Spirits The GLPO tries to find out if places around West Michigan are really haunted, like the Felt Mansion in Holland, pictured here (Photo courtesy of the Great Lakes Paranormal Organization) By Stephanie Lulofs
Edited by Erika Stack
It was nighttime, and the sunroom was pitch-black except for the soft beam of light flowing in from the kitchen. A heavy French door opened and shut - but nobody was near it.
Amberrose Hammond, a local paranormal investigator, sees events like this often, and helps figure out what caused them.
She has been investigating ghosts since 2001, and is a part of The Great Lakes Paranormal Research Organization, which investigates local areas that people believe to be haunted.
“In my eight years of doing paranormal investigation, I still have yet to have that one moment that just makes you a believer,” Hammond said. “I’m still an open-minded skeptic and have actually become more of a skeptic doing this.”
But Hammond and fellow investigator Scott Lambert have both experienced unexplainable paranormal events.
“During one investigation a few years ago, as I was talking to the owners of the residence, I felt something crawling up my leg,” Lambert said. “I stopped talking, looked down and saw nothing. I never felt anything like that before.”
Hammond said she saw a strange blue light moving on its own while she investigated a cemetery in Cape Cod, Mass.
Still, Hammond and Lambert agree that the team usually leaves the sites empty-handed.
“I’ve learned that paranormal occurrences are quite rare,” Hammond said. “Many things are brought on by our own minds being in a spooked state. Paranormal activity can't be turned on or off, so you never know when you’re going to come by something.”
When studying paranormal activity, the most time-consuming aspect is going over the evidence collected by the various instruments used by the investigators, said team member Julie Williams.
“It takes more time going through evidence after the investigation then the investigation itself sometimes,” Williams said. “(That means) going over the audio, video, writing up the report, so that also factors into the amount of time spent on a case.”
Some equipment they may use on a typical case are night-vision cameras, electromagnetic field detectors and digital voice recorders in case a spirit tries to verbally communicate with the team.
Hearing voices An example of an "EVP," or Electronic Voice Phenomenon, recording taken by Paranormal Research & Investigative Studies Midwest
With the growing popularity of paranormal investigation television shows, Hammond and her team have high hopes that they will describe what investigating is about, and shed some light on the truth behind it.
But Hammond and Lambert said they don’t experience the paranormal as often as the investigators on the popular ghost-hunting television shows do, so they do not accurately portray what really happens during an investigation.
“Many of us were excited when (the shows) first came out, but we were quickly disappointed when the shows on TV continuously showcased paranormal activity in every show, which is extremely rare,” Hammond said. “Soon thousands of people jumped on the bandwagon and started forming their own ghost-hunting groups, telling people they aspired to be like the shows, and that they could ‘help people with their haunting,’ when in fact, much of their experiences are learned from a TV show that’s just entertainment.”
Lambert does not see a drop in popularity for the shows anytime soon.
“People are looking for answers,” Lambert said. “The world around us is in turmoil, and in these times, people always turn to spirituality in one form or another.”
For more information on paranormal investigations done by the GLPO, or places in the area where there is haunting believed to be going on, visit their Web site at http://www.michigansotherside.com.
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