|
Hunnicutt, founder and director of the
GGS, has been chasing ghosts ever since he was 17, when he was
spooked in an Arizona theater that was said to be haunted.
He has no doubt ghosts are real.
"I've been slapped, had my legs
knocked out from under me and I've been physically grabbed," said
Hunnicutt, who lives in Macon. "Anyone who does this and says
they're not scared is either a liar or a fool."
Instead of running out of a haunted
building screaming and flailing his arms, Hunnicutt moves in closer.
Using ordinary cameras, thermometers and recording devices, team
members try to document paranormal activity and uncover any
pranksters perpetrating a hoax.
Co-director Drew Hester, who has
studied paranormal psychology, relies on his senses.
"When I feel things, it's kind of
like, if you can imagine, when you're on a roller coaster and you
start to go down and your heart kind of goes - it's not a scared
feeling, but it's kind of an adrenaline rush," said Hester, who
commuted from his north Georgia home in Chatsworth to investigate
claims of ghost-type activity in Middle Georgia.
Upon entering a room containing a
large safe on the first floor of the courthouse, Hester immediately
had that feeling, but it quickly went away.
Kim Gordon, president of the Crawford
County Historical Society that is working to restore the building,
said there has been evidence of paranormal activity.
"We've had a couple of people with us
that have had experiences in here like a cold spot," she said. "One
of them had a battery-operated lantern that would go completely off
when she went over the threshold upstairs."
When Hester walked over the same spot
last month, he was overcome with a feeling of dread and anxiety he
thinks could have been left behind by countless defendants who
passed through the door to learn their fate inside the courtroom.
"It was a feeling of fear, not me
being scared, but again, almost a residual energy left behind that
you kind of step into and your brain and your senses kind of match
up with it and you feel it," said Hester, who leads ghost tours in
Dalton, in north Georgia.
Unlike the bungling band of ghost
hunters in the movie "Ghostbusters," the Georgia Ghost Society
usually does not go looking for trouble, but it sets out to
investigate existing claims of spirit activity.
"We don't go into cemeteries. We
don't go into abandoned buildings. We go into places with a
paranormal history," Hunnicutt said. "So we're not ghost hunting.
We're doing paranormal research."
Drawing nearly two dozen
investigators from across the state, the nonprofit organization sets
out to assist anyone experiencing a haunting. There is never a fee.
MIDDLE GEORGIA HAUNTS
On Friday the 13th in April, the
group met for dinner at a Waffle House to discuss that night's
investigation at the old Good News TV studio that once was home to a
Mormon church on Beech Avenue in Macon.
Over plates of hash browns and cups
of coffee, they listened to reports of full-bodied apparitions
roaming the hall at night, a moving, empty rocking chair and
unexplained voices that sounded like a church congregation coming
together before a service.
Armed with infrared wireless cameras,
laptop computers, packs of batteries and a plate full of homemade
chocolate-chip cookies, they settled in for the night.
The first order of business in their
investigation involves setting up all the equipment and taking base
line readings of temperature and electricity levels. By documenting
what's normal, they can better decipher what is not.
Abrupt temperature changes can signal
the presence of a spirit, Hester said.
"The idea with cold spots is that
spirits or spiritual energy when it's around you is actually taking
the energy out of the atmosphere. In order for you to have any type
of heat, you have to have energy for that heat," he said.
Once everything is in place and the
initial readings are recorded, the group comes together for prayer.
"All of our faith and what we believe
is biblically based," said Hunnicutt, who wears a blessed medal of
St. Michael the Archangel, who cast Satan out of heaven. "We
definitely believe spirits attract spirits, and we can open the door
for dark spirits to come.
"Sometimes it can be spiritual
warfare. You draw a line in the sand and you don't back down," said
Hunnicutt, who has participated in exorcisms.
At the end of the prayer, the group
splits up and the lights go off.
"That's when the fun starts,"
Hunnicutt said.
Dennis Ellerbee, a fire investigator
from Jackson, considers himself a skeptic, but he believes.
"When you first go dark, it's like
every horror movie you've ever seen comes back to you," Ellerbee
said. "It takes somebody special to do this. You've got to get used
to the dark and sitting and waiting for something to grab you."
During the night at the old
television station, he saw a small light shooting back and forth in
the front room.
"The first time I saw it, I thought I
imagined it, but then I saw it go back and forth a couple of times,"
Ellerbee said.
Later that night, the group came back
together to try to solicit audible responses or noises from any
spirits lingering in the building.
Although the recording was difficult
to decipher, group members heard a male voice in another part of the
building.
"The thing that catches me off guard
in there is you can audibly hear a voice," said Jason Lewis, a
psychic medium from Kentucky. "I couldn't tell what it said, but you
could definitely make out the sound of a voice.
When posing questions into the quiet
darkness, Lewis asked: "If this is you trying to communicate, please
say that again?"
While playing back the recording,
Lewis thought he heard someone say: "I don't really want to."
PROVING THEIR CASE
Last week, Georgia Ghost Society
members set up their equipment in the old jail in Crawford County.
During a previous investigation on
the first floor of the two-story brick building, LeAnne Boggs of
Covington felt someone touch her.
"There was no explanation for that,"
said Boggs, who says she is psychically sensitive. "It felt like
someone was trying to wake me up, like grab your leg and shake a
little."
While lying on a cot inside a metal
cell, her partner on the other cot also reported someone tugging on
him.
The sound of keys jingled outside the
cell, and they heard knocks upstairs.
"Me personally, I think it was more
residual. Just kind of an impression left in the location, if that
makes any sense. It's just an energy. I personally don't feel any
ghost spirits active here," said Boggs.
During another investigation of the
jail last week, the group recorded sounds of keys picked up in the
old building.
At an old jail in Dahlonega, an image
that looks like someone going up the stairs showed up on their video
camera.
At the Gaither Plantation in
Covington, the investigators always seem to find something amiss.
While the cameras were rolling, an
orb shot past a sofa in the living room. On Thursday, Hunnicutt said
they heard someone whistling, a woman laughing and saw doors opening
by themselves.
Like a child playing peek-a-boo, the
image pops back behind the wall.
Not every encounter is friendly.
"You kind of don't want to deal with
those spirits that were not nice in life because they're not going
to be nice in death," Boggs said.
Hunnicutt has seen his share of what
he calls malevolent or demonic spirits that can have a lingering
effect
"I've had some of the most lucid and
vivid nightmares that you couldn't even imagine," Hunnicutt said.
"I've had things happen at home that especially when you're by
yourself, it really gets to you. When you know there's no one there
with you yet there is someone there."
Although demons are clearly referred
to in the Bible, Hunnicutt realizes not everyone believes.
"I'm not trying to convince anybody.
We're just going to keep doing what we're doing."
To contact writer Liz Fabian, call
744-4303.
|
