Ghost Busting  by Shane Hoffman

By the time I was 6, I had formed a ghost-hunter club with some neighborhood kids, which consisted of running around on summer nights with flashlights. That was a long time ago, but that Hardy Boys- and Encyclopedia Brown-inspired little kid is still with me, and he jumped at the chance to go on a real ghost hunt with Pensacola’s GHG Ghost Hunters.

 All of the ingredients were there: We’d meet at dusk at a vacant old house in Pensacola. I was told it was being renovated, but things had become complicated when strange things started to happen, scaring the workers so bad that they wouldn’t go back inside. Sweet! I showed up at 6:30 and met Marlene Blanchard, one of the founders of GHG Ghost Hunters, and medium Sharon Renae and her husband, Rick Loe. Sharon works closely with the group, often referring calls about hauntings to them so that they can do an initial 

investigation. My knowledge of ghost hunting was largely based on that paragon of TV investigative journalism from the 1970s, “In Search Of …” starring Leonard Nimoy. The ghost hunters then wore polyester suits, and they always had truckloads of impressive-looking equipment, cameras, motion sensors, reel-to-reel tape recorders and machines that went “ping!”

But that was 30 years ago, and these days, my cell phone probably has more oomph than a whole van-load of that disco-era stuff. The GHG Ghost Hunters didn’t disappoint. They unloaded video cameras and tripods, plus several metal cases that contained digital laser thermometers and electromagnetic field detectors.

RED BIRDS, SOBS AND WIND
Marlene started off by giving me a tour. “This house was built in 1908. It was a duplex,” she said. “One evening when the (current) owner and his helper were working, they had Sheetrock over those openings in the fireplace.” She pointed out two creepy looking fireplaces in separate rooms that connected to the same chimney. “All of the Sheetrock blew off at the same time, blowing soot everywhere. And there was no wind outside.” Another time, she said, the owner and a helper were working late at night, and they kept seeing a flash of light, and then balls of light. One finally said to the other, “Do you see that?” “Yeah, I saw that,” the other replied. They were spooked. Then there was the time a blanket covering a window started blowing as if there were a gale-force wind outside, but there was no wind at all. There’s more: When the owner first bought the house, he walked in and found photographs scattered all around near the front door. In the middle of them was a small, red bird like you would find in a flower arrangement. He picked up the bird and put it aside. Every time he came back to the house, he found the bird in a different place, even though he was the only one with a key to the house. The GHG Ghost Hunters have conducted several investigations at the house. On previous occasions, Sharon and Marlene heard the sound of a woman sobbing. On their last trip, she said that they got a sense of something menacing in the back part of the house, and while they were sitting silently in the dark, with the video camera running, Renae’s chair lifted backward of its own accord, pushing her back against the wall. The place was certainly registering high on my personal being-creeped-out meter. The house was partly gutted, and tongue-and-groove slats peeked through gaping holes in the plastered walls. The fireplace facades stood leaning against the walls. The back of the house was especially unwelcoming, with a gutted-out bathroom that reminded me of “Psycho.” It was stuffy and, when nobody was moving, deathly silent.

ENERGY AND INTERACTION
“We think there’s two things going on in this house,” Marlene said. “The crying, until we know otherwise, that could just be a residual energy. The other one — it interacts.” The distinction she makes is important in the parlance of paranormal investigators. Residual energy is thought to be an imprint left on the environment by repetitive activity or intense emotion. Marlene offers the example of when her son left for college. For months, she and her husband regularly heard the sounds of the gate and door opening, and footsteps going down the hallway. It wasn’t a ghost — her son was alive and well. It was just the residual sound of his habitual movements that carried on after he had gone. Despite my childhood fascination with ghosts and monsters, I’m pretty skeptical about this sort of thing. I couldn’t help thinking about a recent family story, however. After my grandfather died, my aunt and grandmother swore they heard his footsteps creaking across the upstairs hallway at night for months afterward. When something in the house is capable of interacting with living people, it’s likely to be a full-fledged ghost. Marlene said that the chair-tipping incident was out of bounds in her book. If a ghost starts messing with you like that, she said, it’s unacceptable. I switched on my voice recorder and took out my camera to snap a few pictures. Sharon, Marlene and Rick set up their equipment and began to take “baseline readings.” This consists of recording temperature and measurements from the electromagnetic field detectors, so that if there’s any activity, they can measure changes that might occur. The video camera and snapshot cameras are to record things such as orbs and ectoplasm. These are thought to be visual manifestations of spirit energy that the human eye can’t detect.

WATCH THE ROTATING ORBS
I’ll admit, I have yet to see an orb in a photograph that doesn’t look like dust caught by the camera flash, but to their credit, the ghost hunters seemed pretty skeptical themselves. In fact, after a few snapshots with my own camera, I was all ready to point out some orbs that had appeared, but the rest of the team didn’t seem too impressed. One shot that I took of Sharon showed a white spot near the floor, which they thought might warrant further inspection. I don’t care how skeptical you are; when you go on a ghost hunt, even as a dispassionate observer, you’re really hoping you’ll see a ghost. No such luck on this evening, although Sharon had some weird things going on with her dowsing rods. Dowsing rods supposedly react to energy, and they are most commonly known as the things some people use to find underground water. Sharon let me try hers, which were going in weird circles when she stood at one spot near the front of the house. She handed me the metal rods, about a foot long, with plastic handles that allowed them to rotate freely when held in the hand. They can be used to detect a person’s aura, she said, explaining that as you move toward a person they will spread apart, and when you move away they will close together. Sure enough, when I walked toward and then away from Sharon, that’s exactly what they did. Do they really work, or was I subconsciously making them move? I’ll report. You decide. Despite what you might think, much of ghost hunting is like trainspotting — long periods of time sitting in a mundane location, hoping to see something mildly exciting. If there are ghost-train spotters, they probably have the most tedious hobby of all. But I have to admit, the 6-year-old inside me had a great time. I’d certainly do it again, even if it just to relive those magical, Halloween memories.

‘YOU COULDN’T PAY ME TO GO IN THERE’
A week later, I spoke with Wesley Odom, a volunteer organizer of the Ghost Coach Tour to benefit the Friends of the Saenger Theatre. It turns out that the house that I staked out with the GHG Ghost Hunters is one of the more frightening spots on the tour. When I asked him if he had been inside the house, he said, “Are you kidding? You couldn’t pay me to go in there.” He sent me some more details of the story. Maybe I should count myself lucky that the evening was uneventful. Here’s an excerpt from the creepy tale: SHANE, WHAT YEAR DID THIS HAPPEN???? “Sal returned to the house at dusk with his assistant, D.D., who was a muscular person. Their goal was to move some lumber that had been staged in the parlor. For whatever reason, the power would not work, so one of them got a flashlight. “Before they entered the house, a neighbor asked, ‘Aren’t you concerned about the ghosts in that house?’ “’No,’ Sal replied, trying to convince himself and his neighbor that there was nothing to fear. ‘We’ve got the ghost under wrap.’ “The two entered the house and went into the parlor, when all of a sudden a tremendous gust came out of the chimney, blowing out the sheetrock leaning against it. A moment later, the lumber in the room began to bounce up and down. It wasn’t like a few pieces. The lumber had been bundled together at least a foot thick. The sight of the bundles dancing up and down terrorized the men. D.D., who had the flashlight, took off, with Sal not far behind. Back at the car, the men asked themselves if they really saw what they thought they had seen. “A few days later, Sal, who had not returned inside the house, agreed to sell the washing machine to a friend on the condition that the buyer had to retrieve it. The men disassembling the machine weren’t in the house long before they came running outside, after having heard a noise and seen two green eyes at eye-level peering toward them down the hall. They agreed to return to the house only during the daylight to get the machine. “A week later, Sal and D.D. regained enough courage to reenter the house during daylight. They immediately inspected every room and found nothing peculiar. They went about their business when suddenly they heard a noise from a bathroom and saw its drapes billow out from a window, which they had just checked to be firmly secured. Suddenly a nearby door opened and then slammed against the wall repeatedly. The two scurried for the exit. “Once by the street, Sal asked D.D. to lock the front door for $5. D.D. said he’d do it if Sal came with a shovel to defend him. Sal asked, ‘Defend you against what?’ “D.D. eventually gained the courage to lock the door and collected the tip.” For the rest of the story, you’ll have to go on the tour.

TOURS OF HAUNTED PENSACOLA
This year, a new haunted tour joins Pensacola’s growing calendar of spooky Halloween events. The Ghost Coach Tour, benefiting the Friends of the Saenger Theatre, promises to mix horror and humor in a comfortable cruise around town. In the comfort of an air-conditioned coach, a butler and French maid will serve wine, cheese and crackers to tour goers as they cruise around Pensacola, from Sanders Beach to Old East Hill, hearing some of the most horrifying ghost stories that the city has to offer. Wesley Odom, the founder of the tour, has compiled a rich trove of ghost stories that will be completely new to most people in Pensacola. The tour focuses on many hauntings that are fairly recent, and it does not overlap with the long-running ghost tours of the historic district sponsored by the Pensacola Historical Society. Odom promises that the tour is chock-full of “stories that will make you shudder.” Parental discretion is advised! The Ghost Coach Tour is Oct. 20 and 21. Cost is $15 per person, and tickets are available at the Saenger Theatre box office, 595-3882.

Each tour starts at the Pensacola Historical Museum at 115 E. Zaragosa St. Your guide will lead you through the haunted streets of historic Pensacola by candlelight sharing some of the bizarre happenings and stories of apparitions of this very old city that was the very first settlement in the new world. The walking tours are $9 for adults and $5 for children 12 and younger, and the Trolley Tours are $14 for adults and $7 for children 12 and younger. Reservations are required. Please call the Pensacola Historical Society at 433-1559 or come by the Museum for more information or to purchase tickets. Prepaid reservations and tickets required, VISA and MasterCard accepted. No refunds, tours run rain or shine. Please call the above number for information concerning the Trolley Tour.

ABOUT THE GHG GHOST HUNTERS
Marlene Blanchard and the two other founders of GHG Ghost Hunters became interested in ghosts when they realized that the office building where they worked was “active.” According to Marlene, they witnessed repeated apparitions, which are the kind of ghosts that come to mind to most people—recognizably human forms. In this case, the apparition was of someone who had previously worked in the building and was recently deceased. After conducting their own investigation, they contacted medium Sharon Renae to see if she could confirm what they were seeing. “Sharon confirmed for us that he was not earthbound,” Blanchard said. “He just loved his company.” Later, the group began to take an interest in other haunted sites. They visited the Dorr house in Historic Pensacola Village, and they took some photographs there that appeared to indicate spirit activity. She sent the photos to the Ghost Tracker group in Jacksonville, and they later attended some workshops offered by the group to learn the methods of ghost hunting. The group has grown, and they have performed many investigations in Pensacola and across the region. One of Blanchard’s hobbies is to visit haunted bed and breakfasts. On such a trip to St. Augustine, she witnessed another apparition—a man in colonial dress pacing the floor near the foot of her bed. “It’s a personal quest,” Blanchard said. “We’re not in it for the attention or the media. It’s just a personal thing for us.” GHG Ghost Hunters periodically offers workshops to teach the public about the methods and good practices of ghost hunting. 

The next workshop is Oct. 14. Cost is $35, and reservations are required. For more information, call 469-0605 or visit www.ghgghosthunters.com. 

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOUR HOUSE IS HAUNTED
Start keeping records of what happened, who was involved, when it occurred and other details that might be relevant. If you call in an investigative team like GHG Ghost Hunters, this information can help them to determine what’s going on. Sometimes paranormal events might be linked to a certain day or time, or even the presence of a certain person. Look into the history of the house. Often clues can be found in historical records or by talking to other people who have lived there. Rule out the logical. If the lights flicker on and off, have them checked by an electrician before you assume a ghost is responsible. Is it a ghost or gravity? If a door seems to open or close by itself, check it with a level. Watch your pets. Many people believe that animals are more sensitive than people to ghostly activity. Trust your children. As someone who has been able to see spirits her whole life, medium Sharon Renae said that sometimes a child’s imaginary friend might not be so imaginary. Stay away from Ouija boards. Renae and Blanchard agree that these are bad news and can open the door to some nasty phenomena. Stay away from drugs and alcohol. Aside from making your senses unreliable, Renae said that these can make you more susceptible to bad energy. Sometimes all it takes to stop ghostly activity is a simple request, Renae said. Just ask the ghost to stop. If you think you have a ghost and want to request an investigation, visit www.ghgghosthunters.com and e-mail your request.