Chasing shadows

They sit in the dark, talking to no one, taking pictures of nothing. Waiting long hours. Watching the shadows. Listening.

Digital recorders capture everything - and nothing. Nightvision cameras, electromagnetic sensors and infrared thermometers are charged and ready in case something disturbs the silent vigil.

Sound a bit abnormal? Try paranormal, as in the Colorado Springs Paranormal Association.

The association is a group of about two dozen people who spend much of their free time searching for spirits. They found one another on the Internet, responding to a Web site created by CSPA co-founders Bev Walton-Porter and Paul Sninchak.

On a recent night, they met in a century-old west-side Colorado Springs house in hopes of capturing photos of free-floating apparitions or audio of chatty spirits, or discovering electromagnetic fields and cold spots - anything that would explain the experience of the residents who report doors opening and slamming and voices they believe are from a supernatural force.

"Hi. My names is Charles. Is anyone here with us?" Charles Carley said, speaking in the darkness of the kitchen as a half-dozen association members and visitors listened. Nothing.

Digital recorders ran as the group patiently watched for any sign of life from the dead.

"Can you tell us your name?" Carley asked. Still nothing.

Over the next hour or so, Carley exhorted the spirit to reveal itself and make contact.

Then, Walton-Porter snapped photos with a digital camera, and they quickly studied the images.

"We got an orb," Walton-Porter announced, passing around the camera. Sure enough, a circle of light appeared in a corner of the frame. Debate ensued: Was it a dust cloud?

   Moisture? A spiritual presence? It would take research to determine.

   The orb was the highlight of the first hour of the association's investigation that night. Mostly it was tedious, and that, apparently, is normal for the Paranormal Association. Dramatic discoveries are rare. "It's boring 90 percent of the time," Walton-Porter said.

   But then there is the other 10 percent.

   "We had a lady who had her hair pulled and was smelling blood, and seeing something pacing the bedroom," Walton-Porter said.

   Another time, in the Silver Cliff Cemetery, Carley said she heard a little girl singing. And often, the hours spent reviewing video and audio produce images and sounds that were not obvious during the night's investigation.

   On this night, things didn't heat up until after 1 a.m., when one of the crew reported that a vacuum moved on its own. That would be unusual in most houses. But not so much in this house, where residents Michelle and David Carter regularly report objects moving.

   "Weird things happen," Michelle Carter said of the house where they've lived more than a year. "When it started out, it felt like something was watching us. It was a creepy feeling.

   "The dryer door would fly open and smack against the wall for no reason. Then we started hearing footsteps like somebody was walking up the stairs. We smelled cookies and pie baking in the kitchen, and the lingering smell of an old lady's perfume."

   Then there is the bathroom. Cabinet doors slam routinely. And, the Carters said, people generally feel uncomfortable in it.

   So that night, association investigators, in their CSPAlogo shirts, took turns trekking up the stairs and down the hallway, and hanging out inside the bathroom.

   But no ghostly activity was obvious - not even a feeling of being watched. Walton-Porter said it's not unusual to come up empty: "It's always a crapshoot."

   Failure, however, does not deter Walton-Porter, who founded the Colorado Springs Paranormal Association in 2005, four years after her husband died and she began experiencing unexplained activity in her home.

   "We began to see things moving of their own accord," she said. "My daughter was seeing a little girl in her room."

   Walton-Porter decided to investigate, so she bought an audio recorder, set it in her daughter's room and let it record.

   "We received a whole bunch of electronic voice phenomenon," she said. "We got a little girl's voice saying: ‘Mommy, the cat scratched me. Make it stop.' What went on in that apartment got me started in the paranormal. There is something going on."

   When she was unable to find any local groups to help explain what she was experiencing in her apartment, Walton-Porter started her own group. At first, she joined the International Community of Paranormal Investigation and Research and created a Colorado Springs chapter. Then she started CSPA. Things started accelerating in 2006, about the same time she met Sninchak, a fellow horror enthusiast. They're now engaged and run the association together.

   "We take the approach that 99 percent of what we find can be explained by mundane circumstances," she said. "That's how we approach every investigation."

   And what about the rest of the cases?

   "That's when it gets to the good part," she said.

   That same attraction - debunking hauntings or proving that the supernatural world is real - has attracted a diverse group to the association. It's membership is growing and includes an artist, a landscape architect, a stay-at-home mom and a cop.

   The group is riding a national ghost-hunting trend fueled by popular television shows and new technology designed to detect what humans can't see or hear. The CSPA imitates activities on TV shows that include "Ghost Whisperer," "Medium," "Paranormal State" and "Ghost Hunters," the latter a reality show on the Sci Fi Channel that follows The Atlantic Paranormal Society. Viewership of "Ghost Hunters" has doubled since its 2004 debut and now has about 2.6 million viewers.

   "That is very much what we do," Walton-Porter said of their investigations, which average a couple per month. "We are about researching and collecting data and helping people. We aren't out trying to take advantage of people or anything. That's why we never charge for an investigation. And we don't take every case that's brought to us."

   Like their TV brethren, the Colorado Springs ghosties take their work seriously and try not to jump to conclusions. They realize orbs can be explained away. Clock radios and bad wiring can emit electromagnetic fields. Recorded "voices" can be attributed to random radio signals.

   While skeptical, they are open-minded to the possibility that spirits exist. First, the investigators determine whether a spirit is present. Then they categorize it as, perhaps, poltergeist activity, which is a mysterious disturbance caused by a spirit; a "residual haunting," in which a spirit goes through a predictable routine; or an "intelligent haunting," in which something interacts with a human by touching or responding to questions.

   Sometimes, they even find a "malevolent force" bent on doing harm, but the CSPA's methods of dealing with spirits don't include exorcism rituals, as a church might perform.

   "We do not take a particular religious stance," she said. "We don't go into homes with holy water or whatever. And we don't certify a house as haunted."

   If a presence is detected, CSPA prefers to help the homeowner deal with it peacefully, rather than engage in rituals to eradicate it.
   "People need to learn how to actively pursue results," Walton-Porter said. "Fear just breeds more problems."

   The Carters are a good example. They no longer fear the slamming doors or voices or feelings in the bathroom.

   "We think this is a residual haunting," Michelle Carter said. "It plays over and over like a tape recording. And it may also be an intelligent haunting, trying to get a response."

   Instead of fleeing it or living in fear, the Carters use tactics suggested by CSPA.

   "We try to talk to it," Carter said. "We never tell it to go away. We'll say: ‘Whoever's in here, you're not welcome in my daughter's room. You are scaring her. If you are going to stay, you have to be nice.'

   "Sometimes we yell at it. We get frustrated. We'll tell it to stop slamming the doors, or, ‘stop tickling me. I'm trying to sleep.'"

   Carter pauses and considers what she has just said.

   "You don't want to think you are crazy," she said. "At first I was a little freaked out. Now we're comfortable with it. I'm not afraid at all." 

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0193 or bill.vogrin@gazette.com

TO LEARN MORE

The Colorado Springs Paranormal Association conducts free investigations. Contact the group at 213-3119 for Michelle Carter, lead investigator, or 271-2613 for Bev Walton-Porter, co-founder. To learn more about the Colorado Springs Paranormal Association, visit www.paranormalcoloradosprings.org or www.myspace.com/paranormalcoloradosprings.