Spooky
encounter; Niagara Area Paranormal Society hears male voice in Welland museum
Welland-Tribune
They
looked like roadies getting ready for a rock show when they showed up Saturday
night at the Welland museum carrying bags of electronics.
But
on closer examination, these were the tools of ghost hunters out on the prowl
for supernatural signs. Team
members from Niagara Area Paranormal Society aren't quite ready to give up their
day jobs, but one gets an eerie sense that they guys and gals live for the chance
to meet the dead. NAPS
leader Carol Taylor has been tracking ghosts for much of her life, but she comes
to each haunt with an open mind and a scientific approach. The strategy is fairly
elementary - eliminate every naturally occurring phenomenon and what is left falls
in the realm of supernatural. This
particular evening, the group is looking for a male ghost that has been causing
some mischief at the Welland museum over the years. Papers have mysteriously moved
off desks and voices have been heard uttering a friendly "Hello." Could
it be Casper? NAPS
is willing to invest their Saturday night to find out. The
team is packing infrared closed-circuit television cameras, digital audio recorders,
video camcorders, electromagnetic field meters, wireless audio recorders and laptop
computers. Taylor
said there are plenty of hot spots for ghost hunters in Niagara including Fort
George, Old Fort Erie and the Mahoney Doll House in Fort Erie. "All
of us are believers," said Taylor, who works in the education system and
lives in Welland. "We always go in with an open mind." Taylor
said NAPS is getting quite a following and has received 75,000 hits on its website,
www.paranormalinvestigations.net. Three thousand people are actually members of
the society. Membership is free and there is no charge for paranormal investigations.
Clearly, this isn't about the money. Whatever
the appeal for apparitions, you have to wonder what attracts a casino worker,
a dog groomer, an educator, a tire repairman and a guy who does flooring to give
up their time to record white noise and video tape seemingly-empty rooms. Too
many Scooby-Doo reruns? One too many Grateful Dead concerts? No.
These folks are serious. Their's
is the curse of curiosity. They aren't going to visit Screaming Tunnels or Hopkins'
Tomb to get face to face with a ghost and go running off through the graveyard
screaming like Shaggy and Scrappy. They didn't even bring along any Scooby Snacks.
But NAPS have
seen some weird stuff in their travels across the region. "It's
curiosity, not fear," Taylor said. "This is a hobby." A
recent visit to the doll house provided all the validation the group needed to
consider its weekend outings as time well spent. "A
light on a chandelier turned itself on and off. Suspiciously, it was the only
light in the house that was not connected to the main breaker. They
also heard a lady scream a name, but when they played back the tape there was
nothing there. Taylor
said there has been "some interesting stuff" happen - and it's the interesting
stuff that keeps them all coming back. This
particular visit began with a conversation between Taylor and museum archivist
Nora Reid. The group called the museum to get the 411 on local ghost activity
and found out there could actually be one in the building. NAPS would also like
to do a little research at the Welland courthouse and on the third floor at Roselawn
Centre in Port Colborne. Taylor
said naturally occurring electromagnetic fields caused by things like old wiring
in a building can give a person the sensation they are being watched - or a large
enough EMF can actually cause hallucinations. Taylor
said the amount of "activity" in a building will determine how long
the group actually stays to do research and it normally takes a couple of weeks
to crunch all the data once it's collected. A
preliminary report on the museum obtained by telephone Sunday night suggested
there is a ghost-in-residence at the museum. Taylor
said electromagnetic readings in the building were so high in some instances the
device was useless when it came to getting any type of reading. "Shannon
(Delury, a ghost hunter) was in the basement and a ping-pong ball flew past her
head, but when the team went looking for it, it was nowhere to be found."
The team also
heard a male voice during their investigation and a "dry eraser board"
in the museum staff room "flew off the wall." "There
is obviously something happening there," Taylor said. The
team will present the museum with a report of their findings once the data has
been fully analyzed. | 
