Class work is out of this world

from The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Many come searching for answers, or validation of their beliefs. Various polls show that roughly half of Americans believe in ghosts.

“We’re not flakes,” said Marc Cunningham, 39, of Ravenna Township in Portage County. “We’re just curious.”

Brake-Recco arms her students with the “tools of the trade” to tackle the mysterious. She uses the first half of class to introduce them to an assortment of ghosthunting gadgets, including electromagnetic frequency (EMF) meters, thermal scanners and divining rods.

Then she sets them loose in a haunted house to give all those gizmos a try.

Aurora owns a creepy century home along Page Road that has long raised goosebumps with unexplained footsteps; mysterious voices; glowing windows; and slamming doors. Some city workers refuse to enter the vacant building alone, Twarek said.

In other words, it’s an ideal training ground. Throw in the full moon that glowed Saturday and conditions couldn’t be more perfect for a hunt.

But Brake-Recco made no guarantees: “Ghosthunting’s like fishing,” she said. “Some nights, you sit and wait and wait and wait and nothing happens. But then there are those other nights, the nights when things happen that you really just can’t explain.”

Saturday turned into one of those “other nights.” At least two ghosthunters – including Charlotte Smith, 46, of Hiram Township in Portage – snapped digital pictures that contained what looked like glowing orbs of energy.

“Where’d you get that?” asked Joan Currey, 55, of Bristolville in Trumbull County as she admired Smith’s shot.

“In that scary attic,” Smith answered.

What else happened? Well, crystal pendulums spun wildly over an antique piano in the living room. Divining rods whipped back and forth in the cobweb-covered basement. EMF meters crackled to life in various locations. Camera batteries mysteriously lost power.

Little events, one and all. But together, they convinced Kelly Hefner, 26, of Akron that “weird stuff was going on.”

“I believe, but you still want to see concrete proof,” said Hefner, who has visited and investigated other haunted sites in her quest to unearth some answers. “I don’t know if what we saw was enough to do that. But that’s why I’ll keep looking.”

After all, who knows what’s around the next dark corner.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jhorton@plaind.com, 800-962-1167

2 Comments on Ghosts or Nutcases ?

  1. Natural Woman says:

    I believe. :) I have seen and heard some weird stuff working for an elderly couple. One had passed (in the house) I swear that spirit waited for the spouse to pass so they could be together. But the spirit always let us know when something was going to happen to its spouse. We just learned to watch for the signs and we would be prepared for whatever was coming. I didn’t believe before that.

  2. pellinore says:

    Ghosts or Nutcases?
    My vote is for Nutcases. They are really nuts!Keep them out of our century homes and our cemetery, who needs these goof nuts?
    What I want to know is what Nutcase in Aurora is the one who approved this activity in our community?
    How pathetic they all are…..those who are looking for ghosts and the ones who approved this stupid activity?