Investigating the paranormal has become a popular hobby in the last decade. Shows like "Supernatural" and "Ghost Hunters" are entertaining to some viewers, but don't exactly portray the real organizations and groups that investigate abnormal activities at historic landmarks.
Even though genuine groups are scarce in Tennessee, there is one group called the Tennessee Ghost Hunters that has been around for 13 years. Joanne Shelton, a day care director, says she founded the Tennessee Ghost Hunters after her daughter began college.
"I've always been interested in the paranormal, and my daughter just started college and we needed to get a computer, so the first thing I looked up was ghost hunting," Shelton says. "There were about three groups in Tennessee, [and] I e-mailed all of them and only one replied back.
"He was this man from Hermitage and this was when this was just starting to get popular. He was mostly interested in the angel aspect of it and was about to move, so he turned it over to me."
The group began going to places that were public, Shelton says, but then started looking at places on the Internet that were expected to have ghosts.
"We even went to out-of-state places like the Myrtle twice, which is in Louisiana," Shelton says. "It is supposed to be the most haunted home in the United States. We've been to Gettysburg Battlefield, which is very haunted because so many deaths occurred there.
"We would go to the old Tennessee Prison, which was one of my favorite investigations. Once you get started, they [customers and locations] come to you, and you don't have to seek places out."
Shelton says that she has heard of instances where shows exploring haunted places tend to embellish and add their own effects instead of obtaining real evidence.
"At the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Ky., the guy there told me that they had a production company come in that was doing a documentary on the place," Shelton says. "He said they wanted to set up some fake stuff and he said 'absolutely not.'"
Shelton says she's always had a passion and interest in things that can't be explained.
"I've always been interested in ghosts, Big Foot and UFOs," she says. "It was hard to find books in the library on ghosts, so one of the things that really peaked my interest was one Sunday my husband and I were driving around. We were in Gallatin, and there was a historical home and we decided to tour it."
The house Shelton toured was the Thomas House in Red Boiling Springs, Tenn., built in 1890 and originally called The Cloyd Hotel, according to the TGH Web site.
It was here that Shelton says she had her first encounter with ghosts. She says she also visited the place so frequently that she was asked to give tours of the hotel on Sundays.
"I was giving a tour one Sunday, and I was in the front part of the house and as I was talking to the people, I saw someone pass in front of the window," Shelton says. "There were two windows beside each other about 4 feet apart, and I never saw them pass in the second window.
"I knew it wasn't a person because the house is on 400 acres, and there was nobody there at the time, except me and the people I was giving the tour to. Also, the bottom of the window sill was 6 feet off the ground, and I saw this person from the chest up, so I knew that it was not a human that was walking."
Shelton says experiences like these make it hard for any member of the TGH to be skeptical toward ghosts and the paranormal.
Ben Clark, a senior computer science major at MTSU and computer programmer for TGH, says he tends to be biased towards skepticism when it comes to individual locations.
"I am a Christian and completely believe in the soul or spirit," Clark says. "I have been in situations where I have seen and heard things which support the idea there are spirits and hauntings."
Clark says he never had experience with ghosts before joining the TGH but did hear stories about a spirit in his grandparents' house.
"I believe I was about 14 when they started sharing the stories," he says. "You might think, 'Well, it is his sweet little old grandmother. She is probably a little off, or, she probably just mistook a creaking noise or had a hallucination or a few fries short of a Happy Meal.'
"She, however, is as smart as they come; a retired microbiologist who worked for the government in weapons development. If she said something happened, I believe it did."
The only way to believe something, Shelton says, is to experience it firsthand. She explains that the paranormal cannot be proven over the Internet.
Shelton says one of the most memorable investigations that really opened up some of the group members' minds was when they went to a private home in Brentwood, Tenn., that was built on a golf course in the 1980s.
"A lady and her mother had leased this house and immediately stuff started happening," Shelton says. "They were seeing someone in her bedroom at night, and she could hear people in the kitchen and voices. She asked us to come over, and the first time we went we took too many people, so she asked us to come back with less people."
The group returned with five people and began exploring the house using digital and infrared cameras, thermal scanners and tape recorders, Shelton says. While she says she was interviewing the homeowner downstairs, one of the members came down and said there was some activity in the woman's bedroom where she had been seeing the shadow of a man at night.
All of the members retreated to the bedroom and formed a circle on the floor, Shelton says. They went around and asked, "If there is anyone in this room, can you please let your presence be known?"
When the group listened to the tape, it could hear a knock every time someone would ask that question, Shelton says.
Clark says that most of the time someone won't know they are in the presence of a spirit, but there are some typical indicators.
"Fresh batteries will give out and EMF detectors go crazy," he says. "Sometimes, you hear it and don't even realize it is a spirit.
"Sometimes there is a knocking, or an object moves. Many times, it is when you return to analyze the recordings made when you find your evidence."
That night, Shelton says one of the male members asked, "What's your name? I want you to know you're scaring these homeowners, and you need to leave here because this house doesn't belong to you anymore." When listening to the tape, Shelton says the group heard some type of noise, and the voice sounded like a woman who said, "[Expletive] you, what's your name?"
"We were shocked because this was the loudest and most clear EVP [electronic voice phenomenon] we had gotten to that date," Shelton says. "It just really shook us up, and as we were standing there with Grace and her mother, one of our skeptical members saw a man standing outside and felt like something was biting his legs."
Following the investigation, Shelton claims TGH received a letter from the real estate company that took the house after the owners moved out. She says the letter threatened to sue the organization if it disclosed anything that happened in the house.
"They wanted to sell it but didn't want people to know what was going on in the house," Shelton says.
Shelton says she could talk to someone for an hour and show pictures and EVPs, and even though the person might not be a complete believer, he or she would have second thoughts about it.
Clark says that even though people may not admit it, everyone believes in the supernatural to some degree.
"Christians read the Bible, which is filled with stories of demons, angels, spirits, spiritual possession and miracles," Clark explains. "The Koran tells stories of djinn, or genies, and even has an entire book dedicated to them, 'Al-Jinn.'
"[The religion of] Hindu believes we all have two bodies: a physical body, which they call the gross body, and the spiritual body, which they refer to as the subtle body. Buddhists tell of 'hungry ghosts' and teach of spiritual possession. All major religions and cultures have stories containing paranormal phenomena."
TGH has 25 full-time members but the group isn't looking for anymore, Shelton says. However, Shelton encourages anyone interested in the group to start coming to meetings and apply for an associate membership.
Meetings are held on the first Monday of every month in South Nashville. The address is not disclosed, but Shelton says anyone interested can contact the TGH on its Web site at tnghosthunters.com. Photos and EVPs are also available on the Web site.
Be the first to comment on this article!