Maine Ghost Hunters

To Whom It May Concern

2010-03-11T12:59:00.012-05:00

To Whom It May Concern:
[ ... ]

We'd like to replace the original blog entry that was here with a statement that's more representative of who we are as an organization, and as individual team members.

Maine Ghost Hunters would like to put our appreciation, and gratitude, in writing to those of you who have been supporting us, either on the sidelines, behind the scenes, or straight out there in the public eye. We've been blessed to have you in our lives and feel fortunate to consider each of you as a "friend". Thank you so very much for being there in action, with words, or simply in spirit - through our good times, our rough times, and our fantastically amazing times - you are an essential component that is the life-blood of why we try so hard to be the best we can possibly be. We thank you for taking the time to understand us, our mission, and our reason for being. You are wonderful, and we need you to know that.

Thank you so very much,

[ ... ]

Sincerely,
Maine Ghost Hunters

www.maineghosthunters.org
www.maineghosthunters.net

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-1

2009-10-15T09:14:00.003-05:00

#1 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-1 shows everyone what the very start of our investigation time looked like. This first building we were in was what the investigation leads decided to call our "home base". We had to walk through the whole building to get to the back porch, where someone was standing guard over any equipment left there during investigation times. On the way out of the building one of the group psychics mentions "slimy ice" and tells us that the spirits are present in our "home base" building.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-2

2009-10-15T09:13:00.001-05:00

#2 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. In video A-2 our group arrives in the basement level of one of the buildings we investigate. Our group psychic experiences paranormal activity almost immediately. Take note - at 3:04 Kat and Jaime both acknowledge they heard something, and within a few seconds the other team radios over to us with an observation.

2 investigators hear something at 3:00 and comment on it. Within seconds the other group, in another building quite a distance away, radio in a peculiar observation.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-3

2009-10-15T09:12:00.001-05:00

#3 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-3 is roughly 8 minutes of a typical investigation. There is extremely little of this 8 minute clip that has been cut out, so you're seeing a very life-like version of what it's like to be involved, first-hand, in a paranormal investigation. Portions of video that may have been cut out are: when the camera was focused on the floor, or was bobbling around, or when someone swore or said something personally identifying that we do not want available to the public at large. Otherwise, this is all unedited footage.

Investigators claim to be hearing and seeing spirit beings.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-4

2009-10-15T09:10:00.001-05:00

#4 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-4 is a great exhibition of how different people can have completely different experiences while investigating the paranormal. There are a couple of investigators who are sure they are experiencing the presence of unseen beings, while others make no claim at all, or claim to be having no experiences whatsoever.

Investigators are claiming to see spirits in the tunnel.

Abandoned Hospital Mini-Doc Daytime A-5

2009-10-15T09:09:00.001-05:00

#5 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-5 starts with the group leaving the basement level of the building and heading upstairs. As in all of the videos presented here, there may be EVP's present. Some EVP's may be more easily heard than others.

Kat claims to have seen a shadow person out the window down the hall. We have an instance at the doorway to a hall staircase where our team psychic tried to make contact with spirit beings in that area.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-6

2009-10-15T09:07:00.001-05:00

#6 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. A lot of Video A-6 illustrates the slower, less involved, moments of a true paranormal investigation. When you're getting to know an area, especially one that's the size of this particular location, you tend to have larger segments of uneventful chunks of time. The larger the location, the more time is likely spent getting to know the environment.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-7

2009-10-15T09:06:00.001-05:00

#7 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. In video A-7 we begin working with the Ovilus in one of the 1st floor rooms. The Ovlius pretty much speaks for itself (no pun intended) but it'll be interesting to receive feedback from people, to hear what outsiders think of the paranormal gadget.

A fairly uneventful Ovilus session.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-8

2009-10-15T09:04:00.001-05:00

#8 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-8 Slow moving, seemingly uneventful, but there are brief moments where it really feels/sounds as if we're making contact with an intelligent being. Very interesting at times.

The remainder of a pretty uneventful Ovilus session, but the ending... wow... COOL. Now *that's* a great moment for paranormal.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-9

2009-10-15T09:03:00.001-05:00

#9 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-9 shows some of the more low-key moments of an investigation. When we move from one room to another, often times we experience this sort of "low" period where little, to nothing happens.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-10

2009-10-15T09:02:00.001-05:00

#10 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-10 is another good few minutes of watching and listening to the various experiences of different people who are all in the same room. The Ovilus plays a role in this video segment, as does the psyche of the investigators in this darkened basement room.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-11

2009-10-15T09:00:00.001-05:00

#11 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Investigator heard audible, others react to seeing "something", touching sensation, batteries are draining...

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Daytime A-12

2009-10-15T08:57:00.001-05:00

#12 of Mini-Doc 1st Day Time Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. Video A-12 is where we start asking for a "sign". is the communication real? Or coincidence? Are these signs the real deal? Or something less...?

We ask for a sign that everyone can see, and hear. hrmmmm... what do you make of this response?

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-1

2009-10-15T08:55:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This is basically a "what you see is what you get" visual presentation of our arrival on scene, setting up, settling down, and beginning our 1st collaborative PM investigation. In this particular video the audience can gain some insight into the mentality of the team, the vibe of the environment, and general feel of how the night started. It really is the anchor for the progression of videos that will follow this one.

Just setting-up and finding where we wanted to be for the start of our investigation. Nothing really happens in this clip.

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-2

2009-10-15T08:53:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This clip has only, roughly, half of the night's investigators. The other half will be joining this group in a very short while. This segment is of value when looking at it in the sequence of all the night's videos. There are 9 in this series. Observe, as the series progresses and more people with varying personalities and emotional states become involved in the investigation...

We lost half of our group in this segment. They leave to go meet the remainder of the team that came later on in the evening. By the time this clip ends there are only a few of us left here to continue this EVP session.

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-3

2009-10-15T08:51:00.002-05:00

Possible Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This video exhibits some of what we considered to be possible communication with the unseen. Notice the mentality of the team, the demeanor of the group collective, and the overall vibe of these few minutes. There are 5 investigators working the scene in these 6 minutes, but soon the other 7 will return and the group will grow to 12.

Notice how calm we have been during the past few clips. Our numbers have been lessened, but we're still very relaxed, and focused on working the environment. Toward the end of this clip we wonder, are we making contact with a spirit presence?

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-4

2009-10-15T08:49:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

The rest of the team arrives, and our numbers grow from 5 to 11. It's interesting how the team dynamic changes, and the vibe in the environment shifts quite noticeably, and quite quickly.

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-5

2009-10-15T08:47:00.002-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This video exhibits the differences between smaller and larger groups during investigation times - simply compare it to video C-3. This video also allows us to take notice of the different personalities of the investigators and how these traits affect an environment, the group collective, and the investigation.

This segment exhibits the antithesis of what the first couple of clips worth of experiences provided. Whereas, at the start of this night's investigation the group was calm, relaxed and focused on working the environment, by the time we've reached this point in the evening we start to notice a clear and direct change which starts to pull us all in a very different direction.

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-6

2009-10-15T08:46:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This video is primarily an EVP session. It's seemingly "simple", on the surface, but is there more to this segment than meets the eye? 12 people all in the same place attempting to make contact with what cannot be seen, and evidence is not readily presenting itself.... could this be leading up to something more?

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-7

2009-10-15T08:42:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. This video exhibits how different people perceived their experiences during the short time we were all investigating together. The investigation, quite literally, falls apart in this segment. Notice the difference in personalities and how each person expresses themselves. What's your opinion about what you observe here in this video?

Notice the difference in the team dynamic from the first few minutes of investigating. We only lasted 30 minutes at this location after the last of the group joined us. It seemed our entire vibe changed from calm, relaxed, focused, etc... to excited, anxious, chaotic, and attention seeking- to some degree. Within a half-hour we were directed we must leave for our own safety. Our team psychic (who was fantastic!) had to remove herself from the situation to escape the overwhelming feeling of it all. The night was over before it began. We couldn't wait to get back out there the following evening.

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-8

2009-10-15T08:40:00.001-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Henryton Sanitarium First Night C-9

2009-10-15T08:35:00.003-05:00

Non-Evidence Part of Mini-Doc 1st Night Investigation

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds. This is the first of 2 nights of our collaborative team investigation. The final video of the night's events. We all met up at a local parking lot to discuss what had happened during the investigation. This is the run-down by various members of the team... describing their understanding and perception of our shared experiences of the evening. If you've watched all of the 9 videos of this night's investigation session, what's your take on this clip?

The team psychic explains her impression of what's going on within the grounds, spiritually. Her insight and perspective are respected, hands down. What about the rest of this clip... what is our group dynamic looking like at this point in time, and what's the difference from when we first arrived on scene? It's a very interesting introspective.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-1

2009-10-15T08:33:00.003-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-1

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-2

2009-10-15T08:32:00.001-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-2

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

K2 fluctuation, touching sensation on multiple investigators, communication on multiple devices upon request.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-2

2009-10-15T08:30:00.001-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-2

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

K2 fluctuation, touching sensation on multiple investigators, communication on multiple devices upon request.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-3

2009-10-15T08:28:00.002-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-3

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

Investigators are being touched by an unseen force, radios are set off, K2 responses, and Tri-Field meter soundings can be heard. Possible K3 fluctuation. Meters are spiking, batteries are draining, and communication seems to be intelligent.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-4

2009-10-15T08:26:00.002-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-4

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

K2 and Tri-Field responses... Intelligent spirit presence(s)?? More people saying they're being touched by an unseen force.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-5

2009-10-15T08:24:00.001-05:00

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-5

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

3 K2's all reacting at the same time, and a spiking of the Tri-Field on request. You can *hear* it! Excellent!

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-6

2009-10-15T08:23:00.001-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-6

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

K2 fluctuation, temperature variations... an investigator claims her hand is being held by an unseen force... all caught real-time.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-7

2009-10-15T08:21:00.002-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-7

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-8

2009-10-15T08:16:00.003-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-8

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-9

2009-10-15T08:08:00.005-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-9

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

The "demon" presents itself here through the Ovilus. Maybe we should have listened to it when it started warning us to leave...

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-10

2009-10-15T08:05:00.009-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-10

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

The "demon" actually identifies itself through the Ovilus! ? Watch the progression to this newbie investigator almost pass-out while standing, during the investigation. We all removed ourselves from this environment directly after.

~~Edit added 12/8/2009 :~~

The investigator that was "attacked" in this segment of the investigation had asked to be allowed to leave the the investigation just moments before. She made it clear she felt like she needed to exit this environment, and felt very uncomfortable. The team leads were somewhat insistent that everybody remain together, so she stayed with the group.

What we see here is not an act. Her reaction is as genuine as the reaction of the group.

As previously stated, we all left this area immediately thereafter.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-11

2009-10-15T08:04:00.003-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-11

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

~~Edited 12/8/2009~~

Group leaders try and help this new investigator force away what caused her to have a near-collapse just moments earlier. For obvious reasons, she's a bit uneasy with the environment and her surroundings. The Henryton has had this effect on many investigators over the years, especially those with natural sensitivities to stronger spiritual presences.

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-12

2009-10-15T07:59:00.003-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-12

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

Is this investigator's sudden change in demeanor due to a possible attachment? Or something else?

Henryton Sanitarium Mini-Doc Part B-13

2009-10-15T07:55:00.005-05:00

2nd Night Investigation Mini-Doc Part B-13

Maine Ghost Hunters investigates an abandoned hospital somewhere in the U.S. with teams from across the country in a group effort to capture evidence of paranormal activity on the grounds.

It's kind of funny when the Ghost Box calls David an a$$hole. It doesn't get much clearer than this clip here.

Gift from a stranger

2009-03-29T15:37:00.004-05:00

We went into The Henryton by way of the train tracks today. The walk
was long, hot, and a wee bit sticky. On the way in we realized we
forgot to bring water. Wonderful. And on the way out we realized I
(Kat) may have forgotten my iPhone on the roof of our car. Ugh!

Tony said it wouldn't be there when we got back but I thought there
was a possibilty there are still some good people in this world.

When we got back to our car we found this. My iPhone wrapped in
napkins which were weighted down with rocks so people wouldn't see it
and want to steal it.

I don't know who you are but thank you. From the bottom of my
heart... You did a really nice thing for a stranger and it's not
unappreciated. Pay it forward starts today (again, of course).

Coincidence?

2009-03-28T10:27:00.001-05:00

MGH Team leaders Kat & Tony have already had their 1st "coincidental"
experience for today.

Kat has been nudging Tony to go to The Henryton for a while this
morning. He finally called PRRS team leader, Jenny, to get the scoop
on the day's events. In a frustrated "tease" Tony said aloud "Kat
wants to go", inferring he didn't. Just as he said this something
started beeping in our hotel room. Our teen and I thought it was the
alarm clock at first. After listening closely (Tony was still on the
phone) we discovered the sound was coming from our Ghost Hunting gear-
box. When it was opened up we discovered the beeping was coming from
our GhostBox, which is a modified Radio Shack AM/FM Radio.

Coincidence? Possibly. Heck, maybe even "probably". However, in an
effort to stop the beeping and save the batteries we agreed to just
take the batteries out and flip them around. We could put them back
in later. So the first battery was removed. The radio remained
powered (not beeping, because we had pushed a button to stop that
already). We removed the 2nd battery. It still remained powered.
After removing all 3 batteries the radio stayed powered for almost 2
full minutes before the screen finally blanked out.

The initial beeping was, of course, incredibly coincidental given the
chain of circumstances.

Henryton Sanitarium

2008-11-07T11:47:00.006-05:00

The Henryton Sanitarium in Marriottsville, Maryland. What is there to say about the Henryton that can't already be "felt" the moment you step foot into any one of the dilapidated buildings? The place is falling apart, it's true. However, it's also being destroyed, piece by piece, by purposeful vandals and vagrants. It's a sad sight to see, but in a different perspective, it is also a thing of beauty. It's definitely Urban Exploration at its best, and as for the paranormal investigations? This place is the cream-of-the-creepy-crop.

Tony and I arrived at the Henryton parking area where we met up with Jenny and PRRS team. We entered the grounds and were immediately struck by the size of the location. There were at least 3 buildings to explore, although Tony and I only managed to cover 2 of them during both sessions we had been on the grounds. The first session took place in the day time, so we could get some daytime footage, and daytime photographs. And, of course, there was the nighttime session, when we had planned on making best use of the grounds and really tapping into that spiritual energy that may, or may not, be present. The main problem with the latter part of our plan was that, apparently, this is a hotspot for many-a-local-teen and young-adult in this area. The Henryton is the go-to place for cheap thrills, and unfortunately, it's those people looking for a cheap thrill that are tearing the place apart. Sad, but true.

I'm not sure what I should be saying about the Henryton, since we didn't spend a whole lot of time wandering the inside of the building. I will say this with conviction, though; the next time I visit the Henryton, and I do hope to return there one day before it's vandalized to smithereens, I hope to spend more time wandering the place in the light, than in the dark. In the dark, this compound took on a whole different persona. In the light we could see where we were going, better. We could get our bearings in the place, and really observe our surroundings, which was a plus because there are some "freaky looking areas" that are nothing more than a play on light. I remember twice-seeing this one particular entrance of a room that Tony was in, and both times I scared the life out of myself when I approached it. I laugh now, but I know if I were in there in the dark it'd have been all over. I'd have piddled like a 3rd grader who couldn't "hold it" anymore! :P

The fact of the matter is, the Henryton hit me hard, and not on a scientific level. I've been to places where the "vibe" was creepy and I felt watched, and verbalizing that was enough to help me feel better about the situation. But the Henryton was different. I couldn't seem to "see past" what I was feeling in this place, and I also didn't want to verbalize it because I was working overtime to make sure I came across as "professional", or, as professional as I could be without sounding like a kook. I'm not a sensitive, I'm not "psychic", I don't have a keen 6th sense I'm totally in touch with... I rather believe I have that kind of 6th sense that triggers the flight-or-fight mechanism I hear so much about. Basically, if I'm feeling any sort of "vibe", then I figure I've stepped into something that's way over my head, and way over my ability to handle in a way I can process and understand. My very limited and narrow view of my 6th sense goes like this: if I'm "feeling" something that's actually there, and I'm sure it's not my imagination, then it must be something pretty significant because I'm not "sensitive" in that way. That's pretty much what I experienced at the Henryton Sanitarium. The "feeling" I had, roughly %75 of the time I was wandering that place, was less than "positive" for me, and actually stood in the way of me being a good scientific investigator while on-scene, which is something I regret.

I've tried, a few times, to lock down that 1 moment when it all started going bad for me, and the more I think about it, the more I'm brought back to the very start of when we entered the complex. I had my video camera recording the whole group, from the parking area all the way down into the actual Henryton complex and it was working fine until we reached where the buildings were located. We hadn't arrived at the entrance to the buildings yet, but where we were walking we could see directly parallel to us was one of the buildings that housed the little kids. Little kids, I should scoff, they were babies. They were toddlers and infants and they were diagnosed with TB and left to starve to death because, let's face it, they weren't going to survive this disease anyway, so why waste the food? I had no idea that's what this building was used for until, almost a week later, but I remember right where my camera shut off and exactly what happened when it did. I'll write, here and now, that I've been using this camera like it's permanently attached to my hand. I love video recording, and I use it extremely frequently. The 6.5 hour battery I had in it had just been fully charged and freshly placed into the camera. I turned it on, walked down the road to get to the Henryton Complex, and when I reached that point in the road where we were in clear site of the buildings my camera went blank, my battery was sucked dry to the point that my camera wouldn't turn on "at all" (not even a little blinking light for a moment when I try to power it on). When I replaced the battery with another freshly charged 6.5 hour battery the LCD display showed me a blue screen - something I had never seen before, and a message that I didn't have a clue what to make of. This message on the screen was telling me there was a backup taking place, and led me to believe only 1 thing. That the battery had gone dry so incredibly fast that the camera didn't have enough time to register the data I had filmed, and I couldn't get this camera out of "recovery" mode to save my own life. It was stuck there for a good 5 minutes or so, "recovering" with this blue screen. And to think, I didn't make much of the ordeal. It was a pain in my rump, and I think that's all I was thinking about at the time. I should have known...

As the daytime tour progressed, we went into the main building, and all the way through the reasonably accessible parts. We toured the first floor level, and the basement level, and even located a really cool pipe tunnel. Actually, the pipe tunnel was an area that made me nervous for some reason I couldn't put my finger on. (When we eventually exited the building through the cafeteria and turned off all of our recording equipment, something or someone slammed one of those pipes in that basement level tunnel, two very loud times, and we could hear it throughout the inside and outside of the building. I thought it sounded pretty darned loud and purposeful.) We had traveled through the first floor level and had taken loads of pictures and lots of video, and we were having a genuinely grand time when we came upon this particular part of a hallway that housed smaller rooms to my left side, but this one really large open area to my right. The large open area had lots of windows all through it, so there was so much bright light coming through it was really inviting. But that's not what enticed me into it. As I was poking around in the hallway, Tony and Kate (the PRRS team photographer), were across the hall intrigued by something else. I distinctly heard a shuffling in this larger room to my right. The problem for me was that I couldn't see into the room. The room was so large that it had at least 2 entrances, maybe 3, and it spanned a length of, probably 40 feet or more. So there was a doorway, a large length of wall, another doorway, another large length of wall, and then another doorway. When I heard the shuffling in that room I was between 2 doorways and couldn't see inside to identify what was making the shuffle. When I finally made my way toward the doorway I had heard the shuffle again, right before I got to the doorway, but this time it didn't sound like it was inside the room. It sounded like it was on the other side of the exterior wall - the wall with all the really big windows on it. The windows were either gone/broken or they were screened in, so it was essentially like being on an extremely large porch. Anyway, when I told Tony I wanted to be in this particular room later that night, he asked why. My response was that I had heard scuffling but I wasn't sure if it was inside or if it was outside. For all I know, it could have been "both".

At any rate, I snapped 5 pictures of this area and in 2 of the 5 photos it looks like I may have captured a shadow figure, we're not sure yet so we're still debunking it (Thanks to Kate's psuedo-bro, Josh). Check out the photo gallery I set up for this event. In the other 3 photos it looks like the shadow figure may have disappeared, or just isn't in the frame any more. After really close inspection by Josh, it's very possible that the Shadow Figure could be nothing more than a black drawing on the wall the figure looks like it's leaning against. Either way, that room was creepy and that whole place has a "vibe" to it I couldn't shake all day, all night, and until the following Tuesday. I continued to have nightmares about aspects and intimacies of that hospital I didn't even know about, and the people inside it.

Henryton spoke to me on a level I wasn't anticipating. I went there for a fun and intimate ghost hunt with paranormal professionals such as ourselves. I was looking forward to capturing evidence and working the data, comparing techniques and learning of different methods for evidentiary standards. Instead, I wound up spending most of my night feeling intensely watched, targeted, and on the verge of an emotional breakdown, the roots of which I could not identify nor could I understand. What everyone else was finding, either "cool" or "interesting" I was finding "loss of hope", "despair" and genuine depression the likes of which I have never experienced before. It hit me so hard I didn't know what to do with it, and so I tried my best to put my game face on and go with the flow. When I saw all of the "kids" that were bombarding the place I had to admit, it brought me some sort of relief. Not that we couldn't investigate, because [b]that[/b] aspect of our time at the Henryton really kind of got to me... I did, desperately, want to investigate this location, and I was willing to beat back any of these feelings I was having, to go into certain parts of certain areas of the complex (though, not at all, "all parts" of the complex). No, the "relief" I felt when the kids arrived was the thought that "maybe it'll target someone else in this group" instead of searing it's staring, piercing vibe onto me. Maybe one of these oblivious kids can absorb some of this intensity and I can shake it off and get down to business (or at least "get back to being me"). They're here for a totally different reason than I am, maybe the more of them there are the less of "this" I would feel. It didn't exactly work out that way, and so we continued to investigate as best we could, and for the most part, up until one particular episode with Kate right before the police had arrived to clear the place out (our group had permission to be there so we stayed), I kept it all to myself.

This "episode" with Kate happened at night when our group exited "the admin building" and was collected out in the main parking area, or walking area. I'm still not sure there was enough space for parking at this complex, but that's neither here nor there, I suppose. We were standing around outdoors in the dark and Kate asked me if I wanted to take a walk over to the main hospital building. She wanted to get inside the front door we used earlier in the day, just to get some random "shots" of the interior while the rest of our group prepared for a ghost box session outside. The truth of the matter was that I hadn't met Kate before, and she seemed somewhat brazen, and with her spunk and desire to capture as much of this area as possible... I could relate. I've been there before and so "yah" I was going to say I'd go. Everyone else seemed busy, and no one else seemed the least bit unnerved - certainly not like I was feeling/sensing - and so I told myself to just " 'can' it, get in there and just do it." I didn't say anything to her about feeling like I wanted to crawl out of my skin the closer we got to the building, heck no. But as we approached, and she reached for the door handle, she stopped... right before she grabbed it. She dropped her arm and said to me that she didn't think she wanted to go in. I asked her why that was, and short of comparing notes regarding "6th sense in overload", we agreed that there was something more intense than we had realized was going to be here at this complex and turned around and walked back to the car... and sat there... pretty much in silence for quite a while.

During our daytime visit to the admin building I was left to straggle behind Tony and Dave (of the PRRS crew). As I was walking through the lobby area of the Admin building I heard a scuffle on the floor, like someone was dragging their feet when they walked. It was only 1 step, and I refused to look over to it because if there was something there, and I was the only one to see it, what good would that do the group, our research, and my desire to want to come back to this place in the dark later on that evening? So I didn't turn my head, I just kept walking. I took another step or two and distinctly heard another scuffle at floor level, and so I hustled down to where Tony and David could see me straight on. If they could see me, then they could see if anything was behind me. I remember David saying "I don't know about you guys but..." he didn't think there was anything in that building, but I disagreed. I didn't want to say it straight away because I didn't want to come off like an arrogant know-it-all so I left it unsaid, but I was darned-straight going to make sure Tony was walking behind me the entire rest of the time I was in that building. And a few minutes later I told him I heard something in the lobby area and I thought it was taunting me the second time it scuffled.

This admin building came off as being "the place" I wanted to be when we first entered, but there was this 1 room that turned this whole building into a very uncomfortable place. Some people in the group thought the "lab" was creepy, others thought the classroom had a vibe to it, but the moment Tony, Dave, and I first set foot into this very large, open room with curtains hanging from the ceiling I said to Tony "I don't know what this room is, but I don't like it". It gave me the heebie-jeebies in a way I couldn't explain. I was starting to overload at this point because when the girls from the other half of the group (4 of them) were coming into the building from backside, they wound up on the 2nd floor. At one point there was an offer of "let's go up to the second floor" and I comically pictured myself anchored quite firmly to the front desk in the lobby refusing to budge from this location. There was absolutely no way I was going to that second floor at that point in time, and I couldn't tell you why. It just wasn't happening at that particular point in the day. It may have happened later, and it may have happened earlier, but at that point in time, I wasn't going anywhere but "out" of this building. Later on in the evening there were multiple reports of various groups on that second floor seeing shadow people and seeing shadows jumping across the hall, and running from room to room just out of the shine of flashlights. The thought doesn't scare me, it doesn't even freak me out... there was just something else there with me that I couldn't shake. Dave and Jenny2, of PRRS, personally watched a shadow figure manifest itself along a wall, down to the floor, and up the wall on the other side of the hallway. Dave had his night vision camera pointed at it while it was happening and reported that, for some reason, his camera did not record the event.

We left this admin building during our night time visit and we headed over to the old swimming pool. When we were at the pool I just stood there for a second... staring at it, and Tony asked me if I wanted to go in it and take pictures. I walked down the pool steps with Kate and we walked in that pool and it was the most energy sucking depressing feeling I had experienced all day. It wasn't the depression that got to me, it was the fact that I felt I was supposed to be happy, and I wasn't. It was more than the fact that I wasn't, it was that I knew I never would be again, and no matter what happens from this point on, my happiness about this moment and this place - the swimming pool - and this action - swimming - will never hold the same feelings or happy memories that it used to when I was younger... when I loved swimming and couldn't wait to get back to the lake, or to the pool, or to the water. Swimming is where childhood lives... and when I stood in that pool, no water in site, I had this strikingly depressing realization that death was the least of my depressing thoughts. It was the destruction of all of those happy memories I never realized was the foundation of my life as I know it. Something as precious as the eagerness to swim, I had no idea it meant so much to me until I stepped into that pool and felt the depression of knowing .... of feeling... "swimming... here... it's not about fun because it's hot out, it's about therapy because I'm dying".

It was overwhelming and I couldn't tell anyone. At this point I was starting to think there was far more going on here at Henryton than just ghosts wandering the insides of the buildings. I mean, I was really starting to wonder what the heck I was feeling with this "staring" sensation I couldn't get to go away, and the fact that all these kids were all around... and the chaos of the place... Then, this one particular group of rowdy, loud, and obnoxious kids started toward us. They were cussing and swearing, and being over-the-top as far as I was concerned... the whole atmosphere just got to me and I very-forwardly announced loud enough to make it clear I meant business "You planning on being that loud ALL night long, or what??" Apparently it made an impression. They turned out to be very decent kids wandering around in the darkness of an incredibly creepy place. I think many of them may have felt they were over their heads, too, so they were - as today's youth put it - "frontin' " . Say it rapper style if you have to, but that's what I think they were doing. Being louder and badder than all the other groups that were there that night, and definitely keeping the "quiet time" down to a minimum... all the noise would have been a great distraction from really hearing and seeing the spirits.

Anyway, this one particular group I approached wound up talking to a couple of our team's members. It turned out that one of the back buildings was a little kids building (as I mentioned above). They didn't say what went on in there, only that there was a kid's area with a nursery and all that jazz. They said that they had left toys up there before and when they returned to see if the kids played with the toys, they were knocked over and strewn across the room. As they were explaining where it was they offered for us to go up there and I had a sense of panic. I walked over to Tony and told him sort of passively, "nah, I really don't want to go up there..." Apparently, Jenny and the crew went back to the Henryton the next day and Jenny had quite an emotional time in that building. If she reacted that way, I can only imagine the blubbering idiot I'd have been that night.

I remember sitting in the car and being relieved when Kate questioned herself about this complex, saying she wasn't sure if it was a sort of first-time-investigation overload she was experience, or what it was, and all I could tell her was that I think... here... at this place, tonight... it's something more than that, something far more than that. And I didn't know anything about the complex so I couldn't tell her what it was, all I knew was that I'd been to a few pretty active places, and this place was so intense it was like being stared at by 100 people all at the same time. I could almost feel heat on the back of my neck. For 3 days later I felt like someone was staring at me so hard they were shooting hundreds of pins and needles at me. It was so aggressive I just didn't know what to do with it. I had this 1 recurring nightmare Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and on Sunday I started to have these thoughts about the patients and their well being at this place. I couldn't shake this thought "what if they didn't die of TB". It wouldn't go away. And there was this statement that kept coming to my mind, and I couldn't shake it "Personal offenses, Personal offenses". They didn't die of TB, but of "Personal offenses" yet I had nothing to base it on. I couldn't go anywhere with this thought. I didn't research the location, I didn't look it up or anything. I had this one website address with pictures of the place, and that was it. I read that it was TB hospital, and saw a YouTube video about the grounds of the place, and it stated it was a TB hospital for the "black" population. That's it. Why I was having this nightmare, repeatedly, and why I kept thinking these thoughts about this term "personal offenses" I couldn't understand.

The last straw in that complex was when the cops dismissed everyone but 2 groups. Our group had permission to be there, and they let another group stay. Other than that, everyone else pretty much cleared out. Our group decided to back inside the main hospital building into the area we called "the cafeteria". Now, I've heard that PRRS learned that this room was not used as the cafeteria, but I still haven't heard what it was actually used for, so I'll call it the cafeteria for now. We were all in the cafeteria, looking around, hunting down pictures and working the audio and video when, at one point, Kate announced she wanted to walk to the part of the cafeteria where it turned into a hallway. This hallway connected the cafeteria to the rest of the main building. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to this hallway, so I said "yes", of course. We don't want anyone walking off on their own, and I don't want to be the woosy who says "no" so, "yah, I'll go". So we started walking toward this hallway and the closer we got, the more stressed I became. I can't say why, because it was like something out of a bad movie. I just don't know what my problem was that night. We approached the hallway, and right as the hallway began to actually "become" the hallway, where the wideness of the cafeteria was going to suddenly disappear and we were about to step into this hallway, I panicked, inexplicably and without reasonably justification. I never ever do this, but I suddenly grabbed her arm - and I never, ever do that. I'm not, in the least, a "touchy feely" kind of person. This panic was so sudden it was unreal. I let go of her arm just as suddenly and tried to look composed (hope I pulled it off!) and calmly said something like "I thought you wanted to go TO the hallway?" She clarified, she wanted to go INTO the hallway. Big difference. So I tried to play it off, probably miserably, and apologize for the confusion, but there was no way I was going down into that hallway. And offered to call Tony over to escort Kate into the hallway. I stood there for a couple of seconds and then walked away from that hallway. It was too intense for some reason.

Thank the lord for the reveal the very next Tuesday and the next Thursday because I thought I was losing my mind. I had so many regrets about being unable to do what I was so eager and excited to do, which was investigate a reportedly haunted environment such as the Henryton Sanitarium! If it wasn't for that reveal on the place I'm not sure where I'd be right now, in terms of re-evaluating my abilities as a paranormal investigator.

Some things that are pertinent to my personal experiences that were discussed at the reveal:

1. During the live radio show that was being recorded while we did the investigation there were a few "sensitives" listening in and chatting in a shared chat channel, along with 2 PRRS moderators. At some point in the night, one of the psychic/sensitives became so distraught over the negative presence we were in the midst of, that she had to leave the room because she was feeling physically ill.

2. The children were toddlers, babies, infants, and newborns. They were diagnosed with TB and were left to starve to death because they weren't going to survive treatment anyway, so what was the point of feeding them?

3. The adults were sometimes starved to death after they reached a clear point of no return.

4. I had caught a photo of what I thought was a nurse with a medical mask on, but didn't tell anyone. The first question I was asked during the reveal was "did anyone catch the nurse in the laundry room?" I almost fell out of my chair. That's where I caught my picture of what I thought was a nurse.

5. Multiple sensitives in the channel announced there was a nurse there protecting the patients that remained (and the visitors, she ushers us out of the building). My recurring nightmare was of a nurse standing between me and incredibly skinny patients - clearly dying. She looked "wild" and was sending me a message, "if you want them, you need to come through me", but the message wasn't for me. It was for someone else. She was nice to me.

6. The nurse was the person sending me the sentence "Personal offenses, personal offenses". I couldn't get it out of my head.

7. There was a big dark, ugly secret about Henryton that I had no knowledge of. There was a Dr. there who was so incredibly genius that, apparently, he transformed from "genius" to "maniacal" and started doing unauthorized experiments on the patients, to the point he was misdiagnosing these people on purpose so he could experiment on them. He killed many patients, and many of those murdered weren't killed in the most painless ways possible.

8. He's known as "The Butcher" and the sensitives involved with this case have categorized this spirit energy along the lines of being almost "demonic" in characteristic.

9. There are at least 3 other doctors there involved with The Butcher, and only 1 has a slight voice of reason and goodness.

10. There are many patients still staring out the windows, often. They don't know they're dead, and they didn't think that death was something they'd face at Henryton. They just didn't know.

11. Many of the unauthorized experiments were conducted on the poor and those without family or support because their deaths wouldn't be questioned.

12. There are reports of unmarked graves off to the sides of the hospital grounds, in and around the general outlying areas, and shortly into the woods; most likely of the patients without family who died here.

13. There is at least 1 mother persistently crying for her newborn child.

This case was so intense I know I didn't write the half of it here. It was an investigation that followed me home and "stuck" for days. I just thank everyone for that incredibly complete "reveal" they did on the Henryton. Without it, I don't know how I would have filled in the blanks I had about the place, and my experience. Be sure to check out my possible apparition/shadow figure. We still aren't sure if that's what it is, but at first glance it looks like a person standing with arms folded, so feel free to comment.

Grove Cemetery

2008-10-30T17:31:00.001-05:00

Location: Grove Cemetery, Pleasant Hill Road

City: Brunswick/Freeport

On Monday October 6, 2008 MaineGhostHunters Tony and Kat took a drive to a location neither had previously been to before, for a short investigation with a primary purpose of using our Ghost Box for the first time. This is what Kat has to say about the day's events.

The drive to this particular location was somewhat unplanned. I knew about this cemetery because I had been by it before, but I hadn't actually gone inside it or anything, so while I knew it was there, it was still virgin ground for us as investigators. Our reason for being out that day, at this cemetery in particular, was to test out our new ghost box. Tony had modified the Radio Shack am/fm model 20-125 a while back and we hadn't gotten around to using it yet so we wanted to take it to a location away from our house where spirit activity might be prevalent.

Now, I'm a firm believer that spirits don't stick solely with their physical bodies once they pass one from this life, but I also believe that we, as people, know our loved ones visit graves from time to time to pay homage to those people who may have affected our lives in some way or another.   If we know they they're probably going to be visiting where we're buried, and we know we can't make contact with them at other "normal" locations they'd be at, like in their homes or in their cars, or what have you, then what other place would make sense to try and make contact?   At least at a graveyard they're more likely to be wanting to make contact, why else would they go to a place to visit someone who's been deceased for however-long? People go to burial grounds for a few reasons; to make peace, to show respect, to pay homage, to grieve, and sometimes, to receive some sort of sign from the other side.

So anyway, we made our way into the cemetery, and I have to tell you, it was really not at all a creepy place. The cemetery is wide open, bright and airy, and there's even a couple of new glossy stone benches to sit on.   There are some fantastic monuments to be seen in this cemetery, and the overall area is pretty expansive.   There are old burials as well as new ones throughout the grounds, so you really get a strong mix of time-periods, and in some cases you get a strong sense of family because there's quite a few generations of similar names and heritage lines buried in close proximity to each other.

When we started our ghost box session we decided to ask for the older generation to step forward.   We had never really done this before so we weren't entirely sure what we should be doing or how we should be going about it. After we asked the older generation to communicate with us it seemed we were getting "possible" responses from the box, but being realists we also admitted that those sounds and words coming from box could be just as much "random" as "purposeful", so we let them go. We considered our ghost box session up to this point to be uneventful and unsuccessful.

It was after this failed attempt at making contact with the older, wiser, crowd that we asked them to step back and we appealed to the lesser number of deceased population in the cemetery (at least we hoped that was the case). We asked the younger crowd to step forward, anyone under the age of 20 was invited to make contact with us. Here's how it went:

Ghost Box Session: Anyone Under the age of 20 here?

GB: Five (5)

Tony: It just said 5?
Kat: 5? Under the age of 20?

Tony: can you tell us what your name is? your first name?

GB: TIMMY

Kat: Timmy, did you hear that?

GB: Matt
Kat: Matt?

Tony: Judy

Kat: [Heard it]

GB: 3 of them

Kat: It just said 3 of'em, and then ... then it just said Three of'em.

One of the more significant events we experienced while at this cemetery and while using this ghost box is that we continued asking questions about the kids, and learned that "Timmy" (as heard in the above session) was 14/15 years old when he died and no matter where we looked we couldn't find a "Timmy" anywhere on the grounds. We chalked this up to a sort of failure, and a learning experience for future sessions, letting this be a reminder that we need to be careful of what we really are hearing and what we're really not hearing.

Later on in the ghost box session we had received messages from the device which led us to believe we should be looking for something "red" beside one of the headstones. There was nothing "red" within site so, always within site of Tony, I set off on a solo jaunt through the cemetery to see what I could find. While I was walking the grounds Tony was holding the ghost box and began to communicate with it.   When I returned I noticed he was walking around in the center of the cemetery while holding the ghost box out in front of him so he could clearly hear what was being said from it. He told me the ghost box had told him to look for "Curtis" in the "middle" of the cemetery. Apparently, "Curtis" was a name that was said repeatedly and Tony couldn't deny it any more, so he went searching for a headstone by that name. He hadn't yet found it when I arrived, so when he told me what he was looking for and how he came to understand where to look for it, I took the direction as well.

From our perception, the box was giving us directions on where to walk. "Middle", "back up", "look", etc... by the time we were finished we were standing among a family plot area with a large number of "Curtis" headstones. It was a strange experience and from a skeptical point of view, I suppose it could have been one that started with a subconscious noticing of the headstones as we walked into the cemetery. It's a stretch, but I suppose it's almost as reasonable as thinking a radio could throw out random words and lead us to a cluster of "Curtis" headstones.    At this point, I didn't know what to think.

During another section of this ghost box session Tony had told me, a couple of times, that he kept hearing the word "Frank".   He was sure we should be paying attention to this name but it wasn't enough to find A Frank, he needed a last name to put the "questionable" nature of this "random shot in the dark" possibility, to rest. Here's how this portion of the session went down.

Looking for Frank

Tony: Ok, I'm gonna ask again. Can you tell me the first name

GB: Say What
Kat: Say What?
GB: I'll Keep talking

Tony: Can you give me the first name of the spirit I am looking for?

GB: [not clear in this recorded audio session]

Tony: did that say Frank?
Kat: Did it say Frank? Again?

GB: Frank
Tony: You need to make it very clear

GB: Daniel

Tony: Danielle
Kat: Okay. Whe- Daniel? or Danielle?
Tony: Danielle

Tony: Can you tell me the last name now?

Kat: 3 of'em?

Tony: You need to say the last name very clear.

GB: Byrom
Kat: -
Tony: Byrom

Kat: Oh my god, I'm gonna start to freak out if that was - that was sooo. What was the name?
Tony: Maybe it was Isaac we heard instead of Frank

[we're walking toward the Byrom headstone, looking at all names of headstones that are in the immediate vicinity. we meet up on the left side-edge of the Byrom headstone just as Tony finishes saying "maybe it was isaac we heard instead of Frank"]

Kat: That's Frank Byrom
Tony: Oh my god. 1957, and his wife Mary, we heard Mary over there.

I find that particular sound file to be a little challenging, but the information is there, and hopefully you can understand what's being said in it. We weren't planning on doing anything with the audio file, in terms of the ghost box session, so we didn't record for the purposes of replaying the session later. We were mainly recording for EVP's and admittedly, some of the lower toned sounds and words spoken from the radio are a little difficult to hear.

At one point during our time in the cemetery Tony decided he needed to hunt down a name the ghost box had said. Since I had already gone on a solo jaunt through the grounds I decided to let him take this one himself, which left me standing alone with the ghost box in my hand. In a laissez faire sort of way I asked the ghost box to say my name, and this is what transpired.

"Can you say my name?"

Kat: Can you say my name? My name's Kathy, can you say it?
GB: Kat

Kat: Thank you...tha-that's....that made-that's great
GB: And Michael

Kat: What? What did - wh- ...

I have a brother named Michael.   As you might be able to tell, I was a little thrown aback by the fact that my brother's name was said. In fact, when I heard it, I was genuinely speechless, and like I've said before, that rarely ever happens.

After the "Frank" & "and Michael" incidents happened, our time there was quite limited - by choice.   We were getting pretty anxious to head out of the grounds and to put this box away for another time. A time when we could really come to terms with what did, or what did not happen there in that cemetery on this day.   Did we really hear what we thought we did? Did the ghost box send us to the "Curtis" memorials? Did it tell us to look for "Frank... Byrom". Afterall, when it said the name "Byrom" I was certain it was saying the name "Byron". Byron is n't a common name, but it is a name. And while I was trying to bring some sort of order to all that was running through my mind about how we could justify that what we thought was happening, wasn't happening at all, I had to be honest and admit that "Byrom" is extremely close to the name "Byron", especially when you hear it on a radio, outdoors, and have never heard the name "Byrom" before. You're far more likely to translate a word you haven't heard before, into a word you are more comfortable with hearing. Hence, the reason "Byrom" was heard (or even said) as "Byron".

We were discussing all of this, and much more, as we made our way back to the car and came upon a large family monument with the name "James" Small on it. The man had lived into his 80's or 90's and had a grandson who was also named "James" who had lived only to the age of 14 or 15 (we didn't actually take note of the months of birth/death, so we aren't sure if he was 14 or 15 when he died). And on the younger James' small square individual grave marker was written ... "JIMMY", which brought us back to the very start of our ghost box session when we reached a boy by the name of "Timmy".   On our way out of the cemetery we had heard the name "James" a couple of times, which is the name of a dear and close relative of ours, so we weren't sure what to do with the information.   In this very same sequence we had heard the words "Oh - Seven". Young Jimmy Small lived to the year of 1907 and died a young boy under the age of 20.

Our final conversation with the ghost box ended like this:

Leaving the Cemetery

Tony: This is where you need to stay, this is where you were buried after you died.

GB: We're Buried? or You're Buried?

Kathy: ?What?

Tony: We're Buried?

Kathy: Oh my gawd Tony... I'm sorry but yes, you are, you're buried.

GB: Moved On?

Kathy: Moved On? Did it just say "Moved On"?

GB : (faintly) Make it stop.

Kathy: Make it stop?

GB: Save(d) Us.

Tony: This is graveyard, this is where people are buried when they've died.

GB: (faintly male voice) SO cold

Kathy: So Cold? Did you hear that?

Tony: Uh huhh. You need to move on, you shouldn't stay here if you don't like it here.

GB: (Female voice) We need your HELP

Grove Cemetery

2008-10-30T17:30:00.001-05:00

Location: Grove Cemetery, Pleasant Hill Road

City: Brunswick/Freeport

Ghost Box Session: Anyone Under the age of 20 here?

Looking for Frank

"Can you say my name?"

Leaving the Cemetery

Anderson Cemetery - Windham, Maine

2008-09-10T15:03:00.001-05:00

Location: Anderson Cemetery

City: Windham, Maine

What can be said about the Anderson Cemetery... We made our visit to Anderson during mid-morning on a Sunday. It was our first trip to the cemetery and I have to admit, we missed the entrance to it, probably 8+ times. If you're planning on going to Anderson Cemetery I'll tell you that it's down a long dirt entrance that looks like someone's driveway. It's not someone's driveway, its the Anderson Entrance and it doesn't have a sign near the road like, in my opinion, it really should.

The reason we did a pre-investigation of the Anderson Cemetery is because we've been made aware of paranormal activity that has taken place here for quite a few years. We've heard about weird mists, plasma, strange sounds, apparitions, orb activity, and other supernatural occurrences. We did a dry run in an impromptu attempt at capturing EVP's, and took quite a few daytime pictures at the location, some of which yielded a few question-worthy results.

Anderson Cemetery appears to be a family-style burying ground that dates back as far as the 1700's, from what I remember. It has a few very curious landmarks including a rough, or early-style crypt-ish burying mound dedicated to an American Soldier. It's a strange site to see because his burial plot is a clearly and purposely "mounded" heap of a plot. His plot sets among those others that are buried in the immediate area yet the apex of his burial mound is probably a good 4 to 5 feet in height (I am probably underestimating it), when the others among his are all on "flat land" at normal ground-level. It's quite a peculiar site to see, and probably denotes this man's importance within his family, his community, and possible in Maine history. We honored him with silent reverence.

Another peculiar area of the cemetery is the "den" area that sets against the back boundary near the tree line of the neighboring farmland. It has been said that a male spirit occupies this den from time to time and although we aren't certain of his intentions, through our research we have learned that he may not be entirely open to having visitors. We haven't been made aware of any aggressive or negative actions by spirits in this area so we settled at this den area first. TJ was eager to get some EMF readings and to make his attempt at capturing some EVP's so we hit this den hard, and first. Interestingly enough, I did capture a clearly red orb in TJ's immediate vicinity, almost immediately. The orb appeared as TJ was sitting inside of the den. The skeptic in me says it's just an orb, and the deeper skeptic in me says that my camera was catching sun-spots in my lens all afternoon. The "believer" in me says that this red looking orb looks quite different than the other red sunspots caught throughout the day; shows up lower in the photo than the sunspots reflecting off my lens from other shots; and doesn't seem to be subject to the same sunlight related issues the other sunspot orbs are indicative of. Meaning, the red sunspots that occur, clearly as a result of lens flair, also show an obvious abundance of sunlight throughout the shot. This particular red orb doesn't appear in a photo with an exuberant amount of light. As a matter of fact, the sunlight in this shot seems to be pretty uniform throughout. I've seen many of our photographs exhibit many different types and forms of "orb", most of which we don't get too excited about. However, there is that occasional orb that causes us to take a deeper look. I would have to classify this particular orb as one that deserves a second glance. I openly welcome - heck, invite! - you to comment on this particular orb. I'd love to hear what people have to say about it.

So back to this den area. While TJ and I were investigating the den, TonyL was wandering about the nearby area snapping pictures with the digital camera. As he was doing this, TJ and I were asking questions to any potential spirits in the area. At one point I asked the name of the spirit I was speaking with at the time. Flash forward to a couple of days later when I was reviewing the evidence. For this particular batch of evidence I decided to review the audio evidence first, and the visual evidence last. So I sifted through the different aspects of audio, wrote notes, and bookmarked the actual files, etc... In one particular spot, the point where I asked the spirit what it's name was, I thought I may have heard a response of "Matthew". This was observed before I had looked at any of the video, or any of the photographs TonyL had taken. After I finished with the audio, almost all of which I found to be less than impressive, and less than persuasive, I sifted through the photos when lo' and behold I came across a somewhat recent headstone (within the last 40 years) that said "Matthew" on it. It struck me, immediately. Every now and again, as an investigator, you come across a piece of evidence, such as the EVP I thought may have been saying "Matthew" but wasn't sure, that seems insignificant until you find another separate piece of evidence that corroborates what you thought might have been "slightly possible". When this happens to me it sometimes sends a shiver up my spine, lol. I remember looking at this headstone thinking "I wonder why, of all the headstones, why is there a picture of this.... Matthew" and then it hit me. There are those who believe that not much in this life happens by accident. "There are no accidents"... Maybe they're right? I don't know. It was just... very coincidental.

After this den area TJ and I went to the large and impressive Anderson Crypt, which takes up a good amount of space and at its center height is probably a good 10 to 12 feet heigh as measured from the floor to pinnacle. TonyL took pictures while TJ and I attempted a run at collecting some EVP's. This is an area I'm glad we approached in the day time because there is no doubt in my mind that there was knocking coming from inside of this enclosed vault. The knocking may have come from an animal nesting within the crypt but it's "knocking" timing was incredibly close to moments we were looking for "knocking" responses from any spirits that may wish to make contact with us. TJ did point out that there was at least 1 hole where a burrowing animal could enter the crypt, and was probably making its home within the enclosed area, safe from predators and the elements alike. My skeptic side agrees it's most likely an animal. My "believer" side takes a little bit of time to tantalize the "what if's", but our scientific approach to all things paranormal leaves us with little choice but to reinforce the obvious: there are "burrowing" holes on both grassy sides of the crypt, and TJ claimed to be able to look inside the crypt from at least 1 of these holes. While we were all quite entertained by the possibility that these knocks may have been in response to some of our questions, the more likely and far more reasonable explanation would be "animal related".

We ended our time at the Anderson Cemetery with a walk around the cemetery and shooting of some video. The cemetery was starting to get really busy, surprisingly so. As we were wrapping up our last 15 to 20 minutes we encountered 3 vehicles with 2 passengers each, one of which was parked and the occupants wound up touring the grounds. I'll say that the Anderson Cemetery wasn't incredibly inviting, but it also wasn't at all foreboding. As far as addressing why people may think it's home to eerie and suspicious paranormal activity, we definitely took note of some possible reasonings for that line of thinking. We walked the grounds with intent to observe any such supernatural occurrences, or occurrences which could be perceived as supernatural. I feel it may be best to stake out an area during a comfortable and relaxed time frame so we can get a general feel for the area. If nothing else, at least we'd be able to get a lay of the land and familiarize ourselves with the surroundings, the sounds, the animals, the different wildlife we might encounter, and in cases where the outdoors is concerned, like this one, the wind patterns and how the environment impacts the natural course of gusts and/or bursts of wind. We did find an area out past the tree line toward a neighboring farm we think may have been the Anderson family farm many years ago. This patch of land is somewhat akin to a "strip" of land. It looked to be roughly 40 yards wide, by at least 150 to 200 yards long, maybe longer. It's not flat though, it rolls quite heavily in certain places. We got the impression that the wind could really grab a hold of the trees and the dips in the hilly parts of this land, and that could make for some pretty eerie howls. I, for one, would not want to be stuck down here solo at night, I can tell you that much. There's no light down here, also, so when it gets dark, I'm imagining it would rival the definition of the term "pitch black".

Another visual aspect of this location is that, given the age of the cemetery, and the fact that not all of those buried here are of the same congregation, or even "religion" for that matter, there tends to be an interruption of continuity, to some degree. There seem to be family plots, and while this is the Anderson Cemetery, dedicated to the Anderson family, at least at the start, it seems that the family grew quite large and branched out to include much more than just the "Anderson" clan. There are clearly portions of this cemetery that are older than others, and there are clearly portions of this cemetery that have been taken care of better than others. In looking at the overall layout of the land, and the care that's been taken with the grounds, I'm definitely of the notion that someone needs to get down there to mow the place. It appears to have been left to deteriorate in its own time, which is a shame because it has the potential to be a wonderfully serene location. We're planning our permissible night time investigation in the next 2 months and we'll definitely be placing our "official investigation evidence" online to share with maineghosthunters.net and maineghosthunters.org members.

Pineland Cemetery - New Gloucester

2008-09-10T13:26:00.001-05:00

Location: Pineland Cemetery

City: New Gloucester, Maine

At the beginning of August, 2008 TonyL and I (KatM) took a drive out to New Gloucester to observe the gravesites of the numerous patients who died while in the care and/or under the guardianship of the Pinelands institution. We’re still researching the matter but the history of Pinelands, as a mental health institution, really preceded its very name up until the most recent of times. The accounts of patient maltreatment, abuse, neglect, and abhorrent human condition that plagued the earlier days of this facility have given rise to notions that those who passed-on while confined to Pinelands never really left this place; and some may still haunt the location of their final resting spot.

Another aspect of the Pinelands burial ground, which is of the utmost importance in the record of Maine’s social history, would be the exhumation and relocation of the Malaga Island graveyard. It’s hard to imagine the state of Maine taking part in a racial movement so heinous it remains one of the deepest, darkest, skeletons in the closet of our social misgivings to this very day. Malaga Island, now known as Harbor Island, was once considered a safe haven for African-Americans and other “lower class” citizens of the state of Maine during times of slavery, Civil War, and the reconstruction era. Malaga Island was home to citizens of various social and economic backgrounds. Those inhabitants of Malaga very much depended on each other, the land, and the sea for their very survival. Even though they lived a remote and often destitute existence the residents of Malaga often posed little issue to mainlanders, in presence or political clout. If there were ever a time the cliché “they kept to themselves” would apply, I would figure it would fit here, the best.

Given its location and remoteness from the rest of the State it would make sense that those African-Americans and poverty stricken “Whites” would keep to themselves and make as little waves as possible when bringing attention to their situation. They had a good thing over on Malaga Island. They didn’t bother the mainlanders and the mainlanders didn’t bother them. That was, until, out-of-staters decided that Malaga Island was a beautiful refuge for summer emigrants, such as themselves, looking for a rocky coast to perch for a couple of months each year. It was then that the racial and socio-economic clash began, and the systematic and forced removal of all those persons who “scarred” the beautiful coastline of Maine with their low-class lifestyle was put into motion.

The governor of Maine declared, without conscience and without apology, that all African-Americans of Malaga Island were to be removed, whether they wanted to leave, or not; and went so far as to remove their dead from Malaga’s graveyards, having them interred 40 miles away in the cemetery of the Pineland Institution which was, itself, an institution of lost children and people who were “thrown-away” by family and forgotten by society. The unwilling and unwanted exhumation of entire families from Malaga, reburied in a location many of them had probably never even been to before, in life... The destitution of these people and their lack of ability to defend themselves and the places they called “home”, in life, and in death, must have been overwhelming. Their displacement forever left a mark on the dark history the State of Maine goes to great lengths to hide. It is for these reasons, and many others I have yet to mention, that we take stock in the notion that Pineland Cemetery may, indeed, be haunted by those souls seeking a fair and just resolution to their unfair treatment in life and in death.

We did not proceed with an official investigation at this location but we did scope out the area to determine how to best go about conducting one. The cemetery is in a field that is open to the road, as well as to an adjacent cemetery called “Webber Cemetery”. Pineland Cemetery is located near the tree line to a wooded area and the grounds seem to be meticulously maintained. The grave markers are uniformly plain, lacking any sort of artistry or design, or personal creativity denoting the “person” each exists for. While it may appear to have the uniformity of a veteran’s cemetery, this is a mere façade. At least at a veteran’s cemetery there are symbols denoting each veteran’s accomplishments, dates of birth and death, and many times they are accompanied by a spouse, the latter at least expressing they’re loved, missed, and appreciated. The grave markers at Pineland Cemetery are just that, markers. Some lack birth dates, all lack any information other than birth, death, and name. There are a few cases of multiple persons buried extremely close together, apparently “siblings” in some cases, but never an epitaph discerning their relation (if they have one).

While on location TonyL claims to have had an experience we tried to get on digital camera and on tape but couldn’t because the battery to my video camera was sucked dry, and all of the photos we took after TonyL announced that the “experience” was taking place came out purple and blurry. My camera batteries for this digital camera also went from “full” to “dying” in an extremely short period of time. We are planning a return nighttime trip with “permission” in hand by the proper authorities in the next 2 months.

Boston Burial Grounds

2008-09-10T13:08:00.001-05:00

Location: Historic Boston Burial Grounds
City: Boston, Massachusetts

This trip was a leisurely walk through a couple of Boston’s oldest known burial grounds. We followed the Freedom trail through town and hit some of our historic buildings and hotspots, and then made 2 purposeful stops at these two in-town burial grounds. Even though we’ve been there before, it seems like each time we visit there’s something different that catches our attention. This time through it was the lively tour guide who had plenty to say about our founding fathers; Samuel Adams and John Hancock. His exuberant characterization of Paul Revere was priceless. If you’re ever wondering if it’s worth the money to take a guided walking tour my opinion is, “it’s absolutely worth it”.

Although we took a few pictures in each of the two graveyards we had a notion they wouldn’t produce any type of paranormal “evidence”. This wasn’t an investigation, to any degree, but I figured I’d post the trip anyway, just for the fun of it. The beauty among these old cared for grounds can leave an impression on a person. It seems like a morbid sort of pastime but the fact remains, there’s a lot to be learned from taking a walk through the burying grounds of those people who passed on before we were born. You can get a true sense of family and community from reading the headstones, and by observing the types of artwork that grace each of the markers.

One of my favorite stories of America’s history is somewhat exhibited here in the photo of Sam Adams’ headstone and the adjoining marker for the victims of the Boston Massacre. The pro-revolution propaganda, the evil redcoats and the victim revolutionaries, and the poor 12-year-old boy shot in cold blood. I rather hear the story of the antagonized, intimidated and incredibly outnumbered redcoats backed against the wall of a building by an angry mob bent on making something out of nothing… the rogue shots fired by the English Soldiers in their anxious and nervous attempts to defend themselves before a community of angrily approaching rebels… and the very few “innocent victims” that fell during the onslaught that followed. My favorite part of the story, however, was when John Adams defended the redcoat soldiers – not because he was loyal to the crown, no way! – but because he believed in justice and right versus wrong. Winning American freedom from the hand of the English crown was worth more than a faked-up story of a ruthless massacre that didn’t happened the way the angry mob portrayed. If Adams was to fight for the cause of the American Revolution he was going to do it with honor and dignity, and in doing so he brought honor and dignity to America. He defended the victimized redcoat soldiers… and won. John Adams was a great man, but above all, a true “American”. Here's a picture of a Samuel Adams memorial, with the Boston Massacre Memorial behind and to the left.

Spider Gates - Leicester, Massachusetts

2008-09-09T20:33:00.001-05:00

Location: Spider Gates Cemetery
City: Leicester, Massachusetts

This was one of those investigations that reminds me of how awesome it is to be a member of Maine Ghost Hunters. On this particular investigation day, I have to tell ya, "I'm lovin' life". We left Maine somewhere around 8:00 in the morning and made a leisurely commute to the great state of Massachusetts where the much-rumored-about "8th gate to hell" resides. Tucked in the back woods of a somewhat remote area, surrounded by brush, trees, and fields of farmland lay the prize; Spider Gates Cemetery.

Spider Gates Cemetery is one of those graveyards who's reputation precedes it. It's sad, really, when I think about it, because at the root of all the stories lay the relative of someone who's ears these rumors may meet. It's my perception that people forget that they're talking about someone's mother, father, brother, uncle, cousin, or otherwise, when they tell these stories of evil that take place within cemeteries such as Spider Gates. I'll tell ya, when made the trip to the Friend's Meetinghouse Cemetery in Leicester, Massachusetts I was wholly preparing myself for a downright menacing experience. I had heard of ooze emerging from the ground, apparitions of small children, a "hanging tree" which sometimes reveals the reason it bares the name, satanic rituals and cults, and the manifestations those satanic rituals produce.

What I found when we finally arrived at the entrance to Spider Gates Cemetery was a beautiful, serene atmosphere who's grounds are impeccably neat, clean, and obviously cared for by people who are wholly vested in honoring those interred persons at rest here. I can't tell you how wonderful the area looked and felt. It was simply breathtaking. It makes me want to give a scowling look of disapproval to people who pass such awful rumors about this location. The grounds are absolutely stunning. The stone wall that encompasses the outer perimeter of the cemetery has been neatly hand made by stacking rock upon rock, stone upon stone, and each one appears to be laid in place and held there by gravity and the weight of those stones above. There is no cement holding this wall together. It is meticulously maintained and rarely did we observe a stone out of place.

The headstones aren't nearly as ornate as those stones in Puritan based cemeteries I've written about in the past, but they do depict a burial period that transcends the past couple of centuries. The rumor that this burial ground is no longer used is a flat out lie. We observed that a person was buried here as recently as this past year, 2008. The headstones themselves may be simple, lacking much more than simple epitaphs, names, and dates of birth and death, but their simplicity exudes a certain level of beauty that is entirely communal. It's as though the message you receive in this place is that these people lived as a community and they rest in peace, for eternity, as a community. We have been to a few cemeteries in the past, and none have felt as warm and inviting as Spider Gates.

We were able to take a walk around the grounds and check out the different rumored sites of interest. For instance, the "altar" location in the center of the cemetery. It is said that Satanic Rituals may be performed here on a regular basis by visiting Satanists, which is why the area appears to be cordoned off in some purposeful way. That "purposeful way" , according to rumor, is supposedly designed by the Satanists. The more historically accurate version of this "altar" area is that it's almost certainly the footprint of the original Friends Meeting House foundation. I was overtaken with the sheer beauty of the trees that grace the center of this beautiful cemetery and was somewhat affronted by the notion that anyone could consider this place to be any level of "evil".

We ventured toward one of the back walls of the cemetery where we noticed some upright-standing granite blocks averaging a height of roughly 3 to 4 feet tall. TonyL thought this area could have been considered the "altar" area, or an "altar" area as well, but we were at a loss for an ultimate conclusion as for what this was more likely used for. We took notes of "the hanging tree", and the "note" we took was that the limb used for the hanging is quite a distance off the ground. The breadth of the tree would make it very unlikely that anyone who hung themselves from it "shimmied" their way to the limb. Basically speaking, you'd have to really, really, want to hang yourself from this particular tree in order to get the job done, because the effort you'd have to go through to actually do it, is quite an involved process. I'm not saying a young boy didn't hang himself from this tree, I'm just saying he had to be exceptionally tall, incredibly talented at climbing the, virtually, un-climbable - or both. We didn't see any apparitions of ghostly children while visiting Spider Gates, but we did hear sounds that sounded like eerie children for a brief second. Turned out to be high pitched birding vocals. I'll admit, it took me by surprise for a brief second, but once the sounds were identified as birds, and were repeated often throughout the rest of our time on the Quaker grounds, all was fine.

The apparitions we had read about that appear in this area were basically a little girl, a little boy, and a slightly pre-teen or early teen boy. There's an awful story, that dates a few decades back, of a 6 year old boy from a nearby boy's home that was beaten to death by one of the older teen-boy's from the home. His body was dragged through the woods and stuffed into a culvert. The story is heartbreaking and the location of the culvert, which we found, intensified the grisly nature of the crime, start to finish. The culvert was so small in its initial opening that it's hard to imagine the condition the boy's body was in if he was, indeed, stuffed into this culvert as we saw it. As TJ explained, the culvert's initial opening is small, but it "opens up" when you look farther inside. It's a dark hole under a less-than-busy dirt road. I'm doubting many people, if any at all, traveled this route on a regular basis.

We took notice of the beautiful Kettle Brook, at a few different points, as well as the gloomy and buggy swamp areas that lay beyond the burial ground. It's important to note that there are 2 swampy areas, only 1 of which claims the paranormal activity. Spider Gates Cemetery, itself, is not the location much of the paranormal activity in this area is reported. It's at the bottom of the hill near the swampy area that is a brief walk past the Spider Gates Cemetery.

Now, as for the term "the 8th gate to hell" or Spider Gates Cemetery contains "8 gates to hell", both are preposterous accusations. The cemetery itself has only 1 official entrance and that entrance is enclosed by 3 gates, each of which contain a wrought iron decoration in the center which resemble what many have compared to "the sun's rays" or "a spider web". It is a fact that at least one of the gates is a reproduction since the original was stolen, and it is also a fact that that 1 gate does not "equal" 8. I have read many variations of the "8 gates", my favorite tall-tale version being the one where "the close you get to the 8th, and last gate..." the more apt you are to pass out. And that people have not only passed out when approaching the 8th gate, but there are people who have suffered heart attacks upon reaching the 8th gate, and there has also been the occasional death-upon-reaching-the-8th-gate. The short of it is, it's all pretty insulting to the community of Quakers this place exists to serve, and to those community members buried within. I was a little warmed by the notion that the official position of the Quakers, concerning these rumors about their cemetery, is that they find it all very humorous.

All-in-All the trip to Spider Gates was definitely a wonderful experience. On the way out of the cemetery, as we were wrapping things up and approaching our car, 6 more people in 3 different and unrelated cars, were making their way to parking their various vehicles so they could get a good look, and personally experience Spider Gates for themselves. We were even fortunate enough to meet people who had heard of us from our internet site. What a treat that was! If you're out there and you're reading this, thanks for complimenting our site! We were tickled pink, to say the least!

Eastern Cemetery - Portland, Maine

2008-09-08T19:55:00.001-05:00

Location: Eastern Cemetery
City: Portland, Maine

Here's a little something involving our last unofficial investigation-visit to the Eastern Cemetery. It's sometimes good to go to a place we want to investigate, just to check things out first so we can really get our plan of action laid out when presenting it to the team as a group. TonyL and I (KatM) went to the Eastern Cemetery on an overcast day in mid-August to scope out the area and see what we're up against when we do our actual investigation in the near future. We want the planning of this investigation date to take the general public, the weather, and the overall environment into consideration. The location isn't exactly secluded. As a matter of fact, if I had to categorize it, I'd place it as being in one of the worst investigation locations possible. The area is very public, very visible from all outer edges. By daytime standards it appears as though there are many streetlights surrounding every side of the cemetery. I'm not sure how we'll be able to debunk based on the environmental factors associated with the area so, if nothing else, this will be a super learning experience. I'm really looking forward to it and I think the the guys are totally down with it, too.

The cemetery itself was opened in 1666 and it set on Portland's East Side. There is also a cemetery on the West Side of Portland, which I'll get to in a little while. I put together a great little video spiff with TonyL offering a brief documentary on the cemetery which I hope to post on our youtube channel pretty soon. Just by walking through the East Side cemetery you can soak in a certain appreciation for the history of the people and the places they came from and lived in. Most lived in Portland, which is, of course, why they're buried at the "ESC" but there are many who have been involved in critical moments of America's history. There are Revolutionary War veterans buried here, soldiers involved in the War of 1812 (America's Second Revolutionary War, a pivotal point in the careers of James Madison and Andrew Jackson, and probably the most critically important battles ever fought to secure the independence of the United State of America.) and many seamen and their widowed wives. The children of the East Side Cemetery may well bear the most intimately discouraging stories of "life and times" in Portland during this chapter in "Maine's" history.

One of the more interesting aspects of the old Eastern Cemetery would be the folks who lived into their 70's and 80's, who are buried here. The headstones of mothers, fathers, brothers, religious leaders, lawyers, and sea captains. People of these times seemed to take pride, not only in their community, but also in the roles they played occupationally speaking. A woman who passed on from this life was not just known as "Jane", she was remembered and revered for what she offered as a wife, mother, and sister; and how her presence in the community affected those around her presently, as well as those future generations not yet born. By reading some of these headstones a person can really get the sense that people appreciated people back then. Tombstones aren't nearly as poetic these days as they were back then, and a short walk through a place like the Eastern Cemetery can be a great reminder that we're all of the same place; in life and in death.

Before we entered the grounds of the Eastern Cemetery we took a brief outdoor walking tour of the perimeter of the Historic North School. I'm still collecting historical information about this location, particularly regarding its role in the community during times of Portland's prospering seaport days, the "great fire of 1866", and the height of immigration influx and transition. All are key factors in the constant changing of Portland's identity, and can be seen in some small form, or other, in the writings on the various tombstones as well as the size, location, and original intentions for the building of certain public establishments, such as the North School.

The North School has a reputation of being haunted, intimate knowledge to those residents of the North School Apartments that now grace its interior. Although I've been told the North School was involved in the Great Portland Fire of 1866, I cannot substantiate the claim due to the building's establishment date of 1867. The Great Fire swept through the city of Portland at a destructive rate but, by official counts, had a very insignificant death toll of less than 10 Mainers. Most of the city saw some type of fire-related destruction, and the entire city was involved in the reconstruction that followed.

The architecture of the old North School vaguely resembles the beautiful Kirkbride Architecture that came to grace many of the larger (and later considered "haunted") medical institutions such as sanatoriums, mental institutes, and tuberculosis hospitals. The clock tower that graces the upper portion of the front of the North School is a particularly stunning apex in Portland's historical setting. The fact of whether or not the clock tower is actually still functional, escapes me. The building itself is such a prominent presence near the Eastern Cemetery that a person can almost not consider one without the other.

Now, back to the Eastern Cemetery. Since our visit to the cemetery, at this time, was geared more toward gathering information about the location, and less about data and evidence collection, we found we had more time to peruse on a deeper level. We enjoyed spending more time reading headstones and learning about people and their relation to others buried nearby. We had time to explore the various headstone shapes, sizes, and grades of stone, which were all very fascinating. The sheer size of some of the stones was incredible. TonyL stands over 6 feet tall and some of these headstones reached the height of his chest! The black slate beauty of these stone slabs, and the care put into the design of the art engraved and the scripts etched within each exhibited a clear adoration of the dead by those they left behind. Portland was a special, and dare I say "intimate" community back in those good 'ole days.

Check out some of these headstone art pieces. Most of the headstones seem to be graced with art that denotes their religious beliefs are of a more Puritan nature, but that's a clearly superficial speculation on my part. It would make sense that the initial residents of the region would have been of a more rigid and traditional religious sect such as Puritans and Puritanism, as the Puritans were a pretty dominant force in the more clearly established regions of Massachusetts, such as Boston. In fact, if I'm not mistaken the Puritans were not only very well established within the more metropolitan areas of Massachusetts, they were also of the "ruling class", dare I speak that aloud. America is a democracy, indeed, but in the late 1600's the colonies were still under the rule of the King of England. Being righteous, pius, loyal to God and King meant reaping benefits the working class rarely experienced. Needless to say, if Puritanism was the dominant religion of the day, it was a long time in the coming before the social, religious, and political elite would let go of that power and control; regardless of how far they were from Boston. And, historically speaking, Maine wasn't released from Massachusetts for, at least, another 150+ years. So, long story-short, a lot of the beautiful graveyard art seen on some of these slate headstones are indicative of Puritan-istic religious principles and beliefs.

We've built a new forum!

2008-08-28T06:57:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, I wanted to drop a quick note to fill y'all in on our new forum. You can find it by clicking on our "forum" button on our website, or by going to www.maineghosthunters.net. We're pretty excited about it because it looks quite a bit better than the older forum, and it seems a heck of a lot more user friendly. You can upload an avatar and personal picture, and link to files on places like Flickr and Photobucket. So it's an all around super deal!

We hope you'll join us there, if not just to stop in and say "hi". :)

Thanks!
maineghosthunters

Lucerne Inn - Holden, Maine

2008-08-07T11:16:00.001-05:00

Has anyone had any personal experiences with the Lucerne Inn in Holden, Maine? There's a fascinating story of Infidelity, Murder and Suicide here, and of course, long term haunting. One of the things that makes this place so special is the historically famous guest list, including Lincoln's vice president, and one time former Maine Governor, Hannibal Hamlin, as well as Civil War General, Ulysses S. Grant.

The rumor of "why" the Lucerne Inn is haunted goes back to a caretaker named "Nathan". It would appear as though Nathan walked in on his wife and a guest of the Inn - catching them in a "compromising" position. He took the news pretty badly and one thing led to another, leaving his wife and the guest murdered, and their blood on Sam's hands. The story continues that after Nathan committed the heinous murders of his 2 victims in room 8 of the Lucerne Inn, he took himself into room 5 and committed suicide.

The haunting of the Lucerne Inn has been figured, for the most part, to be "intelligent". The building is quite old, having been built in 1812 and opened for business in 1814. It's location is what made it a Maine landmark back in those days because it was one of the only places long-haul travelers could stop for room, food, and spirits (no pun intended) between Bangor and cities "down east" like Machias and Ellsworth.

No bigfoot in Hawaii

2008-08-01T09:59:00.001-05:00

But plenty of sightings in the thick forests of the American Northwest. Check out this site for a comprehensive state-by-state account of bigfoot sightings.

clipped from www.bfro.net

This comprehensive database of credible sightings and related reports is maintained by an all-volunteer network of bigfoot/sasquatch researchers, archivists, and investigators in the United States and Canada--the BFRO.

Unusual, and unfair

2008-07-31T20:24:00.002-05:00

I'm not sure what it is, but it sure as heck isn't "normal". I'll delve into the conspiracy theory side of things and say if the government is responsible for creating this creature - it's not right, and it's not fair. Check out www.cryptomundo.com for partial coverage, and http://capturethebeast.blogspot.com/ for a more up-to-date coverage. The government suggests it's a... cat. I've got nothing but an eye-roll and a pathetic sigh as a response. Yah, that's a... cat. Large beak. Hairless. Giant (by "cat" standards). I can only imagine how this creature survived in the wild. Let's hope it used that beak in a clearly "herbivorous" manner, huh?

clipped from www.cryptomundo.com

If you aren't registered...

2008-07-29T20:39:00.001-05:00

If you aren't registered as a user with a login/password on www.maineghosthunters.org then chances are, you're probably not getting the full effect of what the Maine Ghost Hunters website has to offer. We've just recently instituted a Maine Ghost Hunters web award program, and a badge-award program for people who submit a case-study for the case-study archives. The case studies portion of our website is designed for academic purposes, but we absolutely welcome the anecdotal approach, as well.

So what have Maine Ghost Hunters been up to lately? Well, let's see. We've been busying ourselves with managing our calendar and our investigation schedule, for starters. The start-up with the website has taken quite a bit of time and energy but we're sure our audience will appreciate our efforts, and quite frankly, our website traffic is really astounding us. We checked the counter code 4 times today just to make sure it wasn't "cheating" because we had almost 100 visitors before noon time.

As it stands right now, we have 8 "official" investigations lined up for the not-too-distant future. That's a whole heck of a lot of evidence to sift through, I can promise you that. That's a lot of video on our hard drives, and audio files to review, and pictures to scrutinize. Our 9th investigation is on the books, but hasn't been confirmed as totime and date, as of yet. But it's a sure thing, so we're gearing up for that one, too.

If you get the chance, go ahead and stop on by the Maine Ghost Hunters website, huh? Register, introduce yourselves, and hang for a while. We're really eager to meet you.

Reincarnated Children

2008-07-21T20:16:00.002-05:00

Today's topic is Children who claim to have been reincarnated. If there's one thing that bothers me, on a personal level, it's the thought of children being trapped "in spirit" within this physical plane. If there's one thing that truly intrigues me, it's those stories of children who claim to have been reincarnated, and that they remember their past lives. The mere thought of it sends chills down my back while simultaneously sparking an entirely new level of interest and curiosity. I remember spending a short period of time in the bookstore not too long ago, and becoming so entranced by this random book I happened to pull off the shelf that I actually read through, almost the entire thing, before we left the store. It was fascinating and I highly recommend it. It's called Children's Past Lives and it's written by past life therapist Carol Bowman, a specialist in her field. The book is filled with anecdotes of children who remember, in detail, their lives before they were born into their present one.

Sometimes I wonder if everyone has this natural curiosity, as I do, about kids who claim to have memories of a past life. It wasn't too long ago that the thought of reincarnation was considered blasphemy, and still today, by Roman Catholic standards it's considered some degree of sacrilege. The whole concept of "life after death" challenges the modern standard of "science" as the ruling faction of thought and thinking. It's hard to believe that we are taught, and we continue to teach, that the Dark Ages were so far away. That the intellectual problems of the past are not the intellectual problems of our present. Society, as a whole, embraced the Renaissance with open arms and condemned the age of darkness as oppressive and a hindrance to intellectual progression yet, metaphorically speaking, by "tomorrow's" standards we very well may be existing in the same manner of "darkness" in today's day and age. Maybe these children are remembering past lives in ways we can't explain, not just because they have the ability to do so, but because they are proving to us that we are, as human physical beings, are evolving into spiritual creatures with a grasp of life as it exists in a different dimension... a different time... a different space. The whole concept of science, as we know it right now, is being challenged by 4 year olds all over the world.

World society watched thousands, possibly tens of thousands, and maybe hundreds of thousands of people through time, die because they fought for science to outweigh the importance of religious faith. And today, we watch as a strikingly similar template is being followed by thousands of people worldwide, maybe more. Children, the most innocent of all people simply because they are ignorant and innocent at the same time. They have no agenda, they have no knowledge or ability to gain such knowledge of spirits they may have contacted, or have had encounters with; or of the historical accuracies of the events, timelines, occurrences, or physical objects they claim to have had experiences with in their "past life", and yet they spill parts of "their" past-life stories with color and flare as though they just had these experiences yesterday. They long for parents and siblings they've never met in this life, and in certain cases, it's been proven that those relatives are still alive. I remember reading one particular care where a boy actually brought a present-day relative to the home of his past-life, and when he explained himself to the residents at this home - who he was in a past life, and what happened to himself, and how he remembered many of the people who were there to hear what he had to say - he was freakishly "right on". This child wasn't even 7 years old yet.

The pattern of today's "shift" away from hard-core science, and rigid ritualistic religions is as much a sign of the times as The Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition were to the centuries before us. We like to consider ourselves a tad less barbaric than we were back then, and this may be true, but by "tomorrow's" standards, who knows what the truth may really turn out to be? Perhaps 1,000 years from now we'll consider that torturing the soul and a person's faith is far more painful than inflicting physical discomfort, or causing physical death. We may be in the midst of watching a slow, but steady, transition into a more spiritual existence taking place. Maybe it's because we're reaching into ourselves, or maybe it's because we're understanding and grasping the reality that the spiritual realm has been reaching out to us for longer than we were willing to allow ourselves, and each other, to accept, or believe. And these kids... these reincarnated kids, who throw us into a Buddhist sort of existence, for just a moment if we let them, make us realize that it's not a cliche to say "anything is possible". Anything is possible, and some things step beyond "possible" and make us feel we need to have the confidence that they're actually "probable".

KatM

www.maineghosthunters.org

The Skeptic Eye

2008-07-17T20:57:00.002-05:00

If there's one thing I've learned through my years of studying the topic of "the paranormal", it's this; you have your believers, and you have your non-believers. Your typical non-believer, or "skeptic", carries with him/her the uncanny ability to rationalize, normalize, or otherwise "realize" events which may not have an initial, or obvious, explanation. The typical "believer" is more likely to "reason" that "anything is possible" and if they can't find an explanation for what's happening, then it could quite possibly be "paranormal" in origin. There are extreme varieties of both categories and your fanatics come in all flavors. We see people who will never be convinced of anything paranormal, and we see people who believe a grand majority of "the unexplained" can be reasoned as "paranormal" with little more than a 2nd look into an occurrence which lacks an immediate logical basis. I've had personal experiences with both types of personalities, as I'm sure is the case with many of you. As paranormal researchers we find ourselves in a position to represent our chosen field(s) of study. Are we doing this to convert the skeptic? Are we doing this to hush the believer? Are we doing this for ourselves and our own curiosities? Do we find ourselves in a position of being held to a higher standard than thrill seekers and overnight ghost hunting groups? It's a challenge to our sense of why we do what we do, to ask this question of ourselves, honestly. "Why?"

Here's a picture that was taken of 2 Maine Ghost Hunters during an investigation in early 2008. At first glance, it's a fascinating sight to see. A "light rod" either originating, or ending, into the mid-section of current Maine Ghost Hunter TonyL. Amazing, isn't it? The home we were investigating at the time was a hotbed of activity. We'd heard many stories of strange and unexplainable incidents from the residents, and during our investigation each of us had personal paranormal experiences that, while not harmful, were difficult to pass off as bad wiring, or drafty windows. Surely, those reasons alone were enough to give this fantastic picture a more solid base for us to view as our best piece of evidence yet! I believe, in a moment of excitement, we might actually have been able to use the word "jackpot" when considering what we'd come across with this magnificent light-rod specimen. Hoo-Rah! Am I right?

Let's take a second look at this picture, shall we? I found the photo, personally, stunning. It was shocking to me on a few levels, the most impressive being that the home itself felt very thick with some sort of energy; "be it" true electrical energy due to poor, or old, wiring, or due to some other paranormal source. I'll be honest and say that it wasn't exactly an "inviting" environment to investigate. The people were great, but I perceived the environment to be dismal and oppressive, and I'd been to this home (ironically, having nothing to do with this particular ghost investigation, and having not known this home was haunted when I had previously visited) on a few different occasions. For me, the word "foreboding" could best describe the outside appearance of this home. Given that unshakeable "feeling" of how this house presented itself to me, I was less than thrilled to see this "light rod" entering, or exiting, investigator TonyL. Another, more concrete, reason I was less-than-thrilled was the fact that I had been physically touched (lightly grabbed) by an unseen force during my time inside the home. The incident was chalked up as "par for the course", and isn't something I'm necessarily afraid of, per se. But a force strong enough to physically wrap it's "hand" around a person's arm or leg, and squeeze, is a force not to be taken lightly. The "light rod", under these circumstances, while still fascinating, could also be understood as a type of threat, given its direction appears to be either entering, or exiting, the investigator. I've seen light rods in pictures from other investigators on the internet and a grand majority of them appear orange, and as squiggle marks smearing across the photo, not entering, exiting, or otherwise appearing to be targeting the people in the pictures.

So what did I do with this picture? Well, at first, I admired it for all it's paranormal awe and wonder. That lasted a few days, until I came across an EVP that raised my eyebrows (let's just say it sounded... less than pleasant). After editing, reviewing, and reviewing the EVP some more, I developed an understanding that the voice(s) I was hearing - no matter how I tried to rationalize it - weren't sounding "friendly". So I took the picture and I started asking around for advice and expert opinions. To my chagrin, what I was looking for was quite difficult to find. I'll follow that up with a statement that "opinions", on the internet, are not at all hard to find. Lots of people think they're experts, and yet, the only as-close-to-experts I actually had the pleasure of dealing with were the first people to admit to me that they weren't, "experts", at all. The information these people gave me about their knowledge of cameras, shutter speeds, lighting conditions, EXIF, stability issues, etc... was downright amazing. The skeptics, on the other hand, presented themselves so brashly and rudely that I could hardly believe what I was experiencing. Thank goodness I received private e-mails from people who had also been targeted by these same skeptics, letting me know the heavy dose of skepticism I was seeing was not the general consensus of the forum(s) itself. The problem with the skepticism we were witnessing, and trying to discuss through, was that the skeptics were extremists. It seemed I couldn't explain myself thoroughly enough for their understanding. I wasn't looking to prove the photograph authentically paranormal, I was looking for information on how to decipher what was written within the photograph itself. No matter how I presented that question, I was bombarded with accusations of (1) creating a hoax (2) doctoring the photograph with Adobe Photoshop (3) removing the EXIF information manually so the authenticity could not be proven, and the list continued on from there. I even had 1 person send the photo to a "friend" who specializes in scrutinizing doctored photographs, who told me he could "prove" I was presenting a hoax because of pixelation issues within the photograph itself. He went on to explain that the lighting patterns and the pixelation do not occur, naturally, as I had presented in this photograph. My reply was that I didn't doctor the picture, so that left only 2 options. The first was that photograph is, indeed, of a paranormal light source. The 2nd was that his "friend" didn't know what he was talking about. And I voluntarily opened myself up to accepting one of those 2 choices from this not-so-nice skeptic.

One of the other, most impressive, responses I received was from a paranormal researcher who had experience with different camera types and lighting conditions. He reviewed all of my EXIF data, thoroughly and with an open mind. He asked me pertinent questions, such as; time of day, lighting conditions, weather conditions, moisture levels, time of year, etc... He made astute observations of the shutter speeds and stability issues related to the camera itself, which allowed me to come to the conclusion that this was most likely nothing more than an extended light streak from an LED light source. Incidentally, all investigators on-scene were certain there was no light source present during the investigation, however, we were wrapping it up and heading home when this picture was taken. It is very possible, and quite probable, that investigator TonyL had turned on his cell phone, which caused the resulting light streak.

The point of this blog is multi-fold. First, it's aimed at addressing the concept of having an "open mind". When investigators are in a particular environment "investigating", it can be very easy to perceive, even the slightest of odd incidents, to be paranormal. An open mind is something that helps the client as much as the investigative team because in the end, hopefully, both parties are seeking the same end - knowledge through truth. The 2nd point is aimed at the belief structure of the individual, be they an investigator or not, and how that belief system is presented to someone with opposite or opposing viewpoints. An exchange of knowledge is how we become enlightened on subjects of shared interest. Reciprocal respect is not something we should take lightly, and will hopefully be that one thing we have in common when we can't agree on anything else.

Why We "Hunt"

2008-07-16T08:45:00.002-05:00

Waverly Hills Sanatorium. I have to tell ya, I can't wait until we make a trip there; there, and to the Eastern State Penitentiary. I ran across this Waverly Hills website, not too long ago, where Tom Halstead of the Missouri Paranormal Research group posted quite a few incredibly disturbing spirit photos. Full bodied apparitions in a few cases, and I'll post those here for you to catch a quick glimpse of.

The topic of "haunted places" these days seems to be more of something people talk about when they're looking for a "rush" or a "scare" than they are of places of wonder and curiosity of the human condition. There was a time in this country, and all around the world, when people considered a haunted environment to be a friendly one. Where spirits of past relatives came back to such places as old family homes - homes that stayed in a family for generations - to "check on" still-living relatives. Rarely were there cases of demon possessions or evil hauntings reported, but, with the rise of modern media came the rise of modern "hauntings". Perhaps they were always there, the demon possessions and evil spirits, and were poorly reported, or perhaps they're simply more prevalent now because, either, media sources have allowed us to become knowledgable of them, or because there are more "beings" presently in spirit form than there ever were before... who knows what the real reasons could be?

When I look at a place like Waverly Hills, or the Eastern State Penitentiary, or a more local environment such as the Pinelands facility in Maine, I think of the people who were condemned to live their last days on earth in such deplorable conditions that their spiritual well-being never fully recovered. People who lived a misunderstood life and who died, often times, forgotten. I remember investigating the cemetery out at Pineland (in Maine) and feeling such a sense of grief and depression for those unnamed, forgotten souls who's only mark made in this world was the one left behind with their anonymous "number" carved on their gravestones. They lived anonymously, died alone, and seem to exist in a perpetual state of solitary state of irresolution. I think that's the human connection thrill seekers lack when they walk into the space of a haunted environment looking for that perfect picture or that perfect EVP. The thrill of the hunt supercedes the displacement of energies, which we cause as physical beings, when we put ourselves into the space of a restless soul. We forget how to be human because we forget, lose touch, or have lost touch, with why it is we do what we do - "ghost hunt". Is it to make a connection with the spirit world? Or is it just to prove that spirits exist. Because one of those options shows respect before personal satisfaction, where the other is just self-centered.

Waverly Hills represents a dying ground of immense proportion. There's no other way to describe it. No matter how protective the medical staff was, no matter how desperate the situation became, no matter how badly they wanted to succeed, it just wasn't meant to be at the time. People who weren't ready to die, died miserable, long, drawn out deaths which probably resulted from a slow suffocation they could feel invading their airway(s) for ... who knows how long. Good people, strong people, kids, adults, teens, rich, poor, innocent and guilty... they all died in the same place and in a similar way. So many, in such large numbers, that no matter what their contribution to society was, they were still a number among numbers. Good people who'd lived Godly lives, who put family above self, watched as their livelyhood - their mothers, fathers, sons and daughters - died before their eyes, before they, themselves, passed from this world scared, alone, and probably a little ticked-off at the unfairness of the whole experience.

Yet when we think of Waverly Hills Sanatorium today we're more likely to think of TAPS and the gang "going back to Waverly", or of reality shows like "World's Scariest Places" and the rush we get when we see people walking around the place in the dead of night. Who do we ever see walking into a spirit's "space", a space they've either chosen to walk for ... eternity... or a place they've been condemned to for reasons we cannot explain, and cannot remedy for them? Who? As Ghost Hunters we're not looking for inanimate objects with no consciousness, we're looking for proof of spiritual life, life-after-death, and in order to do this we must accept the possibility that if, and when, we run into something spiritual in nature, it's roots are deep within the consciousness of the human experience. In other worse, "that's a person without a body". The spirit isn't a thing, it's energy, it's emotion, it's all of those intangible things that make us human. Why this is so easy for some of us Ghost Hunters to forget, is beyond me, personally.

And the Eastern State Penitentiary? Sheesh, I didn't even want to start in on this place, but I'm here now so I might as well do it up. The Eastern State Penn was designed in good faith with a solid plan for psychological rehabilitation. The model was extremely progressive. Basically, the plan was to build a very large institution with extra thick (2+ feet) concrete walls in a strong effort to recreate the conditions of a super-quiet monastery. This way, the criminals interred there could spend their rehabilitative time focusing on their future successes as responsible and respectful members of society. The entire facility, from its building design to its daily breakdown of structured, rigid routines of exercise times and meal times, was focused on that 1 goal of maintaining a meditative silence which would last 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Prisoners were not allowed to communicate with each other, or the guards and any attempt at doing so was cause for strict and immediate disciplinary action. The consequences would start with removing the prisoner's only source of light, "the window to God" which was located in the concrete ceiling. This "window" was the only window in the prisoner's rooms, and the only thing keeping them out of complete and total darkness. If removing this light did not work, then the physical torture began. The torture was "by the books", not something the guards or warden made up on the spot, so it was methodical by design and follow through, which meant that all prisoners were subject to similar disciplinary standards, but that didn't make it any less tragic or traumatic.

People, by nature, are social creatures. To deny social creatures the inability to socialize is to deny them the right to be human. It is also a means of torture the likes of "no other" because verbal self expression of personal unhappiness falls on deaf ears. There's nothing more tragic for people, or a person, than the feeling of "loneliness"; of being alone in a struggle in life or - as we experience in our paranormal investigations - in death. A person who truly doesn't care about the human experience of others, or of themselves, isn't just a criminal, they are a sociopath. The criminals at the Eastern State Penitentiary may have done "bad" things, they may have done evil things in life, but if there was one thing many of them did not lack, it was a "will" to have that all important human connection. If they didn't care about it, many of them wouldn't still be there today. Whether they're searching for personal resolution, acceptance, or forgiveness... whether they're just looking to be recognized, or looking for a way to take care of unfinished business, the one thing most of them have in common is that they're looking for that "connection". They're still looking for that "human connection", that "social connection". You know a place has to be representative of abhorrent conditions when Charles Dickens, the author of some of the most bleak and depressing novels to hit bookshelves world-wide, tours it and subsequently chastises it as a place so deplorable he never wants to hear its name again. That's the Eastern State Penitentiary; it's a good place gone bad. Gone very, very bad.

I guess this posting is really about keeping that in mind. That we ghost hunt, not primarily for ourselves and not primarily for the evidence or the data or the "look what I found!" factor. We do it because we long to make that "connection". We want the rewards that come with the struggle to find that connection, yes; but what we really want is validation that when we reach out, we're reaching out "to" someone. That the someone we're reaching out to is more than a concept, they're real, and they're wanting to reach back and communicate with us, in return. If we didn't do it for those reasons we'd be better off chasing Bigfoot or hunting down UFO's because those "things" have been deemed as "physical", in nature. No, we hunt outwardly because we're constantly hunting "inwardly", and it's a good thing for ghost hunters to keep in mind. Hunt a spirit as you would appreciate being hunted.