FACTS OR PHANTOMS? (Southern Colorado Paranormal)

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FACTS OR PHANTOMS? (Southern Colorado Paranormal)
November 29, 2009
By AMY MATTHEW
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

For those people - and there are quite a few - who think they have ghosts in their houses or office buildings, ghost hunter Roger White has a message: Chances are extremely good that you don't.

In fact, there's probably no more than a 10 percent chance that the odd noises people hear are from anything other than heating systems, wayward squirrels or some other earthly source.

"Paranormal activity is rare. The human mind is capable of making things up," said White, the lead investigator for Southern Colorado Paranormal Researchers.

White and a partner, who is no longer with the group, started SCPR in 2006. White is a software developer and says he has been a lifelong skeptic about anything ghost-related. However, a personal experience he had in 2003 got him interested in the possibility of paranormal activity - that is, phenomena that lack a scientific explanation. He remains very much a "show me" type of investigator. "We say ‘facts, not feelings,’ ” he said. "You've got to be honest with yourself because you may get excited. It takes a lot to convince me something is legit."

That said, SCPR has done enough investigations for White to be convinced of something: that paranormal energies do occupy this world, although proving their existence requires days, sometimes months, of research.

"There's no real science behind this," he said. "It's a very personal thing for people."

The team

White and the other members of the team - Joe Musso, Tammy Medsker, Duane Vigil and Rhonnie Musso - perform their investigations free of charge. All information is kept confidential unless a client allows them to talk about it, and investigation results are posted on the group's Web site, www.coloparanormal.org.

Medsker owns the La Veta Inn with her husband, Scott. She and Rhonnie Musso are sensitives - that means they're highly attuned to the paranormal sights, scents and feelings that can emerge in an investigation. Medsker can tell if an energy is male, female or something else.

"There are all kinds of energies out there," she said.

Joe Musso is a former Pueblo County sheriff's deputy and investigator. He puts the audio and video information collected during investigations through multiple levels of verification.

"We're always looking to disprove," said Musso. "The human mind wants to make sense of things. It hates disorder.

"My EVP (electronic voice phenomena) recordings go to everyone in the group. It goes through at least three layers before we call it evidence. I would consider us skeptical believers - but 90 percent of what comes our way is not paranormal."

Vigil is the audio specialist. He works as an engineering and robotics maintenance technician and runs a recording studio.

Of the approximately 25 investigations the group has completed together, most have revealed no paranormal activity, or involved happenings that could not definitively be called paranormal. This is not a group that is easily impressed. However, they do believe one Pueblo building demonstrated strong evidence of being haunted.

‘Emotional activity’

For years, rumors have circulated that the Damon Runyon Theater on Main Street has several ghosts - possibly those of a man, woman and young girl. With hopes of investigating, SCPR approached Sean Briggs, the CEO of the Damon Runyon Repertory theater group, which is based in the building.

"I ran them through hoops because I didn't trust them," said Briggs. "I told them, ‘Bring me a comprehensive history of this building and I'll let you in.’ They brought the most complete history I've ever read."

Theater staff and visitors have reported similar experiences. Among them: glasses supposedly are thrown (though never directly at people); pictures fly, not fall, from walls; lights are turned on and off when no one is near the switch; various scents occasionally permeate areas.

"It's constant. It happens any time of the day or night and it seems the bigger the nonbeliever, the harder it works to show itself," Briggs said. "The most frequent smell is tobacco or cigar smoke. We've also caught whiffs of lilac and vanilla."

SCPR made two night visits to the theater, in August and October. White said evening is the best time to conduct investigations because the environment is more controlled, with less human activity and outside noise.

Equipment - infrared cameras, audio recorders, radios, K2 meters (to detect electromagnetic changes in the air) and temperature gauges - was set up in several areas of the building, including the basement.

"Theaters have a lot of emotional activity," said White. "The Park Theatre in Estes Park (which the team investigated in May) was very active."

The first thing Medsker noticed was a "pungent, weird smell" as she walked around the theater. In two separate locations, she became nauseous and got a headache; Rhonnie Musso, who was in a different area, experienced similar physical manifestations.

"There definitely was some heavy, almost ominous feeling," said Medsker.

During both visits, multiple batteries - fully charged - went dead, the team members said. "Paranormal investigators believe when a battery is drained, there's something competing for energy," said White.

The group documented a significant amount of activity - even capturing what sounds like a male voice cursing at Musso - and was able to confirm many of the experiences others have reported.

"The only thing we didn't catch were glasses being thrown and pictures flying off the wall," said White.

One result from the first visit actually inspired SCPR's return trip: Over just one of the team's radios - even though all were tuned to the same frequency - a woman's voice was heard pleading, "Help!”

"It really bothered us. We all thought about it a lot and thought if there's a ghost and she needs help, how terrified must she be?” said White. "We came back to see if we could get more information."

The second visit didn't result in another plea, but may have captured something even more significant. While in the building's sub-basement, in the room where the huge furnace is located, Musso and Briggs said they felt the temperature drop to the point that they could see their breath - while the furnace was running at full blast.

When Musso later scoured his four hours of video, he noticed what may be an apparition in a doorway of the furnace room, near an old coal chute.

"I found (the image) on my first run through of the video, but wasn't sure what it was, so I grabbed some other shots I had of the area and compared them to make sure they weren't just the concrete background showing through, with a different colorization showing up," he said. "I sat on it and compared everything I could find to it . . . about a full month before I was satisfied."

White said the Runyon and Park theaters are the most active places SCPR has investigated. There are several other historical buildings or sites in Pueblo he would like to research if he can get permission.

This isn't ‘Ghostbusters’

The profession isn't without its challenges, and even dangers. TV shows like SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" condense investigations into 30 or 60 minutes and give the public a glamorous, exciting perception that has very little to do with the job's reality.

"People don't realize how much work is involved," said White.

"They don't show the hours and hours of sitting," Medsker added.

There's also the unnerving possibility that investigators will encounter an energy that's powerful, but unidentifiable and much more menacing than the belligerent entity that expressed its dislike of Musso.

"A sulphur smell generally means it's a nonhuman entity," Musso said. "We have to be careful. These things can follow us home, too."

Another obstacle is time. Because they all have full-time jobs and other commitments, the team averages one investigation per month.

They continue to get calls, however, and hope to add more advanced equipment to their collection. In order to teach people about paranormal investigations, they will will conduct a workshop in February at the La Veta Inn, which White and his original partner investigated. That's how he met Medsker. (Results of their hotel research were inconclusive, but "interesting.”)

Although the investigations themselves are an attraction for the SCPR members, each one expresses the feeling that there is a deeper reason for what they do.

"It's a service," said Medsker, who says she used to see the ghosts of her grandparents when she was young. "We validate or debunk in order to help people deal with something, to understand their experiences."