Cal U professor investigates the paranormal

By Chasity M. Capasso

FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 19, 2006

Rene Kruse has performed more than 450 ghost-hunting investigations in the past 30 years.

Imagine being alone in a haunted house or cemetery, surrounded by total darkness and a ton of paranormal activity, with nothing but a few ghost-hunting supplies to document those things that go bump in the night.

For Rene Kruse, this is all part of an unusual, 30-year hobby.

Kruse, the mother of four and grandmother of one, is also a technology education professor at California University of Pennsylvania.

Known as "the ghost lady," she said she has been interested in ghosts ever since she saw her first apparition as a teen in the early 1970s. She conducted her first ghost-hunting investigation in 1976, when a friend said she could hear her deceased grandmother's rocking chair creak during the night.

"My friend called me one day and said she heard weird noises coming from her grandmother's old bedroom," said Kruse. "I decided to check it out one night and slept in the room with some makeshift supplies like a tape measure, note pad, string, salt and a camera. Apparently, the grandmother had a habit of getting up late at night and sitting in the chair to read. I spent the night waiting for the rocking chair to rock."

Kruse said she thought her first investigation was unsuccessful, until she got home and found a glass angel in her pocket.

"I found the angel and was horrified, because I thought the people would think I stole from them," she continued. "So I called to tell them I had the angel, and the woman informed me that when her mother moved in, she had a glass figurine collection that was kept locked in a glass case.

"I had never gone in the room where the glass case was, and apparently the door to that room was always locked and the key was still in its hiding place. I was shocked."

Kruse started telling ghost stories to many children's organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls, and then went on to attend more adult-oriented events.

"There was always a group at the end that would come up to me and tell me their own personal ghost stories," she said. "I would tell the people that I did ghost hunts, and they would ask me to come to their house and do an investigation."

By the mid-1990s, Kruse had conducted more than 200 investigations, and with the help of the Internet she was able to link to other ghost hunters all over the country. Kruse became a Cal U professor in 1989, but she kept her hobby a secret.

"I didn't mind being 'the ghost lady,' but I didn't want to be known as the crazy professor," she said. "I didn't tell anyone at first. I'd hear people's ghost stories but would keep to myself. One day I went to the California Area Historical Society and spoke about what I did for a few minutes and asked the people there to tell me if they knew of any ghost stories or haunted sites. Everyone there had about three stories to tell me."

Since then, Kruse has performed more than 450 ghost-hunting investigations all over the country. Her work has been featured on an ABC special, three Fox programs, three documentaries on the History Channel, a few on the Discovery Channel and a documentary on A&E. Kruse also has been mentioned on several radio programs and in a few books and articles.

Kruse, a resident of California, Pa., said there are a few haunted buildings on the Cal U campus, including Steele Auditorium, Old Main and a few dorms, one of them still in use.

"People have told me they have seen Dr. Steele walking around in the Steele Auditorium," she said. "Many students say they still see him.

"The stories about ghosts that haunt Binns Hall go way back. Students think the ghost is a dorm mother who is still keeping an eye on the boys that live in Binns. Some have said they have seen a lady in the halls or in their room. I've also heard stories about the old Johnson and McCloskey halls."

Kruse even has a ghost that resides in her own home. Her family refers to him as "Ernie."

"Our house is haunted," she said. "People can't spend too much time here without seeing Ernie. I've seen him, my kids have seen him and people who have spent the night here have seen him.

"My father used to be a skeptic," she added. "He visited us, and when we left our dining room one day to clear the table after dinner, we returned to find the table drenched with buckets of water that poured from the ceiling. We actually ripped out the boards in the ceiling and checked it out, and the place where the water came out was covered in dust and cobwebs. It was completely dry; there isn't even plumbing up there. So now my father believes Ernie was up there, sending him a sign."

Kruse said her children and grandchildren told her stories when they were very young about "the man" who came to visit them at night.

"Ernie is very attached to my granddaughter's room," she said. "When she was 3, she came up to me and said she saw a man in her room. He's played with her at night and even tucked her into bed.

"The people who have lived in my house before me have also said it's haunted," she added. "Ernie often paces around upstairs, and I'll just tell him to be quiet and the noises will stop. He'll open and close drawers and cabinets and stops when I tell him to stop. It's constant activity. I've been touched a lot; I've had my clothes tugged on and I've been pushed. On one occasion, I saw him walking through the house."

Kruse said her scariest experience in ghost hunting occurred in 2000, during an investigation at an old mansion in Illinois.

"When I went in the house, a thick mist formed and moved from room to room, so thick that you couldn't see the person in front of you. Then all of a sudden it would disappear," she said. "The temperature in the basement was in the high 70s, but the temperature of the fog was 5 (degrees) to 18 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The fog moved, twirled and swirled around you," she continued. "ABC wanted to feature the house for a first-ever prime time network show on ghosts. I went down to the basement, introduced myself to the ghosts there and as I wandered around, something kept pulling at my hair.

"I went into the old wine cellar, closed the big, steel doors and stood there in the dark. I asked the ghosts to give me a sign of their presence, and suddenly a cold hand slipped into my right hand, gave it a squeeze and slowly slipped out. It was incredible. It's unusual for a ghost to respond and touch you like that."

Kruse says there are two types of hauntings -- residual and intelligent.

"A residual haunting replays an event that happened in the past, something that had extreme emotion tied to it, like a murder or a suicide," she explained. "For example, say a family hears the basement door close at 4:30 in the morning every day, and when they go to investigate it, nothing is there. But they find out the person who last lived in the house went to work every day at 4:30 in the morning and left through that basement door. A residual haunting is always attached to the site, not the people."

"An intelligent haunting is like Ernie," she continued. "The ghost is sometimes in the house doing his own thing, sometimes responds. It can be active or interactive.

"Active hauntings are more attached to the site, whereas interactive hauntings are more attached to a specific person. Places and people can be haunted, but it's not a negative thing, it just means a spirit is present. People who are haunted sometimes know a ghost, like a wife knows her dead husband is in the house. Sometimes they can smell a specific scent, like Grandpa's cologne.

"There's always a reason for the spirit to be there," said Kruse. "They might be waiting for someone to pass or keeping an eye on a loved one."

Kruse said the most common manifestations are a smell or odor that can't be explained, sounds such as slamming noises or hearing a name being called, or having feelings that a spirit is present.

"Some people just get the creeps when they walk into a room, or every hair in their body will stand up for no reason," she said. "Sometimes, rarely, they might be touched. The least frequent manifestation is actually seeing something or someone."

Kruse said the ghosts glimpsed in her experience as a ghost hunter were of some kind of form or shape, and not always in the shape of a person.

"I usually see mists or twirls or swirls, and also glowing balls," she said. "I've seen shadows going up a wall or stairway, or a shapeless mist moving around."