Author Archives: forestps10
Case Study: Haunted Illusionist (Part I)
We recently had the opportunity of meeting a wonderful young couple who had been experiencing activity in their home. They had initially contacted us through email and as soon as I read it I knew we had a very interesting case at hand.
[Original Email from Zach Oct 2011]
Hello,
About a year ago, my mother spoke with Kathi at the RPL about the fact that she was looking up previous owner information on the house she purchased in 2006. She and her husband (my x-step father) experienced some strange events (noises and odd feelings) while moving in, and the events would come and go. It was pretty much a joke in the family that the house was haunted, especially for me since I have been a major skeptic for as long as I can remember. Even though I had experienced unusual paranormal situations, and in the past several years have become very interested in a different paranormal subject, if asked, I would have probably said that I do not believe in ghosts.
A few years ago, while visiting my mom at the house, along with my family and sister’s family, a strange thing happened. A ball that was in her office, and belonged to one of the children came flying out of the office, yet no one was in it. That was the weirdest thing that I had seen occur in the house, but not the weirdest thing for my mom, apparently. I tried to come up with a “logical” reason as to why it would have happened, and just brushed it off…
A while back, Kathi had asked my mom if she wanted to have the house investigated, and she declined as nothing had happened for quite a while, and she was planning to purchase a condo and move out. After thinking about it, she offered me the house on a land contract. Since I didn’t believe there could be anything other rational reasons as to why the house seemed haunted in the past and nothing had happened for a while, we figured it was a great idea.
My family started to move in this past June, and immediately we started to have strange events occur.
There were strange banging sounds from time to time that were louder than normal “house noises”. A couple of them were during the day. This only went on for the first few weeks. It suddenly stopped.
A few weeks ago, this started back up again, but got even weirder…
Our 2 children sleep downstairs, and we are upstairs. After going to bed, and being there for about 10 minutes, we would hear one or two loud bangs as if someone punched a wall really hard. It startled us quite a bit, but we tried to shrug it off, and just joked that it was “Bob, the ghost”.
Well, last Thursday, was the strangest event of all, and made us decide we were going to contact you.
I work a day/night job, 2nd shift, so my girlfriend, Tina is home with the kids in the evening. At about 10:30 she heard someone using the front door knocker to knock on the door. The kids were in bed, asleep. She had all the curtains down and didn’t even look out the window to see if she could see anyone.
A half hour later, it happened again, but she also heard the mail slot being flipped up and down for a few seconds. She called 911, and the police arrived quickly and searched the area.
I got home at about 2am, and we went to bed at about 2:30.
Just minutes later, we heard the loudest BANG ever! It was as if someone tried to kick down the side door of the house. It actually rattled the house, probably to the point that if someone had kicked any door with that much force, it would have broken it.
Being that the knocking had occurred earlier, I assumed that someone was trying to break in or scare us for some reason. We jumped out of bed and I called 911. Several police arrived in about 3 minutes and searched all around the house. There was no sign of damage anywhere! No foot print on either door, or anything.
We have tried to reproduce that sound with both doors, and can’t come close, but those spots are the only 2 possible places I can imagine coming close to a sound like what we heard, although Tina thinks it sounded like the bang came from within our room.
The only other strange things have been that our cat acts a bit weird, which is not totally unusual… Also, two nights ago, I was in the downstairs bathroom, and as I was walking out, the faucet started to release water for just a moment, then I walked into the kitchen and the kitchen faucet did the same thing, just for a moment, as I looked at it. They started and stopped.
Please understand that I mean no offense when I say this, but it was very difficult for me to contact someone about this. I am a magician by trade, and you may or may not be aware that magicians are typically some of the biggest skeptics/cynics about the paranormal. The main reason is that Houdini tried very hard to reach his mother through spiritual mediums, and found that everyone he saw was a phony. People who I have looked up to most of my life, like James Randi & Penn and Teller are some of the leading debunkers of the paranormal, following in Houdini’s footsteps, but I have found them to be wrong on at least one paranormal topic, and I am quickly finding them to be wrong about this topic.
I will look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for your time.
Zack
This case is definitly one of a kind. After conducting our investigation and historical research we found some VERY interesting facts to support the numerous claimes of activity in their home. We will follow up with further information in the coming weeks.
Rockford ParaCON 2011 – October 8, 2011
Please join us for our second annual Rockford ParaCon – a paranormal conference for those interested in all things of the supernatural.
Where: Rockford College – 5050 E STATE STREET ROCKFORD IL Grace Roper Longe
When: October 8th 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Admission: $15 in advanced or $20 at the door. Tickets can be purchased in advanced at the Rockford Public Library.
Numerous paranormal investigators will be there along with notable authors, speakers, owners of various haunted locations, and information about local haunted tours. We are extremely excited for this event. We are always pleased to meet new people who share a common passion for the paranormal.
More info regarding speakers and admission coming soon.
Chicago Paranormal Meet & Greet – “Be there or be square”
This is a GREAT opportunity for those of you who are interested in learning more about the field of paranormal investigation. This is FREE event and there will be a lot of great people and investigators present. More than 20 paranormal groups from all over the area will be there hosting the event as well as notable authors and researchers. Therefore, if you are an investigator or simply ANYONE WITH THE SLIGHTEST interest – I HIGHLY recommend that you stop by and pay a visit.
The Chicago Paranormal Meet & Greet will take place on Saturday, August 20th, 2011 from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm (or later).The event will be held at Chet’s Melody Lounge – 7400 Archer Road, Justice, IL 60458.
You can be sure to find us – the Forest City Paranormal Society – at the event on Aug 20th.
Take Care,
FCPS
Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee & Paranormal Documentary
Since my move to Milwaukee about a year ago I had the opportunity to work with a local paranormal group in the Milwaukee area. Noah Leigh is the founder and lead investigator of the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee (PIM). He and I met while investigating Willow Creek Farms in Shannon, Illinois just before I moved to Milwaukee for grad school.
Having been invited on a couple of their investigations it was easy to see that PIM took the paranormal seriously – making it their goal
to not only know everything their is to know about the way their equipment functions and why but also make sure they they are investigating in a logical and systematic way. They understand that the most important part of a single piece of evidence is not the evidence in itself but how they went about obtaining that piece of evidence and limiting the amount of potential error that may discredit that piece of evidence. For instance, PIM is a group that recently began using – what they like to call – “control recorders”. These are simply recorders that each investigators will have on their person at all times – no matter what. This is to prevent any confusion while reviewing the digital recorders. If you are an investigator you know you have been in a situation like this while reviewing evidence – “hey Bill – is this you singing again?” Rather than taking Bill’s word (although I do trust him) I can simply review his control recorder at that exact time during the investigation. I know in the past we have thrown out a lot of evidence because we thought that it might have been one of the investigators. This is a great idea and I think a lot of groups will benefit from using these recorders.
Soon after Noah and I met we began to brainstorm an idea for a documentary. This is something that I had always had an interest in doing. Of course, I know nothing about mass producing films and such so we agreed to simply make this an online documentary where everyone can watch on youtube/vimeo. So, throughout the past year I have been vigorously learning all that I can about cameras and audio to make this documentary look great. I have also interviewed numerous people in both PIM and FCPS as well as some local enthusiasts. Our purpose for this project is to simply show what investigating the paranormal is REALLY like. It’s not like what you see on t.v. I believe this information will get people to think about the way they investigation and encourage them to want to learn about being logical investigators. Know how your equipment works is crucial in understanding your data. This documentary will also give insight to those who are thinking about joining or even starting a paranormal group of their own. Whatever way you see it this documentary will be a tool for all paranormal enthusiasts.
The documentary will be released on both youtube and vimeo during the month of October 2011. Each Wednesday of the month we will release episodes ranging from why investigate the paranormal , what are sensitives and why?, types of equipment, and the final report.
The above video is a short equipment review that we did during our last investigation of the Brumder Mansion. This will give you an idea of what the documentary will be like. For those interested, they use Polaroid PDR400 recorders as our control recorders. These recorders record in .wav, have 2 GB built in memory with a miniSD card slot that is expandable up to 16 GB, has great stereo microphones, and of course USB connector. You can find these recorders for only $24.95. I highly recommend that your group invest in these recorders since they are cheap AND record in WAV.
Thanks again for stopping by our site!
Aaron Powers Co-founder of Forest City Paranormal Society
Paranormal Night At Camp Grant Museum
Saturday, September 24, 2011
7:00-10:00p.m.
1004 Samuelson Road
Rockford, Illinois
HistoricCampGrantMuseumand the Rockford Public Library are honored to offer a special paranormal evening at theCampGrantMuseumand Restaurant.
We will be joined by special guest, Mark Dorsett.
We will have exclusive access to this very unique location which will include a tour and a chance to experience this very active site. There is a $25.00 charge for this event to be paid at the door. The evening will include a full turkey dinner with all the trimm
ings.
Reservations are required:
Contact Kathi Kresol for reservations at 815-987-6682 or
by email at kkresol@rockfordpublic library.org
Ages 18 & up.
Paranormal Night At Midway Village Museum
HistoricMidwayVillageand the Rockford Public Library are honored to offer a special paranormal evening at theMidwayVillage. We will be joined by special guest, Spirit Communicator, Mark Dorsett. We will have exclusive access to this historic place which will include a tour and a chance this very active site. The price for this evening will be $10.00 per person to be paid at the door.
The Midway Village Museum
Friday, July 22, 2011
7:00p.m.- 10:00p.m.
6799 Guilford Road
Rockford, Illinois
Please contact Kathi Kresol for reservations at
815-965-7606 ext. 682 or by email at kkresol@rockfordpubliclibrary.org
Haunting Illinois – A Tourist’s Guide to the Weird & Wild Places of the Prairie State – Michael Kleen
For over a decade, Michael Kleen, author of the Legends and Lore of Illinois, has researched and traveled to mystery spots all over the Prairie State. Now, he has created the most organized and comprehensive guide to haunted and legendary places ever written about Illinois. Haunting Illinois is that guide. Haunting Illinois contains 200 mystery sites and 85 individual illustrations. In this book, Michael not only examines the sites, but also the hobbyists and professionals who have devoted their lives to exploring the strange and unusual in our great state. Divided among eight distinct regions and listed by county, each location features a description, directions, and sources drawn from a diverse variety of books and articles. Haunting Illinois challenges you to get off the couch and start exploring our wonderful State of Illinois. You might be surprised at what you discover! - http://trueillinoishaunts.com
Order your copy at Amazon.com – On Sale for $11.01
FCPS has their copy on order! Check back at a later date for a compreshensive book review on Michael Kleen’s latest edition of Haunting Illinois.
Rockford Public Library Presents . . . . Paranormal Nights!!
Paranormal Night at the Roadhouse Restaurant
Oregon, Illinois
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
6:30-8:30 p.m. – Ages 18 & up
The Rockford Public Library is pleased to host this very exciting paranormal evening! Join us for an exlusive tour of this historic restaurant and a presentation of its very interesting history. We will be joined by special guest, spirit communicator, Mark Dorsett. The price for this extraordinary evening will be $15 (at the door). This will include a buffet dinner.
Visit www.rhouse.org
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Paranormal Night at Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum
Saturday, February 12, 2010
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
411 Kent Street
Rockford, IL - ages 18 & up
Historic Tinker Swiss Cottage and the Rockford Public Library are honored to offer a special paranormal evening at the Tinker Cottage. This extraordinary night will start with a presentation from the famed author of Haunting the Prairie: A Tourist’s Guide to the Weird and Wild Placed of Illinois, Mike Kleen. We will have exclusive access to this historic place which will include a tour and a chance to experience this very active site. The location has been explored by paranormal investigation teams and has produced many interesting EVPs and personal paranormal experiences. The price for this evening will be $15 per person paid at the door. Please contact Steve at the Tinker Swiss Cottage for reservations at 815-964-2424 or Kathi Kresol for further information at 815-9657606 ext. 682 or by email at kkresol@rockfordpubliclibrary.org.
Visit www.tinkercottage.com
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Paranormal Night at the Camp Grant Museum
Saturday, April 9, 2011
8:30p.m.- ?
1004 Samuelson Road
Rockford, Illinois – ages 18 & up
Historic Camp Grant Museum and the Rockford Public Library are honored to bring celebrated Chicago area psychic, Ed Shanahan to the Rockford Area. We will have exclusive access to this very unique location. We will end the evening with Mr. Shanahan with his “Circle of Energy Séance” where he will attempt to reach the spirits of the location and have them interact with the individuals who attend this special paranormal night. Price is $30 per person to be paid through Mr. Shanahan’s website: http://hauntedhistoriclocations.com/paranormal_events.htm.This event is limited to the first 20 participants.
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