiger Counter before that, and shortly afterwards, it dissipated and Frank started feeling better. Randy and I took Frank out for some air and Lori stayed behind. While the three of us were outside talking to Todd, Lori came out and reported an experience she had in the room while she was talking to what she felt was a woman in the room. She told us that as she was talking, the bed started shaking and that she felt that it was a spirit trying to scare her. Randy and I had enough at that point and we went in to “encourage” the spirit to leave the room for the night. I feel that every spirit has a right to be wherever it likes, but when it attacks one of the team and puts them in danger, I take exception. After capturing it in “the net” we told the spirit that it needed to leave the room for the night and that we would be gone in the morning so it could come back then, but for the time we were there, it needed to find somewhere else to go. Randy held the door open and I turned “the net” off and Randy felt a cold breeze go past him. We had no more trouble for the rest of our stay.

In Closing: I would like to thank Todd Bates of HVRN for inviting us to come along and help with the conference. Meeting him, along with Michael and Brian was a great experience. Special thanks to Matt of SDGH for his professionalism and help during the investigation. Finally, Thank you Pat and Brian of Beyond Investigation Magazine for allowing us to come along, hosting Ghost Fest III, and giving us permission to investigate.

Gino Madrid
T.Az.P.R.S. Adminstrator/Investigator and Assistant Technical Director

We arrived at the Queen Mary on Jan 23, 2009 at 7:30p.m. Upon arriving, we met up with Todd, Mike, and Brian from Haunted Voices Investigations. A little later, we met Matt from San Diego Ghost Hunters. After dinner, we went up to top deck, where we started investigating.

I started getting EMF spikes near a working exhaust vent. After further investigating, we seem to have made contact with the spirit of a little girl by the name of Ellen. We asked several questions and received several answers through our equipment. We then proceeded to the front of the ship where Brian was testing the equipment that he had developed (they worked very well). We worked our way back to the exhaust vent and had asked more yes and no questions. we were still getting answers on the EMF, K-2, TriField EMF meter and TriField Natural EMF meter. We continued this session for a little while longer until our exhaustion set in, so we then decided to call it a night and went back to our room to rest.

Saturday, we got up and had breakfast with Todd and his crew. Gino, Michael and I then proceeded back to the top deck afterward and again made contact with the little girl during the morning, which was awesome.

Afterward, while exploring the ship, we found a small cubby hole behind the main engine room. Gino, Michael, Brian and I started our recorders and asked questions. Michael and I heard a “no” response to one of our questions. Later on, we moved over into the propeller room where instantly Gino felt very strange as did Brian and I. Michael indicated that he obtained an EMF spike as he walked in. I kept getting the feeling as not to get too close to the railing that separated us from the propeller. I could see that Gino was sweating, as if something was really bothering him. About that time, Michael sat his EMF meter down. Brian said “take my picture” as he got a hit on his device. I took the picture at that time but there with nothing paranormal captured in the picture. Soon after, we all felt a breeze go past us. As we journeyed through to the engine room, no EMF spikes or EVP were recorded at that time. We investigated the whole area and decided to take a break afterward that night.

While waiting in our room, Frank felt a dizziness sideways feeling while sitting on the bed in our room, I hurried and gave him some Motrin before he started to pass out. At this time Lori and I knew something was trying to drain him of his energy. Gino and I took him out of the room while Lori stayed in the room. Frank felt better as we got off of the ship. Lori came out after a few minutes. She made sure Frank was alright and told us of what happened after we took Frank out of the room. As she was laying the law down to the spirit that attacked Frank, the bed started to shake. She wasn’t scared but was angry at the spirit and waited for something else to happen. After a bit, the bed stopped shaking and she came out of the room to check on Frank and then told us what happened. It was then that Gino and I went in to regulate!

We turned on our audio recorders and set up three of our experimental devices, but didn’t turn them on just yet. We set up various meters as well, which started to fluctuate as we were asking questions of why it was attacking one of our team members. Gino and I gave it the third degree and then turned on one of the devices, a few seconds later another. We gave it some more hell and told it to leave the room as we turned on the third device. We let the final device do its job for a bit and soon after I went over to the door and opened it. We kept two of the devices on and turned the other one off. Gino said “now leave the room and don’t come back while we were staying there!” After he said that, he turned off the last device (the net) and I soon felt a wisp of cold air blast past me and out the door. We left the room and went to smoke and check on Frank who was feeling back to his old self again.

Todd had asked us to take some people around the ship as he and Frank went on the Ghost Fest tour. We took them up to the top deck to see if we could make contact with the little girl again. We did in fact make contact again and started to ask her questions. I had asked her if she could make all of our hands cold as we all put our hands close together. There was no change in temperature. At one point, one of the people we were showing around said he felt the sensation of hair moving across his hand. I did too, it was a rush! After communicating with “Elle” for a while, we walked to the stern of the ship and asked questions for recording EVP to no avail. After us giving the tour, we went back to the room where we stayed and rested until the next Ghost Fest tour.

We went on the last Ghost Fest tour of the evening and afterward (3am) we had the pool area to ourselves. We did our set up in record time as we didn’t have much time left. Not 5 minutes after turning all of our devices on, we all were seeing shadows on upper area collectively. We conducted an EVP session, asking numerous questions. Just before we went on break, I set up my camera on the upper level aimed down the corridor towards the stern. Upon reviewing the tape, no shadows were recorded but did record on camera audio some weird sounds like clicking and something being dropped near the camera. After break, we asked more questions but the room felt inactive so we turned off the devices and continued to ask more questions.

I had my recorder in a Faraday cage at the “slide” end of pool and audio from my camera as well as another recorder. No conclusive evidence was captured in still photos or video but I did get lots of interactions with the little girl with meter spikes on video.

All in all I would say the ship is haunted.

Randy Arbogast
T.Az.P.R.S. Case Manager/Investigator and Technical Director

The T.Az.P.R.S. team arrived at the RMS Queen Mary around 7:30pm on Friday January 23, 2009. We were anticipating meeting the Haunted Voices Investigation team. Todd Bates and Michael Chappell came down from the ship to the front entrance where we were and there was hand shakes and hugs all around. It was truly incredible meeting them for the first time and our previous phone conversations finally had the faces behind them. Our van was loaded to the ceiling and the Queen Mary staff was very helpful in loading up their carts and taking our equipment to our room.

Later on, we met with HVRN Equipment Developer- Brian Simpson and had a great dinner and later, met with tech manager, investigator and sdGH webmaster- Matt Schulz from San Diego Ghost Hunters. These are a great set of people with backgrounds in the technological and paranormal investigative field and we couldn’t be happier to have met them all.

Todd became ill and was encouraged to set the first round of the speaking engagement out so he rested while the rest of us had dinner and explored the ship. We made our way to the top deck where we laid out our meters on a railing and started having, what seemed to be, interaction with a spirit. This continued for a while and was captured on video. We then proceeded to the bridge side lookouts where Brian’s new equipment items that he had developed were tested and was deemed successful. After such a long drive and staying up late, we were exhausted and decided to call it a night and went back to our room and rested until morning. The next morning, I woke up and noticed that Gino and Randy were gone from the room. Lori was still asleep so I looked out of the portal and there was a fog over the water that looked cool so I started to shoot video. No sooner than when I stopped shooting. I heard a woman’s laugh whispered right in my left ear. I turned to look at Lori but she was still asleep. I thought it was cool and started to get ready for breakfast when Randy and Gino came back in the room. Randy had explained that earlier he had heard a woman’s voice and laughter in the room. We exchanged stories and found it to be quite strange that we both heard a woman in our room very early that morning. Breakfast was indeed a feast. Afterward, we all split up and gave ourselves a walking tour throughout the ship. This was very enjoyable and relaxing for each of us. Soon, it was lunchtime and while in line at the deli, we came across fellow investigators from S.C.O.O.P.S.. It was a pleasure to meet founder Lorraine Sullivan and her team. Lori and I left the ship to purchase supplies for the investigation later that evening, taking in the sights of Long Beach, a city where I had lived as a child. After a couple of hours, we returned to the ship and went to the room where Randy and Gino were resting.

I believe I then experienced a “psychic attack”. I suddenly felt dizzy, nauseous and thought I was going to throw up and pass out. My vision seemed to turn sideways and I started to feel lethargic as well. I fell back onto the bed and if was hard to think of anything. After a bit, Randy and Gino helped me out of the room and off of the ship while Lori stayed behind, angry at whoever was responsible. As she was addressing the spirit in the room, she felt the bed starting to shake to and fro. Lori continued to express herself and after a bit, the bed stopped shaking and she went outside to find out how I was and to relay what had happened in the room. I was feeling much better, as if nothing had happened. Randy and Gino stated that they were going back to the room to take care of the situation. I had asked them to record the event on my recorder that was on the table in the room and there were EVP recorded. They broke out with the equipment that we know is a deterrent to spirits and went to work ridding the room of this negative spirit.

It was reported that at the end of this “session”, the door was opened to the room and the spirit was told to leave and not return until we were gone the next day. A rush of cold air was felt whooshing out of the room.

We never did have any further problems in the room! It was finally time for the “Ghost Fest 3” lectures and tours to begin and I attended the first one while the rest of the team took a small group to the upper deck where they had established electronic communication with a spirit earlier.

Todd was one of the speakers there with Michael chappell assisting him and I had a back stage pass with Pat Wheelock, Brian Patton, Jerry Reynolds and a few others. The lectures were very informative and some basic equipment was handed out to the lecture guests and we were off to the depths of the ship.

The tour was great and I just couldn’t believe the size of the inner belly of this grand vessel. One area of the tour looked vaguely familiar and I remembered a scene from a movie from the ’70’s called “The Poseidon Adventure” where Gene Hackman’s character fell to his demise after hanging from a large valve, turning it off as to let the rest of the passengers continue their journey to be saved. That scene was filmed there aboard the Queen Mary. What a rush! The last part of the tour took us to the swimming pool area where everyone was cut loose to investigate on their own. The swimming pool looked smaller than what I’ve seen on the “Ghosts and Legends of the Queen Mary” web cam but that soon changed after being in there for a few minutes. The area was dimly lit and had an eerie feel to it. The echo was immense but tolerable. We all had a great time listening to Pat tell us all about the area we were in. Afterward we made our way back to the lecture area. On the second tour, we were joined by the rest of the team and once again was off to the innards of the ship. One just can’t get enough of the amazing creation that stands before them on these tours.

On the way back, the T.Az.P.R.S. team along with HVI brought up the rear, watching for lagging guests. We were the last to exit the huge staircase, making our way to the door when I looked up and saw a man standing at the top of the stairs looking down at us, then pull back out of sight. I was going to go up the stairs to get, what I assumed was a stray guest, him back to the group. When I had mentioned that I saw someone up there, everyone that was downstairs indicated that there was no one lagging behind as they were watching everyone in the group ahead of us.

I don’t know who it was I saw standing there in dark clothing, but he was out of sight very quickly. Approximately 3am, the tours were over and it was time to investigate the swimming pool area. We didn’t have time on our side so we hurried back to our room and started getting our necessary equipment together for transport to the swimming pool area. As soon as we arrived to the swimming pool area, (approximately 3:30am), we began running power and setting up our recording devices as well as experimental energy emitting equipment.

We had a new device that our tech director Randy Arbogast had developed and we were anxious to see what results would be obtained from it adding energy to the environment of the pool area. Minutes after all devices were in place and powered up, we were collectively seeing shadows in the upper levels, peeking in at us and darting behind the pillars. There seemed to be one shadow in particular that was getting our attention the most, but unfortunately, they all seemed to escape being caught on camera or video.

We all heard Todd make a “surprised” noise as he stated that he felt hands grab his butt, lifting him to the point of moving him forward. He looked around and the only people near him was Lori, who was 12 feet away to his left sitting in a chair, and Randy, who was 12 feet to his right sitting in a chair as well. It was not humanly possible for anyone to do that to Todd as we all were very still. Lori says “the look on his face was priceless!”

After witnessing all of the shadows collectively, we started an EVP session by the pool’s slide area. We did hear some responses with our own ears collectively and managed to obtain many very good EVP responses to our questions.

One humorous point was when we were seeing the shadows moving in all different areas on the upper area of the pool, Gino went up there to investigate, unnoticed by us all as we were concentrating on the other areas being very quiet. As we all stood by the pool slide looking at the upper deck, Gino quietly steps around one of the pillars and we all saw him at the same time startling us all. It was a hilarious moment, one we won’t forget for some time. We soon took a break, left the recorders run while we were gone and recorded some strange sounds that were not from us. We returned and continued our evp session and investigated throughout the entire pool area until it was starting to break dawn. Once again, the theory of our changing the environmental energy attributes were successful and before too long, it was time to pack up and leave this wonderfully active area. It was a great time all around. Meeting and working with these great people was a fantastic experience that I look forward to doing again. The T.Az.P.R.S. team I could not have been more proud of. Thanks Lori, Gino and Randy. Thanks Todd, Michael, Brian, Matt.

Frank Madrid
President/Founder T.Az.P.R.S
And
Lori Marshall
Vice President/Co-founder Public Relations Mgr. T.Az.P.R.S.

About T.Az.P.S.:
Formerly known as “The Arizona Paranormal Society” (T.Az.P.S.), “The Arizona Paranormal Research Society” is an experienced paranormal investigation organization based out of central Arizona. Since 2006, we have been proud to have served and helped many clients throughout the entire state of Arizona free of charge. We bring to each client our experience, compassion and our understanding of what situation the client may be experiencing in the home.

To learn more visit: www.tazps.com.