VICKSBURG, Miss– News Mississippi’s Chelsea Corona and Courtney Carter met up with Brian Riley from the Mississippi Paranormal Society to learn how the basics of being a paranormal investigator.
Bumps in the night, doors opening by themselves, glasses rattling, floors creaking–it could be explained by foundation problems, structural damage, or just the settling of an old house.
Sometimes though, things happen that can’t be explained. Like that shadowy figure, the sudden drop in temperature, or just that feeling that you’re not alone. When things happen and there’s no explanation, that’s when the sudden touches, creepy feelings and disembodied footsteps can be called paranormal.
“When we do an investigation, we check the windows, doors, and appliances,” says Brian Riley, founder of the Mississippi Paranormal Society, “if it can’t be explained, you can start to look at it as paranormal.”
Recorders, cameras, electromagnetic sensors and radios are used to determine the presence of a spirit or paranormal activity. With all of the equipment, it almost looks like a science experiment.
“It will never be a true science,” says Riley, “science is based on fact-based theories. The paranormal is based of theories that are always changing, and have a religious element.”
Many people have called on Mississippi Paranormal Society for their help.
“Seventy to eighty percent of the private residences we’re called to are not haunted,” says Riley.
Riley adds that in those seventy to eighty percent, there’s always an explanation for someone’s experience. The door could be on a down swing, which makes it open or shut on its own. There could be a leaky window seal, which leads to that feeling of a sudden temperature drop.
But then there’s the other houses.
“We use this equipment to communicate with the spirits that are already there,” says Riley, “we don’t conjure or perform a seance.”
Spirit activity is caught on recorders, cameras, camcorders, and paranormal specialist devices such as the oculus and the ghost box.
“The ghost box scrolls through radio frequencies backwards at a rate of four stations a second,” says Riley, “it’s impossible to hear any words, unless it is the spirit speaking through it.”
The oculus is a similar device. It has a dictionary mode with keywords that spirits can activate, like what News Mississippi heard while questioning the ghosts of Duff Green Mansion in Vicksburg:
For everything else News Mississippi experienced, you’ll have to tune in on Halloween.
