Why residential cases?

Why indeed…

For the past seven years of APS’ existence, our bread and butter have been residential cases. My experience in paranormal investigation goes far beyond the seven years, and I had worked on cases solo for quite some time. Why did I bother going into it in the first place? With all of the legal liabilities out there, was it worth it?

My Backstory (Feel Free to Skip)

The reason why I wanted to get into residential casework is that when I was dealing with my terrifying experience at the age of 17, there wasn’t anyone to help us. This was 2003. Believe it or not, it was a year before “Ghost Hunters” premiered (2004). At the time, when it comes to paranormal TV, all I had was “Most Haunted” and “Scariest Places on Earth.” But I didn’t watch those shows because they weren’t allowed in the house. I wasn’t even allowed to read the “Goosebumps” series or watch “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” I did anyway when my mom was asleep (sorry, Mom).

When I was in high school, I was dealing with a lot of stuff. My grandmother died the summer before my freshman year of high school and I had my first “serious” boyfriend. As with all high school romances, it ended…ironically on the anniversary of my grandmother’s death (he was a gem). Needless to say, I was heartbroken for a multitude of reasons. Also, with my grandmother gone, there was no longer someone there to diffuse the tension between my mother and me. So, my home life was rather turbulent. I started thinking some really dark thoughts and really rebelling. To be honest, my rebellion started in middle school but it got REAL bad my sophomore year of high school. I was really diving into reading paranormal books and case files by the Warrens. I would read AT the library so that I didn’t have to take the books home.

Anyway, my grades were slipping. At the same time, I was becoming obnoxiously religious and conservative. I listened to Christian metal, started wearing all black, and really becoming that “deep” teen while serving as president of the Faith Club. Finally, my senior year, I decided to homeschool so I could join a Christian mime ministry. Yep, I was the coolest kid. Anyway, it was the fall of my senior year. I was neck deep in Jesus and my grades were improving since I was learning at my own pace.

However, one night, I had a terrifying experience one night in my bedroom. It was scary enough that I was sleeping in my mom’s room for months before we did anything about it. Mainly, it was because my mom didn’t believe me. It wasn’t until my cat started hissing and going nuts every time she went into my room that my mom decided to find help. At the time, in 2003 in San Diego, CA, there wasn’t a team around that could help us. If there was a team, we couldn’t find them. Eventually, we had to call in a prayer team, which led to an intervention from the Greek Orthodox church.

Keep in mind, this was still very much a time where you didn’t speak about ghosts or anything paranormal…especially if you were a part of a conservative Christian community.

Residential Cases Today

I would say that paranormal culture has changed dramatically since my encounter. People are more open about their paranormal experiences. If someone needs help, they’re more willing to reach out for assistance. There are also so many teams these days that you can’t throw a rock without hitting a local team. There are at least 3-4 teams in almost every major city. They are everywhere. Some of these teams do residential cases. What is interesting is that a lot of these teams stepped back from residential cases.

This can happen for a few reasons:

1. Burnout
2. Many clients end up needed psychological or medical help instead of a ghost hunter
3. Liability risks

Burnout is very real, especially if you’re doing other things because of residentials. That’s all I’ll say about that.

#2 is a very real problem. In fact, APS has cut back on a lot of residential cases if we even get a whiff that someone is in need of a medical professional. We don’t want to give validation to a person who may use our involvement as a reason to stop taking medication. Many people would rather there be a ghost instead of admitting that they may have a very real problem. Because we are screening so intensely now, our case numbers have dropped, which I’m okay with.

#3 has always been a risk, even if teams from the early days didn’t realize it. There is always that risk you’re going to be sued. Even if you have your client sign all the release forms, that won’t stop them from at least taking you to court. You’ll still have to pay those attorney and court fees. William Wilkens of Paranormal Societies wrote a great article about Liability and Legal Concerns for Paranormal Investigators. I highly recommend you read it!

Also, there is a chance that some of these clients are looking for their gig on TV and need validation from a team. Or, they see it as a sideshow and invite half of their Mommy group to watch as you work.

Again, Why Bother?

The risks I mentioned are very real and possible. With this in mind, why do I still continue to work residential cases? Because as we weed through the absurd requests, there is always that one that is legit and is desperate for help. Had there been a team for my mom and me back in the day, would I still be wary of sleeping alone in the dark? Would I have had to deal with the issue for almost a year? I don’t know. But as long as there are families scared to sleep at night, children scared to function in their daily lives, and people seeking a sense of normalcy, fighting for their homes, APS will be there. Even if APS dissipates in the next ten years, at least I will still be there. Even if I’m debunking a haunting, the clients in it for the right reasons breathe a sigh of relief and find some peace in their lives.

To me, that is what makes it all worth it.

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We will be investigating the Trivette Clinic on September 29th, 2018. There will be 150 paranormal investigations happening simultaneously all over the world at the same time starting at 10 pm ET. We are honored and so excited to be part of such an important event!

This year is all about giving back. Stay tuned on the APS page to find out how we will be giving back to the Trivette Clinic and what you can do to help!

The post APS to Participate in the World’s Largest Ghost Hunt appeared first on Association of Paranormal Study.

There are some pages and groups I’ve worked with where the deceased is presented as a circus freak show. Sure, we hear the stories, but it is up to us to find the truth hidden in the scary story that was meant to raise our tensions. Even the word “hunting” bothers me because I get an image of Elmer Fudd searching for “wabbits” through the woods. Yes, we are searching for ghosts, but we’re not hunting them for the purpose of trapping them. We’re entering THEIR territory and hope that they like us enough to want to talk to us. I sometimes joke that if you don’t get any results at a location, it is either not haunted, or the ghosts thought you were a jerk and didn’t want to talk to you. But all joking aside, we need to approach investigating in such a way where we’re being respectful. Treating the paranormal field as a novelty brand, something that is meant to amuse and entertain the public just furthers the idea that we can’t be taken seriously as paranormal investigators. It’s making the paranormal into this “Come look at the freaks” genre that is making the rest of us look like a cheap and tacky novelty we see on paranormal reality shows. There are times to let your hair down and be silly, but when the very basis of your practice is to be a gimmick, it’s a slap in the face to every paranormal investigator who really is trying to make progress in the field.

Paranormal reality shows are meant to entertain. To embellish that tawdry trend into your own group only makes you look…well, I’ll be nice and just say inexperienced. I guess you can say I’m spending my time complaining about how other teams conduct business. I care about the paranormal community, and I love the people I’ve gotten to meet and work with. I see the countless hours you put into data review and presentation. I see you writing down your ideas and trying them out in the field. I just don’t want to see your hard work trivialized by a novelty concept that is waning into obscurity as time progresses. 

Gettysburg is one of those locations that is near and dear to my heart. I can’t help but get emotional when I go there. So many perished, and those emotional scars still permeate. If ghosts are real, I want to engage in a conversation with these soldiers and talk to them like they’re humans, not some animals behind cages. Sure, the data collections and presentations are fine and interesting. But that’s only a part of the puzzle. Could it be possible to get the same reaction from a conversation about family as you would from trying to provoke the person? Maybe.

If we take away the cheap novelty from the practice of ghost hunting and add in some empathy, who knows what progress we could make. With how large and vast the community has grown, nothing is original these days unless you’ve trained dogs to hunt for ghosts. But that’s a whole other topic for another day.

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Unless we catch a client being deceitful, I’ll never say publicly that a client was lying or that they made up the activity. While it’s easy to be an armchair critic of a situation that we have no experience in, it doesn’t help the client if they’re really having some sort of experience. Now note that I’m not calling them “paranormal experiences.” The reason why APS is called on to a case is to determine whether or not that client is experiencing something paranormal. Having a hallucination, having your stuff fall off the wall from an uneven foundation, or experiencing an overload of EMF energy, is all an experience. Non-paranormal experiences can still be just as terrifying, or even more terrifying than an encounter with a real ghost (cue Scooby-Doo style scrambling).

If we’re working on a case, and the client tells us that the activity has stopped, it doesn’t mean that we stop working on the case and we bid the client goodbye. For the sake of not stirring up energy, we might not visit the premises for the time being, but we still keep in touch with the client and check in.

If you encounter a case where things were active one minute, and then dormant the next, keep in touch with the client. In the case of a legitimate haunting, there are a few reasons why it could go dormant. It’s possible that the client is no longer feeding energy into the entity, the haunting resolves itself, the entity senses that the client is working on trying to get rid of it so it’s trying to stall the inevitable or the client was able to debunk their experiences. Regardless of the situation, keeping the line of communication open is key to maintaining a good relationship with the client. Plus, they know they can turn to you for support without judgment.

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We all have our beliefs, and there is a supernatural world out there that is as vivid as everything else around you. Making sense of the paranormal through exposure and research is the first step to uncovering these mysteries. I want to know everything, and I’m guessing you do too. Since you’re reading this blog and all.

I once had a team member describe APS as the nerd with their nose in a book. It’s why we don’t have a TV show, and it’s why I’ve written several books about the paranormal field. What drives me crazy is the spreading of misinformation. People are losing out on their hard-earned money buying “gadgets” that weren’t built to detect ghosts in the first place. People are throwing money at self-proclaimed experts and then disappointed when they don’t measure up. There are a seldom few people that I would even consider to be an expert in the field, Loyd Auerbach is one of them. Seriously, Google him and look at his credentials. Read his books. Take one of his classes. It’s worth it!

If you’re going to be a team that takes on residential cases, research is something you HAVE TO DO. How are you going to implement a solution if you don’t know what you’re dealing with? Residential casework isn’t for the recreational ghost hunter. Why? You are taking on an enormous responsibility that can make the difference between a family being able to sleep in the beds at night once again, or a family being torn apart from miscommunication, the pot being stirred, and potentially angering the presence in the home. At the end of the day, the investigator gets to go home, the client still has to live with whatever is in the home. In order to know what kind of solutions to implement, the investigator has to be able to research and comprehend the ins and outs of the situation. That includes… (*trumpet blows*) RESEARCH! Not only research, but you have to be able to present your findings in some presentational form like a paper, presentation, speech, etc.

Residential cases are not for your entertainment or amusement. The paranormal isn’t taken seriously because it’s not taken seriously. Stop being a part of the problem. If you’re a thrill seeker, don’t call yourself a researcher. If you’re a ghost hunter

In the event, you find a client who does want you to investigate and provoke for the purpose of collecting data for public viewing, that’s up to you to take on the case. Just be cautious that you’re not the monkey in the middle and you find yourself on the evening news.

Finally, if you’re a recreational ghost hunter who is looking for thrills and adrenaline rushes with a residential case, be 100% honest with your client. Give them the disclaimer that you might make things worse, but it will be great evidence for your YouTube channel. A great sacrifice right? Most clients seek a team for HELP. Respect that. If you’re not willing to do the work, research, field work, resolution work, that’s okay. Go do your thing! Just stay out of people’s homes.

Just stay out of people’s homes.

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Happy Halloween!

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So when I start researching the history of St Albans Sanatorium, and was seeing the name Gina Renee Hall pop up over and over again, I was immediately skeptical. Why would a woman haunt a location that she had no tie to? She was murdered in the small town of Radford, VA, home to the haunted location St Albans Sanatorium, yes, but I’m sure she has much more reason to haunt the bastard that killed her, not a random psychiatric facility.

via southwesttimes.com

But this is my role with APS, I research the history behind the locations we investigate to try to uncover truth behind myths and legends. So I started researching Gina. Her story is truly tragic. On June 28, 1980, Gina Renee Hall, a freshman at nearby Radford University, was at a nightclub with friends. One friend that night, Stephen Epperly, convinced her to go back to a cabin at Claytor Lake. When she arrived at the cabin, she called her sister to let her know where she was. That was the last time anyone heard from Gina. No one knows exactly what happened, but the next morning her sister reported her missing, and shortly after, police found her car off of Hazel Hollow Rd, bloodied towels in the trunk. The police later searched the cabin to find what appeared to be blood that had been cleaned up. Over the next two weeks Gina’s clothing was found around the town. Investigators had built a case against the man last seen with her, Stephen Epperly, and charged him with murder. The case they built was that she had refused his sexual advances, and he lost his temper and murdered her. Epperly became the first person in Virginia’s history to be convicted of murder when no body had ever been found. He is serving a life sentence but maintains his innocence to this day.

So now we know who Gina is, but again, why would this young girl with a tragic end be haunting St. Albans? Most people attribute it to the car. Hazel Hollow Rd, where the car was found, is several hundred yards from the grounds of St Albans. But my research goes much deeper than that.

While trying to find information out about the case, I found an archived article regarding an appeal case for Stephen Epperly. In the comment section I noticed a comment by a man named Kenneth Ramsey. He stated that he was a Police Officer in the community when the crime occurred.

via nrvnews.com

He went on to discuss how Epperly was working for a construction company at the time who had two major projects going, one, a new addition on the University, and the second, a major expansion on the St. Albans psychiatric facility. Epperly’s role was to spread gravel in the foundation pits before the concrete was laid. Retired Officer Ramsey felt that Epperly had buried the body in the St Albans foundation pit, which is why the car was nearby and the body was never found. I reached out to Mr. Ramsey to discuss this further and question why the police hadn’t followed this lead in the search for her body. He explained two things. The first was that he did not know at the time that Epperly was working the construction job, that information was learned later, after being formally charged. Second was that the Police in the two weeks that followed Hall’s disappearance, were searching every inch of the city and river. They were finding pieces of evidence everywhere, so they weren’t focused on just the location where her car was found. But looking back with this information, he feels sure she is buried in the foundation that Epperly was tasked to help build. The Foundation of St. Albans Sanatorium.

As a paranormal investigator, I often focus strongly on that second word of our title, Investigator. The “why” is so intriguing to me. Why is Gina Hall reported to haunt this location? Why would she still be here, trying to communicate with people? I feel that this information from Kenneth Ramsey is an answer to the “why”. Gina Hall was brutally murdered, her killer stuffed her in the trunk of her car, drove her to the construction site he worked at in the middle of the night and buried her in the foundation pit that would be filled with concrete soon. He then walked home as if nothing happened. And Gina Renee Hall’s spirit is left in unrest, body never found, burial never given, with no one understanding why she is still there, in a building she had no connection to in life.

I hope that I have been able to provide some peace and understanding for her.

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“It’s sure to be an interesting night! We have a great team of over a dozen people joining us for the investigation with a plethora of different backgrounds. I can’t wait to see what we discover!” says Alex Matsuo, the founder and director of APS.

We will be live streaming our investigation on our Facebook page along with tweeting live updates from the APS Twitter account. Be sure to check us out and let us know what you think!

The post Next Investigation: St. Albans Sanatorium appeared first on Association of Paranormal Study.

As an investigator and researcher, I’ve always felt as though client work is a form of conflict mediation, which usually results in miscommunication. But I feel like many ghost hunters, teams, etc. automatically pin the presence as the enemy or “the other”. I’m not exactly sure how I feel about that. In most of the cases I’ve worked, the presence has been a deceased human being, and usually the phenomenon is a response to the client’s actions or behavior. Not saying that one or the other is wrong, but where did the whole idea of treating the presence or phenomenon as the enemy right off the bat come from?

When it comes to cases where the client is having a negative experience with an unseen force, of course the team wants to come in and be the problem solvers and help. But keep in mind that client work can be a form of “he said/she said” in terms of miscommunications. What may be the ghost trying to communicate can be interpreted as an attack by the client. And because the client is physically present and able to verbally tell their story, investigators give them the upper hand when in reality, perhaps the client could be inadvertently responsible for some of the conflict.

I feel to approach the presence and communicate with them defensively is a bit disrespectful. And the thing that gets me more than anything is PROVOKING. When there’s no response, you’re either dealing with something that doesn’t want to communicate (and hey as living beings there are people we don’t want to talk to) or there might not be anything there. And if you’re provoking something that is inhuman or evil…even worse. That’s like poking a sleeping dragon and then being shocked when you get burned. Provoking to me can be dangerous in a client case because we’re not the ones who have to keep living in the house after the investigation is over, and the investigators themselves aren’t the ones who usually don’t deal with the consequences. The idea of communicating with the unseen presence as if they’re the enemy right off the bat is very sad to me and takes away many opportunities for more effective communication that could lead to resolution.

I find the world of investigating and research to be a beautiful thing. It’s communicating with someone who is deceased or something from another realm of existence. Asking the presence to perform tricks for our entertainment is just wrong and on the same level of asking a human being to juggle for us just because we asked. Going in and speaking English and not the native tongue of the presence just shows ignorance. Couldn’t we take the time to learn more about the context of the dead before going in? Perhaps if we approach our investigations with a bit more objectivity and respect, maybe the other side will be more open and willing to communicate with us. Maybe instead of letting the client become so dependent on the investigator, we should educate and empower them by talking to them about what could cause paranormal phenomenon, educate them, and let them know that they still have control over the situation even when they feel helpless. In reality, maybe working client cases is a form of conflict mediation where the investigator is the middle-man helping to resolve a problem between the two worlds of the living and the dead.

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The answers can be chalked up to the idea that there’s more history on the east coast than the west coast. But in order to validate that assumption, we have to account for the history and the timeline of both coasts. And of course, that would require extensive research based on demographics. However, I’m fairly certain that there is probably equal amount of paranormal activity on both sides of the country. Both sides have seen war, settlements, sickness, disasters…so what is the difference?

Since I have moved here, I’ve noticed that there is a different perception of the paranormal on the east coast. It’s more accepted and embraced out here. There are more people who acknowledge their experiences and want to get it investigated. There are more haunted locations that are being capitalized by the locals. The paranormal mindset is very different out here. I’ve met more people than I can shake a stick at who openly admit that they believe in the paranormal or they’ve had experiences that they couldn’t explain. It’s rather interesting.

There is also more accessibility to history on the east coast. It seems that no matter where I turn in Raleigh or in my travels up and down this side of the country, I can visit  historical locations that have been well preserved as opposed to a site where history happened. Of course when it comes to American history like the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, there is more on the east coast. But when it comes to the birthplace of America and culture, the west coast has the upper-hand.

I don’t want this post to be a “which coast is better” sort of thing, but I am curious to know: Do you feel that one side of North America is more haunted than the other?

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