Post by spriskeptic on Oct 31, 2008 12:53:18 GMT -5
SPRI was featured as the cover aticle in the October 23th edition of the Electric City Newspaper.
Day and Tom were interviewed for the article.
From the Electric City
Searching for the Unexplainable
Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation aims to find proof of spirits
By Randy Shemanski
It's almost Halloween and that means plenty of skeletons, axe murderers and mummies at various "haunted" attractions throughout the 570. It also leads to talk of "true" hauntings, which usually brings out a strict distinction among those in the conversation - the believers and the non-believers.
The idea of ghosts existing was glorified years ago by the over-the-top, more-than-slightly-ridiculous mega-hit movie Ghostbusters and more recently by the Sci-Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters.
But here in the 570, a handful of groups exist with the goal of proving the paranormal exists. One of the most active and longest-running groups is the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, better known simply as SPRI.
It would be easy to term SPRI as a group of ghost chasers, people who run around investigating paranormal incidents and documenting them, but SPRI's goal runs much deeper than that.
"Part of what we do is we go out there and try to help (people) understand what's going on," said Tom Fritz, who along with his wife, Robin Luchko, founded SPRI. "A lot of times when people understand what's going on, that makes them a lot more comfortable with it."
Rather than try to determine who or what the spirit is that's causing the disturbance or phenomenon, SPRI tries to find a logical explanation for all events the group investigates. In other words, they do everything they possibly can to determine that a house or building is not haunted.
"The holy grail would be the full-figured ghost standing there with a sign that says, 'I'm a ghost,'" said Daelynn Farrell, a member and public relations director for SPRI. "That's the holy grail. Movement we try to explain away as much as we humanly can. With (Fritz's) background and the backgrounds of the other people (in SPRI), there's almost always something that we can say, 'Hey, this is what it could be.'"
Farrell is one of the groups "sensitives," which, simply put, means she can communicate with or sense paranormal spirits. She assists in investigations by entering the premise with no prior knowledge of any potential paranormal events, then tells the other investigators what she senses, which helps them determine where to set up cameras, sound recorders and other devices used to detect potential activity.
Fritz is jokingly known as the "anti-ghost magnetic" because he has never experienced what he truly believes to be a ghost during an investigation. He has, however, seen things that he hasn't been able to explain, one being the group's first big investigation, which took place at Andy Gavin's Pub & Eatery on North Washington Avenue in Scranton.
Gavin's, as many of the pub's regulars know, is believed to be haunted by a ghost named George. Pots have moved unexpectedly in the kitchen, bar stools have slid on the floor for no reason, and on rare occasions, those inside the bar have felt a presence or even an actual touch from George.
During SPRI's investigation about three years ago, a camera was set up in the kitchen. Investigators asked George to give them a sign and immediately the sprayer hanging above a big sink began to sway slowly. Video of the sprayer moving is posted on SPRI's Web site, www.spriparanormal.com.
Coincidence or an actual paranormal occurrence? Nobody's really sure.
"We went by running faucets and flushing toilets to see if we could get a pressure change in the plumbing system that would cause (the sprayer to move)," Fritz said. "We couldn't get anything that actually changed that, but since it is a city water system, somebody doing something could do that. (Andy Gavin's is) across from the prison. If 25 of the prisoners flushed the toilet at the same time, that might make that pot washer move."
So no hard proof, but another occurrence that has added to the legend of George.
There have been other, more significant events during investigations, but still nothing that can be 100 percent classified as a ghost. On one investigation in a home, a camera set up in the basement with no humans around provided footage of a beam of light that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, another phenomenon the investigators could not recreate.
"The interesting thing about it is, there are no windows on that side of the room and there are no openings in the building behind the camera, there were no investigators in the basement," Fritz said. "It seems a little bit like a flashlight, but in a couple of the frames, you can almost see an end to it and it did not hit the floor and refract. It almost looks like it has a point on the end of it. We tried to replicate that with flashlights and we could not get that to happen. We can't figure out what that light was.
"That's pretty much as sensational as it gets."
Fritz said the group hopes to post the video on its Web site soon.
The group does not do ghost removal, a la Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters - "We do not use proton packs," Farrell jokes - and it only investigates in buildings it's invited into. With investigators from as far away as Honesdale and Hellertown, the group's reach is far. SPRI usually conducts about two investigations a month, but during this time of year, the group appears at numerous Halloween attractions and other events to help educate the public about the possibility of paranormal activity.
"It's about educating people, not just about SPRI, but about the things they may be experiencing and how they themselves may be able to discount things based on knowledge, common knowledge," Farrell said.
"Education erases fear," Fritz added.
For more information, including video and other info on past investigations, and how to become a member of the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, visit www.spriparanormal.com.
-rshemanski@timesshamrock.com
Find this and other stories at: www.ecweekend.com
Day and Tom were interviewed for the article.
From the Electric City
Searching for the Unexplainable
Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation aims to find proof of spirits
By Randy Shemanski
It's almost Halloween and that means plenty of skeletons, axe murderers and mummies at various "haunted" attractions throughout the 570. It also leads to talk of "true" hauntings, which usually brings out a strict distinction among those in the conversation - the believers and the non-believers.
The idea of ghosts existing was glorified years ago by the over-the-top, more-than-slightly-ridiculous mega-hit movie Ghostbusters and more recently by the Sci-Fi Channel show Ghost Hunters.
But here in the 570, a handful of groups exist with the goal of proving the paranormal exists. One of the most active and longest-running groups is the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, better known simply as SPRI.
It would be easy to term SPRI as a group of ghost chasers, people who run around investigating paranormal incidents and documenting them, but SPRI's goal runs much deeper than that.
"Part of what we do is we go out there and try to help (people) understand what's going on," said Tom Fritz, who along with his wife, Robin Luchko, founded SPRI. "A lot of times when people understand what's going on, that makes them a lot more comfortable with it."
Rather than try to determine who or what the spirit is that's causing the disturbance or phenomenon, SPRI tries to find a logical explanation for all events the group investigates. In other words, they do everything they possibly can to determine that a house or building is not haunted.
"The holy grail would be the full-figured ghost standing there with a sign that says, 'I'm a ghost,'" said Daelynn Farrell, a member and public relations director for SPRI. "That's the holy grail. Movement we try to explain away as much as we humanly can. With (Fritz's) background and the backgrounds of the other people (in SPRI), there's almost always something that we can say, 'Hey, this is what it could be.'"
Farrell is one of the groups "sensitives," which, simply put, means she can communicate with or sense paranormal spirits. She assists in investigations by entering the premise with no prior knowledge of any potential paranormal events, then tells the other investigators what she senses, which helps them determine where to set up cameras, sound recorders and other devices used to detect potential activity.
Fritz is jokingly known as the "anti-ghost magnetic" because he has never experienced what he truly believes to be a ghost during an investigation. He has, however, seen things that he hasn't been able to explain, one being the group's first big investigation, which took place at Andy Gavin's Pub & Eatery on North Washington Avenue in Scranton.
Gavin's, as many of the pub's regulars know, is believed to be haunted by a ghost named George. Pots have moved unexpectedly in the kitchen, bar stools have slid on the floor for no reason, and on rare occasions, those inside the bar have felt a presence or even an actual touch from George.
During SPRI's investigation about three years ago, a camera was set up in the kitchen. Investigators asked George to give them a sign and immediately the sprayer hanging above a big sink began to sway slowly. Video of the sprayer moving is posted on SPRI's Web site, www.spriparanormal.com.
Coincidence or an actual paranormal occurrence? Nobody's really sure.
"We went by running faucets and flushing toilets to see if we could get a pressure change in the plumbing system that would cause (the sprayer to move)," Fritz said. "We couldn't get anything that actually changed that, but since it is a city water system, somebody doing something could do that. (Andy Gavin's is) across from the prison. If 25 of the prisoners flushed the toilet at the same time, that might make that pot washer move."
So no hard proof, but another occurrence that has added to the legend of George.
There have been other, more significant events during investigations, but still nothing that can be 100 percent classified as a ghost. On one investigation in a home, a camera set up in the basement with no humans around provided footage of a beam of light that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, another phenomenon the investigators could not recreate.
"The interesting thing about it is, there are no windows on that side of the room and there are no openings in the building behind the camera, there were no investigators in the basement," Fritz said. "It seems a little bit like a flashlight, but in a couple of the frames, you can almost see an end to it and it did not hit the floor and refract. It almost looks like it has a point on the end of it. We tried to replicate that with flashlights and we could not get that to happen. We can't figure out what that light was.
"That's pretty much as sensational as it gets."
Fritz said the group hopes to post the video on its Web site soon.
The group does not do ghost removal, a la Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters - "We do not use proton packs," Farrell jokes - and it only investigates in buildings it's invited into. With investigators from as far away as Honesdale and Hellertown, the group's reach is far. SPRI usually conducts about two investigations a month, but during this time of year, the group appears at numerous Halloween attractions and other events to help educate the public about the possibility of paranormal activity.
"It's about educating people, not just about SPRI, but about the things they may be experiencing and how they themselves may be able to discount things based on knowledge, common knowledge," Farrell said.
"Education erases fear," Fritz added.
For more information, including video and other info on past investigations, and how to become a member of the Society for Paranormal Research and Investigation, visit www.spriparanormal.com.
-rshemanski@timesshamrock.com
Find this and other stories at: www.ecweekend.com