Ghost hunters active in area
By Casey Gillis on Oct. 25, 2007
Ghost hunting isn’t always as exciting as it’s cracked up to be.
Some investigations can last several hours, and even then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll see anything supernatural in person.
“The excitement comes later on, when you’re looking (at the tape),” says Alan May, organizer of the Bedford Ghost Investigation Group.
On a recent hunt at a Bedford home, “I didn’t see anything and didn’t hear anything,” he says. “But I went home and looked at (the tape), and you could see us going down the hallway, and you see a white light following us.”
Cue the goose bumps.
But May says the creepy nature of the work doesn’t get to him.
“You’ve gotta realize no matter what’s in there, it’s not going to be more powerful than God,” he says. “And you say a prayer.”
His interest in ghosts was first piqued in the early 1980s.
“I saw something,” he says, without elaborating. “I got curious and started looking things up, just to see for myself what it actually was.”
It remained a hobby over the years, but he didn’t get the group together until last year. It currently has 20 members, and they don’t charge for their services.
“Most of the time we want to do something where we can help people who are having a problem.”
There’s no real “how to” on ghost hunting, but there are a lot of resources to tap into.
As May was first getting into it, he did research online and talked to other ghost hunters. He still regularly attends conventions to network with others.
The first step when working with a new client is to interview him or her and take a tour of the house, all of it documented on a video camera and digital camera.
Then they go back, watch the tape and plan what to do next.
When they return for the actual investigation — armed with two night vision-equipped camcorders, a regular digital camera, voice recorders and meters that measure energy — they split up and sit in separate rooms for a couple of hours.
But, like we said, there’s no guarantee anything will happen.
“Something like a ghost is rare to begin with, and to capture anything on film is even rarer,” he says.
“A lot of people who are into this kind of hobby will say they see something” even if they don’t, he adds. “We don’t ever want to manufacture or lead somebody on.”
For those cases where they do find something, May says the clients rarely want it to leave.
“They just want to know what it is and if you can get any evidence of it,” he says. “The more you know about something, the less fear you have.”
For more information, e-mail or visit http//ghost.meetup.com/550
COMMENTS
I know Alan and it’s good to see him get some press. Good story.