Who you gonna call?
At an early age, ghost hunter Kevin Erickson had a startling experience with the paranormal that began his quest for answers in the field.
Near his boyhood home, Erickson said, sat an eerie abandoned house that was once rumored through the town to be the home of a woman that had murdered her husband. She dressed in all black, and each time she left the house, even to get the mail, it was said she would meticulously lock every window and every door.
One night, Erickson said he sat completely alone in this abandoned house, which his family was at this time using as a work shop. With only a trouble light illuminating his work, Erickson set a pair of channel lock pliers on the old rickety dresser next to him.
“The pliers by themselves shot across the room about 20 feet,” Erickson said.
Since that day, Erickson’s resounding question and search for the answer of what happened and what caused it continues to spur his interest.
A ghost hunter by hobby, Erickson is a part of a group called The Cache Paranormal Society. The members in the group include people from various viewpoints and religions. He said the society picks out places to do their work in local private residences, public locations and abandoned buildings as well.
Erickson said the team currently has completed more than 20 investigations in the year since their formation. The society holds recurring public events for people interested in the society. He said they go anywhere from Cache Valley to Salt Lake. But, he said, the majority of the cases have been public locations.
Before investigating any of these places, Erickson said the team always receives permission from the owner. The most popular public locations have included the Lyric Theatre in Logan, The Baron Woolen Mills in Brigham City and the Main Theater in Smithfield. The team does not publicize any information about the home investigations in an effort to protect the privacy of the residents.
About 90 percent or more of the phenomena they see are explainable, Erickson said. It’s either environmental, psychological or a predisposed condition based on rumors of activity in the home because they have heard about its past history. Some ghost hunting teams go in to a place and try to prove what is going on. But Erickson said the Cache Paranormal Society takes a different approach. Erickson said going in, the team tries to pass everything off first as everyday, tangible things that happen because of the environment or psychological reasons. After the group rules all of these things out they are left with what they can’t explain, and with the possibility of it being paranormal.
When the team sets up for a case, they blanket the place in equipment. Erickson said the members use handheld cameras, DVR equipment that covers multiple stationary cameras, recording devices, 360 mics, EMF devices that gauge the electromagnetic fields and open cabling. Along with this equipment, the team also leaves stationary devices at different places wherever they are working.
Erickson said this equipment tracks signs of anything that happens over long periods of time. They completely seal off the room they are working in, leaving only equipment running. This helps so no outside influence will taint their investigation. He said upon entering any room, the team always announces their arrival on the tape so they know it was them making noise and not something else.
One of Erickson’s most intriguing cases happened in the old Main Theatre in Smithfield. Several members of the team were packed in the basement of the theater. Erickson said the team heard voices audibly and later discovered the presence of EVP voices tracked by their recording equipment in the room with them. Erickson said EVP stands for electronic voice phenomenon. Sometimes, he said, these recordings pick up voices that the human ear misses. The most important ones are those that are picked up both audibly and on the recording.
Erickson said during that night, the team heard girls laughing, a little girl laughing, a girl that said “play with dolly” and a man who announced his name. The team also got direct responses from a little girl that was present. When asked questions, the little girl would answer directly back to the team. The answers received were completely audible to the point that the team could understand what was being said.
On another visit to this same abandoned theater, Erickson said some members of the team experienced a rather uncanny happening when the stage curtain raised and lowered with a loud bang, by itself, in the complete darkness. Moments before this event occurred, members of the team asked the darkness or anything listening if anyone was there. The curtain crashing confirmed the team’s suspicion that indeed something was present and listening.
Erickson said in some instances there can be negative occurrences. Sometimes things can get physical and threatening.
“Some have felt being pushed, some have been scratched, and some have been punched or hurt very hard,” Erickson said.
Erickson said he has had a few situations that were physical but said he continues to question what happened – was it environmental, psychological or could the person possibly have bumped into something?
“We’re just looking for answers,” he said. “We’re not provoking things, we’re not pushing buttons, we’re just simply looking for answers we want to find out what is legit and what is not, and from there we draw our own conclusions. You have to maintain an open mind no matter what. You never know so don’t automatically think it’s paranormal. We try to think realistically, not paranormally.”
For more information on the Cache Paranormal Society, contact them through their Facebook page or at cacheparanormal@gmail.com. There is no charge for any event. Members are rotated through if the venue is too small. All those who are interested will get an opportunity to go and try their hand at the explained and unexplained activities that can occur while participating with the fearless Cache Paranormal Society.
– delayne.locke@aggiemail.usu.edu