Renegade Rip

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Features

Media Credit: Lisa Vargas Rip features editor Earl Parsons and members of Team 2 close their eyes to prevent being blinded by camera flash in the darkness of the house.

When you're looking for ghosts in a pitch black house in the middle of the night, the aperture of your eyes opened to its fullest with the only light at your disposal shimmering crimson, your senses become amplified to everything around you, and the line between perception and reality becomes distortion.
When I got the opportunity to participate in an investigation with the Bakersfield Paranormal Society, I didn't know what to expect. I've never personally experienced the presence of anything outside of mortal existence, but I can't say for certain that ghosts don't exist. I made sure to go into the investigation with an open mind.
On the evening of April 12, Rip photo editor Lisa Vargas and I met up with the BPS at a central location before going to the house we would be investigating. When we got there, "base camp" was set up in one corner of the front yard and the tech team began setting up their equipment in the house.
I was surprised at how scientific an approach the BPS takes toward their search for paranormal activity in Kern County. They treated the investigation site in the Westchester area like a laboratory, each of them following a precise protocol for consistent results.
The weekend after the investigation, the BPS would meticulously scour every second of audio and video footage for evidence of Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), or unexplained direct responses to linguistic expressions by investigators.
BPS member Louie informed me that he was the leader of Team 2, the group with which Vargas and I, as well as BPS member Jodi McDullogh, would be entering the house (Louie requested his full name not be published in order to preserve his privacy).
A little bit after Team 1 went in, Louie gave me a quick tutorial on how to use the temperature gauge and electromagnetic force (EMF) meter. The EMF meter, which I operated for the duration of my group's excursion, can be easily thrown off from electrical wiring and insulation, so all of the power in the house was turned off to get accurate EMF readings, further adding to the brooding atmosphere of the evening.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools