| Fearing the Unknown |
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 Fearing the UnknownLocal paranormal investigations revealed Ghost stories have been a late-October tradition for years. But these local organizations work to find the truth in the tales through their research and investigation. From living in a haunted house to experiencing a battlefield apparition, Cincinnati investigators have witnessed their fair share of the supernatural. Learn more about the personal experiences and metaphysical findings — right here in the Tri-State — of these paranormal researchers. Don't be afraid. Keep reading! With Halloween right around the corner, people have begun to talk about pumpkin pie and apple cider once again. But with those autumn delights, spooky stories and ghost tales whisk through the crisp air. For some local residents, paranormal encounters are more than just stories. They are experiences.
Local resident Joy Naylor founded Cincinnati Area Paranormal Existence Research (CAPER). She gained interest in the idea of ghosts when she realized that her own house was haunted. Naylor would hear strange noises, smell "strange smells" and find her keys in random places in the house. While her husband dismissed the occurrences as a result of a scattered brain, she knew it was more than that and began research on the history of her house.
Only one family had lived in the house before her, and the house had stayed in that family for multiple generations. The last person to live in the house before Naylor was named Robert, and that is who Naylor believed the ghost to be, so she began to call the ghost Robert.
You might say that her theory was confirmed on the last day her keys went missing. Naylor's daughter had been injured at school, and Naylor frantically was trying to find her keys to drive to be with her daughter. After a little search, Naylor yelled out something to the extent of, "Robert, my daughter is injured! I need my keys!" she says. Immediately she heard a clink from the kitchen, and there on her kitchen floor were the keys. She never heard from Robert again.
But her calling had just begun. Naylor continued her research into the paranormal and founded CAPER to learn more about the supernatural and to assist local residents with their own ghostly encounters. CAPER investigators volunteer themselves by offering free investigations, and none of their services to the public involve fees.
Through her own time as a paranormal researcher, Naylor's most memorable moment came on her first investigation. While she and her team were in Gettysburg, Naylor experienced her first apparition. A ghost of a soldier rode up to her on a horse, got off the horse and touched his right hand to her left cheek. Talk about a cold touch! "There were two other groups investigating the same area. Each group saw what happened but in a different perspective from where they were," Naylor says.
Despite her personal experiences with the paranormal, Naylor says that only about five percent of the cases they investigate actually involve the paranormal. More often than not, the people who turn to CAPER for assistance only are experiencing increased levels of electricity.
High areas of electricity can result from several different electrical pitfalls, including unshielded wiring and uncovered electrical boxes. "Some people are very sensitive to high fields, and they can hallucinate. They can see things. They can hear things. They can develop a rash. In some severe cases, [the high fields] have caused a seizure," Naylor says.
Because of these reactions, many "haunted" happenings turn out to be merely electricity interacting with a house's inhabitants. In these cases, CAPER investigators can make suggestions to fix the problems and rid the house of the electrical "ghost."
For happenings that cannot be linked to high electrical fields, investigators bring in equipment to better evaluate the situation. "When doing this sort of research, you really only have your five senses to rely on, so the equipment we use is really just used to amplify our senses or provide some scientific evidence," says Jim Gunnarson, founder and lead investigator of Tri-State Ghost Hunters Society, which is another organization of volunteers interested in the paranormal.
Investigators from both CAPER and Tri-State Ghost Hunters Society use digital voice recorders and video cameras to capture each investigation so that they can regroup and review the events of the investigation as a team. While in an investigation, researchers will ask questions into the room to see if they can get a response, also known as "electronic voice phenomenon," and another investigator will listen to the digital recorder attached to an amplifier.
While Cincinnati has some paranormal spots, Gunnarson estimates the area's activity as average or below average compared to other parts of the country. "We lack the history that Southern and New England states have," Gunnarson says. But areas like Miamitown, Loveland and Milford have higher activity. "They're all close to water, and they also have very high quartz and granite, and so those things themselves are a magnet of energy," Naylor says.
To learn more about the Tri-State Ghost Hunters Society, visit TriStateGhostHunters.com. For more information about CAPER, visit them online at CAPER.Pararesearch.org.
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View all articles by this author Last update: 26-10-2009 10:21
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