Ghost hunters have grave expectations.

By Chris Van Ormer
Chronicle Online Writer

Justin Hall, center, from the Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group, uses an electro magnetic field meter recently during an investigation at a Crystal River cemetery. Participants of the Second Annual Paranormal Ghost Hunting Conference were looking for paranormal activity in the graveyard. /BRIAN LaPETER/Chronicle

Only a weirdo would want to hang around a cemetery at night, right?

On a recent Saturday night, a group of people investigated a Crystal River graveyard, carrying scientific equipment and taking readings from meters. But this was more than a mere case of “ghouls just want to have fun.” The graveyard shift was made up of teams of ghost hunters from across Florida in town for the day to attend the Second Annual Paranormal Ghost Hunting Conference in Crystal River.

Last year, the inaugural conference in Cedar Key drew an attendance of 20. This year, the conference roster contained 105 names of people who hunt ghosts or are interested in the subject. Curiosity about paranormal activity appears to be a growing trend.

Hosting the conference was a team called Research Investigators of the Paranormal, based in Crystal River. Its founder, Larry Braziel, opened the conference by explaining his interest, which started fairly recently. Braziel experienced some unexplained phenomena while at work.

Conference attendees were asked to introduce themselves. Several teams identified their group status by wearing personally designed T-shirts. These included Tampa Ghost Watchers, SPIRITS (Servicing Paranormal Investigators Reporting Information Through Study) of St. Petersburg, The Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group Inc. and SPIRITeam (Scientific Paranormal Investigation, Research and Identification Team) from Punta Gorda.

Many county residents attended because of an interest in paranormal activity.

The first speaker, Doug Kelley, leader of SPIRITeam, explained how he started the group.

“SPIRITeam was created for a novel I’m writing. Then I decided I really wanted to do it,” he said.

Kelley’s topic was case investigations, so he showed a film about his most recent one —the Polk County Historical Museum, an old courthouse in Bartow, on Aug. 12. Kelley’s team of seven spent a day investigating and taking readings, and the courthouse has an interesting history. But not much happened.

“We might had had one EVP of a breath,” Kelley said. EVP stands for electronic voice phenomena, when spirit speech is recorded. “It was very disappointing, but it was fun.” The change of scenery when looking around an old building is part of the enjoyment, Kelley explained.

The team’s investigations often have them asking: “What is it?” Kelley described working for one client who was an elderly man. “He seemed to be trying to count the weird things that happened to him,” Kelley said. “He gave us a picture of a camera that he said took a picture of itself. It was an out-of-camera experience.”

Kelley displayed the photo, which looked like a fuzzy image of a camera. But by pointing out features, it became clearer that the image was an extreme close-up of a cat, with its round ear forming the camera’s lens.

Kelley demonstrated how a camera strap or string could appear in an image to be a vortex or “spirit ribbon.” Likewise, orbs or “spirit lights” could be dust or moisture on the lens. He explained how the brain tries to make sense of what is seen and may jump to the wrong conclusion.

In an EVP investigation, Kelley related how a woman thought her young son was being threatened by a malevolent spirit because of a deep voice saying the child’s name on a tape recorder he had been playing with. Kelley explained that the tape had been slowed at one point, making the boy’s voice sound deeper. With other examples of EVPs, Kelley played bits of speech that were intelligible, but could not be explained.

When investigating, Kelley said ghost hunters couldn’t have preconceived ideas. He asked the teams present about their techniques, and said all groups are after the same thing: trying to find knowledge.

“My approach is open-minded, but not stupid,” he said. “I try the scientific approach first. If that doesn’t work, then I’ll try any other approach, like a séance.”

Dusty Smith, the second speaker, founded The Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group Inc. in 1997, and established it as a nonprofit organization in 1998. Since that time, Smith said she has taken part in 6,000 investigations. She also has set up ghost tours of Daytona Beach and is president of the International Association of Cemetery Preservationists Inc. In that latter role, Smith handed out cards outlining cemetery etiquette for all visitors to graveyards.

Smith tackled the controversial subject of orbs. While some ghost hunters regard the spots of light in photographs as evidence of a spirit’s presence, others point out that they can appear in photos as flaws from dust, pollen and moisture, and digital cameras are particularly prone to showing orbs.

Smith explained her criteria: “An orb must show movement, emit light, cast a shadow and be three dimensional.”

As to why orbs appear and are considered paranormal phenomena, Smith reasoned: “Energy doesn’t die; it just changes form. One of the easiest forms is a sphere.”

A second form a spirit might easily take is a mist, she said. The third, and most difficult, she said, was the full-body apparition, when the spirit takes the shape it had while alive.

In photographs of orbs, mists and apparitions, the person viewing them must be careful about interpretation, Smith said.

“Brains do something called matrixing,” Smith explained. “Brains look for common objects in uncommon settings. You have to train your brain to stop matrixing.”

Based on her years of experience, Smith demonstrated photographs of orbs and explained why some were “false positive” and some were, in fact, paranormal. With photography in the Florida climate, she said, orbs can take shape simply because of humidity.

History goes along with mystery in Smith’s investigations. She has educated herself about her city, Daytona Beach, and many other cities throughout Florida. In Riverfront Park in Daytona Beach, Smith saw the grave of Brownie, the town dog that died about 50 years ago. Brownie may be forgotten, but Smith decided to try to find out if his spirit still roamed the area. She took a photograph in the park. The picture contained an orb, which, when enlarged, resembled a photograph of Brownie the dog.

In the Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine, Smith’s photography captured a full-body apparition of Judge John B. Stickney, who died of typhoid fever in 1882. Other full-body apparitions Smith has photographed include a Franciscan monk and a hanging man. These and other pieces of evidence are posted on the group’s Web site.

While not wholly skeptical about paranormal phenomena, Smith looks askance at some enthusiasts.

“Any idiot in the world with a camera can be a ghost hunter,” she said.

Other ghost hunters’ evidence arrives via e-mail daily though the group’s Web site, hundreds containing attachments.

“Most are not what they think it is,” Smith said.

Some enthusiasts Smith described as glory hounds, determined to find elusive proof of life beyond the grave and make themselves a name. Others Smith summed up with one word: “Nutburgers.” This latter group mostly is comprised of people with a diagnosis who have stopped taking prescribed medication.

For the second part of Smith’s presentation, she displayed equipment used by ghost hunters when conducting investigations. These included cameras, tape recorders, thermometers and electromagnetic field (EMF) or Gauss meters, among many other types of equipment. Some items are things that would be handy on any field trip, such as a first aid kit, duct tape, batteries, hand sanitizer and insect repellant.

Some of this equipment can be purchased at Radio Shack or on eBay. Some pieces were invented and built by Smith’s team members, such as a digital thermometer on a rod with sensors to get a more accurate temperature reading.

While today’s ghost hunter has become more high-tech, Smith said she still liked to use some old-fashioned methods of determining paranormal activity, such as string, flour and candles to show strange movement. She recommended using a regular 35-mm camera for real evidence, and keeping the negatives uncut for use as proof that the photographs were untouched.

Smith also invented a combination of scented essential oils she calls “Ghosts Be Gone” that should stop spirits from following the ghost hunter home. A combination of sage, lavender and cedar wood in a grapeseed base, it has a pleasant fragrance.

After a dinner break, about 30 people assembled at Crystal River Memorial Park cemetery on Venable Street to investigate and try out equipment. Braziel, the conference organizer, said the ghost hunters observed some EMF spikes and photographed some orbs.

Braziel is getting ready for next year’s conference, when he expects an even greater turnout.

“Each year, we hope to get bigger and bigger,” he said.