Who'ya gonna call?

On Wednesday, retired police chief and paranormal investigator Steven Waldo was in town for a special Halloween talk on ghost hunting.
http://www.eagletimes.com/news/10/29/2015/Front_Page/Whoya_gonna_call.html

Who'ya gonna call? Real Ghostbuster explores the 'other side' of life Allan Stein allans@eagletimes.com Retired police chief and paranormal investigator Steven Waldo boots up his computer holding evidence of ghostly encounters. — ALLAN STEIN Retired police chief and paranormal investigator Steven Waldo boots up his computer holding evidence of ghostly encounters. — ALLAN STEIN SPRINGFIELD — It's one thing to hear stories and read about ghosts. It's quite another to be living with one. Steven Waldo is one real-life ghost hunter who has seen and heard it all. And he's got proof of the paranormal on audiotape and in photographs. Disembodied voices, weird mists and "orbs" of light caught on video camera, doors slamming and stairwells creaking in the dead of night. These are just some of the strange encounters Waldo has investigated as technical manager with Vermont Paranormal Investigators (VPI). On Wednesday, Waldo treated some 25 guests to the tricks of his trade during a special Halloween talk on ghost hunting at the Springfield Senior Center at 139 Main St. "Most of the people who contact us are scared out of their minds," said Waldo, a retired police chief and state police investigator. "We get excited about things most people might not get excited about." Since VPI was founded in Springfield in 2009 the group has logged 26 investigations throughout Vermont and New Hampshire. The group has been called in to investigate reports of ghost activity in houses, vacation homes, hotels, businesses — even a bridge where a girl reportedly hanged herself. Waldo said VPI asked him to join the team a couple of years ago, but he didn't think he was ghost hunter material. As a retired police investigator, he saidd he was too rational, too skeptical, and he didn't believe in ghosts. "I am the last person in the world you would want. This is a bunch of bunk," Waldo recalled himself telling the VPI recruiter. But that is exactly what VPI was looking for in a new investigator, he said. Fact from fiction Waldo explained that 65 percent of reported cases of haunting turn out to be natural occurrences, such as electromagnetic fields or animals. Other cases involved what he called "residual haunting." This happens when the energy imprint of a traumatic event, such as a murder or suicide, gets bound up in a location and is repeated over and over again as paranormal activity. Then there are the relatively small number of cases that prove to be actual spirits of the dead seeking to communicate with the living, Waldo said. Tools of the trade -- These are some of the electronic gadgets used by VPI investigators to detect the "energy" from ghosts. — ALLAN STEIN Tools of the trade -- These are some of the electronic gadgets used by VPI investigators to detect the "energy" from ghosts. — ALLAN STEIN To record ghost activity — or debunk it — Waldo and VPI use a variety of tools, including electromagnetic field detectors, digital voice recorders, special ultraviolet light cameras, and other special equipment. "We always do things at night because it's quieter and you pick up things you otherwise could not," said Waldo. Getting a message across from the other side isn't easy for a ghost, said Waldo, because it takes a lot of energy. For this reason, VPI uses highly sensitive digital voice recorders to pick up disembodied voices. Waldo played for the audience an audio clip from one investigation where the voice of a woman, frustrated with an investigator, can be heard whispering, "Oh, my god." During another investigation, VPI investigators witnessed a pebble fly off a table and land at their feet. Other clients have complained of being touched by unseen fingers, full-body apparitions, shadow figures, electronic toys running without batteries, and TV sets switching on or off. In cases involving reported "demonic" haunting, VPI may decide to contact a Catholic priest sanctioned by the Vatican to perform exorcisms. Waldo said demonic activity often is associated with Ouija boards and cautioned against their use. "I can't say it is going to cause bad things to happen to you, but it could. So, get that thing out of there," he said. Audience member Dorothy Sargent of Springfield said her fascination with the paranormal began with the purported haunting of her house. "A couple of years ago, the couch would just move. I'd be sitting on it and it would be swaying. At night, a couple of times my bed would be moving. I said, 'Stop,' and it stopped," said Sargent. Waldo said it's important to document everything before calling in a team of paranormal investigators. "If you have activity in your house, journal everything. Write it down because that stuff can be very pertinent [to an investigation]," said Waldo.