It’s that time of year when modern culture remembers its ancient past and celebrates the Gaelic traditions of Samhain, a sliver of time between fall and winter when it was believed that the veneer between the world of the living and the dead was thin enough for the dead to pass through and visit the living.
It was during this festival that the tradition of “guising” developed.
When Samhain was celebrated, the wearing of costumes was used to ward off spirits of the dead that may be seeking to attach themselves to the living. As time went on, that tradition developed into costumed children seeking treats, and now into what we call Halloween, a shortened version of All Hallows Eve.
While Halloween is mostly observed in western countries, the primal allure regarding the relationship between the living and the dead, and what awaits each one of us following our own deaths, is a common element of human existence worldwide.
Combine that with the human fascination with other elements of the unknown, and we have the basis for the term “paranormal,” which was first coined in the early 1900s and is essentially defined as “experiences that lie outside the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.”
A recent surge in interest of the paranormal combined with advances in visual, auditory and detection devices has led to endless episodes of reality TV ghost hunting shows, complete with low light photography, hand-held camera action, screaming and a constant cacophony of “bleeped out” expletives.
The TV shows are a poor comparison for real world paranormal investigation, which is sometimes tedious, sometimes frustrating, and sometimes absolutely amazing. As the research director for Damariscotta-based Mysterious Destinations, a company that specializes in guiding groups into “the unknown and unexplained;” I have led numerous explorations into the paranormal at locations in Lincoln County and elsewhere.
With a background as a police evidence photographer and a reporter (my full-time job is at The Lincoln County News), I was initially somewhat reluctant to apply my skill set to something as ambiguous as seeking evidence of the paranormal.
Since then, with three years of experience behind me, I have seen some things that are very hard to explain.
While much of the evidence collected – photos, videos, digital recordings, electromagnetic (EMF) field readings – is compelling; much of it is also subjective; requiring interpretation on the part of the viewer.
However, there is that small percentage that goes beyond interpretation… Evidence that very simply stands on its own merits as irrefutable proof that something “outside the range of normal experience or scientific explanation” was present at the time of the observation.
I call these “anomalies,” and that is as far as we define them. We do not “classify” them as ghosts or some other supernatural entity because we do not feel qualified for that, and we wonder how many people really are qualified to do so. We also don’t eliminate the possibility that the anomalies we encounter are life forms or products of an existence that is unknown to us; they are simply anomalies.
In the Halloween tradition, I will relate here two examples of anomalies that have been detected during Mysterious Destinations Paranormal Explores right here in Lincoln County. Both of these examples are of the type that defy any explanation.
A Halloween Special
The activity at the Tipsy Butler and similar activity at the nearby Newcastle Publick House has been attributed by the owners to Myrtle Gascoigne, who lived and died at the house where the B&B is located and had a business where the restaurant is located.
In 2011 Mysterious Destinations began conducting an Overnight Paranormal Explore at the Tipsy Butler (and an Explore at the Publick House) on the Saturday night before Halloween. (This year the event is on Sat., Oct. 27.)
At the 2011 event two incidents occurred that could only be attributed to an electromagnetic field (EMF) moving freely about one of the rooms.
The presence of an EMF where none should be is widely accepted by paranormal investigators to indicate the presence of a paranormal entity emitting EMF energy. In fact, living creatures also produce EMFs and some animals, such as sharks, use EMFs produced by their prey to help them hunt.
An EMF detector is a device sensitive to EMF activity that is higher than ambient levels. It was originally developed to check workplace areas where high EMF levels might be a health concern for employees, and to accomplish other tasks relevant to EMF activity. Since then, it has become one of the most popular paranormal detection tools.
It certainly isn’t the most glamorous tool. You won’t see a full body apparition or hear ghostly conversations using it, but it is also the tool that is least subject to interpretation. If there is an EMF field, this tool very simply has a meter to register it.
If the EMF is someplace it shouldn’t be, there may be an anomaly that is the indicator of a paranormal presence.
This is what happened back in 2011 on Oct. 29 at the Tipsy Butler. Guests had retired to their rooms, each with an EMF detector. The guests in the upstairs grounds keeper’s room left their EMF detector on a table near the bed. There was no EMF activity registering on the meter as they dosed off to sleep.
Suddenly, at approximately 1 a.m., the EMF detector “pegged” with EMF activity, causing an audible alarm to go off and awakening the guests. As they stared in astonishment, the EMF activity slowly subsided and then ended. They returned to sleep, but perhaps a bit more fitful than before.
Then again, at approximately 4 a.m., the EMF detector again registered a field that was strong enough to activate the alarm.
The only explanation for these activations is the presence of a mobile, and unusually strong, electromagnetic field in the room.
Any other existing EMFs would have registered immediately when the detector was brought into the room. There were no meteorological events, such as a thunderstorm present in the area that could have affected the meter.
Lastly, a “morning after” EMF sweep of the entire room did not locate any EMF fields near the nightstand, and there were no anomalous EMF fields anywhere in the room.
Plainly said, what and from where the EMF came cannot be explained. But without a doubt, there was an EMF that was mobile – moving near and away from that stationary EMF detector. Was it the presence of Myrtle? I’ll leave that up to you.
There are a wide variety of reasonable (and non-paranormal) explanations for orbs to appear in images or videos, especially when the device used to capture the image is digital.
I could go into all of these, but thankfully for both you and I… I won’t. (For a short version explaining orbs, check an article on the Red Cloak Haunted History Tours website called “About Orbs” under the “Ghostly Sightings” section at www.redcloakhauntedhistorytours.com/orbs.php.)
I have personally used my experience as an evidence photographer to evaluate hundreds of photographs and videos containing orbs, including many of my own.
Most of them can be explained through atmospheric elements like rain or dust, and some through technical issues with the image-recording device. There are only two orb photos I have ever evaluated that have defied any reasonable explanation, and even these are subject to further interpretation.
My opinion about orbs was forever changed following a Paranormal Explore that Mysterious Destinations was asked to conduct by a private entity at a location in Lincoln County.
We sought and received assistance from a well-funded and highly regarded paranormal exploration group from out of state. They brought an intricate video system that operated in the infrared spectrum, a color of light that is unseen by the human eye.
On one night of the explore we set up six infrared cameras, put them on record, and left them there overnight in the empty building.
The next morning, when we evaluated the videos, everyone on the crew gasped in amazement as we watched two circular objects slowly traverse the screen of one camera from left to right. Not only were they moving by some unknown propulsion system, they were also slowly appearing and disappearing as they did so – somewhat like watching a dimmer-controlled light go on and off. I couldn’t help but compare them to videos I have seen of bioluminescent deep-sea life.
There was no logical reason for their presence. There were no insects, no dust and no breeze to stir it up. Besides, just the appearance and activity of these objects tended to eliminate those possibilities.
While I’m still skeptical of any image containing an “orb,” I have absolutely no doubt that I was witnessing an anomaly (or two) crossing that monitor screen.
Once again plainly said, two anomalous circular objects that were moving and altering their appearance (whether purposeful or not) were clearly observed on this infrared camera. Were they ghostly spirits? Visitors from another world or dimension? Or earthly life forms we haven’t identified yet, perhaps living in a light spectrum we can’t see? Once again, I’ll leave that up to you.
So, as costumed children scamper through the twilight streets this Halloween in a modern interpretation of an ancient human fascination with the unexplained, perhaps it is wise to recall the Shakespearean lines of “Hamlet” who said following his encounter with the ghost of his father, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
(For more information on Mysterious Destinations and their activities, Greg Latimer can be contacted at 380-4677.)
