Ghost Hunter Gear & Equipment

Police officers are witnesses to many tragic and extraordinary events. But “Elliot,” an officer in Port Richey, Flordia, was not prepared for the strange and unexplained things he saw on a February night in 2003. This is Elliot’s story:

I am a traffic officer. On this particular night I was on patrol and had just come back from the hospital where I had escorted a perp for stitches. I pulled into a gas station convenience store parking lot to get a cup of coffee and a pastry. I looked ahead of me and saw a tall, young man walking by the side of the road. He was Caucasian, mid-twenties, about six feet tall, with a yellow shirt and blond hair that bobbed and weaved as if he were off in la-la land or high on something. I sat in the cruiser just detailing the guy as he came into the overhead light of the gas station.

Then I noticed the strangest thing… and I am not even sure if I can describe this well. There were forms of people walking with him. They were transparent, but I could see them all silently walking. Tall things, but hard to get a fix on. At first I thought my windshield was dirty and I was seeing a glare, a double image or something.

The young male walked on the other side of the Hess station out of my view as I got out of the car. I shook off what I thought I saw and blamed it on exhaustion or driving too many hours. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something come out of the light where the young man had passed and seemed to follow him. It was big, but again was transparent. This sounds fantastic, but it was shaped like a rhino, but with spindly, bowed, reptile legs. It was on a chain. Behind it was a transparent figure of a large male, approximately seven feet tall with a strange head that I couldn’t quite make out, silently drifting and moving his dog-like jaw, like the face was laughing. I blinked a couple of times and it was gone.

Again, I brushed off this vision as a hallucination due to weariness and went into the convenience store to get a few things. Of course I was just seeing things. How could it possibly be real?

As I was talking to the cashier at the register, I glanced out the front window and saw the young man crossing the road. He was in a hunched-over position, which was strange… then he laid down in the road face down!

The Accident

I immediately rushed out the door and began to yell at that dumb fool to get up and get the hell out of the road. I ran toward where he was lying in the middle of the lane. Two truck headlights were barreling directly toward him. I yelled louder as I rushed to the scene.

The truck approached and its driver slammed on the brakes. The trailer truck slowly began to turn sideways. I panicked and my adrenaline pumped because I knew it was ready to flip. Then the whole truck jack-knifed and the trailer swiveled out into the other lane and collided into a short blue bus in the oncoming traffic, crashing it into the guard rail. The front wheels of the truck then rolled over the young man’s body. The blue bus flipped on its side over the guardrail as the truck came to a complete stop.

I called for backup and a medical unit. I ran out in the road and saw that the truck driver seemed fine. I ran toward the flipped school bus. I ran around to what was the top side of the bus and to the front to the smashed windshield. I looked in and couldn’t see anything. I was still radioing it in as I grabbed my flashlight from my belt. I shined it in to what was left of the windshield and could see the driver. He was still buckled in and half of his face was missing, and he was slumped toward the door, now on the roadside. I yelled in and there was no response. I looked into the back of the bus I could only see a leg and a woman’s shoe dangling over a seat.

Within seconds there were cruisers on the scene and medical units. I filled them in on what had taken place, leaving out the part about my strange vision. I only told them of the young man and how he laid down in the road and was subsequently run over. They notified a coroner and a team began a search under the truck for his body.

I was still in shock from witnessing the tragedy as I walked back to my cruiser with two fellow officers. Something caught my eye - the silhouette of the young man who had laid down in the street! I could see his yellow shirt! For some reason, it was hard to register at first because I thought he was dead. But then it clicked and I notified the other officers that this was the guy.

I began to give chase as he just walked slowly away. I drew my gun and told him to place his hands on top of his head. There was no response. I instructed him again to place his hands on top of his head. A cruiser pulled around in front of him and another behind me. At this point, I rushed in to tackle the man and dove on him; we had him in cuffs in no time. A female officer and I pulled him up to his feet. We then escorted him back to the cruiser and threw him over the hood.

We searched his pockets. He had an I.D. bracelet from a psych medical center where he was getting treatment. His name was Johann something; I can’t recall right now. I made sure he knew he had caused the accident out there. And he said to me the spookiest thing…

“I serve Adonai.”

I said, “What? You do what?”

“Adonai’s minions - they came,” he said slowly.

“What is an Adonai? Who’s Adonai? Huh? Answer me!”

“They were picked for the sacrifice.”

“How did you get out from under the truck?” I asked.

“They are laughing now - see?” He smiled and turned his head toward a burned out chapel on the side of the road. I looked and saw nothing, but three or four officers went and searched the church, thinking perhaps he had co-conspirators.

The full story came out later. The blond young man was an abortion activist who had flipped out and was institutionalized, and had been recently released. His mother claimed he was hearing the voices again and that he claimed God was talking to him.

Riding in the small blue school bus that was hit was a church choir returning from a concert. Seven were killed, plus the bus driver.

How did the young man survive being run over by the truck? What of the vision Elliot saw that night? Was it a hallucination, as he first thought, a premonition of the tragedy… or a manifestation of “Adonai’s minions”? Note: I have done an Internet search to verify that such an accident took place in Florida on this date and could find nothing, so we have only officer Elliot’s (not his real name) word that this incident really took place. (If any readers can provide verification of this accident, please notify me.)

THE GHOST PHENOMENON has become so closely associated with the instinct of fear that it’s almost a given that, if asked, most people would admit that of course they would be frightened if they encountered an apparition. Even many seasoned ghost investigators have been known to run like scared rabbits when they see or even hear something unexpected.

Why? Have ghosts really earned the reputation of being harmful to humans?

If you were walking unarmed in a dense tropical jungle that you know is inhabited by tigers and large snakes, you’d undoubtedly be petrified. The threat to your life and well-being is quite real and your fears justified. Tigers and snakes can and do kill.

Now place yourself alone at night in a house that has the reputation for being haunted. Most people would probably experience the same fear. Yet, according to most authorities on the subject, the fear is not justified. Ghosts, by and large, are harmless. The true behavior of ghosts, as evidenced by many thousands of investigations and case studies conducted by paranormal experts, overwhelmingly contradicts the common idea that they are to be feared.

Maligned ghosts

Veteran ghost investigator Hans Holzer, in his book Ghosts: True Encounters with the World Beyond (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1997), emphasizes “…the need to forget a popular notion: that they are always dangerous, fearful, and hurt people. Nothing could be further from the truth…. Ghosts have never harmed anyone except through fear found within the witness, of his own doing and because of his own ignorance as to what ghosts represent.”

Loyd Auerbach, another respected ghost hunter of many years, agrees: “In many cultures and religions around the world, ghosts are thought to harbor ill will towards the living. This is unfortunate, since the evidence from thousands of cases…suggests that people don’t change their personalities or motivation after death… nor do they turn evil.” (Ghost Hunting: How To Investigate the Paranormal, Ronin Publishing, 2004.)

Roots of fear

So why do we fear them? There are probably two main reasons.

Fear of ghosts – also known as spectrophobia or phasmophobia – most obviously stems from our fear of the unknown. This is a deep-seated fear that is hard-wired into our genetic makeup. The primitive parts of our brain that respond to instinct – a holdover from our cave-dwelling ancestors – flushes our bodies with adrenaline when we encounter a threat, preparing us to fight or flee. And when that threat is something unknown that might leap out of the darkness, we’d just as soon flee.

There’s another component to this fear when that something in the dark is perceived as a ghost. After all, a ghost is the manifestation of a person who is dead. So now we are confronted not only with what we think is a threat to our lives, but a representative of death itself. Not only is it an entity that we don’t understand, it is also a resident of the place many of us fear the most – the mysterious land of the dead.

The second main reason we fear ghosts is that we have been further conditioned to do so by popular culture. Almost without exception, books, movies and television shows portray ghosts as evil, capable of mischief, injury, even death. If the media are to be believed, ghosts actually enjoy scaring us out of our wits.

“What Hollywood and television portray is very inaccurate and cannot be relied upon as truthful,” say Lewis and Sharon Gerew of the Philadelphia Ghost Hunters Alliance in their article, Co-Existence. “They show these spirits of the dead as being evil in nature, filled with malice and harmful intent. I assure you that this is not the case.”

Creepy, rotting, vengeful ghosts may make exciting movies, but they have very little basis in actual experience.

Scratching, slapping and biting

Ghost and haunting phenomena are harmless. As much as they may unnerve and mystify us, there is really nothing to fear. Haunting phenomena seem to be recordings of past events on a particular environment. This is why haunted houses can “play back” the recordings of footsteps on a stairway, for example, or even the voices of an argument that took place many years previous. Apparitions can sometimes be seen performing the same task over and over again.

True ghosts or spirit apparitions may be earthly manifestations of those who have passed on. They are sometimes able to interact with the living and relay messages. (See “Ghosts: What Are They?”.)

In neither case does the phenomena pose any real threat. Voices captured through electronic voice phenomena (EVP) techniques can at times be rude or even downright abusive, but again there is no real threat of harm.

So then how do we explain those rare cases in which a person is apparently scratched, slapped or even bitten by some unseen entity? Such instances have been documented in the famous Bell Witch case, the Esther Cox case in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and the terrifying “The Entity” case on which the film was based.

These cases, and others in which people are “attacked” and objects are thrown around, are considered by most researchers today as poltergeist activity. Although poltergeist means “noisy spirit,” current parapsychology theory suggests that they are not spirits or ghosts at all. Poltergeist activity is psychokinetic activity caused by a living person. Usually that person is a teenager undergoing hormonal changes or someone under extreme emotional or psychological stress.

So what we generally consider the scariest aspects of ghosts – objects moving by themselves, TVs turning on, pounding on walls and very rarely a person being injured – are most likely caused by the unconscious working of a living human mind. We can’t blame ghosts.

For those of us researching ghost and haunting phenomena, we must resist our fearful instincts in the face of the unknown. Fear can only inhibit our examination and understanding of one of the most intriguing aspects of the human experience.

Some people want investigations because inexplicable events happen and/or they see ghosts or they want to join a ghost hunting group. There are those who desire a psychic reading, to contact with deceased loved ones or communicate with a pet. People attend lectures and read books to learn about the paranormal. When to get help? It’s like trying to find a good handy or cleaning person. Companies offering these services aren’t available in all geographic locations. What does one do after finding a potential person or organization? Using debunking principles is an excellent tool for identifying bona fide people and organizations.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara was a real life con man the movie, The Great Imposter, was based on. During Demara’s “careers,” he was, among other things, a surgeon, mental health professional who used applied psychology principles to resolve issues in other psychological disciplines, cancer researcher, hospital orderly, child care expert and lawyer. Imagine being one of his patients or clients! Why be the victim of people in the paranormal field? There is documentation of emotional stress caused by paranormal frauds.

Debunking Imposters Posing as Paranormal Investigators and Exposing Paranormal Hoaxes

Warning signals:

• Websites featuring their self-created false definitions. Cross reference their definitions using the American Society for Psychic Research’s and the Parapsychological Association’s glossaries. Some definitions may differ because parapsychology is a primarily theoretical science.
• Feature their investigations that are to incredible to be true, like the debunked Amityville: Scamityville!
• Answers to valid questions. What makes you qualified to investigate? “I’m psychic,” “I like ghost hunting” and “Ghosts are interesting.” If there are other credentials such as doing it for research, experience and the desire to prevent people from being scammed coupled with the listed answers, no problem. Be very wary of those who claim to have ghost hunting certifications. Google search websites they claim they got their certificates from. There appears to be no accredited paranormal organizations offering these.
• Question “Why do you offer free investigations?” “For the experience, as part of our research and to help people avoid hoaxes” are the answers to look for.
• Members of paranormal groups who claim to have accredited ghost hunting certificates. A Google search for “accredited ghost hunting certification” lists approximately 58,700 websites. There none on the first 50 sites, some of which don’t even mention ghost hunting.
• Base their “claim to fame” on involvement with sites featuring ”cases” debunked as hoaxes and/or scams.

Con Artist Writers and Lecturers Unmasked

Red flare and warning siren:

Writers and lecturers who admitted to changing significant details and embellish on them to make the hauntings more interesting and scarier. One scamster wrote an article that appears on a legitimate website admitting he was a story teller who wrote books and gave lectures because he “likes to scare people.” Didn’t he realize he was debunking himself by such a confession?

“Psychic” Scamsters Debunked

These scamsters have their tricks:

Miss Cleo, née Youree Dell Harris, is the perfect “poster child” for con artist psychics, as Ted Bundy is for serial killers. She performed on “infomercials” for several psychic lines, cheating innocent people for money by offering free readings, then keeping them on the line as long as the scammers could, past the “free time”, to make $5 a minute! Another trick they used was to give callers an 809 area code number to call. While other Caribbean Islands share the area code, the Bahama-based one are “pay per call,” like 900 numbers. Many people aren’t aware of this, so they call and pay dearly. Miss Cleo and her co-conspirators were sued by the FTC and some states for fraud and other crimes. The defendants lost. All were banned from having websites and paid damages. They no longer exist, so innocent people are safe from this “psychic” and her partners in crime unless they opened other lines under new fictitious names and the contact had a different name…